My Journey in Children’s Publishing | Interview with Leah Stuhler
Last week I introduced you to my amazing friend Leah Stuhler. We chatted about her experience as an allergy mom, bullying, and her first children’s book, The Cupcake Bullies. Today, I want to shift gears and talk about her journey to self-publish. If you’ve ever thought about writing your own children’s book, you’re going to want to listen in…
CHRISTINE: Leah, I am still so in awe of you and processing everything we talked about in the last post about bullying and allergies. I love that you have taken this incredibly difficult thing your family has been given and turned it into something that can be useful to others.
I’m also freaking excited to talk to you about the ins and outs of your publishing journey. I am such a word nerd, and I literally cannot wait to dive in with you about everything you’ve experienced self-publishing a children’s book.
LEAH: Thank you! I am so happy to share with you and the readers.
Give us an idea of time. We know the book released last year. How long have you been working on this?
So this has been about a three-year journey for me. I wrote the book three years ago, but it was a different story then. I didn’t focus so much on the bullying. After I wrote it, I sent it out to multiple publishers and then waited a very long time to see it rejected by all of them.
Not fun.
No, not fun at all, but that’s how it goes.
So I looked over the story again and made some small changes, resubmitted it to some of the same publishers and a few new ones, and once again, it was not picked up.
At that point, I decided to come at the story from a different angle. I tailored it to not only focus on the food allergy aspect, but also on bullying, because like I explained in the last post, they can be closely related. It was sent to publishers again, and also not picked up.
AH! There is so much waiting involved in traditional publishing, and so much rejection! Is this why you decided to self-publish?
No. After I had been rejected by publishers I thought about trying to shop it to an agent. But one day my son came home from school and told me about a girl in his class who was making fun of him because of his food allergies.
That was the last straw for me and I knew I needed to do something on my own. I believe in this book and the message it communicates, and I wanted to get the story out as quickly as possible. I knew self-publishing would be a faster means to that end, so I signed up with Amazon and started the process myself!
Tell me about finding an illustrator. What was that process like?
At first, I wasn’t sure how on earth I was going to find an illustrator. So I did what anyone else would do and turned to Google. Ha!
I had to do a little research to really refine my search, and took to social media to see if I could find an illustrator that way. I did get a few responses and talked to some illustrators but in the end they were either not interested in the project or were way out of my price range.
I ended up going to Fiverr, found a handful of illustrators I liked, and asked for some sample illustrations. I decided on Daniel because I liked his illustrations the best and I could afford him!
You had to pay the illustrator upfront?
Yes. When you self-publish you have to pay for everything yourself.
And also DO everything yourself. How have you marketed and advertised your book?
I have been trying to be as creative as possible with marketing. Because it’s only available online I wanted to try and get the word out as much as possible on social media. I write for two blogs and have asked my blogging friends to share my posts about bullying and food allergies and to also share about the book itself.
Most people don’t understand how VALUABLE their support of a project is – and that support is not just the purchase of a book – it’s SHARING about the book or the author in person and online.
YES! Please and thank you times one thousand!!
How have you been marketing beyond the web?
I’ve reached out to friends who are also parents of children with food allergies and sent them advance copies of the book asking them to read and review on Amazon. I’ve reached out to several schools in our district and asked if I could come and read my book to students and answer questions at the end.
Such a SMART idea! You are the epitome of hustle, Leah.
Thanks. It’s been a lot of work, but I’ve attended four schools so far and was able to send home flyers with each of the students about the book. It has been a great experience and I hope to go to more schools soon!
A niche book like this can present some really unique opportunities – you are automatically considered an expert on the topic as an author. What unique opportunities have you been presented as a result of this project?
Well the schools have been really amazing. It has been so great to spend time with students, teach them about food allergies, and speak to them about bullying prevention.
Another really fun opportunity I’ve had was being interviewed on a talk show called Me Time with Frangela. They were discussing bullying and I was able to speak with them on that topic. The episode is slated to air soon!
When it does, please let us know! If you don’t already follow me on Facebook, take a minute to click over. I’ll make sure to share the episode on my feed!
Thank you!
Now that you’ve seen a project from conception to publication, what do you know now that you wish you did way back at the beginning?
That’s a really good question. So I knew that getting a book published wasn’t easy, but I didn’t realize how HARD it would be until I started this process. Somewhere along the way, I read an interview with author Drew Daywalt. I remember him saying that he had an agent, and even WITH the agent, it took six years to get his picture book, “The Day the Crayons Quit” published.
SIX YEARS!
I was so shocked when I read that because his book is SO creative and brilliant! I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that a book like his could take so long for a publisher to pick up. That interview was a massive step into reality for me and gave me a glimpse at how competitive and difficult the world of publishing can be.
It is certainly not for the faint of heart!
Oh no! It’s not! But I would absolutely encourage anyone who has that niggling at their heart to DO IT!
And what else would you say to an aspiring children’s author?
Absolutely, one thousand percent, GO FOR IT! Just know that it’s a long process and takes a lot of perseverance, but it is oh, so rewarding! There is nothing quite like holding a copy of YOUR book in your hands for the first time!
Thank you so much for sharing about your journey Leah! It has been such an honor hearing from you! If you haven’t already checked out her interview from last post, do it now, and of course follow Leah on SM and check out her book The Cupcake Bullies!
About Leah
Leah is a proud military wife and boy mom of two, who writes regularly at the Columbia SC Moms Blog, Military Moms Blog, and (her personal blog) Secrets of Mommyhood. When she’s not out with the kids, blogging, or promoting her new book, she’s working from home or teaching children’s theater.
Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or follow the hashtag #thecupcakebulliesbook on Instagram.
About the Book
Sammy has life-threatening food allergies. When he gets invited to his best friend’s birthday party, he has to bring a different cupcake. What will the other kids think? Will Sammy and his friend stand up to the bullies that don’t understand how serious Sammy’s condition is?
Find out in The Cupcake Bullies available now on Amazon.
I am an Amazon Affiliate. Affiliate links are used throughout this post. Please see my disclosure page for more info.