My Journey

My writing journey began over 5 years ago. My daughter was a toddler, and we were knee deep in picture books! I adore reading out loud, so we read a LOT of books. It’s hard not to feel inspired!

I wrote my first story, “Miss Addie Ellie Mae Behaves in the Most Unusual Ways”, and was convinced it would be a best seller. After a professional critique, though, I was humbled. There was a lot more to writing picture books than I’d thought!

I attended webinars and joined an amazing critique group (I’m still with these ladies today- go JARBY!). I studied and studied other picture books. I was much more focused with my second story, and was over-the-moon to find out it had long-listed in an international children’s writing competition. I didn’t make the short-list, but that was the sign I’d needed. I knew I could do this!

It took me 2 years and over 150 queries to get a literary agent, with many more competition wins and short-listing along the way! That agent had read my story, “The Waga-Laga Bugs”, and loved it. Yay! With a literary agent by my side, my stories could be submitted for consideration to the major publishers. Unfortunately, 2 years later, “The Waga-Laga Bugs” had not sold, and we were discussing shelving the story for a bit. I made the difficult decision to leave my literary agent to pursue self-publishing this story that I loved so much.

I’d begun the process of self-publishing one of my books, “Bananas in the Bath” while I was agented (with my agent’s permission), and decided to choose 3 more of my strongest manuscripts to publish. I was officially on my 4-Book Journey in self-publishing!

I suddenly found myself acting not just as an author, but an art director/sales&marketing manager/PR person/Printing Liason/etc. You name it! Essentially, I’ve had to learn the role of a Publisher. I’m still learning the ins and outs, of course, but I’ve also learned that, for the most part, I love every role! There’s so much to learn, but I’m definitely in the right place as a small publisher.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of working with 3 incredible illustrators. Each one has a different, unique style that matches perfectly with the vibes of the story. Working with each of them is such a joy! They put their hearts into the books they do, and it shows. I could gush about them all day!

The self-publishing world isn’t easy, but WOW is it rewarding. I’m still pursuing a traditional publishing deal for a couple manuscripts I don’t have the vision to publish on my own, but I feel so strongly that these 4 books were meant to be exactly as they are.

Thanks for reading!

Andi