I self-published my first children’s picture book on November 1st and am working on a second one. I never planned to write children’s books, but one thing rocketed to another and here I am. The story…

On October 8th, I was at a local festival selling my books. I’ve had a booth at Sebastopolooza every year since my first print novel released. I enjoy meeting new and existing fans, and even lots of friends and family who aren’t readers stop by to say hi. It’s like one big family reunion.

In the lull between chatting with friends and selling books, I watched shoppers as they visited other booths, wondering what made them gravitate to different things like homemade soaps, jewelry, clothes, wooden plaques, and the list goes on.

The thought meandered through my head that maybe I should add something to my booth that people could buy even if they aren’t avid readers. Nothing too drastic … like homemade goat’s soap! But maybe t-shirts with writerly sayings on them, or journals. It was just a passing thought, because just as quickly as I pondered the idea, I also realized that diversification without cohesion would only dilute my purpose: growing my fan base and my name recognition as an author.

Moving forward. Three days later, I took my granddaughter to gymnastics. It was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon, so I sat outside with her 18 month old brother and soon a homeschool mom and her son joined us. Her 9 yo son was using an old iPhone to turn quick recordings into fun little videos. It’s no secret that I enjoy a bit of digital graphics, so we started chatting about digital art, memes, apps that create cartoon-like characters, videos, podcasts, etc. Before we knew it, we were swapping ideas, and as we chatted, a lightbulb went on. Or rather a whole smorgasbord of strobe lights starting pinging.

Since I’m not an illustrator, could I use an “AI” app to turn photos into “cartoon-like” illustrations for a children’s book?

• Could I write a children’s picture book?
• What would it be about?
• Could I self-publish it on kdp?
• Could I do a print version on kdp?
• Could I….

The thoughts ping-ponged around inside my head. I felt confident I could write rhyming prose, and I was pretty sure I could muddle through the publishing process since I’ve already published several ebooks through kdp. But the illustrations were the key, since … and I repeat … I’m not an illustrator. But I had a vision of what I wanted.

Two things happened simultaneously over the next three days: I played around with AI apps until I found one that would do exactly what I wanted: turn an existing photo into a cartoon look-alike. At the same time, My Cowboy took three of our grandchildren on a “big adventure” with their Cowpaw and came back with a ton of cute photos. I had my first idea for a children’s book.

The ebook version of Adventures with Cowpaw came out on November 1st. The print version released on November 6th, and that was only because I had to wait for a proof to arrive. Since this was my first attempt at self-publishing anything in print, I was a bit nervous about the print quality. Nothing to worry about. It was wonderful!

I went into this adventure with two goals in mind. I wanted to learn how to create and publish print books and starting with a children’s book seemed the perfect “small” project for that. I had no idea if people would want copies of my little book with its non-traditional illustrations, but since it was mainly for Cowpaw and the grandkids, I wasn’t worried about how it might sell, as long as I was pleased with the result. 

I ran out of copies at my next local book signing and had to order more! And Adventures with Cowpaw has been my top-selling book on Amazon since its release. Kind of a wow moment.

With what I’d learned about producing print books via kdp, I was then brave enough to self-publish my first adult print book on Amazon as well. Within the first two weeks of November, I moved forward with a project that I’d been too “chicken” to pursue until now. I formatted 3 existing novellas that were already published as ebooks, designed a cover, and published my Calico Trails Romance Collection in both ebook and print.

Looking back, I’m amazed at the TWO-WEEK timeline of producing my first children’s book from start to finish. The entire process has been a fun rollercoaster ride and I’m thrilled to have some new skills in my writer’s toolkit as well as something new and different for readers to share with their children and grandchildren.