How to Land a Traditional Children's Book Deal: Insider Secrets from Kris Tarantino

<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:57</time>
<p>My name is Chris Tarantino and I'm an author of children's books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:02</time>
<p>Be My Valence Line came out in 2023 and that was my debut.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:07</time>
<p>And this year, 2026, I'm out with Bed Slime Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:04:13</time>
<p>Chris, get a little chuckle already just listening to the title of the books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:04:17</time>
<p>Thanks for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:04:21</time>
<p>Chris has mentioned she's written several books, children's books in her series, and today we're going to focus on Bed Slime Blues and I look forward to our conversation.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:04:33</time>
<p>Chris, before we get into the details of your latest book, can you tell us what being a children's book author means to you?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:42</time>
<p>It means everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:43</time>
<p>It means the world.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:44</time>
<p>This has been a long term dream that I been pursuing and so to finally have it happen is the best possible feeling because it's quite, quite challenging to break into the traditional publishing market and get a book published by somebody like Pegway Random House.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:05</time>
<p>That is fantastic.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:07</time>
<p>Tell us about your inspiration because I know before we got on air you mentioned you published your first book in 2023 and this year you launched your second book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:17</time>
<p>Tell us the inspiration behind your first book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:20</time>
<p>Like what got you started as a children's book author?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:24</time>
<p>I've always been in the business of kids, so I graduated college with a major in business, marketing and art.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:33</time>
<p>And I had indicated I wanted to work in the toy industry.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:36</time>
<p>So I was put into a internship at a local publisher, which was actually Golden Books at the time and really loved children's books and the other toy items.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:51</time>
<p>And then I stayed home with my own kids and did a lot of reading.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:55</time>
<p>I already loved children's books and I grew to love them even more.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:59</time>
<p>And so I said one day I'm going to write children's books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:03</time>
<p>Fast forward many, many, many years and I was writing dozens of different manuscripts with different forms.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:10</time>
<p>Romance because you never know what you're going to break into the market with.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:14</time>
<p>I was learning.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:15</time>
<p>I went to a lot of conferences and webinars and whatnot and there was a lot of life happening in my personal life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:23</time>
<p>Anyway, Be My Valence Line was a book that initiated with I was seeing a lot of a lack of love and kindness around me, either with people I knew or people I didn't know.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:37</time>
<p>And so it got me to walk around saying, well, what is love anyway?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:42</time>
<p>And so that book is an exploration of what is love and how.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:48</time>
<p>I love the titles of both your books and I love how you branded the word slime.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:55</time>
<p>I know when I look at this timeframe.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:59</time>
<p>So maybe explain to us a little bit about, you know, your first book coming out in 2023 and now your second book in 2026.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:09</time>
<p>What was going on in terms of your children's book business?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:15</time>
<p>What was filling that void between the two books?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:20</time>
<p>A ton of work.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:21</time>
<p>It took ten years to break in with Be My Valence Lime.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:25</time>
<p>And part of breaking into the traditional market all often is you have to have a hooky title as well as a dynamite story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:34</time>
<p>So when I was brainstorming and came up with this hooky title and this really cool monster character, Snoodle, you know, I just kept working with it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:43</time>
<p>In between 2023 and 2026, I was under contract for two more books in this series, the first being this Bedslam Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:56</time>
<p>And it takes over two years to make a book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:59</time>
<p>Traditionally, it just takes that long.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:01</time>
<p>I was busy writing the manuscript and editing it with the editor, and then the same illustrator got involved with her sketches and final art and then everything on the back end of the publisher, that was one thing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:17</time>
<p>And then I'm always writing other manuscripts and my literary agent puts them out on submission.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:25</time>
<p>So doing a lot of those, getting a lot of rejection.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:28</time>
<p>But I'm hoping to amount some good news relatively soon.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:33</time>
<p>That's what I'm doing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:34</time>
<p>Terrific.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:35</time>
<p>Just for the listing audience, we're going to get more into Chris's publishing journey.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:42</time>
<p>We'll be talking about that, and that will definitely reveal some things that went on as Chris talked about in the last three years.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:50</time>
<p>Chris, I also noticed that your books are on Amazon and you have a E book format and you also have a hardcover, but I don't see a soft cover.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:03</time>
<p>So can you talk to us a little bit about that strategy?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:06</time>
<p>Why E book and a hardcover but</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:08</time>
<p>no soft cover when you're traditionally published?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:11</time>
<p>Like me and Penguin Random House is who publishes both of These books, that's 100% space.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:19</time>
<p>Their space.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:20</time>
<p>They decide the size the paper.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:22</time>
<p>You know, if there's going to be glitter on the COVID is it going to be hardcover?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:26</time>
<p>How long will it be hardcover?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:27</time>
<p>Is it going to be ebook?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:30</time>
<p>I don't have to worry about any of that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:32</time>
<p>That's marketing and sales decisions according to the goals that they're trying to achieve.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:38</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:39</time>
<p>And companies like ingramsparks who published books and get them out to the other online retailers outside of Amazon, would they also handle that for you?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:51</time>
<p>You wouldn't get involved with IngramSpark?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:54</time>
<p>I'm not familiar with Ingram Spark.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:57</time>
<p>Are they a retailer?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:59</time>
<p>So they're Like Amazon.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:01</time>
<p>And they fill that void, that Amazon, because Amazon sells the books on their, on their platform.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:09</time>
<p>So kdp, which is the publishing army of Amazon, creates the books and of course you sell it on their platform.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:17</time>
<p>Ingram Sparks does exactly the same thing, but they make your book available to people like Barnes and Noble and all the online retailers like Apple Books, Walmart Online, those type of online retailers.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:33</time>
<p>Generally your book is coming through Ingram Sparks to those different online retailers.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:40</time>
<p>I was just curious.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:41</time>
<p>Yeah, that again, is, is all the sales department.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:44</time>
<p>It's Penguin Random House, and I am online at Walmart, Target, Barnes Noble, ChristianBooks.com and many, many others.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:53</time>
<p>You can see a lot of them on my author website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:57</time>
<p>Right, let's jump into your publishing approach because I think that'll start peeling back the onion here a bit and, and give us a glimpse into the traditional side of publishing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:09</time>
<p>I've had only, I think I'm up to about 85 children's book authors I've had on our show.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:16</time>
<p>And you're our third traditionally published children's book author, Bart Taylor, episode 53.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:23</time>
<p>He actually wrote three books before someone said, oh my goodness, we'd love to publish you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:30</time>
<p>He ended up going traditionally published after he had had got three books onto the marketplace, which he had independently published.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:39</time>
<p>A different approach for sure.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:41</time>
<p>You're traditionally published on your books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:44</time>
<p>It says Waterbrook Publishing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:46</time>
<p>Tell us the story behind Waterbrook.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:50</time>
<p>Yeah, so Waterbrook is what's called an imprint of Penguin Random House.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:56</time>
<p>So all the big five publishers, your Scholastics, your Penguin Random House, your HarperCollins, they all have many, many, many imprints underneath them.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:07</time>
<p>And each imprint has its own kind of goals and things that they look for in the market on the children's side and on the adult side.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:18</time>
<p>Waterbrook Publishing, primarily being the children's book</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:22</time>
<p>arena, I believe it is primarily in the children's, all the way up through ya and then they have a different imprint, I believe, that handles a lot more of their adult titles.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:35</time>
<p>Chris, how did you end up, I mean, it's fantastic that you were able to get a traditional publisher because if you've listened to any of our episodes, we've had on several guests that have just been totally frustrated and ended up going independent or self published through a hybrid publishing company because the process just was too long, too many rejections and they just didn't want to go through that adventure.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:03</time>
<p>Tell us, how did you have the resilience to actually stick to it?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:08</time>
<p>Because you talked about a 10 year journey and I'm thinking, man, that's that's really incredible.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:13</time>
<p>Tell us why you thought I have to stick to my guns and I'm going to get a literary agent and I don't care how long it takes me by, and I'm going to someday get traditionally published.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:23</time>
<p>Tell us about that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:25</time>
<p>Yeah, so it's not for the faint of heart.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:31</time>
<p>And I have a deep drive within me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:35</time>
<p>And I always knew I never, never wanted to go self published because I've been on the corporate side.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:40</time>
<p>So I know what corporate offers, which is all the sales and marketing and promotion and the pr, which you can't talk do when you self publish.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:50</time>
<p>Okay?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:51</time>
<p>There's exceptions to everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:52</time>
<p>All right?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:53</time>
<p>Generally speaking, you as the individual, can't do it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:58</time>
<p>Exceptions to everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:00</time>
<p>And so I knew that going in and that just made me drive harder and harder.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:05</time>
<p>So I don't know, it's like any entrepreneurial person.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:08</time>
<p>There's just something inside of them that won't let go.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:12</time>
<p>Even though I wanted to quit several times because of all the reasons you stayed in, but I kept at it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:19</time>
<p>And like I said, I've written dozens of manuscripts that are polished and could all sell right at retail.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:28</time>
<p>My advice would be go traditional.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:31</time>
<p>Write more than one manuscript.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:33</time>
<p>Don't be so attached to one manuscript that, you know, you revise it for 10 years.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:38</time>
<p>Just write something else.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:39</time>
<p>Write something else, because you never know if that next one is going to be the one.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:44</time>
<p>And I would say go to a lot of writing conferences.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:14:47</time>
<p>And I went to children's focused writing conferences and I joined scbwi, which is the Global Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:01</time>
<p>And they have conferences all over the country.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:04</time>
<p>There's local chapters and they've got conferences everywhere.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:07</time>
<p>So went to a lot of conferences and there's other organizations that put conferences earned as well.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:14</time>
<p>So it was during COVID the conference was online, and I paid extra to speak and have like a one on one with both of the literary agents that were there.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:28</time>
<p>And they both wanted to see more work and I sent more work and I signed with one of them after the conference.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:35</time>
<p>And also during the conference, I was talking to one of the editors there and she was looking for holiday, but not Christmas and Easter, because they had plenty of that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:44</time>
<p>And I'm like, oh, well, I have this Valentine's story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:48</time>
<p>And I pitched it to her and she was very interested.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:50</time>
<p>She said, send it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:51</time>
<p>But she said, but we don't work with agented authors.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:55</time>
<p>And I said, well, I'm working on that, and signed with my agent right after the conference.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:00</time>
<p>And then we got the story to her, and she didn't take it to acquisitions yet.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:05</time>
<p>She asked for a bunch of revisions, which we did over a couple month period.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:11</time>
<p>And then she asked for me to write story summaries in case they wanted to make this more into a series, sort of flesh out some story summaries on other topics.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:22</time>
<p>And she gave me topics, and we did that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:25</time>
<p>And then it went to acquisitions and they acquire my balance line.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:30</time>
<p>Oh, good for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:31</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:31</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:32</time>
<p>So when it came to the publishing end of it for you, what was the biggest challenge or frustration during this journey?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:41</time>
<p>The constant rejection, or are you talking about once I got the story?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:47</time>
<p>When you finally got a publishing opportunity, what did you envision in your mind and what ended up being the biggest challenge or frustration as you were going through this traditionally published process?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:01</time>
<p>I kind of knew what to expect because again, I come from corporate and I had been trying for so long listening to so many conferences and webinars of people talking about it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:11</time>
<p>So not what did I not expect?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:13</time>
<p>But we still revised.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:16</time>
<p>So even though they bought the story, you know, that you worked on for years and years and you've done the revisions post acquisition, then I was just sort of surprised how much revision we did once it was acquired.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:29</time>
<p>But honestly, it made the story 100% better.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:33</time>
<p>It was so much better once the editor and I worked with even more revisions.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:39</time>
<p>When you said revisions prior to the acquisition and then edits after, were you the one doing the revisions prior to, or did you have any editing help?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:52</time>
<p>I did them in conjunction with my new.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:56</time>
<p>What I'm trying to get at is you said you had.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:58</time>
<p>You did multiple revisions before, and then when there's the acquisition, you did multiple revisions after.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:06</time>
<p>I'm trying to understand, was it you just doing the revisions on the before book and once they made the acquisition and you started working with an editor, was that the first time you started working with an editor?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:19</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:20</time>
<p>You don't work with an editor until your story is acquired.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:23</time>
<p>All I was trying to get at.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:25</time>
<p>Did you have anyone help you with your editing before you took your story to market?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:31</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:32</time>
<p>During this process, you need to find some critique partners and critique groups.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:37</time>
<p>I had that for years and years in place.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:41</time>
<p>Because you want your fellow authors, your critique people, and, you know, not your mom, not your grandma, not your aunt, not your friend.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:50</time>
<p>You have to find dedicated authors in the genre that you write that would be interested in being critique partners or critique group to get your story as polished as it can.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:02</time>
<p>And then you start sending it to literary Agents.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:06</time>
<p>Then you get your agent and then your agent and you do some tweaking and then it goes out on submission.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:13</time>
<p>And then once the editor acquires it, you know, she or he has their vision.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:19</time>
<p>And so then you are editing with them.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:22</time>
<p>And it made it thousand percent better to get it to where they need it to be to then hand it off to the illustrator.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:29</time>
<p>The only reason I ask is I'm just trying to give people the process that you went through prior to actually getting a traditionally published deal.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:38</time>
<p>And you went to these critique groups who helped you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:41</time>
<p>But at the end of the day, even when you did get that help, you took your book and you still, like you said, needed.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:50</time>
<p>When you took it to the traditional editor, you ended up with a much better product.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:56</time>
<p>And so what do you think they had as a quality that the critique groups didn't have?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:03</time>
<p>I think they have the whole picture.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:08</time>
<p>I think that they've got the sales and the marketing, you know, because they're working with those people every day, so they're getting all that feedback.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:18</time>
<p>They themselves are highly schooled, you know, with degrees and experience.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:24</time>
<p>They've been in the children's publishing business a long time, so they know exactly what to do and why it should be done.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:08</time>
<p>And even if your critique partners are experienced, they don't have that experience.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:14</time>
<p>Okay, and thank you for sharing that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:16</time>
<p>I just wanted everybody to understand the process.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:19</time>
<p>So you had mentioned that you had to go through the editing process then to turn it over to the illustrator.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:29</time>
<p>Did you have any say in who the illustrator was going to be?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:32</time>
<p>Or did they say, you know what, Chris, after all the editing and all that, we think this is the right illustrator for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:41</time>
<p>So tell us that story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:44</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:44</time>
<p>Typically the author has no say.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:47</time>
<p>That's the art director and the editor figuring it out.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:51</time>
<p>But there's exceptions to everything, right?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:54</time>
<p>So my editor after the edit said, okay, we'd like to know, like, what kind of style or who you might be envisioning.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:02</time>
<p>So just make a list of illustrators you like and tell us why.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:07</time>
<p>What about their style you like or connect vision with your story?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:11</time>
<p>It doesn't mean we can get them,</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:13</time>
<p>but give us a list.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:15</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:15</time>
<p>Yeah, so.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:16</time>
<p>So I did, and I didn't know it, but my editor was making her own list and Corey Norfield, the illustrator was on both of our lists.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:26</time>
<p>Oh, interesting.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:27</time>
<p>Yeah, she's a big time, New York Times bestselling illustrator.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:32</time>
<p>So they said, well, we don't know if we can get her, but stay tuned.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:37</time>
<p>And in fact, they did get her and she really brought the monsters to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:42</time>
<p>Because the first sentence in the book is, meet the monsters.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:45</time>
<p>That's it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:46</time>
<p>I don't describe them.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:48</time>
<p>She decided how big they were, what colors they were, what kind of features they were going to have, and she figured out the whole world.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:55</time>
<p>And that's the illustrator's job.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:58</time>
<p>She didn't have a conversation with you prior to her starting down that road of illustration?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:05</time>
<p>We did have a kickoff meeting with the editor and the art director, but generally, Corrie did all of that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:16</time>
<p>Yeah, we discussed a little bit of the end pages and how she had some ideas of how to enter into the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:26</time>
<p>You didn't have a visual in your mind of what the monster should look like?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:33</time>
<p>No.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:33</time>
<p>You have to learn in this process that the illustrator has heard or his job.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:40</time>
<p>And half the story is they take care of.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:45</time>
<p>And then you have your area and you're telling half the story through the writing and the two pair up together.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:52</time>
<p>It's interesting.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:53</time>
<p>And the only reason I ask is because in our case, I co authored our first book with my oldest granddaughter, and she and I had this strong vision of what our main character looked like, but we didn't know where to go to have the character actually come to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:13</time>
<p>Our book is called.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:14</time>
<p>Our first book is the Adventures of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:18</time>
<p>And this is Caboose.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:20</time>
<p>And my granddaughter and I had that vision.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:23</time>
<p>It was lucky.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:24</time>
<p>My wife and I were on a vacation in San Francisco and we went into one of those plushie stores and.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:31</time>
<p>And we looked around and thought, oh, my God, I think we could piece this thing together.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:36</time>
<p>And we had one of the people who was working in the store come over and we told them about our story.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:42</time>
<p>And before we knew it, we had this plushie, which is right behind me.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:47</time>
<p>And then from there we were able to develop our own plushie.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:51</time>
<p>Then I sent a picture of the plushie to an illustrator we found, and that illustrator brought Caboose to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:59</time>
<p>So it was kind of cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:00</time>
<p>That's why I asked you about, did you have a vision of what your character should look like?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:04</time>
<p>Because sometimes we do and sometimes we don't.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:08</time>
<p>And the illustrator can help us out a lot.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:11</time>
<p>Bring it to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:12</time>
<p>You learn if you go traditional publishing, to let all of that go and really don't even think about it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:18</time>
<p>Your job is to really make the words sing, to be as elevated as they can, you know, to sell on that big five level.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:28</time>
<p>Are you happy with characters as the illustrator brought them to life?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:33</time>
<p>Absolutely.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:34</time>
<p>They're fantastic.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:36</time>
<p>That's awesome.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:37</time>
<p>That's awesome.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:38</time>
<p>I also was looking at your website and being traditionally published, were you given direction on how you needed to develop your website or did you develop it on your own?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:52</time>
<p>Tell us your website story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:55</time>
<p>Website story is every author knows they need a website at some point.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:02</time>
<p>And the only direction I got was from my agent when we got the book deal.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:10</time>
<p>And she said, you know, go ahead and get your website developed for when the book comes out.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:17</time>
<p>And so I had heard of a website designer, Websy Daisy, based out of Austin, and she does a lot of authors.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:26</time>
<p>I looked at a lot of her examples.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:28</time>
<p>Long story short, I went with her and got the website all developed and ready for the first book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:35</time>
<p>It's her design and also my vision.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:38</time>
<p>And now is she still hands on with you with your website?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:43</time>
<p>Like, because we're talking over three years ago to now, every time I have</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:48</time>
<p>updates, which I do, I send them to her and then she'll update the website accordingly.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:55</time>
<p>Terrific.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:56</time>
<p>Because, I mean, I love your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:58</time>
<p>I try and emphasize this because, you know, we have a website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:01</time>
<p>We actually developed our website after we launched our book because people kept asking, where's your home?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:09</time>
<p>And I was thinking, what are you talking about?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:11</time>
<p>They were talking your home for your book, your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:13</time>
<p>Luckily for us, and I say to aspiring children's book authors, is a lot of times when you're developing your book, you've got all this great artwork and you can incorporate it into your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:25</time>
<p>And that's what we did.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:26</time>
<p>And away we went.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:28</time>
<p>Now, I noticed, and you've done something very unique.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:31</time>
<p>I love what you've done.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:27:33</time>
<p>And.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:34</time>
<p>And I want to talk more about this on your website.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:37</time>
<p>I love how you highlighted other children's book authors with the Valentine theme.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:44</time>
<p>And you did this on your website with 14.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:48</time>
<p>So including your book, 14 books that have children's books that have the Valentine's theme.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:54</time>
<p>And I thought, wow, what a great thing to do.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:58</time>
<p>Tell us about this whole idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:01</time>
<p>How did you come up with the idea and how is it working out?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:04</time>
<p>We just recently passed Valentine's Day.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:07</time>
<p>That came from the PR lady at Penguin Rhythm House, and she sent it to me, and I wanted to get it up on the website because it does highlight Valentine's Day in my book and yes, some other books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:23</time>
<p>So we're always looking for what to put on to amplify your story, your books, whether it's an award and be.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:34</time>
<p>My Balance Line does have a star review from School Library Journal, which is a huge, huge deal, especially within the schools.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:42</time>
<p>It makes librarians really Stop and look and, you know, buy your book or bring you in for a school visit.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:50</time>
<p>So I'm always looking for things like that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:51</time>
<p>And I'm getting ready to do a big website update because be my balance line just came in as a 2025 award winner.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:00</time>
<p>With the seasons of kid lit, it was one of the best spring books that they highlighted.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:07</time>
<p>So there were a couple of us award winners.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:09</time>
<p>Well, congratulations.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:10</time>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:11</time>
<p>What's amazing, too, and again, I'm hoping to with listeners, especially aspiring children's book authors, is here you are winning an Award in 2025 for a book that you published in 2023.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:26</time>
<p>I try to emphasize that because I say to everybody, your book is evergreen.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:31</time>
<p>It's a children's book, and it's timeless.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:35</time>
<p>It's really the effort you put into your book every day that keeps it timeless.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:42</time>
<p>And so what you've done is that's phenomenal.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:45</time>
<p>To actually launch a book in 2023, win an award in 2025.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:29:50</time>
<p>I hope that inspires some people to think about just because you've published your book, you need to put work into it every day to keep it alive.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:01</time>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:03</time>
<p>When you work with the PR person, I love what you did.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:07</time>
<p>Did they.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:08</time>
<p>And I love the 14.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:09</time>
<p>And I think most people have figured out Valentine's always falls on February 14, so 14 books, which is a great hook.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:17</time>
<p>Did the PR person also go to the other 13 authors and have them do the same thing on their website?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:27</time>
<p>So that you got, you know, if you tell a friend, the friend tells another friend, and so on and so forth?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:32</time>
<p>Did that happen?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:34</time>
<p>I doubt it, because they're probably all with different publishers or imprints.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:39</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:40</time>
<p>Interesting, interesting.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:41</time>
<p>And all those other big five publishers and imprints have their own PR people, so.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:47</time>
<p>Right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:30:48</time>
<p>I don't know what they did with it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:49</time>
<p>I'll kick your PR person in the butt and say, okay, listen, I got a great idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:54</time>
<p>Let's get on everybody's website with this idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:30:58</time>
<p>Anyways, I love what you did, and hopefully some of them took advantage of it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:03</time>
<p>I have a big tab on my website for school business because that I'm trying to get that to be more and more grown.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:31:10</time>
<p>That part of the business, too.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:31:12</time>
<p>Okay, so let's talk about your school visit strategy, because I noticed that you charge for your school visits, which I love, because I recommend that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:31:25</time>
<p>What happens is most of us as children's book authors, you know, they say that the average book sells between 100 and 500 copies over the lifetime of a book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:31:38</time>
<p>If you just take the Retail pricing, you'll see that that never pays for the investment you've made as an author.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:31:47</time>
<p>And when people actually understand they have to build a business around their book and they shouldn't be shy about charging for things like school visits.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:31:58</time>
<p>Talk to us about that strategy and how it's working for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:03</time>
<p>It's tough, like every single part of this business, because you are competing against every single other.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:09</time>
<p>But they're out there, and schools don't have a lot of money, and a lot of schools don't have any that they can use.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:19</time>
<p>It's tough.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:20</time>
<p>You know, it's not easy peasy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:22</time>
<p>So you just have to take time and contact librarians.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:27</time>
<p>And I spent a lot of time on the back end developing my programming because you need to do more than just go in there and read your book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:35</time>
<p>You have to have a whole program.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:37</time>
<p>You should have several different programs so that you can hit the different ages in the school.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:41</time>
<p>You can't give the same program to kindergarten that you went for fifth graders.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:32:46</time>
<p>And once you get into sort of that second grade and up, you have to have something in your program where they learn something.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:32:54</time>
<p>I noticed on your website you say, ask Chris about pricing or something like that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:00</time>
<p>So when they.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:01</time>
<p>When they contact you, then that's when you discuss your pricing and what you will do for that price.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:10</time>
<p>Well, I send out the initial email with what my programming looks like, and it includes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:16</time>
<p>And then if they're interested, they do respond back and ask about pricing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:20</time>
<p>And then I go over all of that, and then we see if they have the budget.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:27</time>
<p>Chris, you're doing this work, right?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:29</time>
<p>The publishing company didn't say, oh, by the way, Chris, we've got all these schools.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:34</time>
<p>You're such a great children's book author.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:33:37</time>
<p>Here's a hundred school visits this year.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:40</time>
<p>No, it's.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:41</time>
<p>It's all me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:41</time>
<p>They love that I'm doing it because when I get in, you know, the book gets all kinds of exposure and awareness with the librarian and the kids.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:50</time>
<p>And you can, you know, you can offer book sales in conjunction with your visit.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:33:57</time>
<p>And some parents will buy the book, some won't.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:00</time>
<p>It's a great exposure mechanism.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:02</time>
<p>And, yeah, it can sell more books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:04</time>
<p>Even as a traditionally published children's book author, it's you who's keeping the flame alive, Right?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:12</time>
<p>So what did I do between Be My balance, life at 23 and bed slam blues at 26?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:17</time>
<p>It's a lot of this kind of thing, too.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:20</time>
<p>So you're everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:21</time>
<p>You're creating the content, you're the marketing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:23</time>
<p>Person.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:24</time>
<p>You're the salesperson.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:26</time>
<p>Your PR on many levels, like with school visits and some of these.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:30</time>
<p>These things like that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:32</time>
<p>I'm not talking about the publisher.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:34:33</time>
<p>They have their own huge umbrella, for sure.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:37</time>
<p>And.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:37</time>
<p>And that's why I loved.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:38</time>
<p>When I looked at your website, I thought, wow, I look at your events tab, and I don't think I've seen a more comprehensive events tab going out.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:49</time>
<p>As far as you've gone out, everybody has a little events tab on their website, but yours.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:56</time>
<p>And I would.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:34:57</time>
<p>If you're an aspiring children's book author, go to Chris's website because.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:35:02</time>
<p>And go to her events tab because, holy jumping, you look like you're one busy children's book author.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:35:08</time>
<p>So talk to us about your events tab and maybe highlight a couple of the events that you're looking forward to attending in 2026.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:18</time>
<p>Well, they're all sort of surrounding Bed Sling Blue since it just launched.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:23</time>
<p>And a lot of it, again, is me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:25</time>
<p>I mean, the PR lady did arrange some things, like this interview that we're doing right now, but a lot of the blogging, I contacted authors that have blogs to try to get exposure and to see if they'll have me on their blog.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:41</time>
<p>And I went after all those Barnes and Nobles that you see on the events tab to see if they would host me for story time and book signing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:51</time>
<p>Now, they bring all the books in because I'm traditionally published, so they order all of them in.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:35:57</time>
<p>Then I go for a couple hours and do the story time, and I personalize and sign, and I've got a great giveaway.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:05</time>
<p>That's for Bed Slain Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:06</time>
<p>I don't know if you can see it on screen.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:07</time>
<p>Oh, yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:08</time>
<p>With all your characters.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:09</time>
<p>It's interesting.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:10</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:10</time>
<p>Beautiful.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:11</time>
<p>So.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:12</time>
<p>And I noticed you've got a QR code.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:15</time>
<p>Tell us about that also.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:17</time>
<p>Well, I went to Penguin Random House to my marketing and PR lady, and I'm like, hey, a lot of authors have cookies at their book launches.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:26</time>
<p>And my cookie lady was booked.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:29</time>
<p>And so I was thinking maybe I would do stickers, because kids love stickers, and would that be okay?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:36</time>
<p>And what kind of copyright information should I make sure is included?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:39</time>
<p>And they said, oh, let us create the entire sticker sheet for you.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:47</time>
<p>So they did.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:48</time>
<p>They created this entire thing.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:36:50</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:36:51</time>
<p>And the QR code takes people to Penguin Random House's landing page for both Be My Balance Slime and Bed Slime Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:00</time>
<p>Great idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:01</time>
<p>Great idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:03</time>
<p>And it's interesting you should say that, because one of the things that we did is we.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:07</time>
<p>We developed a Children's bookmarker.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:10</time>
<p>For our first book, we put a QR code on the front of it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:14</time>
<p>And it is my middle granddaughter who has the perfect voice for Caboose, because Caboose is a female named after my oldest granddaughter Kira.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:24</time>
<p>So that's why Caboose has got a K. The actual audiobook read by my middle granddaughter, Bailey.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:32</time>
<p>And then it also has the Story behind the Story where I interview my oldest granddaughter and we talk about how we came up with the idea behind our first book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:44</time>
<p>QR codes are pretty cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:45</time>
<p>And I actually even use it now on my business card with the QR code.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:50</time>
<p>If you scan the QR code on my business card, it takes you to the latest podcast episode that we have currently.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:37:58</time>
<p>I would encourage people to really learn how to use QR codes because they can be quite invaluable.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:05</time>
<p>Very popular thing.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:06</time>
<p>The other thing that marketing and PR created actually for both books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:12</time>
<p>But if you go on my book tab for Bed Slime Blues and you scroll down a little bit, there'll be a link that says activity pack that's free.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:22</time>
<p>And you click on it and it's like a, I don't know, a six or seven page activity pack that librarians or teachers or parents can print out.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:31</time>
<p>And there's coloring sheets and a word search and a bedtime, like, check off list and a gratitude page.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:39</time>
<p>And it's illustrated.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:41</time>
<p>It's absolutely adorable.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:38:44</time>
<p>And so when I had these Barnes and Noble events, some of the Barnes and Noble would print out some of the Activity Pack pages, which would also attract parents and kids to where I was with all the books.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:00</time>
<p>And the kids could do some of that while I'm talking to the parents about the books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:03</time>
<p>Cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:04</time>
<p>Cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:06</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:06</time>
<p>I love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:08</time>
<p>I'm curious about your motivation.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:12</time>
<p>You might have to think back a few years, but was there a specific person or event that motivated you to write your first children's book?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:22</time>
<p>What was the trigger?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:24</time>
<p>It was my three kids when they were little, and I don't have them in front of me, but I wrote these little stories and they were just on construction paper and stapled together with this goofy little character.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:36</time>
<p>And it was about this character.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:39</time>
<p>And he went on vacation, he went to school, he had all these little adventures and they loved them.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:43</time>
<p>They absolutely love them.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:45</time>
<p>And it even inspired my oldest son to start to write his own little fun stories.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:50</time>
<p>Isn't that fantastic?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:52</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:53</time>
<p>So that's.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:39:53</time>
<p>Every author starts somewhere fortunate because I've</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:39:57</time>
<p>got five grandchildren and they all have helped.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:01</time>
<p>We've written actually 38 books in our book series, and they've all helped me write one or two or more of the stories, and they've narrated about half of them, so I'm trying to capture their younger voices before they get too old.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:17</time>
<p>It's a lot of fun.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:19</time>
<p>I love that you talked to us about the illustrator bringing your characters to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:25</time>
<p>When I read your book a couple of times and I looked at all the monsters, and I thought, wow, like, somebody had a very vivid imagination.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:34</time>
<p>The only thing is, Chris, you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:36</time>
<p>You don't have a vivid imagination unless the words.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:40</time>
<p>My granddaughter and I always knew when we wrote our first book about Caboose, we knew what Caboose looked like in our minds, and her thoughts and my thoughts kind of merged.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:40:52</time>
<p>When I think about the job that the illustrator did, that doesn't happen unless your words bring that kind of visualization to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:03</time>
<p>Talk to us about when you started seeing your characters being developed.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:09</time>
<p>Did they match what you were thinking eventually when you saw the first character developments?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:15</time>
<p>Talk to us about that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:17</time>
<p>I was thrilled.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:19</time>
<p>I loved how the four monsters were in color and shape and size so that kids would be able to easily know who is who.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:32</time>
<p>And I love the color choice.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:33</time>
<p>I mean, I just loved everything about it.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:35</time>
<p>I didn't have any.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:37</time>
<p>Anything that I didn't like or anything that I wanted changed.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:41</time>
<p>If you're going traditional, you've got to let all that out and let it go.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:41:45</time>
<p>Right?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:45</time>
<p>And like I said, the first sentence is, meet the monsters.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:48</time>
<p>I don't describe them at all.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:50</time>
<p>And you just have to trust your illustrator that they know what they're doing and they will bring them to life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:41:56</time>
<p>And there were two things in Bedslide Blues that I was really blown away by in the best possible way, because the manuscript had said, when it comes to Snoodle, the little green monster, her big bedtime drama was she couldn't find Loppy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:13</time>
<p>Loppy was her bedtime stuffy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:16</time>
<p>And so I don't describe.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:18</time>
<p>I didn't know if the illustrator was gonna make Loppy into a blanket or an animal or a doll.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:24</time>
<p>I had no idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:25</time>
<p>And she made her into kind of this rabbit stuff, monster y kind of bedtime stuffy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:34</time>
<p>And then I also love that Snoodle's bed is covered in moss with these little mushrooms.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:40</time>
<p>Right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:41</time>
<p>Which is nothing that I could have ever imagined.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:42:44</time>
<p>But that's letting all of it go to the illustrator and trusting that they'll come up with the absolute best scenes and characters.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:42:55</time>
<p>I love how you had it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:42:56</time>
<p>So there was a little bit of the stuffy that left A trail to find the stuffy.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:03</time>
<p>So I thought that was really cool.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:43:05</time>
<p>Talk to us about the unique relationship between all the monsters.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:10</time>
<p>Well, they're all friends and they're monsters.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:14</time>
<p>They're Gruffy and Grumpy, except Snoodle, She's a little unusual.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:19</time>
<p>She loves everyone and loves everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:21</time>
<p>So she's kind of the encourager and the bright sunshine, except for bedtime and then she can't find Loppy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:30</time>
<p>So they each have their own little personalities.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:32</time>
<p>Snoodle loves everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:34</time>
<p>Zizi, kind of the dragon like monster with a snake like body.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:40</time>
<p>She likes to eat things that she shouldn't, often because she's a monster.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:46</time>
<p>And Fleck, he's a little bit of the stem guy.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:49</time>
<p>He likes to solve problems.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:52</time>
<p>It doesn't mean his solutions are going to turn out right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:43:55</time>
<p>And then Iggy, the really big monster, he kind of likes to try to be the leader and go first.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:01</time>
<p>So you'll see a little bit of their personalities in Be My Balance Slime and In Bed Slime Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:08</time>
<p>It's not overly done, but little snips can come through on the pages.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:44:13</time>
<p>Talk to us about your theme and I mean you can talk to us about Bed Slime Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:44:18</time>
<p>And then if you want to talk about Be My Veil and Slime also, that'd be great.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:24</time>
<p>Slime Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:25</time>
<p>When Be My Veil and Slime was in final Art stage, the Penguin Random House team was trying to figure out what they wanted next.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:34</time>
<p>And they picked Bedtime because they wanted a year round title and not another holiday title.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:40</time>
<p>And so once they picked Bedtime, I had to write the manuscript and I wanted to show how the monsters who don't like anything also don't like bedtime.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:44:50</time>
<p>And I just pulled from my own experiences and typical experiences that parents have and put it all into the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:44:59</time>
<p>That that's fantastic because I recently had author allison in episode 64 and she wrote about Bath Time, how her son.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:08</time>
<p>It was based on a real story about her son who hated bath time.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:13</time>
<p>It was quite the adventure.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:15</time>
<p>Like you said, bedtime, bath time, reoccurring themes that all parents go through.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:22</time>
<p>And then they all do settle down and find peace and go to sleep.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:26</time>
<p>So kids will see that bedtime really is slimetastic, even for monsters.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:33</time>
<p>With your writing process, it's interesting because of how you've already described how much effort you've put into writing stories.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:44</time>
<p>It's just phenomenal.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:45:45</time>
<p>Talk to us a bit about this whole writing development because you know you've made a concerted effort.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:53</time>
<p>Well, I love imagination and I love humor mixed with some heart.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:45:59</time>
<p>And so almost all of my writing, my stories go in that direction.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:07</time>
<p>And, you know, it's really hard to come up with a good idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:11</time>
<p>There's a lot of manuscripts I've written that aren't quite where they need to be.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:17</time>
<p>And then when I really hit on one, you know, I just get really passionate and work until it's ready.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:26</time>
<p>It's just a lot of revision.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:27</time>
<p>A lot of writing, a lot of revision.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:29</time>
<p>T Partners, Petite groups.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:31</time>
<p>My agent.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:32</time>
<p>How much are you drawing on your own personal life experience?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:36</time>
<p>And how much are you drawing on from doing some research into an idea you might have for a story?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:44</time>
<p>I'd say it's all my life experience.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:47</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:48</time>
<p>In one way or another, whether it's</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:51</time>
<p>family or events or work.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:55</time>
<p>That type of stuff.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:56</time>
<p>I'll bet all of it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:46:58</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:46:59</time>
<p>And there's going to be a third monster story, and that one will be centered around the first day of school.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:04</time>
<p>So these monsters are going to go to school.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:07</time>
<p>They're not real happy about it, a little nervous.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:11</time>
<p>I love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:12</time>
<p>And actually, it's funny you should mention that because my youngest grandson, Cooper, and I wrote a story in our series on his first day at school and what he went through and his relationship with one of his older siblings coming to meet him after school and the.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:31</time>
<p>And the humor that went on with that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:34</time>
<p>It's interesting how you draw from that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:35</time>
<p>Believe it or not, I. I wrote the story.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:38</time>
<p>I'm going to be sending it to my editor next week.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:47:41</time>
<p>We've got to get it all worked out because it's got to go to Corey this spring and it doesn't come out till summer of 2028.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:50</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:51</time>
<p>Incredible.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:47:52</time>
<p>We discussed previously about your book business plan, but I'd like to dig back a little deeper, hopefully awaken some memories for you when you think about your success.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:06</time>
<p>I want you to go back to your first book and what you envision success looking like and then draw us forward to now and how you're looking at your second book.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:21</time>
<p>Is the success look the same or does it look different?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:48:25</time>
<p>Talk to us about that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:26</time>
<p>I was so beyond thrilled with the first book, right.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:28</time>
<p>To finally break in after 10 years.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:32</time>
<p>And so with again, coming from the corporate background, I knew I was in good hands with one of the big five publishers.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:42</time>
<p>And, I mean, it was everything I imagined, plus more.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:47</time>
<p>I ended up getting that School Library Journal Star Review, which is huge, and praise from Publishers Weekly.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:48:55</time>
<p>I was able to start school visits, which I had wanted to do, but really couldn't do without a book.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:01</time>
<p>I wanted to do blog interviews and podcasts and some things like that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:06</time>
<p>So that is what success looked like to me.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:10</time>
<p>And then the book did really well.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:13</time>
<p>And so with Bed Slide Blues, I wanted to carry that forward and I'm so excited.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:19</time>
<p>It's a year round title that could be for sale.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:22</time>
<p>Year round versus Valentine is a pretty short window.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:27</time>
<p>I really wanted to get like a year round title into the pipeline.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:31</time>
<p>So now it is and we're going to watch that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:49:35</time>
<p>Is that the biggest difference in how you saw success is you had more of a seasonal title versus something that's a year round title?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:45</time>
<p>Not really.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:48</time>
<p>That's kind of a hard question.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:49:51</time>
<p>Success to me is breaking into the big five publishing world and continuing to get more books sold and getting my name better known and getting my books into more hands of readers and libraries and schools and retail.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:11</time>
<p>And I think it's just a slow build.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:13</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:14</time>
<p>There's always exceptions.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:16</time>
<p>You can have a book that comes out and it's bestseller, but just like a slow build.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:21</time>
<p>So I wouldn't define success in any narrow fashion.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:26</time>
<p>For me, it's just continuing to do the work because my whole goal is to delight children.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:34</time>
<p>And so it's just going to be one book at a time.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:37</time>
<p>So I'm thrilled there's a second book and it's a year round title.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:41</time>
<p>I'm thrilled that we're going to have a school book coming out and hopefully I'll have more good news with other stories that are going to get published.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:50:48</time>
<p>So that's what success looks like to me.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:51</time>
<p>I couldn't agree with you more.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:53</time>
<p>That's the whole idea.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:50:54</time>
<p>And that's why I was so impressed when you said that your book that you published in 2023 won an award in 2025 because it's important for children's book authors.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:06</time>
<p>When you write something, it can be timeless, but it takes your effort and it is a slow build.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:12</time>
<p>It could be a slow build for 40 years if that's the effort that you put into it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:18</time>
<p>Because I think most of us don't go out and sell thousands and thousands of copies overnight.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:24</time>
<p>People have to have to find you.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:27</time>
<p>And how do they do that unless you're out there, you know, making yourself known in your books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:33</time>
<p>Known.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:34</time>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:36</time>
<p>Do you see the role of writing taking up more of your life in this grand scheme of things?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:43</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:43</time>
<p>I mean, this is a business and it is my business that I'm continuing to grow and all the different ways that we've talked about.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:51:53</time>
<p>I want to grow the school visits the books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:56</time>
<p>Did you see the difference from 2023 to now?</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:51:59</time>
<p>If we were to take a calendar and kind of plot out your time, does it look different than it did in 2023 to what it looks like now in terms of.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:08</time>
<p>Yeah, because that first book came out in 2023.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:12</time>
<p>And then in 2024, I was invited to submit kind of a program for the All Texas SCBWI conference.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:23</time>
<p>And I did, and I was picked to be one of their faculty members for this conference.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:28</time>
<p>That was pretty thrilling.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:30</time>
<p>And then I was invited to.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:32</time>
<p>To go to TLA, which is the Texas Library association conference for 20,000 librarians from all over the country come and attend.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:52:40</time>
<p>And I was on a panel and a meet and greet with, you know, in front of all these librarians.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:37</time>
<p>So that all happened.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:39</time>
<p>And then Last year, in 2025, I was invited to be a presenter at a local school district's story festival.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:50</time>
<p>And they have something like 82 elementary schools that feed into their school system, so they're large.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:53:57</time>
<p>And they put on this annual story fest.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:53:59</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:00</time>
<p>So I was invited to be a part of that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:02</time>
<p>Was the audience that you talked to mostly teachers?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:06</time>
<p>No, they were kids.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:08</time>
<p>Oh, they were kids.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:09</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:10</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:10</time>
<p>It's on a Saturday.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:12</time>
<p>I love that because it leads me to my next question.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:16</time>
<p>You had all these fertile minds, and you're a children's book author.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:22</time>
<p>So what advice would you give to aspiring children's book authors?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:29</time>
<p>I would say keep doing the work.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:32</time>
<p>I know it's forever.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:33</time>
<p>I know you feel like you'll never break through.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:37</time>
<p>I felt that way.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:39</time>
<p>Just persevere.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:41</time>
<p>That's my number one.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:43</time>
<p>And love revision, because they're going to do a lot of it and find critique partners that will give you honest feedback to make your story better.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:54:52</time>
<p>What keeps you going, Chris, as a</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:54:55</time>
<p>children's book author, I have so many ideas and so many manuscripts that I can't wait to get out into the world that might be purchased that could delight children.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:06</time>
<p>And I just love everything about this business.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:09</time>
<p>I love the creativity, the imagination, the school visits, the writing, the revision, everything.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:16</time>
<p>It's exactly where I'm supposed to be.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:55:18</time>
<p>Nice.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:55:19</time>
<p>So encouragement for readers.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:55:21</time>
<p>Why should readers purchase your books?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:24</time>
<p>Well, Bed Saline Blues goes through all those typical bedtime dramas, so parents and teachers and librarians will be able to read it to kids.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:34</time>
<p>And kids will see that they, too, can settle down and find a peaceful night's sleep.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:40</time>
<p>And that would be my Valentine's life.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:42</time>
<p>Snoodle wants Valentine's, but her monster friends don't.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:46</time>
<p>So she has to prove that Valentine's Day is the best by continuing to show them loving kindness.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:54</time>
<p>So kids will see that when you show love and kindness to your friends, it can really make a difference.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:55:59</time>
<p>It can even change somebody, even somebody a little bit monster.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:56:02</time>
<p>Y thank you for sharing that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:56:06</time>
<p>Final thoughts.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:56:07</time>
<p>Chris, is there anything you'd like to share that maybe I didn't ask you the question and you thought, geez, I wish Rick would ask me that.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:56:16</time>
<p>Or is there something you'd like to share with our audience?</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:56:19</time>
<p>I would say if you want to be a picture book author, make sure you're reading picture books and make sure you're reading recent picture books in the last three to five years so you can kind of see how they're being handled.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:56:34</time>
<p>And pay attention to your word count, because picture books in today's world should be okay.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:56:40</time>
<p>There's always exceptions, but generally speaking, 500 words or less, and I'm really emphasizing the less.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:56:48</time>
<p>I appreciate that, and I'm glad you mentioned that, because I I find that when I talk to some of the authors and other people that talk to me, they're hanging out with other children's book authors, which is great.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:03</time>
<p>But other children's book authors aren't necessarily reading the children's books or are the audience I'm with.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:11</time>
<p>You definitely got to make sure that you're with your audience, that you're talking to your audience.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:18</time>
<p>I've been so fortunate to have five grandchildren who have been my editors and have read the books and said, papa, that's two too tough of a word, or that doesn't make any sense.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:28</time>
<p>You certainly have to reach out to your audience and take your ideas for a test drive.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:34</time>
<p>So thank you for sharing that.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:57:36</time>
<p>You're welcome.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:37</time>
<p>Chris, 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>00:57:43</time>
<p>Your generosity of time and your insights will significantly benefit aspiring children's book authors and readers, and we promise to provide our audience with links to Chris's social media, her website, which is awesome, and her books.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:57:59</time>
<p>If you're into slime, I just love it.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:58:03</time>
<p>If you've enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to our future episodes.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:58:09</time>
<p>Feel free to share this episode with anyone inspired by or who enjoys hearing about Chris and her children's book, Bed Slime Blues.</p>
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:58:19</time>
<p>Thank you, Chris.</p>
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:58:21</time>
<p>Thank you for having me.</p>