The Making of an Author - Part 1

I’ve always wanted to write.  Write what, I wasn’t sure.  A book? For a newspaper? For the 6:00 news?

While I hold a Bachelor of Journalism degree, my journalism career never got off the ground. I did find something else I love and spent my career doing it:  Social Services. 

While I wrote a lot during my 27-year career (reports, presentations), I wasn’t “writing” in the way I had imagined. The closest I came was writing a monthly newsletter.  But it just wasn’t giving me “dream” vibes.  You know?

Fast forward several years. Keith, Evan and I made a hop across the pond to surprise one of our family friends for her 90^th birthday. She was surprised, yes! And it was awesome! But snapping photos in London gave me an idea.

I loved our rescue pup, Bentley, dearly.  The sweetest little dog with a demanding appetite.

Can you spot Bentley?

My idea was to put Bentley into my photographs.  And let Bentley travel the world.

I started to play around in Photoshop to enhance my photos.  Then to enhance pictures of Bentley and place him into the pictures. And there, my idea came to a halt.

The facial features (along with other details) of black dogs, no matter how cute they are, are very difficult to see in pictures, unless they’re close-ups.

And so stalled my dream of becoming a children’s book writer.

Fast forward six years.  Keith and I are both retired and thanks to Covid, we bought an RV (We Be Trippin').

It was during one of our camping trips that I had a dream about a frog who wanted to be a pufferfish.

I’m not one to try and interpret dreams, but ... What. The. Heck?!?!

And then it hit me!  I had it!  The book I’d been wanting to write!

Upon our return from said camping trip, I sat down to write.  I wanted a gender-neutral name beginning with “F”.  Why gender-neutral?  Because my initial intent was to conceal the frog’s gender until the end. A quick search of gender-neutral names beginning with the letter “F” and my frog had a name: Finley.

Google is your friend.

I drafted half of the book before life just got busy. (Yes, it happens in retirement!)

Before shelving my project, during our annual trip to the lake, I read the partial draft to my Grands, who all fell into my target audience (3-7) at the time.

They were restless. Anxious to pick up a different bedtime story.  And I couldn’t understand why.

I LOVED what I had so far!  Finley was visiting all the animals in the zoo because she wanted to be something other than a frog.

So why weren’t my first beta readers engaged?

“Grams!” they said, “where are the pictures?”

Well of course!

Several months went by and I found some time to start working on my project again.

I invited a fellow children’s book author to breakfast (can I really call myself an author yet?).  I pummeled her with questions about all things self-publishing. An omelet, a cup of coffee, and lots of notes later, Elizabeth had started me on my way.

Among other things I learned that day, I learned there was a Facebook group for Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators.  In fact, there are several! After I accepted Elizabeth's invitation to join said group, I spent a few hours perusing the page. 

So. Much. Info.

I saved posts on everything from illustrator’s work to how to layout pages to how to market your book.

Elizabeth suggested I visit a library to see what appealed to me in a children’s book. I had something different in mind. My Grands' collection of children's books would rival any library. So I started there!

I discovered I liked full-color pages and certain fonts.  That white borders were okay, but for this particular book, white pages not-so-much.  I also found illustrations which I found visually appealing and those which I didn’t.

When I thought the draft was nearly complete (remember this statement), I started looking for an illustrator.  One of the illustrators in the Facebook group offered consultations and it was SO much more than just talking through illustrations.

I sat down with Alexandra, who lives in Cornwall, England, via Zoom, on a sunny, Sunday afternoon.  (Technology.  Am I right?)

She was a wealth of knowledge and a breath of fresh air all in one! 

We talked about my goals, my favorite children’s book (“The Very Hungry Caterpillar”), what kind of illustrations I envisioned for my book (bright and colorful!), and the self-publishing journey.  She suggested I create a website, if for nothing else, then to serve as a “landing page” where I can share links or list stores where my book could be purchased.

She also suggested that I publish under a name other than my own. My own “publishing company” if you will. 

Alexandra suggested I make a book from paper, folding each sheet of paper in half.  “This way,” she said, “you can visibly see that each sheet of paper = four pages in a book.” Therefore, when printing, you have a page count that’s divisible by four.

This would be one of the best pieces of advice I received.  But also the one that caused me the most heartburn.

Based on her portfolio, I was pretty sure I wanted to use Alexandra as my illustrator, but she also suggested I request samples from multiple illustrators.

I was invigorated and energized after our call.  And had a ton of homework ahead of me.

I knew exactly who I would outreach to request another sample illustration:  a member of that Facebook group who did paper collage. I did mention that “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is my favorite children’s book, right?

The challenge for both: illustrate Finley’s encounter with Pauly the pufferfish. Where it all began.

While I waited for Alexandra (water color) and Ashleigh (paper collage) to provide me with samples, I familiarized myself with the basics of self-publishing: publishing an eBook, who prints hardcover books, printing in bulk, and POD (Print-On-Demand). 

In a nutshell, and I’m sure they are not the only game in town, but eBooks can be published using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).  Bulk printing is primarily done by one company in the US, IngramSpark. And POD means the (hardcover) book can be purchased on Amazon and printed after purchase by IngramSpark.

I always knew I wanted to do a hardcover book rather than paperback.  I love the feel of a hardcover book and I think it’s less destructible than a paperback.  Because … kids.

If you’re reading this, you know I have a blog, Pequeña Vida Loca, and you may even remember I have a photo blog, Pequeño Mundo Loco.  I created a landing page using the same service as my blogs. 

The question was: what to name it?

I thought maybe something related to being a Grams. Or something related to my dogs. But the answer was right in front of me.  Literally.

It made sense to add my publishing company to the Pequeña family.  Thus, Pequeño Books was born.

With Keith’s encouragement, I decided to actually buy the domain for Pequeño Books and now, I somehow … inexplicably … have a website: Pequeño Books

Never stop learning.

I had fun setting up the website but felt that it was almost as basic as the free service I used initially.   Over the course of several months, I’ve added to it – just a little at a time.  And I gotta say, it looks pretty professional.

Both Alexandra of Cornwall and Ashleigh of Zimbabwe (technology!) were due to return their samples to me by the end of January. So I imposed a deadline of the same date to “finish” the draft.

Once the draft was done, I needed to put it in front of some more beta readers that were over the age of 18. I tried to select carefully, considering my friends’ backgrounds.

They consisted of a retired school librarian, a pre-school teacher, a former high school teacher who now tutors students for the SAT/ACT, someone whose second language is English, a good friend who also loves to write, a grandfather (my husband) and someone I used to read to (my son). 

My mom wanted to wait to read it until she’s holding the book in her hands.

I received some really great feedback and they all provided something a little different.

One focused on grammar and punctuation, one cautioned about the number of words I used, while others noticed I had used capitalized letters where I shouldn’t have - capitalized letters that I still didn't see until my chosen illustrator pointed them out many months later.

Many of them actually counted the number of animals that Finley encounters on her overnight adventure.  The number was 13.  Why 13?  No other reason other than the story needed to be 32-pages long, the industry standard for children’s books.

But something was nagging at me. And I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Both Alexandra and Ashleigh provided their samples. Seeing my characters come to life was very emotional. In the absolute best way.

I was so torn. Alexandra had been a great help. But I immediately LOVED Ashleigh’s version of Finley and Pauly the pufferfish.

I shared the two samples with my husband, mom, and son, asking their thoughts. My son reminded me I have a ready-made panel of judges in my grandchildren. 

From there, I shared the samples with one of my Grands who just happened to have spent the night, my friend the pre-school teacher (who shared the samples with her class) and a couple of other friends who have tiny tots.

"Which do you like best?"

Among the full panel of 2-4 year olds, the response was overwhelming: Ashleigh’s paper collage!

I outreached Ashleigh with the news, she readily agreed to illustrate, and we began sorting out contract details. It was difficult to inform Alexandra that I had decided to go in a different direction, but I did ask if I could hang onto her contact details in case I wanted to hire her for a different book. She agreed. Yea!

I read and re-read my story, envisioning each character in paper collage.

And there was that nagging feeling again. No matter how many times I read the story, I came away with the same question. Did the ending “fit” the beginning?

Enter: the editor. My step-daughter, Courtney.

When I announced I was writing a book, she offered to edit it for me and I gladly agreed; after all, her Masters of Education was well-earned and she has a teaching background. Not to mention, the three little people to whom she reads to nightly.

One Sunday afternoon, she and the Grands were over at our house.  She wanted to read the story out loud.  After all, we had an audience!  I had never had MY STORY read to me before.  It was surreal, to say the least.

But I caught a glaring mistake! 

Tree frogs are nocturnal, you see. Yet when Finley met Ernie the elephant, he was flapping his ears in the hot sun.

Courtney took the paper “book” example home (remember how Alexandra had suggested I fold pieces of paper into a book?), with the text printed and pasted on the respective pages.

When she returned it, she had many suggestions that helped to enhance the story. But then there was this:

“Is Finley having an existential crisis?”

I sat on this for a few days, feeling a bit butt-hurt, if I’m being honest. And lost a lot of sleep.

I read and re-read her comments. 

She also stated (something to the effect of), “It’s quite a jump from a bored frog going on an adventure, realizing she can’t do what the other animals do, then boom! Has babies and realizes her purpose.”

Her comments spoke directly to that uneasy feeling I had EVERY TIME I read the story!

Based on those comments, I removed one animal (deciding which one was no easy task but ultimately, Ernie the elephant didn’t make the cut), thus making the number of animals visited, a nice even 12.  I gave Finley a mate (because kids have questions!). And I expanded the ending to show Finley embracing her role as a mom.

The story had come full-circle.

But there was still one thing missing: I needed a title.

Alexandra had suggested that I search for the book title I chose on Amazon.  Not that there’s anything wrong with multiple books having the same title, but you want to be sure that there’s nothing out there that’s, in Alexandra’s words, “risqué”, with the same title as your CHILDREN’S BOOK.

I had long thought “Green with Envy” would be the perfect title.

A couple of my beta readers weren’t sure about using the word “envy” or any form thereof, given the negative connotation. Plus, there was already a children’s book with that title about a blade of grass.

And then it hit me! “Finding Finley”

A quick Amazon search yielded one result. And it was rated X. And included a same-sex couple on the cover. NOT the kind of title I need next to my children’s book.

There were several options, but none were giving me “THIS is it!” vibes. No matter. It doesn’t have to be done right this second.

Once Ashleigh and I signed the contract, she finished her current project and began sketching Finley’s story.

My part was done. Or was it?