On Coming Back:

How I Wrote, Illustrated and Launched Four Books Around a Full-Time Life

I’ll be the first to admit my posting on Substack has been light these past 18 months. But there’s a reason for that.

I’ve always been drawn to writing. From the early 1990s and running for about 15 years, I co-authored some 40 books that collectively sold around 250,000 copies, alongside hundreds of newspaper columns and magazine articles. I wrote about that period here on Substack.

After that I focused on my food tour business, which took me right up until 2020. The pandemic brought a change of career into healthcare, and ultimately into my current role as Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Fresh: Spring

But the pull to writing never really left me. Through all of it I kept finding time to write on Substack, Instagram and LinkedIn, about food, about travel, about the things I love. And in early 2025, I set about making a proper return to book publishing.

The publishing landscape had changed considerably since my last book. But I was keen to explore it again, and after looking carefully at the options I settled on a journal-style format distributed through Amazon. The print-on-demand model appealed: global reach, no upfront print runs, and the ability to get things right before committing to scale. But more than that, I wanted full creative control over the design, the launch, and the marketing. Something I’d never had when writing for publishers.

As the ideas developed, the project naturally divided in two. One focused on seasonal food, the other on travel.

The seasonal food project came first. It became Fresh, Allan Campion’s Seasonal Cooking Guide and Produce Journal, with one volume dedicated to each season: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. So yes, there are four.

Fresh: Summer

Fresh grew out of a feeling I’ve carried for most of my cooking life. After twenty-five years of cookbooks, food guides, and writing about the places that shaped how I think about food, I’ve come to believe the single biggest step any home cook can take is to work with what’s in season.

Seasonal produce simply tastes better — it’s harvested at the right time, grown in the right conditions, and eaten before the flavour has had a chance to fade. But knowing what’s actually in season, and what to do with it, isn’t always straightforward. That’s the gap Fresh is designed to fill.

Each edition of Fresh includes what’s in season lists for fruit and vegetables, a comprehensive guide to choosing, using and storing each ingredient, and hundreds of cooking tips and ideas spread throughout. There are also 120 illustrations across the series, botanical fine-line drawings showcasing individual ingredients, produce at market, and ingredients being prepared in home kitchens.

Alongside all of that are 100 pages for readers to record their own recipes, discoveries and kitchen memories. This journal aspect was something I felt strongly about. I wanted to create a kitchen companion that readers could genuinely make their own, something to return to season after season, with my content alongside their own.

The second series to be published will be Bucket List Travel, a collection of destination travel planners and journals built around must-try foods, must-see sights and genuine insider knowledge. I’m starting with places I’ve loved visiting in recent years: Thailand, Bali, Cambodia, Egypt and my hometown of Melbourne.

Bucket List grew out of a different but related conviction. Planning an overseas trip can be overwhelming. The endless advice in travel books and on social media pulls you in every direction, and it’s easy to lose sight of what actually matters. My approach is simple: curating the essential must-do experiences with a laser focus on what truly matters — the must-see sights, the must-try foods, and the experiences that make exploring the world an adventure.

No filler, just the best. These are not guides that try to cover an entire country. They are curated companions built around the places I know well, the food I love, and the experiences I’d point a good friend towards. That’s what Bucket List is designed to be.

Fresh: Autumn

None of this happened quickly or easily. It required carving out significant chunks of time while working through what felt like an endless to-do list. I worked solidly two to three evenings a week, most Saturdays, and whenever I was on public transport. I wrote around a wedding (yes, mine), around part-time study, and around a full-time job. I travel with a laptop and get work done on planes, in airport lounges, and in free afternoons wherever they arise on trips.

There was also significant learning involved, particularly around how to create books and publish within Amazon’s print-on-demand model. I’ve lost count of the hours spent watching YouTube videos just to understand the process.

Creating the illustrations was its own challenge entirely. I wanted botanical fine-line drawings, informative, creative, and with a quality that food lovers would genuinely appreciate. It felt like one step forward and two steps back for a while. That included having to set aside the original 80 illustrations I’d created when I realised they weren’t up to the standard I wanted. Starting again was frustrating, but the right call. Eventually I had all 120 illustrations for Fresh completed, and I’m genuinely proud of them.

Through all of it I kept writing, kept developing the ideas, and slowly worked out who I was writing for and what they’d value in a food or travel journal. As weeks become months, sections of each journal were finalised.

It was at this stage I began using AI tools, starting with ChatGPT, then switching to Claude, which I’ve found to be more advanced for this kind of work. Claude requires considerable time to set up properly. You need to put detailed instructions and brand information into its project memory. But once that’s done, it’s genuinely useful. I use it for things like researching target audiences, proofreading to my voice, developing social media strategy, and planning posts across platforms.

That said, I don’t take everything Claude says as gospel. I’ve had moments where it’s gone off course, and I’ve learned to push back, cross-check, and update its instructions when needed. But when it’s working well, the capability is remarkable.

As publication approached, I turned to the promotional side. I wanted a professional home base, so I set up allancampion.com and a dedicated email address. I created a new Instagram account for AC Food and Travel, rebranded my existing TikTok with a food and travel focus, updated my LinkedIn, and turned my Substack into a proper newsletter.

Fresh: Winter

The final piece of the puzzle has been my graphic designer, Muhammad Imran. Muhammad has been exceptional, taking my ideas and making them print-ready. His interior designs and the covers he created have turned Fresh into journals that genuinely celebrate the flavours of each season. I’d recommend him without hesitation to anyone considering a publishing project: muhammad-imran.com

So that, in short, is what the past 18 months have looked like. Four seasonal food journals, written and designed around a full-time job, a wedding, part-time study, and plenty of travel. The Bucket List Travel journals are also well advanced, with the first two volumes almost complete and a solid start on the next three.

It feels endless, until suddenly it isn’t.

One Friday morning it was done. An email from Muhammad with the four seasonal journals complete and all four covers attached. I sat with that for a moment. I’d created something I was genuinely proud of, something unique and beautiful for food lovers, and almost entirely on my own terms. That feeling stayed with me all weekend.

Fresh launches soon, with Bucket List Travel to follow in the months ahead.

The publish button is days away. I cannot wait.

Allan Campion