I hope you’re feeling silly, because today we will be learning about the journey to publication of A VERY SILLY READING BOOK MEOW: Adults No Longer In Charge of Reading, created by our newest Tuesday Debut, Alan Smith!

Having worked with children for whom reading is a struggle, I am always keen to see books that take an innovative approach to making reading accessible and fun. I think you’re going to like Alan’s approach 😊

(And in case you need something accessible and fun to read or write, don’t miss the Mix ‘n’ Match Mini Writing Challenge where we’re up to Week #4 and there are tons of fabulous stories posted for you to read and enjoy and a plethora of choices to inspire you to write some of your own! And you can be silly if you want. See how I made that fit in there? 😊)

In addition to sharing his publication journey with us, Alan is also very kindly offering a giveaway! One lucky commenter on today’s post will be randomly selected to win a copy of A VERY SILLY READING BOOK MEOW: Adults No Longer In Charge of Reading! So please leave your comment below by Monday June 5th at 3 PM Eastern to qualify for the drawing.

And now, let’s meet Alan Smith and have a look at his fun book!

Title: A Very Silly Reading Book Meow: Adults No Longer In Charge of Reading
Author/Illustrator: Alan Smith
Publishing House: Independently Published
Date of Publication: April 2, 2023
Fiction, ages 5-7

A Very Silly Reading Book, is a delightfully quirky book that puts the reader in charge. Every silly instruction they read aloud correctly must be performed by the adults! Dance? Clap? Purr like a cat? Hilarious and entertaining, learning to read has never been so much fun!

SUSANNA: Where did the idea for this book come from?

ALAN: I always struggled with reading, being classed as borderline dyslexic at school I avoided reading. I wanted to write a book that would inspire children to find a love for reading that I didn’t find until adulthood, but did not know how.

While listening to a podcast the hosts spoke about how their children enjoyed being in charge. I thought this was a great idea for a book so started writing. After many, many iterations, I came up with the idea for A Very Silly Reading Book.

A lot overall has inspired this book, my cat Fishy inspired the character. I also write a blog called I.T. Recipes, I took a lot of inspiration from a post I wrote about how to improve website accessibility. This really changed the formatting of the book, colours changed to accommodate contrast issues and font sizes increased.

SUSANNA: How long did it take you to write this book?

ALAN: I honestly can’t remember when I started, I began with just writing the idea and potential tasks. Putting the idea to one side from time to time to mature a little. I needed to do a lot of research. Learning how to learn to read, writing as I learnt. In the end the 1st draft looked nothing like the final.

SUSANNA: Did you go through many revisions?

ALAN: I went through a lot of revisions, a lot. While learning to read I would change the manuscript. Children learn to read in a way that is now completely alien to me, I learnt to read (badly) over 30 years ago.

A lot of the tasks in the book were originally either awful or terrible. Tasks needed to be easy to read and fun, without making an adult hate the book. After a long day at work most parents don’t want to be running around their living room while their child orders them around. No more than they already do anyway.

Alan’s work area

SUSANNA: When did you know your manuscript was ready for publication?

ALAN: When my partner laughed.

Some of my 1st revisions I just got ‘that look’. When she laughed and enjoyed the book, I knew it was ready for testing with a younger audience. Who so far have enjoyed reading.

SUSANNA: At what point did you decide to self-publish rather than submit to traditional publishers?  Did you try traditional first? Or did you have specific reasons for wanting to self-publish?

ALAN: I tried the traditional method first but had no luck, what I realised is that the publishing industry is the same as the music industry. Very few go from zero to hero. You need to prove your worth investing in. Ed Sheeran put it very well, you need to start the fire yourself. A record label (publishing company) pour on the petrol, making the fire bigger. 

SUSANNA: How did you find an illustrator?

ALAN: I illustrated the book myself, words needed to be the focus and only needed something very simple. I used a combination of free illustrations and open source software. Combined with some simple editing knowledge I managed to create each picture. Word to the wise, always check the copyright of any image you find online. There are plenty that allow commercial use and many more that don’t.

SUSANNA:  Are you able to give a ballpark figure of any kind (or a specific one if you’re so inclined ☺) about the cost of the illustrator?

ALAN: £0, I have worked in I.T. for many years and have a basic knowledge of image editing. There are plenty of free softwares like Inkscape and GIMP that allow anyone to do image editing. Even if you hire an illustrator, being able to change the size of an image is good to know, in case you come across sites that require different trim sizes. Even social media sites have their own preferred image sizes.

SUSANNA: How did you format your book for publication?

ALAN: Formatting was a big learning curve. I didn’t know you needed different sizes and formats for your ebook and printed versions. The 1st formatting draft started in Google Slides (PowerPoint alternative) this gave me a basic idea for the layout. Then I had to start over as I couldn’t export in a format compatible with KDP. I completely recreated the book in Apple Pages. I first created the ebook, copied the complete document and resized it for print, having to make lots of adjustments to accommodate the different aspect ratios.

After submitting the print version to Amazon KDP and receiving my first proof. I then approved the design, Amazon then informed me that the book needed to be a few cm bigger. So again I had to readjust every page from 8.5″ x 8.5″ (21.59 x 21.59 cm) to 8.625″ x 8.75″ (24.79 x 27.99 cm).

SUSANNA:  Wow! So much work for such a small size change! How did you select a printing service?

ALAN: Everyone has a different option on which print service is the best. I chose Amazon KDP because it had a large community and more online help than most of the others. Having never published I wanted to use a service that had people in the same position as me, it’s also completely free so that helped.

SUSANNA: Did you do a print run so you’d have inventory, or is your book print-on-demand? (And where is your book available – online bookstores? brick and mortar bookstores?)

ALAN: At the moment A Very Silly Reading Book is only available on Amazon, in the future I would like to change this. I have a few printed copies at home to send to reviewers (Amazon allow you to purchase Author copies for around £3 each)

SUSANNA:  How long was the process from writing through publication of your book?

ALAN: To write and research the book it felt like at least a year then about 2 months to format / illustrate the book. Plus a few weeks waiting for delivery of my 1st proof then editing again.

SUSANNA:  Were you able to get your book reviewed by Kirkus, SLJ, Hornbook, Booklist etc?

ALAN: Not yet, finding reviewers is something no one really discusses. You can’t just release a book and hope, you have to work on marketing. I have been lucky to find some very kind book reviewers who have been willing to take a chance on me (yourself included, thank you).

SUSANNA: My pleasure 😊 You are helping readers here learn from your experience, so thank you, too! Describe any marketing/promotion you did for this book.

ALAN: Large companies have marketing departments for a reason. It’s a very hard job and very time consuming. My current marketing strategy is via book reviewers. I am working on creating extra materials like colouring pages and contacting bloggers about potential blog tours. I have a basic strategy outline which has been changed and tweaked as much as the book was.

Each week I set some time aside to research each step then contact people as I go. My next step is Instagram marketing. As A Very Silly Reading Book does not particularly have a lot of illustrations so I am creating content with the help of Fishy (she is quite a cheap actor, she only costs the odd treat now and then).

Fishy reading A Very Silly Reading Book 😊

SUSANNA: Anything else you’d like to share about your book’s journey from inspiration to publication?

ALAN: Don’t be scared to ask for help.

SUSANNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this series and paying it forward to other writers, Alan! We so appreciate your time and expertise, and wish you all the best with this and future titles!

Author/Illustrator Alan Smith and Fishy

Social Media Links

Instagram @alansmithauthor
https://www.instagram.com/alansmithauthor/

Readers, if you have questions for Alan, please post them in the comments below and if he has time I’m sure he’ll respond!

You may purchase Alan’s book at:
(all links below are book-specific)

Amazon

We can help our debut authors successfully launch their careers by:

– purchasing their books

– recommending their books to friends and family

– recommending their books to our children’s teachers and librarians

– recommending their books to our local libraries and bookstores

– suggesting them as visiting authors at our children’s schools and our local libraries

– sharing their books on social media

– reviewing their books on Goodreads, Amazon, and other sites where people go to learn about books.

Thank you all for stopping by to read today!  Have a lovely, inspiration-filled Tuesday!  Maybe today is the day you’ll write your debut picture book 😊

Missed any previous Tuesday Debuts?  Check them out HERE!