Writing is thinking by hand.
— freely after Leuchtturm1917
At eleven, ianka fleerackers asked for a typewriter as payment for her first acting role. She already had stories to write.
Most people choose one genre. ianka chose the one that fit the idea.
The Philosopher
Some questions are too important to save for adults.
Three philosophical children's books about the misunderstandings that language creates when two creatures look at the same thing from completely different angles. About death that doesn't always need a reason. About love that doesn't fit the shape we expect.
The series became a theatre production. It helped adults grieve. It taught children to philosophise in the classroom. Groot van Liefde was translated into Korean.
The form was a children's book. The question was never just for children.
Uil plus Leeuwerik (2006) — Zwaan (2007) — Groot van Liefde (2008). Published in Dutch by De Eenhoorn.
The Pioneer
The story came first. The technology was how she carried it further.
Hupsala Princess
Commissioned by 11.11.11 — the Flemish coalition for international solidarity — as a climate story for 300 Flemish schools. Written, directed, and performed by ianka. A listening play, an educational package, a book. Published in Dutch by Lannoo in 2011, when climate change was still treated as a matter of opinion rather than urgency.
Wolfie — De uitvinding van Wolfie
The first Flemish picture book developed for iPad. Interactive, multimedia, designed for young readers. Released in November 2010 in Dutch and English. Three months at number one in the iTunes Store worldwide. Built together with a developer who was still figuring out how to make it as they went. Launched before the infrastructure was ready — and released for the same reason.
Zoe Eisenhoet
The most ambitious of all — on more than one level. A crowdfunded novel where the characters lived on social media while the book was being written. Platform and story built simultaneously. A new distribution model, a new marketing model, a new way for authors to earn during the writing process rather than only from royalties after. One of the first crowdfunding projects in Belgium, in 2013. The technology that would have made it all work exists now. In 2013, it didn't.
ianka went on to give keynotes about the experience — at Fuckup Nights and beyond. Failing forward before it had a name.
istoires
Started in 2014 as a digital-first literary publisher — with a carefully limited print format — at a time when publishers still believed the future was print. Short fiction as a marketing tool for authors. A city marketing project with the city of Ostend, where walks were organised guided by the stories authors had written about the coastal city. Author websites, built by hand, when authors were still invisible online and WordPress felt impossible. A vision for a European literary canon — every story, in every language of Europe. The EU Commission showed interest, but ianka wasn't interested in a subsidy model that would make it structurally unviable from the start.
The flame never went out. She just waited until the world caught up.
istoires restarted in 2026. No longer only short fiction — long reads, essays, fiction and non-fiction. Digital first, and print as the cherished exception.
Discover istoires →The citizen developer was already there. The tools weren't.
The Narrator
She wrote about the world she was living in.
Roodkopje
A collection of humorous columns about the life of a woman combining too many roles at once — written as the foundation for an online lifestyle platform, at a time when lifestyle platforms had no name yet. The publisher didn't understand it. The platform was never built. The columns remained. Published in Dutch by Lannoo in 2008.
Flikken
A non-fiction book about one of the most successful Flemish television series, written for its tenth anniversary. Hours and days of interviews, transcribed manually — no AI, no notetaker. Mountains of material. Written while playing the lead role and raising two small children. Everyone assumed there was a ghostwriter. There was no ghostwriter. VRT recognised a business model and went on to publish an entire series of books about television series. Published in Dutch by Lannoo in 2009.
She wrote the book. They launched the genre.
The Practitioner
When the thinking is big enough, a book becomes a practice.
Nine years between her seventh and eighth book. Not writer's block. A decision. ianka was tired of being too early. Tired of fiction not reaching far enough. And she had made herself a promise: she would only write another book if there was a viable model attached to it.
In 2023 she went for it — a new genre, a new register. A business book about what she had been doing with her consulting clients for years. Her vision, once again, turned out to be a step ahead of the market.
Own Your Story was nominated for Best Marketing Book of the Year at BAM in 2023. Published in Dutch and English by Lannoo Campus. It became a method, an imprint, and a practice for founders, experts, and leaders who are at an inflection point. And it made clear there were more books to write.
Own Your Story is also an imprint.
Discover the practice →The Next Book
ianka's writing is where the thinking takes its first form.
The imprints are where it never stops.
- Own Your Story →the book that became a practice for experts and leaders finding their narrative
- bookto →the publisher who became a builder
- istoires →for writing that deserves more than a scroll
- Brave New Human →the questions that still don't have answers