My new children's book, Hunter's Upcycling Adventures

They say that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That’s exactly what I did after my contract for a children’s book, Hunter’s Upcycling Adventures, was terminated by a publishing company before the book was even published. Instead of submitting the manuscript to other publishers, I decided to self-publish the book instead. However, given that my first foray into self-publishing was not very successful, I was dreadfully nervous about trying it again.

But I HAD to do it. I had to jump on that self-publishing bandwagon, because the contract for my daughter’s book, Sarah’s Special Angel, was also terminated. Instead of just shrugging it all off and telling her to deal with this disappointment, I decided to take over. But I also wanted to get my other books (Follow That Dream and A Million Doughnuts) back out there, as well. So I might as well go the whole nine yards and self-publish my books while I was at it!

But first, Earth Day was coming up. And since my children’s book had an eco-friendly theme, I decided to make it available in time for Earth Day. Thanks to some help from fellow self-published authors who are awesome friends (Kate Tenbeth and Brian Shell), and thanks to Createspace working so fast as I had to load and reload files until everything was perfect, I was able to get at least the electronic version of my children’s book out there in time for Earth Day (and I think that’s pretty appropriate; save the trees!).

So, yay! I got it out in time for Earth Day!

And thanks to Kate and Brian’s help, I was able to create a good-looking book!

Today I received the print copies and it looks fabulous. I am so thrilled. This time I succeeded in self-publishing. A big THANK YOU to Kate and Brian! You guys were such a HUGE help! And thanks to all the other authors I have talked with who have been so amazingly supportive and encouraging about this new venture.

I was inspired to write Hunter’s Upcycling Adventures when I was writing craft articles and creating upcycled craft projects with my children. I was not able to find a storybook about upcycling on the Internet so I decided to write one instead. My daughter, Jennifer Wilson, illustrated this book (that’s one of her illustrations on the cover).

Here is the blurb for this book:

One day, 5-year-old Hunter becomes bored playing with his toys. When he helps his mother with her recycling chores, he learns about something called "upcycling," where old things are made into new things. So begins a world of fun for Hunter as he goes on a safari, sails on a ship in search of treasure and enjoys stargazing all thanks to the upcycled things he makes.


Buy link