You wrote a book. Now what do you do? Read more to find out what I did to publish my first book.
If you haven't read it first, the beginning starts here: My Journey to Becoming an Author
After writing my very first story, The Underground Toy Society, I had no idea what to do next. My early drafts of the story had two toy bears as the main characters. I actually wanted the main characters to be my Wish Bear, and my sister's Love a Lot Bear, but since they were already copyrighted Care Bear characters, I did not give them a name in my story. I was too stubborn to rename them because that would not have been true to my real life tale. The first draft of my book probably was not a good example of my work, and I should have had more character development with actual character names, but I was too excited. I wanted to become a published author and did not take enough time on my actual story at first. I researched what I should do to become a published author on the internet.
I read articles that recommended finding a literary agent to represent the work so it could be pitched to big publishing companies like Scholastic. The big publishing companies only take submissions from agents. That would have been a dream come true. So I began writing query letters to literary agents. I made sure to follow the guidelines of each individual agent. It was time consuming, and nerve racking. I did not receive a reply from some agents. The agents that I did hear from told me my work was not their style, or simply that they could not represent me.
I was becoming impatient and frustrated after about a year of trying to contact agents. While I was revising and editing my story and changing my main characters, I began to research self publishing options. My main goal was to publish my story while my kids were still young enough to enjoy the story.
I looked into companies such as LuLu, LifeRich Publishing, and Archway publishing. These companies all offer publishing packages and also have illustration services. There are many more publishing companies out there. I had a very hard time trying to make a decision because most packages that I would need for picture books would cost no less than $3,000, and upwards of $8,000. I was having a hard time justifying such a high investment on a story that I didn't even know if people would like or buy. I kept reading statistics of books that said most books do not sell over 100 copies.
I decided to look into Createspace. It was a company of Amazon, and it offered an option to publish a book completely free, with no upfront costs at all. Royalties from book sales seemed to be pretty high using Createspace. My only two problems were, I needed editing and illustration services. So I started to wonder if I could revisit my love of drawing. When I was in elementary school, I loved to draw and make my own stories on paper my mom brought home from work.
I began to draw, and my kids loved the drawings. My kids actually picked the picture for the cover of my first book. I knew it was risky to go with my own, not exactly professional illustrations. I figured that the simplicity of my illustrations went along with my whole theme, to appreciate the little, simple things in life and appreciate what you have. If nothing else, I was inspiring my own children to do what they wanted in life, no matter what anyone else says.
Createspace was very easy for me to figure out, and they had templates to download to create a book. Once I finally had the story into book format, with pictures uploaded, I ordered a proof copy and asked a college student to look at it and edit it for me. She was extremely helpful and made suggestions on formatting and editing. I ordered one more proof copy, and finally approved it for publishing. The book was available on Amazon fairly quickly for everyone to order directly from Amazon. I did not even need to keep any inventory.
I quickly learned however, that marketing a book is the most difficult part of the entire process. Since online sales were slow, I wondered if it would be helpful to have actual copies to sell myself. That way I could sign them for people. I was naïve. I thought I could just order copies and sell them. Turns out, I needed a sales tax and wholesale license. I had to register as a small business in order to sell my books.
I ordered copies of my book. I asked a few local businesses to sell my book in their shops. I was told no by some, but yes by two. The local library also agreed to have a few of my books out for sale, but they said they had to put them in the back to prevent them from being stolen. I went to a farmer's market as a vendor, with my daughters. The very first time we were there, we sold 10 books! After that, sales went down. A book vendor offered to sell my books for me if she received a percent of each sale, so I agreed. I have been at a few other vendor events, and have sold a few books here and there. The library did not sell any copies, so I took them out of the library.
My original intentions were to publish one book. Then, my Grammy brought a picture of my mom with her doll when she was little to my house to show my kids. Once I realized I had forgotten about her doll, Peggy, a brand new story was born. I sat down and wrote the story in one day.
A friend at church had asked me who did the illustrations in my first book. When I told her I was the illustrator, she said it would have been cute if my kids had drawn the pictures. So I decided to take a cue from her and let my kids help with the illustrations of the next book. After many months of editing, I published and ordered copies of the second book. It turns out, a lot of articles on the internet mention that publishing more books is the best way to sell your books. I am happy to say that my first book, The Underground Toy Society, has sold over 100 copies.
Once I became an author, several people told me that they wanted to become an author as well. I offered advice several times. I am by no means a professional writer. My results may not be your results. I am happy to help. I wrote this post in order to tell my story and hopefully inspire others if they want to become an author.
There are so many options available today. If you are like me and do not want to wait for a literary agent to take you as a client, try self publishing. First, you need to write your story. Then go from there. Whether you decide to go with an agent or if you self publish will determine your next steps in the process.
In my opinion, I like self publishing and I am glad I did not wait for an agent.
Update July 2021: Since writing this post, I have learned many more things along the way. Createspace is no longer available, but it has merged with Kindle Direct Publishing. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks that I have learned along this author journey that I started way back in 2012 (I think, I lost track of when I began writing!). I deleted the original blog posts off of my website when I learned about needing to be GDPR compliant. That's a story for another blog post! Stay tuned!
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🧸 The Underground Toy Society children's books are a fun way to talk to your kids about keeping their rooms clean to keep their toys happy, as well as instilling a sense of giving to others who may be less fortunate.
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Jessica is the author of the children's books about The Underground Toy Society. She decided to begin a blog about her experiences and opinions of being an author, as well as a mother and Occupational Therapist. Please note all information on her website and her blog posts are her opinions and her personal experiences. Individual results may vary and her results may not be your results or experiences. This website is meant to be general information, not specific advice. Circumstances and results may vary. The Underground Toy Society children's books aim to teach children to love and appreciate what they have. Hopefully children will want to clean their rooms after learning about The Underground Toy Society. However, all children are different and results may vary. The books are for entertainment purposes only. Thanks for reading!