Anyone at any age could still enjoy a children's book!

I read children's books – but mainly because I write them! I started writing them long ago and now, in my fifties, I write them even still. 

  

But it would seem that the children's books that I will have published this year and beyond are a mix of books written years ago as well as the books I have written this year. And I'm so happy that I now have a publisher willing to accept to accept these manuscripts this year! 

 

But getting to this point took some time!

 

I wrote a children’s book in 2007 and now, 18 years later, I finally found a publisher for it.

 

That’s not to say that I spent those 18 years trying to find either an agent or a publisher for it. I did spend a long time looking for one, but not the entire 18 years.

 

No, even as I was constantly being rejected by literary agents and publishing companies, I was busy writing a lot of other things. I wrote novels, poetry books, nonfiction books and collections. I also co-authored books with a couple of people. I also continued to write more children’s books, even though I didn’t have a publisher for them. I STILL wrote those stories because I felt compelled to write them. I wrote them with the hope that someday, I will find a publisher for them. All that mattered at that time was writing them.

 

But I did not continue to look for a home for THIS particular children’s book for 18 years. I spent some time searching for one, then I stopped. I kept looking for one on and off, but it was not my main focus as a writer. My main focus as a writer was on other things – the things that WERE getting published. Like articles, essays and poems in magazines and websites.

 

I kept submitting other book manuscripts while I was doing this, sure. And I was trying to see just where I could go as an author.

 

When I did finally start getting children’s books published, I started with what was new at that time, which was The Yellow Rose. Then, I started co-authoring children’s books with my oldest, who went by the name Jennifer at that time (the name he was assigned at birth – my oldest is transgender). If that had continued in that capacity, I would have likely gotten around to submitting the book I wrote in 2007, but that didn’t happen.

 

Then I started to self-publish children’s books, among them the books I co-authored with Jennifer Wilson. That eventually stopped too, and even still, that 2007 book was not published yet!

 

I just didn’t get to it quite yet when I was self-publishing children’s books.

 

So, for a while, I didn’t have any children’s books coming out anymore, because I lost my illustrator. I also didn’t have a publisher for the children’s books, indie or otherwise.

 

But I did have publishers for other books, and it was the other books that I focused my energies on.

 

Meanwhile, that 2007 children’s book collected proverbial dust on my hard drive.

 

That was, until now.

 

My UK publisher, Baynam Books Press, recently began publishing fully-illustrated children’s books. I have seen one such book that was published and I was impressed with the quality of the art. I asked if I could start submitting one my own children’s book manuscripts and the publisher, Crystal Baynam, said yes.

 

So, I did. And held my breath!

 

Imagine my excitement when I received an acceptance on the book. Yay!

 

But it wasn’t the 2007 book I had submitted. Actually, it was a book I had written in 2009!

 

So a book I had written 16 years ago is finally going to be published. What’s interesting is that, after I self-published The Dream Forest, I made the decision to dedicate THIS book that is going to be published at the end of the month, Little Turtle Finds Friends, to my friend’s daughter. She was little at the time I had decided to dedicate this book to her and when I THOUGHT I was going to self-publish it. But my plans to self-publish it never went through and the book remained in limbo until I found a publisher who said “yes” to my inquiry about submitting children’s books manuscripts. That happened this year, and the little girl who I am dedicating the book to is now 13 years old! A little too old for children’s books, but she loves turtles, so after some back and forth with her mom, as well as input from her, I got the blessing to dedicate the book to her.

 

And as we move closer to the publication of the book, I came across that old one I wrote in 2007. I just asked Crystal if she wanted it and she said yes.

 

In fact, she told me to go ahead and send her all of my other children’s books manuscripts! How cool is that??

 

I am so thrilled and very grateful that I now have a children’s book publisher. I am especially grateful to Crystal Baynam for wanting to publish my children’s books!

 

Am I in the wrong for submitting all of them to her in one full swoop? I don’t think so. It doesn’t mean that I am no longer writing horror novels or horror story collections (and I am currently writing a middle grade horror novel!); it just means that, now that I have finally found a publisher who says “yes” to my children’s book manuscripts, I am going to send her all of them!

 

Seriously, there’s no time like the present!

 

It’s not like Crystal will publish all of them in one day. LOL I know she’ll space them out in order to build up readership and allow certain books to be published at certain times. But I am sending her everything I have at this point in time because … well, she wants them, and Baynam Books Press is a home for them.

 

Of course, when I realized that this particular children’s book was written in 2007, when my youngest was born, I was gobsmacked! But now I am feeling so much joy and gratitude that, at long last, this book will see the light of day and can be enjoyed for the little ones that it was written for. Even my youngest, who is almost 18 and is cool with having a children’s book dedicated to him no matter how old he is!

 

And that’s the beauty of children’s books. They can be enjoyed by people young and old, as well as by the young at heart.

The Power of Persistence

 

If there is one thing you must understand about finding success, it’s that it doesn’t come easily. Some people would like to believe that it does, and many may think that for certain people, their success was handed right to them.

 

It’s easy to believe this on the surface, but if you dig deeper, you may find that the person who has achieved success had an awful hard road to travel to get there.

 

And not only did they have to deal with many setbacks and failures, but they very likely had to deal with self-doubt and the temptation to give up.

 

But if you REALLY want to make something happen or if you REALLY want to achieve success, YOU MUST NEVER GIVE UP!

 

You must persist, no matter how long it takes you to achieve your goal.

 

I was reminded of this recently, when I finally held in my hands the published copy of my poetry book, Terrors.

 

I had to take a few minutes to look at that book as I held it in my hands and savor the moment of success.

 

This is a book which had been rejected many times. Several publishers I queried and submitted the manuscript to told me no. They rejected the manuscript.

 

Time and time again, I was told that a publisher wasn’t interested in publishing my book.

 

Now, I know I could have self-published this book. I have self-published other poetry books. But not too long ago, I decided that I was done self-publishing my poetry books. I didn’t want to do that anymore.

 

I wanted to find a publisher for my poetry books.

 

That was my goal. That is something I held onto after receiving one rejection after another.

 

I didn’t give up on finding a publisher for my poetry book. It took a very long time, but I DID eventually find one.

 

In fact, I have now found two! And I am so very grateful to both of them for saying “yes” to my books and accepting my manuscripts.

 

The same could be said of my new book of short stories, The Worst Thing You Ever Did. This manuscript was also rejected many times by publishers until I finally found the publisher who said “yes” to it.

 

This would not have happened if I had given up. If I didn’t persist. I had to hang in there and keep going. Eventually, I was rewarded with success.

 

And you will, too, if you do the same. Achieving your goal and making a dream come true is hard. It can take a lot of work and a lot of time. But if it’s something you really want, then all of that money, work, time, patience and dedication will be worth it.

 

Don’t ever give up. Keep trying. Keep persisting. If you keep going after what you want no matter how long it takes, you will eventually find success.

 

So keep going!

Are You on the Agent Hunt? Don’t Stop With One Rejection!

I recently came across an article online written by a self-published author. As I continued to read the article, I realized there was something wrong with his story.

 

The author shared his story about his search for a literary agent for his novel. Right after one rejection from the one and only agent he queried, he leapt to the decision to self-publish his novel.

 

I could only sit in my chair and stare at those words, stunned. Really? He only queried ONE agent? And gave up his search after ONE rejection? I was like, Seriously? After just one rejection? I have tons of rejections from agents!

 

Sadly, this is a common action many new authors take. After just one rejection, they opt to self-publish instead. And while there’s nothing wrong with self-publishing your book (I know MANY self-published authors who have met success with their self-published titles), I can’t stop thinking about how this author gave up on the agent hunt so easily.

 

As for me, I really can’t afford to just query one agent and be done. First of all, there are agents who take forever to respond, while others will respond quickly. Plus, there’s a chance that the one agent I queried might not be a good fit, but another agent just might.

 

I’m too passionate about my novel to do the bare minimum in finding an agent for it! I believe in my novel and I KNOW it will sell. I KNOW it’s a good story and I KNOW it will be a timely book. So, I give it my all in either trying to find an agent for this book – or a publisher who loves it too and wants to publish it.

 

Maybe I am just too stubborn to take an alternative route for getting my novel published. Or maybe it’s my “never say die!” attitude as a freelance writer that gets me to keep querying those agents.

 

Whatever it is, I am still on the agent hunt, lo these many months after getting my first rejection. I’m not ready to “give up” just yet. I KNOW there is an agent and a publisher out there who will love my novel just as much as I do.

 

But I understand that rejection can be tough for a lot of new authors. This is especially true for first-time authors. Rejection is hard, and some writers tend to take rejection personally.

 

The thing these writers need to understand is that rejection is a part of the writing life. It’s not the end of a writing life, it’s not a crisis, it’s not a personal opinion about the quality of your work. It is simply a part of this crazy life we live as writers. It’s just as much a part of the writing life as getting an acceptance or trying to find just the right market to submit your work to.

 

Once you understand and accept that rejection happens for every writer and that it’s not a reflection of you and your work, it becomes easier to tolerate rejection. A rejection is just one person saying “not right for us” – and you should really trust their judgment! They know their business and their audience a lot better than writers not associated with their business or unaware of their audience. They don’t feel that “pull” that your work should attract, and they feel that they can’t do your book the same kind of justice another publisher or agent who LOVES your book would be able to do.

 

Just don’t take rejection personally. And don’t give up after the first rejection.

 

Part of the process of finding a literary agent is receiving rejections. That’s just the way it is. If you are on the agent hunt, you WILL collect rejections along the way. Count on it.

 

All of those rejections are the stepping stones you need to take in order to find that ONE agent who will say “yes.” And then you can look back at all those rejections from other agents and take pride in the fact that you never gave up. You finally reached the end of your journey despite all of those stumbling blocks that tried to knock you down.

 

So don’t see one rejection from an agent as a signal to give up on your search. Rather, see it as proof that you need to keep going.

Keep Writing No Matter What

 

Sometimes it’s hard to keep writing. There are rejections, writer’s block, criticism and lack of any notice for all the work you do to get published or have some kind of footing in the writing community.

 

It can be difficult times to get through. And it can be pretty disheartening for all the work done but it seems like nobody is interested or cares.

 

But that’s not an excuse to give up on writing. Your desire to write must be stronger than the results you gain from your writing. Your desire to write must be stronger than anything else in the world trying to crush it. Your desire to write must stay strong and keep going even if you aren’t making money from it.

 

You have to be the kind of writer who keeps writing no matter what life throws at you. The kind of writer who will still keep writing and creating and submitting despite all the odds. The kind of writer who is unstoppable.

 

The kind of writer who will keep writing no matter what.

 

It’s not about getting published.

It’s not about earning thousands of dollars from your work and your efforts.

It’s not about fame and popularity.

 

It’s about the writing.

Always has been and always will be.

 

As a writer, you owe it to yourself to heed your muse. Keep creating something, even something new, and keep going. Keep. Writing.

 

Write during the good times.

Write during the bad times.

Write when you are happy and write when you are sad.

 

The only thing guaranteed to you in life is your gift for writing. Your skill with words. Your talent to weave together stories and create amazing works for others to read. That is your power: Your gift to write. That is the one thing that will never be destroyed no matter how many rejections you receive and no matter how long it takes to get published.

 

Opportunity needs to find you working. If you truly believe in yourself and your ability to write, then keep writing. You never know what kind of opportunity will come along while you stay busy writing and writing. So keep it up and keep writing.

 

Things may be bad in your life right now. You may be hurting a lot. But writing will give you the comfort you seek. Just by writing, you will be able to find the relief and comfort that you need. Just by writing, you can get rid of the stress and anxiety. Just by writing, you can find the strength to let go of your burdens and heal your pain.

 

Writing is the one thing you can always have with you when things are not going so great. You may lose everything, but you won’t lose your gift to write. It may disappear for a while, but it will come back. Meanwhile, keep trying to write anyway.

 

Keep writing no matter what. No matter the obstacles, the roadblocks, the failures and criticism. Write. Keep writing. And never stop writing.