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Welcome Back my loves!
Welcome back! Honestly, I really am so happy you're back. I need to share something with you. Let me just say, I've learned a ton throughout the process of writing books, and I'm still learning. It is definitely a lot of hard work, but it's worth it to see my baby's faces as they hold their books with their names on them.
While I do appreciate my lessons learned, I'd rather not lose money in the process. So, this blog is meant to help someone else. I want to talk about some big-time mistakes I made in the learning process. Hopefully, my loss can be your gain. Now, lets get to it.
# 1 Mistake: Not building an audience first
Of all the tips you will get from various authors, they will all tell you to build your audience first. When building an audience, you build a community of people who will continually support your business. Without them, you have no one to sell to.
If you've ever met me, then you know I am very reserved and quiet. I stay off to myself and observe the room. Once I'm comfortable, then you get the goofy, happy-go-lucky me. Well guess what? That type of personality doesn't help with networking at all.
So, how do you build an audience if you're reserved like me? Exactly what I'm doing now...blogs. A blog allows you to express yourself to complete strangers without getting their judgy little eyes. (Well, you might still get them but it doesn't matter if you can't see them.)
Blogs can be very lucrative if you choose to go that route. (Don't worry! I'm not trying to sell you on anything.) Personally, I'm just trying ot reach more people. My ultimate goal is to get more children interested in reading. If that means earning a few extra coins along the way, then great.
#2 Mistake: Paying too much for illustrations
I would like to prefence this by saying I'm extremely happy with the work and person I chose for my book. I only wish I had done more research before settling on the first person. My idea, going into the process, was to give a local illustrator the chance to make money and I did just that. Again, I am happy with the work of my first book. However, I could have saved a lot of money.
When I first started, I was not familiar with companies like Fiverr or Creative Fabrica. There are amazing artists on these platforms who are very affordable.
Start your Fiverr account here.
Start your Creative Fabrica account here.
Now the reason I stress researching beforehand is because my books are a series. This means I would need to keep the same illustrator for each book in the series, to keep the consistency. If it costs upwards of $100 per page for a book, things can get really expensive really quickly.
I have since switched things up, and I love my new illustrator. I found him on Fiverr, and he does amazing work. He even sends me messages on holidays to wish me well. Oh! I should also mention he is much more affordable with awesome quality. Jackpot!!
#3 Mistake: Not allowing people to fully support me
I know you must be wondering, "Now why in the world would you not allow people to support you?". Well let me pleed my case.
As a new author, I was very eager to show my work and get feedback. I decided to give away free copies of the book to people I know. One free copy turned into two, then five. Before I knew it, I had given away upwards of 20 copies. I didn't allow my supporters to go buy the book. I gave them free copies intead. Those were literal sales down the drain.
Now I'm not saying you can't give away free copies of your shiny new book. I'm just saying you should do it smartly. Instead of handing them out like candy (like I did), try doing a give away or raffle. This would drum up interest, and get more eyes on your book.
One other piece of advice I would give that's specific to children's books, is to donate a copy to your local daycare or kindergarten classroom. I do this for each of my books. My daughter's daycare loves it. She gets to sit up front and read to her classmates. They even set up a book signing for me to sell my books to the parents of the daycare. It was really special to me.
Learn from me people!
Alright, you've seen my top 3 mistakes throughout this process. I genuinely hope this helps in your journey, if you choose to write children's books. Take my mistakes and capitalize from it. Just don't forget about me when you make it to the top. I want you to go out and grab those coins, then come on back.
As always: Remember to Read Something New Today!
