How Children's Books Help Kids Understand Emotions (Big Feels Story Explained)

<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:59</time>
<p>Joy Lanier, Big Feels the Diary of.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:02</time>
<p>A Passionate Kitty Thanks, Joy, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors Podcast.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:09</time>
<p>Joy has mentioned she's written a children's book called Big the Diary of a Passionate Kitty, and I look forward to our conversation.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:20</time>
<p>Joy, before we jump in and talk about your book, I'm curious.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:25</time>
<p>Can you tell us what it means to you being a children's book author?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:32</time>
<p>It takes a lot of courage.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:33</time>
<p>I'm learning to put your work out there, and for me, it was a vulnerable work.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:39</time>
<p>And so it really means a lot to me to be able to share the piece of myself with the world and to also have had the courage to do that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:50</time>
<p>Thank you for sharing that and tell us the inspiration behind your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:54</time>
<p>I was a little girl who had a lot of big feelings, and I'm now a grownup who still have them, believe it or not.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:02</time>
<p>And in my therapy journey of I think I grew up very ashamed of my feelings because they were embarrassing a lot of the time.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:12</time>
<p>So in my therapy journey, my therapist kind of helped me learn to get more comfortable with feeling sad or feeling angry or all the more negative feelings.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:24</time>
<p>I think it was in one of those moments of big feelings that I had, and I went up to my big cozy chair and I was journaling.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:33</time>
<p>And I just thought, you know what?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:36</time>
<p>I'm gonna, I'm gonna try putting this into a cadence.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:40</time>
<p>And.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:40</time>
<p>And then once I did, I thought, oh, I feel like maybe this could be something that I share with you children.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:47</time>
<p>So that's how it started.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:49</time>
<p>And it's interesting, Joy, you should say that, because I've had on multiple authors now who have said writing a children's book has helped their mental health.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:00</time>
<p>And you know what?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:01</time>
<p>It's true when generally when you write a children's book, it makes you feel good.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:07</time>
<p>I'm lucky because I actually co author with my five grandchildren.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:11</time>
<p>Just that alone is worth every special moment.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:15</time>
<p>It helps my mental health and certainly I know it helps their mental health and it makes for some fun moments.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:22</time>
<p>Definitely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:23</time>
<p>And as a parent, I have adult children now and I have a few grandchildren, too.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:28</time>
<p>And as a parent, I enjoyed reading to my children books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:33</time>
<p>That spoke to me as well.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:35</time>
<p>That was also helped me feel the courage to get it out there, thinking it might speak to grownups and kids alike.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:42</time>
<p>Terrific.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:44</time>
<p>I'm curious about going a little deeper with your book business.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:49</time>
<p>When you started out, talk to us about what you had in mind.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:54</time>
<p>You have this children's book and now you have really a children's book business.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:58</time>
<p>What does your children's book business plan look like?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:02</time>
<p>Oh, I feel so new to this whole game.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:05</time>
<p>And I've listened to your podcast and I know I'm not alone.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:08</time>
<p>That's why we're all here.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:09</time>
<p>But about two years ago, I wrote an idea for a children's book, a different idea, and I was looking for podcasts at that time.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:19</time>
<p>I didn't find yours at that time, but I found another podcaster.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:23</time>
<p>I just started listening and I.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:26</time>
<p>So basically, when I took a break, I got a job.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:29</time>
<p>I finished my degree and was working full time.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:31</time>
<p>And I thought, I'll reach out to her and see if she has any support ideas for how to get this started.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:40</time>
<p>She had a monthly coaching program that I did with her, and she, because she's also a children's book author, has authored about 10 books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:49</time>
<p>And so she just helped me walk through the process.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:52</time>
<p>And.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:53</time>
<p>And so I still though my challenge, I think, like a lot of people, is marketing is having the time to market my book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:01</time>
<p>And then you have a lot of people come to you and say, we'll help you, we'll help you, we'll help you via email.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:07</time>
<p>And I'm like, I don't know who you are.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:09</time>
<p>It's a little overwhelming.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:11</time>
<p>It usually comes with a hefty trace.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:14</time>
<p>Yes, precisely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:16</time>
<p>Precisely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:17</time>
<p>And it's expensive.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:18</time>
<p>It's expensive to get a book published.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:20</time>
<p>I want to paint my illustrator and I don't.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:23</time>
<p>So, yeah, it's expensive.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:25</time>
<p>That's why I love you sharing this, because part of my goal is to bring on, and I've brought on a couple of children's book professionals that have helped publish a book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:36</time>
<p>And it's interesting marketing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:39</time>
<p>When I looked at what a children's book business plan looks like, marketing is only 1 of 10 or 1 of 12 elements.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:47</time>
<p>There's so many other things that go into a book business plan.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:50</time>
<p>So that's part of my goal is to peel back the onion and share that with the audience.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:56</time>
<p>And hopefully it comes not at a hefty price, where you say, I really like that idea, I'm going to borrow it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:05</time>
<p>And we encourage everybody.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:08</time>
<p>That's what I love about this community, is we've had so many guests on NOW that have many brilliant ideas, and if people listen to the show, you know what, if you get one or two nuggets out of the show, it can make a big difference into the success of your children's books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:25</time>
<p>Thank you for sharing that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:28</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:29</time>
<p>I noticed you're on Amazon and you've Got an ebook and a soft cover book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:36</time>
<p>Talk to us a little bit about did you look into formatting a hardcover book?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:42</time>
<p>I am hoping to do that with ingramsparks.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:46</time>
<p>I know that's a path that people take.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:48</time>
<p>I've run into challenges.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:51</time>
<p>It's interesting because I don't want to rehash what I've heard on the podcast.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:54</time>
<p>I want to share new ideas because I've learned a lot too from this podcast.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:58</time>
<p>So I appreciate it so much.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:59</time>
<p>And even your website speaking to your ideas, I felt like you have a lot of really good ideas on your website to generate income.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:08</time>
<p>It's just a side note, but ingramsparks, I'm working on that and everything I'm trying to learn as I go.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:17</time>
<p>So I know it's a process to get comfortable with.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:20</time>
<p>Even with publishing on kdp, I've had to learn the process.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:23</time>
<p>So it's I'm in the early days of ingramsparks figuring that out and I did learn something the hard way.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:30</time>
<p>If you look on ingramsparks website, you can click on I believe it's something like it's some sort of link that says fraudulent publishers or something like that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:40</time>
<p>There are people.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:42</time>
<p>When you start searching and exploring the ingramsparks situation, there are people and they may be legit, I don't know, but they'll use a different email.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:52</time>
<p>Ingramsparks Inc. Com was and I had people reach out to me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:58</time>
<p>I thought it was ingramsparks.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:59</time>
<p>I was ready to give them money.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:02</time>
<p>I did give them money and thankfully I was able to get it back.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:06</time>
<p>But I learned the hard way that you really have to be vigilant.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:11</time>
<p>Thank you for sharing that because I hadn't heard that story before about Ingram Sparks.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:16</time>
<p>The one thing and we just had last week's podcast show we had a guest on episode 67, Brittany Pettish and fascinating children's book author.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:29</time>
<p>And I asked her the same question and she gave such a great answer to for something to think about.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:39</time>
<p>And that her whole idea is she has four children's books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:44</time>
<p>They're all soft cover.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:45</time>
<p>And I asked her what about a hardcover?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:48</time>
<p>And she said, you know what I did, Rick?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:49</time>
<p>I went to an author's conference and I met a person and they said, you know what you should do?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:56</time>
<p>Because with and Amazon to print a hard cover you have to have a minimum of 72 pages.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:03</time>
<p>She said, I didn't want to go the Ingram Sparks route.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:06</time>
<p>Was very comfortable with Amazon.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:08</time>
<p>So what I did is I made a compilation.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:11</time>
<p>I took my four children's books and turned them into a hardcover book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:15</time>
<p>So the four stories are in her hard covered version.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:19</time>
<p>And I thought, brilliant.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:21</time>
<p>Now, unfortunately, we're not at that point we published two children's books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:27</time>
<p>I think we need to get to a third before I can entertain that idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:30</time>
<p>But I thought, wow, because I've yet to talk to a children's book author who doesn't have two or three or many more stories in them to tell.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:41</time>
<p>Yes, for sure.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:42</time>
<p>So then you got to decide how am I going to use my resources.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:46</time>
<p>So, yes, for sure.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:49</time>
<p>Great idea though, isn't it?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:51</time>
<p>Brilliant.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:51</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:52</time>
<p>So big shout out to Brittany.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:54</time>
<p>Now, I noticed you have a shop tab and I promise we're going to get around to that because it's on your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:01</time>
<p>But I saw some really cool items and I'm over 80 children's book interviews and you're the first one I saw do this.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:10</time>
<p>So great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:11</time>
<p>The beautiful thing about it, no matter if you're just starting out, there is opportunities that you've taken advantage of that I haven't seen more experienced children's book authors do.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:24</time>
<p>We're teasing the listeners, so they'll have to stay tuned a little deeper.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:29</time>
<p>Sounds good.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:30</time>
<p>I want to talk to you about your publishing approach because each of us has our own way of approaching it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:37</time>
<p>Some of us try to find a traditional publisher.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:40</time>
<p>Some of us go independently published, which is what we did, and.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:45</time>
<p>And then others will do self publishing or hybrid publishing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:49</time>
<p>Tell us about your publishing journey.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:53</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:53</time>
<p>Like I said, when I first wrote this book, I actually reached out to my niece who I love that you keep it all in the family.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:02</time>
<p>My niece is a beautiful artist and it was the first time she'd ever illustrated a children's book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:08</time>
<p>But I asked her if she would be interested and she said yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:11</time>
<p>So we started there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:13</time>
<p>And that's about where I was when I reached out to the other lady who has a podcast.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:18</time>
<p>Her name is Lori Wright.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:19</time>
<p>Do you know Lori's website?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:21</time>
<p>Just offhand, it's L A U R.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:24</time>
<p>I E and it's W R I G H T. But I believe it's Lori writer dot com.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:30</time>
<p>Cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:30</time>
<p>So, yeah, I reached out to her.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:33</time>
<p>She had a great idea for an editor who was Sherry Wall, before we.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:38</time>
<p>Get too much into the editing part, so the audience knows.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:41</time>
<p>Are you independently self published, hybrid published?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:45</time>
<p>Yes, I am completely self published at this point.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:48</time>
<p>Okay, so when you say self published, you are.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:52</time>
<p>You probably mean now.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:54</time>
<p>Again, I don't want to put words into your mouth.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:56</time>
<p>You're independently published because you set up your own publishing company.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:01</time>
<p>I just.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:02</time>
<p>No, not officially.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:03</time>
<p>Did you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:04</time>
<p>Did you hire a hybrid publishing company?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:07</time>
<p>No.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:07</time>
<p>No, I didn't.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:09</time>
<p>I have on my book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:10</time>
<p>Respectfully Curious.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:12</time>
<p>Which is your company?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:13</time>
<p>Which is my company.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:14</time>
<p>My website, which.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:16</time>
<p>Yeah, I started a few years ago more because it was bloggy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:20</time>
<p>And then we just adapted it once I did the children's book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:23</time>
<p>You're definitely an independently published children's book author.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:27</time>
<p>I don't go the normal pathways.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:29</time>
<p>This is great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:29</time>
<p>Let's come back to the editing because try to have people understand because people will go out and self publish or hybrid publish where they hire a project manager or a general manager to do all the work.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:45</time>
<p>And so you never really are in contact with any of the children's book publishing professionals until the general manager or the project manager introduces you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:57</time>
<p>However, as an independent children's book authority, you could contact an editor or illustrator directly yourself and take out some of the funding that is required if someone else does it for you, and.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:12</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:13</time>
<p>And then have more money to put into your marketing and sales and distribution part of your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:19</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:20</time>
<p>And that's where Lori really did help me because she knew a lot of these people, so she was maybe like the project manager, but she just helped me along the way.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:31</time>
<p>It was really awesome.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:32</time>
<p>That's terrific.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:33</time>
<p>That's terrific.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:34</time>
<p>You were about to tell us about your editor.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:36</time>
<p>My editor was Sherry Wall.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:38</time>
<p>She's also a children's book author.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:40</time>
<p>Everything and everyone you mentioned, we're going to put the links in the show notes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:44</time>
<p>Okay, great.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:46</time>
<p>She was great because Laurie mentioned that she's really good with rhyming and cadence.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:51</time>
<p>So I really wanted a rhyming book again.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:54</time>
<p>When I was a mom reading stories to my kids, I sing and I. I remember things when I sing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:00</time>
<p>And I've always loved like do Seuss and he has a child.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:03</time>
<p>And I think a lot of it was just the cadence.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:05</time>
<p>So that was important to me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:07</time>
<p>So she helped me get that because it's a tricky thing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:10</time>
<p>Other children's book authors have told me they've actually hired people that just specialize in rhyming to help the book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:20</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:20</time>
<p>No, good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:21</time>
<p>Good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:22</time>
<p>That was good.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:22</time>
<p>And then I got another contact when it was time to design the book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:27</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:27</time>
<p>So what would you say your biggest frustration or biggest challenge was when it came to actually publishing your book?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:36</time>
<p>That's a really good question.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:38</time>
<p>I don't feel like I hit any walls with the publishing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:43</time>
<p>It was a little tricky to figure out KDP, but again, I had help.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:48</time>
<p>And I was watching YouTube videos there's so much out there thankfully on how to do this and helps.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:56</time>
<p>I think the hardest part has been the post again, the marketing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:00</time>
<p>Setting up an email and having it link to a mass email distribution kind of website like Mailerlite is the one I use.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:08</time>
<p>When those things get glitchy, I feel lost because I just have no understanding how it works or if my website has a problem.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:18</time>
<p>When you emailed me last night about my I thought oh no, what if my website's just down?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:23</time>
<p>And so I was really grateful to going running.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:28</time>
<p>I lost.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:29</time>
<p>I don't have a person running my website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:31</time>
<p>So I'm very fortunate because I actually have someone help me maintain the website.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:40</time>
<p>That's.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:41</time>
<p>And yeah, his services are not expensive.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:45</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:46</time>
<p>You might be pleasantly surprised.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:48</time>
<p>And you know what do joy I actually save up.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:52</time>
<p>I don't run to them with every single thing that that somebody points out.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:57</time>
<p>I notice I save up a list and then maybe once a month or once a quarter I'll send them like five or six items and I'll say can you change this?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:06</time>
<p>And it takes them like it take me probably a week.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:10</time>
<p>It takes him like seven or eight minutes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:13</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:14</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:14</time>
<p>He only charges me for that amount of time.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:17</time>
<p>He doesn't say, oh, oh, Rick can't do it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:19</time>
<p>It'll take him a week.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:20</time>
<p>So I'm going to charge him for a week.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:22</time>
<p>I might, I might need you to give me his name because that sounds lovely.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:27</time>
<p>Great person and I can do that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:29</time>
<p>I want to talk to you a little bit about is your intention to do when you do your hard cover through Ingram Sparks, are you still just going to do print on demand or do you have aspirations to run a bigger run to lower the price?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:47</time>
<p>I think I would be happy to do a bigger order on the front end to lower the price for sure.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:54</time>
<p>The only reason I asked that is because I was talking to a gal from Oklahoma.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:58</time>
<p>You may have heard me say this before.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:01</time>
<p>And Charlotte Glaze episode 23 Charlotte actually put me on to a company called Made in China dot com.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:10</time>
<p>We'll have those in the show Notes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:12</time>
<p>She went to two different companies online.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:16</time>
<p>She had to pay for the sample.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:18</time>
<p>But when she got the samples, she compared them, she decided on a company and she ordered.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:24</time>
<p>I think she had to order a minimum of 500 books, but she was absolutely flabbergasted at how good the quality was and the pricing and a big difference to her children's book business because of course the perceived value of hardcovers and she was able to make a lot more money on her hardcover, the retail than she was with her soft cover.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:51</time>
<p>And we were talking about earlier is it's not easy to get a return and build your business.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:57</time>
<p>So you always have to look for.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:59</time>
<p>Where can I get a better margin?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:02</time>
<p>Because of Charlotte, we actually developed, and I know our guests have heard this before, but we actually developed our own plushie.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:10</time>
<p>That's so cute.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:11</time>
<p>Yeah, we love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:12</time>
<p>And it came from Made in China.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:15</time>
<p>I love that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:17</time>
<p>I love that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:18</time>
<p>So anyways, I just mentioned that's maybe an opportunity for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:21</time>
<p>Now you mentioned your illustrator.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:24</time>
<p>It's always interesting about illustrators because once you get one you like, a lot of times you stick with them.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:31</time>
<p>For most of us, including yourself, like, we've used the same illustrator and in our case, our illustrators in the uk.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:40</time>
<p>But I noticed your illustrator was in Kentucky and I was thinking, okay, how do you go from Washington, I believe you're in Washington state, to Kentucky?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:51</time>
<p>Tell us a little bit about the story and that relationship.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:55</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:55</time>
<p>I hadn't talked to my niece in a while.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:58</time>
<p>I have a lot of nieces and nephews.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:00</time>
<p>And I just observed her on social media and her work was so amazing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:05</time>
<p>And I knew that it was actually her idea to do it with a cat because my story at the beginning was very.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:14</time>
<p>Just neutral as far as who the character was.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:17</time>
<p>And I really want to be relatable to all kids and all kinds of kids, all kinds of people.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:24</time>
<p>And she's what about a cat?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:26</time>
<p>Perfect.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:26</time>
<p>That's just perfect.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:28</time>
<p>And she just basically said, does this sound fun?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:32</time>
<p>I don't want you to be stressed about it or I know she's busy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:35</time>
<p>She's got a little one and she's working.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:38</time>
<p>And she said, sure, yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:39</time>
<p>At the time, she wasn't working full time.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:42</time>
<p>Let me just put together some sketches, see what you think.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:45</time>
<p>And yeah, we went from there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:46</time>
<p>And I really.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:48</time>
<p>My story, as everyone would say, I'm sure.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:50</time>
<p>But my story wouldn't be the same without her and her ideas.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:54</time>
<p>I did.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:55</time>
<p>I gave her a little bit of an outline with each page, but not a lot.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:00</time>
<p>So did you just send her a draft of your story and she read that first?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:06</time>
<p>Yes, she started the illustrations before it was fully edited.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:09</time>
<p>I would probably recommend not doing that that way.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:12</time>
<p>And I don't think because poor things.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:15</time>
<p>She had to adapt.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:16</time>
<p>But I think, yeah, otherwise we got that bit out of water a little bit.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:21</time>
<p>But yes, I sent her the draft and then just made notes for each page.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:25</time>
<p>And yeah, she went from there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:27</time>
<p>The gumballs are her idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:29</time>
<p>It's fun.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:29</time>
<p>That you work with family.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:31</time>
<p>That makes it a little extra special.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:35</time>
<p>Thank you for sharing that story.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:37</time>
<p>So is she prodding you along to come up with your next children's book?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:42</time>
<p>She's got my next draft.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:45</time>
<p>She's working on the next one.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:47</time>
<p>She does have a full time job now, so it's going to be a little longer.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:50</time>
<p>Part of the reason I think I'm also hesitant to work with a publisher, even though I would love it if someone approached me and said we would love to publish a piece, that would be fine and great, but there are deadlines.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:01</time>
<p>Right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:01</time>
<p>And I really do like the freedom and flexibility of just not putting a lot of stress on myself or Caitlyn to.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:08</time>
<p>You know what, Joy?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:09</time>
<p>I've had a couple of children's book authors who are have been published by a traditional publisher, but the one message they made perfectly clear is that the publisher's expectation on you is still to do most of the work when it comes to sales and marketing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:30</time>
<p>I know we all aspire to maybe be traditionally published, but at the end of the day the working conditions are the same or maybe even a little more difficult.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:41</time>
<p>So yes, yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:43</time>
<p>That's worth a lot, isn't it?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:44</time>
<p>It is worth a lot.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:46</time>
<p>You talked about your website and one of the questions I had for you because I noticed you published your children's book in August of last year.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:55</time>
<p>You started your blog long before that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:59</time>
<p>I noticed you had written blogs long before you published your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:04</time>
<p>Did you have your website up and running advance of your children's book?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:10</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:11</time>
<p>So I set up a WordPress website back in, I believe it was 2022 and I just, I've found that I enjoyed writing my thoughts and sharing them.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:22</time>
<p>I have never had a big following or anything, but we decided to just keep that base.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:27</time>
<p>Lori had, she's a professor at a college in Canada, so one of her students actually designed my website around the children's book and just kept the blog feature kept.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:38</time>
<p>So respectfully curious because I really do like that just that word, those words to describe my brand.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:46</time>
<p>Great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:46</time>
<p>You said I went.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:47</time>
<p>I kept respectfully curious and you kept that and which is fun.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:52</time>
<p>A play on words.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:53</time>
<p>Talk to us about that whole development.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:57</time>
<p>How did that come to be the.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:59</time>
<p>World, especially in the U.S. are you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:01</time>
<p>In the U.S. actually, I'm in Canada.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:04</time>
<p>I thought you were in Canada.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:05</time>
<p>The U.S. is a really tough, polarized place right now and I have dear family on opposite side of where I am.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:17</time>
<p>And so it really, I think that's what originally inspired me to start writing and Just, I think to have a place to share my voice, not to put it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:30</time>
<p>So it's like, well, layering on social media, necessarily.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:33</time>
<p>But if people wanted to go and learn what I was thinking at any given time, they could.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:39</time>
<p>Well, no, it's nice for you to do that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:41</time>
<p>And it's interesting you should say that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:43</time>
<p>Just as a side note, I mean, my wife and I, in two weeks are headed to a birthday party retirement party in Portland, Oregon.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:52</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:53</time>
<p>And we have friends and family on both sides of the border.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:56</time>
<p>And it's a tough one.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:59</time>
<p>It really is.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:00</time>
<p>And that's all I can say.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:01</time>
<p>But you know what?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:02</time>
<p>Friendship transcends borders.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:05</time>
<p>And that's.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:06</time>
<p>We're going down to support Tom and Linda and we're.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:10</time>
<p>You know what?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:11</time>
<p>The border's not going to stop us.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:13</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:13</time>
<p>Friendship runs much deeper.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:15</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:16</time>
<p>And being in a room with people, it just sometimes doesn't matter what your political views are.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:21</time>
<p>And that's what I want to hang on to, even though it's really hard sometimes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:26</time>
<p>So I think being curious respectfully gives.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:29</time>
<p>That's what I love about children's book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:32</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:32</time>
<p>You can really speak to everyone with a children's book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:35</time>
<p>And, yeah, I think I felt respect was an important part of keeping relationships and being curious about why people are where they are and why I'm where I am and those kinds of things.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:47</time>
<p>So that's where the phrase came from.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:50</time>
<p>I love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:51</time>
<p>I love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:52</time>
<p>When you made that pivot, which is fantastic.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:54</time>
<p>When you said that you had your illustrations and your work with Lori and then work with one of her students to help use your graphics from your book to set up your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:09</time>
<p>That's exactly what happened to us, is that somebody said.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:14</time>
<p>And it was funny.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:15</time>
<p>I just thought, you know what?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:16</time>
<p>We'll just put our children's book on Amazon.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:19</time>
<p>We'll put a link.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:20</time>
<p>We did have a website address, but we didn't have a website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:25</time>
<p>What ended up being our website developer, what he did was he just put our website address.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:31</time>
<p>We got it set up, and he just put a link to the Amazon link for the book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:37</time>
<p>And I thought, okay, okay, that's it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:40</time>
<p>That's all you have to do.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:41</time>
<p>And you're going to sell millions of copies and be so successful.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:46</time>
<p>And that was quite the dream.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:50</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:50</time>
<p>And eventually what we did, because we had the same as you, we had these important assets and say that other children's book authors, you've got these incredible, beautifully illustrated assets.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:04</time>
<p>Use them to build out your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:06</time>
<p>Again, thank you for sharing that story so that anyone who's listening, who's an aspiring children's book author and says yeah, but what do I do about content for my website?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:17</time>
<p>So thanks for sharing the thing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:19</time>
<p>I noticed you did two neat features on your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:22</time>
<p>I encourage everybody to go to Joy's website and look at her audiobook offering and her journal book offering.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:32</time>
<p>These are both digital products and they're not expensive, but they allow you as a children's book author to help support your children's book authorship journey.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:45</time>
<p>Talk to us about the audiobook and the journal.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:48</time>
<p>Yes, those are some other great ideas I got from Lori is just when you're selling from your website and I think you've shared this too, you make more money.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:58</time>
<p>Right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:58</time>
<p>So developing items to be able to have a bundle or to be able to sell in addition to your book will help bring people to your website to get to put their emails in.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:10</time>
<p>Because that's what we want is the emails but the audiobook.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:14</time>
<p>Yeah, that just seems like a no brainer.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:17</time>
<p>It's not hard to do.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:19</time>
<p>And, and then we developed on Canva.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:21</time>
<p>We used Canva a lot for our to develop the graphics for the products and it's just me reading the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:29</time>
<p>I did it a few times, as you might imagine.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:31</time>
<p>You do it, you listen and you're like, oh, let's tweak it a little bit.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:35</time>
<p>And then the journal, the kids journal, I can send you actually a link to a website that I use that basically it has a lot of templates and you can't just use them but it gives you ideas for things.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:50</time>
<p>I found a template and I adapted it again with the graphics from the book and just it's literal.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:57</time>
<p>It's a really short journal.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:59</time>
<p>It's about five pages but they're all printable pages.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:02</time>
<p>They're great options for activity sheets for therapists and getting kids minds going in the feelings realm.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:32:11</time>
<p>Love that you tell that because when I looked at your website you told the story about in the big comfy chair with your journal.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:32:18</time>
<p>Even though we don't use the video part, I can see from your face as you talk about journaling and even with myself when we started to write our children's book and our first children's book I co authored with my oldest granddaughter, the first thing she said to me was papa, can we go get a journal and then we can start writing our story and start writing other ideas.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:32:45</time>
<p>And I thought yes, what a great idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:32:48</time>
<p>So we went to the local farmer's market and we bought this beautiful journal that I still have and it was great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:32:56</time>
<p>So I just love that your approach to encouraging children to journal.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:02</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:03</time>
<p>It was really a fun idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:05</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:06</time>
<p>One idea I'd like to share with you, too, and you may have heard me say this is that we did up a bookmark on Canva.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:14</time>
<p>Oh, yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:15</time>
<p>And so cute.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:17</time>
<p>The QR Code is the audiobook of our first book, and it's.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:24</time>
<p>Which is read by my middle granddaughter.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:28</time>
<p>And then the other part of the recording is my oldest granddaughter telling the story behind the story of how Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear came to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:42</time>
<p>Love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:42</time>
<p>That is such a great idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:44</time>
<p>I've done stickers also.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:46</time>
<p>I have sheets of stickers that I ordered from Canva just from our pages.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:50</time>
<p>I think I did three different pages out of the book and I had one on my phone.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:54</time>
<p>I send them with book orders, so for free.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:58</time>
<p>And so that's also.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:00</time>
<p>I fit.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:00</time>
<p>But I love the QR Code idea because that kind of.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:03</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:03</time>
<p>You've already got the audiobook.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:05</time>
<p>So I'll tell you what we did.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:06</time>
<p>One of our retailers that carries our book, we did up a promotion where if you bought the book, you got a free audiobook and bookmark with the purchase.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:21</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:22</time>
<p>So it was, you know, it's just a little something, but it was.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:25</time>
<p>I always say to people, see what you can do with value add without it costing you a fortune.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:32</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:32</time>
<p>It's a great idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:34</time>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:35</time>
<p>When you started this whole children's book author journey, was there a specific person or event that motivated you to write your children's book again?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:49</time>
<p>It happened for me so fast.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:51</time>
<p>I did.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:51</time>
<p>Like I say, I wrote a book previously that I haven't even ever published, but that one was inspired by a child who wanted to be in the front of the line.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:01</time>
<p>Someday I'll do that one.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:02</time>
<p>But this one was really personal and I was just mad about something and it didn't make sense.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:10</time>
<p>I was just mad.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:11</time>
<p>I think it was one of my husband.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:13</time>
<p>I don't even remember what it was about, but I just remember being frustrated that my feelings were getting in the way of reality and being present.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:22</time>
<p>And I just was like, I need to just go take a moment.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:26</time>
<p>And I.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:26</time>
<p>Which I think so valuable for me to do and everyone to be able to acknowledge that you're having the feeling and that you need to just take a moment and get curious what's happening right now so that you don't hurt someone.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:40</time>
<p>So, yeah, that was.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:42</time>
<p>It was literally very personal.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:44</time>
<p>Just went up to my chair and I'm like sitting there just.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:47</time>
<p>And I.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:47</time>
<p>My first feelings, they often get right in my way.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:50</time>
<p>That is very original to my story because I felt like my feelings were really getting in the way.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:57</time>
<p>Good for you, hopefully.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:58</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:59</time>
<p>And then I. I think by the end of the night, I was like, I think I could share this in a children's book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:04</time>
<p>And I had already, again, been thinking about doing that and just thinking about, I'm 49 and two years ago got my first degree, so I had a career as raised my kids, and I've been grateful for that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:18</time>
<p>But I've just been working in the last two years full time.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:22</time>
<p>But I did also have this in my mind as something I could keep doing through when I'm done working and once my kids are grown and can be a legacy for my grandkids, like I've heard a lot of people share.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:34</time>
<p>So.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:35</time>
<p>Yeah, and that's the beautiful thing about that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:37</time>
<p>You probably heard me say this, is that we've got this renewables resource called children.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:44</time>
<p>Four year olds come into the world every day and you're always getting a new group of readers coming in.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:53</time>
<p>As long as you keep your book alive as a children's book author, there's no reason why it can't have a long life.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:02</time>
<p>And you think of all the children's books that continue to be published.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:08</time>
<p>Like you look at what the Disney company's done, or you look at Dr. Seuss.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:12</time>
<p>All of those children's books are timeless.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:16</time>
<p>They just keep getting reprinted over and over again.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:20</time>
<p>And if you can create a children's book and keep the spark alive, it just stays forever.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:37:26</time>
<p>Yeah, yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:29</time>
<p>What a great asset to leave at the end of the day.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:32</time>
<p>Is it shutting down?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:34</time>
<p>Yes, I think another book on investment, real estate.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:39</time>
<p>Warren Buffett or something.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:37:41</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:37:42</time>
<p>I would much rather be reading children's books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:45</time>
<p>You told us that your niece came up with the idea, your main character, which was a cat.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:51</time>
<p>I'd like you to go a little deeper and explain to us what was your original intent and how did she persuade you to pivot to the main character being a cat?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:05</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:06</time>
<p>I definitely wanted the book to feel inclusive enough for any child to be able to relate to it or any grownup.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:14</time>
<p>And I just shared that with her.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:15</time>
<p>I shared with her a few illustrations and I think when she said how a cat, it just clicked because I thought, I have cats.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:27</time>
<p>And I thought, yes, they are very passionate.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:31</time>
<p>They.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:31</time>
<p>It was easy to imagine it being connected when you see that cat hiss or their.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:38</time>
<p>Their fur fluff up or whatever, or just to imagine that a cat has big opinions about Something that's happening in.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:38:45</time>
<p>The world definitely relate to a cat.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:38:47</time>
<p>We had a cat named Amber, and my oldest granddaughter loved that cat.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:38:52</time>
<p>And when the cat passed away and I got my first car and it had GPS and it had a voice like Siri, my granddaughter named our GPS Amber.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:03</time>
<p>Oh, that's very cute.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:08</time>
<p>I know you talked about your theme, so let's delve a little deeper into it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:13</time>
<p>I think you called it inclusivity of children.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:17</time>
<p>Talk to us about the theme of the book, the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:22</time>
<p>It revolves around this cat that struggles with his or her big feelings of sadness when these various things happen in life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:33</time>
<p>But then there's one kind of climactic moment, I think, where she gets really angry and she sees some cats hurting another cat, and it makes her mad.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:44</time>
<p>And I think the whole idea that sometimes things aren't okay and it is always okay to be mad about.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:55</time>
<p>And that is something that really connected with me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:59</time>
<p>And then just even, I think, because I was embarrassed a lot about my feelings.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:06</time>
<p>For me, at least when I share something that I'm mad about something or I share something out of my mad or sad, I immediately moved to shame because it's just like, I shouldn't have said that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:18</time>
<p>Why did I say that out loud?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:20</time>
<p>But I really do believe that if we were a little more authentic and in, again, a respectfully curious way, that it would really help us to grow.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:33</time>
<p>That is the passion behind the book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:35</time>
<p>And I shared it with a coworker who worked with kids and.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:39</time>
<p>And she said, I really appreciate that this book validates those feelings.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:44</time>
<p>And it's not about fixing them or making them go away.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:48</time>
<p>It's about, yeah, sometimes they're there and it's okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:40:52</time>
<p>And it actually can help us grow if we learn to explore and ask questions about what those feelings are saying to us.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:00</time>
<p>I couldn't agree with you more, because that's part of a children's book, is to bring out things that they're feeling and know they're feeling, but able to bring it out through a children's book so that they're in an environment that's safe and allows them to discuss it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:20</time>
<p>And they can discuss it through the main character's eyes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:23</time>
<p>It doesn't have to be their eyes, even if they are referring to themselves.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:27</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:28</time>
<p>You have a session guide, a discussion guide.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:31</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:32</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:32</time>
<p>And I want.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:33</time>
<p>I always talk about the central teaching.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:35</time>
<p>A discussion guide really is.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:37</time>
<p>Is probably the base for the central teaching of your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:42</time>
<p>Take us through that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:43</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:44</time>
<p>The discussion guide brings up questions like, what was happening before the big feelings happened in the story, what happened after the kitties were mean.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:54</time>
<p>And.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:55</time>
<p>And there's also a portion I didn't mention where the group of cats is downplaying the feelings and they're saying, come on, just have fun.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:04</time>
<p>Why do you always have to.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:06</time>
<p>This is my life because I work in foster care and it's hard work.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:10</time>
<p>And it's not a lot of people want to hear about it because it's hard and it stinks and it just weighs you down.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:17</time>
<p>Sometimes I feel like I'm pretending.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:19</time>
<p>And with people who don't deal in this world, how do you feel when you're having to pretend to be happy?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:27</time>
<p>When you really feel sad inside about something or just.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:31</time>
<p>I think there's a portion where it's like, can you act out what a scenario in the book that you particularly related to?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:42:40</time>
<p>And it's nice now, Joy, that children's book authors are creating a little more value added to just because you heard this for years.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:42:51</time>
<p>What's the moral to the story?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:42:53</time>
<p>Every children's book, if you go back to Pinocchio, you go back to the three pigs, there's always a moral to the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:02</time>
<p>When they were first written, the children's book author said, oh, by the way, have a discussion guide.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:09</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:10</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:10</time>
<p>Even though that's part of why they did the moral to the story was to create discussion.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:17</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:18</time>
<p>So thank you for sharing that you've written that your next book, which is already your niece being illustrated.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:26</time>
<p>Has your writing process changed at all from your first book to your second book?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:32</time>
<p>Or even if you go back to when you wrote the book that you're still sitting on or have it tucked away in your drawer, talk to us about your whole writing process.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:44</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:44</time>
<p>I think the second book will be called Big Feels, Same series.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:50</time>
<p>The Diary of a Happy Pup.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:53</time>
<p>And when I was young, I loved the sweet pickles.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:58</time>
<p>And I know they were not broadly distributed, but when I was little, there was different characters, different animals that were affiliated with a character trait.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:08</time>
<p>My writing process with these big sealed books is going to be similar, and who knows how many they'll be, But I envisioned the passionate cat with her opinions and then the happy who really just again, doesn't want to deal with the big feelings.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:23</time>
<p>More of a let's.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:24</time>
<p>Can we just pretend that they're.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:26</time>
<p>Pretend that there's nothing sad in the world and just live our lives?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:31</time>
<p>I'm excited about that one.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:33</time>
<p>But definitely these feelings books are different than the first book I had.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:38</time>
<p>It was.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:39</time>
<p>It was more of a Moral of the story too, but it was about being a good leader.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:45</time>
<p>Again, another trait.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:44:46</time>
<p>And are you drawing on your own personal experiences only or have you got some research that you've done behind the books?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:55</time>
<p>That's a good question.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:57</time>
<p>So far it's pretty much personal experience.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:00</time>
<p>The tucked away one was from my work in a school and just an opportunity again to provide a moral to the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:09</time>
<p>What does a good leader look like?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:11</time>
<p>And then these are more just focused around feelings, I think, because in I've just seen in our family and our work, feelings are hard, they're tricky.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:25</time>
<p>So I feel like it's a good opportunity to just flesh it out a little bit more.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:29</time>
<p>At the beginning, we talked about a children's book business plan, but I'm really curious about success, how we as children's book authors envision success.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:44</time>
<p>So can you tell us what did you have in mind as success for your first book?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:51</time>
<p>And what does it look like now your original thought about success and what the reality of that success is?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:00</time>
<p>Now that's a big question.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:03</time>
<p>I think like in my most ignorant early thoughts, of course, success might be you put the book out there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:13</time>
<p>It's so amazing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:14</time>
<p>Everyone loves it and tells all their friends.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:17</time>
<p>Right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:18</time>
<p>But what I realized was just ongoing work.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:23</time>
<p>I did develop a launch team for just prior to the book coming out.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:29</time>
<p>So that was cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:30</time>
<p>Had almost a hundred people sign up.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:33</time>
<p>To be good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:34</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:35</time>
<p>And of course not everybody that signs up is going to read it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:38</time>
<p>I basically developed a Google form and put it on social media and ask people to sign up to be a part of the launch team.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:46</time>
<p>And it ended up being almost a hundred people.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:48</time>
<p>So that was a good start to just ask people to do.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:51</time>
<p>To read the book and do reviews.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:54</time>
<p>And I think now got 24 reviews, which isn't a lot on Amazon.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:00</time>
<p>Again, not everybody will do it, but it's like when you invite someone, a group to a party, about 30% will come.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:06</time>
<p>So it's.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:06</time>
<p>You aim as high as you can.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:08</time>
<p>Um, I do believe that I would like to get into schools, I would like to get in the book, into therapy offices.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:14</time>
<p>I dropped a couple of copies at the Seattle Children's Hospital with the resource person the other day.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:21</time>
<p>For me, right now it's just getting it out there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:23</time>
<p>I don't expect to make money on the book for a while, if ever.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:28</time>
<p>Hopefully I do eventually, but I'd love to get it out there.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:32</time>
<p>We talk about that all the time on the show that the average book sells between 2 and 500 copies over the lifetime of the book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:41</time>
<p>So if you do the math, you'll know that the chance of getting a return on your investment, not including your time, is difficult.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:51</time>
<p>And that's why we were talking earlier.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:54</time>
<p>It's all about, for me, is trying to heighten people's awareness that you need to build a children's book business plan behind your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:05</time>
<p>Yeah, yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:06</time>
<p>Otherwise you're probably going to sell in that 2 to 500 copy range over the entirety of your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:13</time>
<p>Whatever we can do to support people reaching out.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:17</time>
<p>And I love that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:18</time>
<p>Your launch team.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:20</time>
<p>I've talked to other people before about launch teams, but I don't think I've ever talked to a children's book author who's had 100 people on their launch team.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:30</time>
<p>Oh, great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:30</time>
<p>Just awesome.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:32</time>
<p>Good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:32</time>
<p>It's great.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:33</time>
<p>And I really love the emails, too, the automated emails.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:36</time>
<p>That's something that's.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:37</time>
<p>You have to keep on top of.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:39</time>
<p>But I've heard that's a really big, important part to keep people engaged.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:44</time>
<p>It's hard for me because I don't ever check my emails generally.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:47</time>
<p>So I'm like, is anyone seeing this?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:49</time>
<p>But I've heard that's a really important piece.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:52</time>
<p>And you said you had developed a Google form and you just posted that repeatedly out to the world through social media.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:02</time>
<p>Google forms are super simple in the way that you can just.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:07</time>
<p>If you have a Google account, you can just go to the little place with the little nine dots up in the corner and you click on it and then scroll down and there's a form option and you click the form.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:18</time>
<p>You can put a cool picture in there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:22</time>
<p>They have all kinds of design templates.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:24</time>
<p>You can tailor what you want in the form.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:27</time>
<p>The name, email, phone number is, I think, all I had, and then a little description about what it was.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:34</time>
<p>And I'm not going to use your phone number for anything other than this process.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:39</time>
<p>And I really didn't need the phone number in hindsight.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:42</time>
<p>But I thought it might help if I wanted to send a text to remind people to read the book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:47</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:47</time>
<p>But it was super simple.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:49:48</time>
<p>And you can link it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:49:49</time>
<p>You're on Facebook and Instagram.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:53</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:49:54</time>
<p>Was that the primary area that you used to send the Google form out?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:00</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:00</time>
<p>Yep.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:01</time>
<p>And then did you encourage other people to send it, share it if.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:05</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:05</time>
<p>So you tell one person, they tell.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:08</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:09</time>
<p>Three more people and they tell.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:11</time>
<p>And it worked out that you got a hundred people on your launch team.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:15</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:15</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:16</time>
<p>Good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:17</time>
<p>I hope the listeners, even as an experienced children's book author, what A great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:22</time>
<p>Yeah, what a great thing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:24</time>
<p>Good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:24</time>
<p>You can also then look at your responses in a spreadsheet format.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:29</time>
<p>So then you can just copy paste those emails into your email, website generator, whatever, and send thank you emails or whatever.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:38</time>
<p>So super helpful.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:40</time>
<p>Terrific.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:40</time>
<p>Now that we're talking about advice is, do you have some other advice for aspiring children's book authors that you'd like to share?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:51</time>
<p>I would say stay true to your passion.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:56</time>
<p>For me, I don't ever want to get off track of what my heart around this project is.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:02</time>
<p>I'd love to make it bigger and grow and spread it out, but I don't want to lose myself and my heart about the message of the book in that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:11</time>
<p>So I think if there's a piece of yourself that you're willing to put out there, try not to be afraid.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:18</time>
<p>It's okay to have those.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:19</time>
<p>We'll see our full feelings, but have the courage to get it out there because you never know who might be going through the same thing and who might be touched by what you share.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:28</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:29</time>
<p>And what keeps you going as a children's book author now that you've divulged that you're now written your second book or third book, depending on how you look at it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:40</time>
<p>So what keeps you going?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:42</time>
<p>I think it's a really fun part of my life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:45</time>
<p>It's a creative part.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:47</time>
<p>And again, if it ever stops being fun, I know I'm too busy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:51</time>
<p>I need to carve out a little more time because it is fun.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:55</time>
<p>And so, yeah, it's a place to explore ideas, explore what's next, keep creating.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:52:03</time>
<p>Keep piling on encouragement for readers.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:52:06</time>
<p>So why should children's book readers purchase your book?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:11</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:11</time>
<p>I think the most common response when I've read my book to friends and family has been, oh, like, they're like, I felt that even my mom, who I think didn't know what to do with all my big feelings when I was little, she said, I felt those things.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:28</time>
<p>And my hope would be that anyone who reads this book would feel seen and understood a little bit better, which I think has to be a positive thing for our world today.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:52:38</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:52:39</time>
<p>I've had several children's book authors tell me that after they've done a book reading, and if there's adults in the room with the children, a lot of times they've got these adults coming to them after and saying, that's me, that's me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:57</time>
<p>That's who.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:52:58</time>
<p>That's how I felt.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:52:59</time>
<p>And it's incredible how a children's book just doesn't impact a child because all of us still have our childhood memories.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:10</time>
<p>When a children's book is read aloud or they read a children's book, which a lot of people don't do very much in their lives unless you have grandchildren or children.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:21</time>
<p>Pretty incredible when all of a sudden you do a book reading and adults come up to you and say, oh my goodness, that's me.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:29</time>
<p>Or I have those feelings.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:31</time>
<p>So good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:33</time>
<p>Definitely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:34</time>
<p>There's never too many books out there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:36</time>
<p>Everybody has a little spot to share themselves.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:40</time>
<p>Final Thoughts Joy, is there something you'd like to share?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:44</time>
<p>Or you said, geez, I wish Rick would ask me that question.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:47</time>
<p>Final Thoughts I appreciate you having me here.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:52</time>
<p>It's exciting to share in a little different way about my book with someone I hadn't met before now.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:59</time>
<p>So thank you for that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:01</time>
<p>You're welcome.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:01</time>
<p>And I'm just, I really do.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:05</time>
<p>Even though it's hard for me to put myself out there, it's hard for me to advertise myself.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:09</time>
<p>It's not a priority, which is hard when you're trying to market your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:13</time>
<p>You're doing a good job.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:15</time>
<p>I do think it's an important thing and I think we all could get a little more squishy with our emotions and in this time where it's hard to feel human sometimes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:29</time>
<p>So yeah, I think it's a good time for this story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:33</time>
<p>Hopefully you'll check it out.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:34</time>
<p>Joy, thank you so much for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors Podcast.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:40</time>
<p>Your generosity of time and insights, some of the neat little things that you're doing with will definitely significantly benefit aspiring authors and readers, and we promise to provide our audience with links to all of Joy's social media, all the links that she mentioned today, her website, and her book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:55:02</time>
<p>And if you've enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to our future episodes and feel free to share this episode with anyone inspired by or who enjoys hearing about Joy and her children's book, Big the Diary of a Passionate Kitty.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:22</time>
<p>Thank you, Rick.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:23</time>
<p>Thank you so much.</p>