The Corn and the Carrot
The author wrote a book in the fourth grade. Her dad found it 22 years later and turned it into a published book.
This book was finished in March of 2022. I just received another sales statement from Amazon and Ingram and I realized I hadn’t really shared this with you, so I’m sharing it now.
I was going through a pile of stuff from my corporate days, old planners, files, etc. stuffed in file boxes in my basement, stuff I would eventually get to, shred what needs shredding and throw away what doesn’t fit in the slot, when I came across an old Frankin planner. I almost just tossed it when I figured I’d unzip it and see if there was anything interesting inside.
Just as I was about to toss it into the trash, a corner of a piece of paper, tucked onto the inside flap, caught my eye. I pulled it out and it was an illustrated storybook my daughter had written when she was in the fourth grade.
Affixed to the cover was a note from her teacher, which read:
Wonderful! You should get this published!
I read it and it was good. I remembered why I kept it then and I now knew what I should get her for her thirty-first birthday. It was September and her birthday was in March. I owned an imprint and knew how to publish books.
Plenty of time.
Only I had never published an illustrated children’s book. I was soon in over my head. I didn’t know any children’s book illustrators and all my research produced illustrators whose style didn’t quite capture the style I was looking for. Like every creative client, I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I’d felt sure I knew it when I saw it.
Turns out, I never saw it. The holidays passed by and I was running out of time.
Then one weekend, my grandkids were over and coloring with crayons in a coloring book. BAM, right over the head. That was the style I was looking for. I’d trace her drawings in black Sharpie, scale and resample to fit the square format I had decided on earlier.
After a few unsuccessful tries, I got the hang of it, selecting the consistent color palette and went to town. I had to create a couple new drawings from her existing characters to fit the page count for the printer, but it came together. Scan, correct color, place on page. Done!
Then I applied for the ISBN, LCCN … waited for an excruciating couple of days for approval, uploaded files to Ingram and within a couple weeks, the book was available on every online outlet as well as available for any indie bookstore to order for you and your child.
Happy birthday, M! It took over twenty years for this seed to germinate, but I hope you’re glad it eventually took root.
Will you autograph my copy? 😁
The book is a available for purchase at all your favorite online retailers and your indie bookstore will be happy to order it for you. If you order from Bookstore dot org, you are supporting your local indie bookstore.Barnes&Noble and of course… if you really want to Amazon.
What a nice thing to do, Gérard. Looks like it came out great!