Welcome to the last Tuesday Debut of 2025!

I didn’t schedule any in December because I thought I was going to be running the Holiday Contest, so I don’t know… maybe we’re going to have a bit of a blogging break! This is so weird! I don’t know what to do in December without the contest! At least we definitely have a Perfect Picture Book post this Friday! 😊

Anyway, we’re here today! And we have a giveaway winner from last week’s Tuesday Debut!

The randomly selected lucky winner of a signed copy of THIS SUNDAY MY DADDY CAME TO CHURCH along with scratch and sniff bookmarks for children and a bookmark for adults from author Jeanine DeHoney is. . .

Jennifer Arnold!!!

Congratulations, Jen! What a nice little extra right before the holidays! 😊 Please email me so I can organize getting your goodies to you!

AND, we have a new giveaway for this week! Today’s debut-ess is kindly offering an autographed copy of the paperback version of Meanwhile Back at the Manger! To put yourself in the running to be the randomly selected winner, please leave a comment on today’s post by Monday December 1st at 3 PM Eastern!

Now, I’m excited to introduce you to today’s debut-ess, Brenda Covert, who has written a fresh and original spin on the Nativity story!

Title: Meanwhile Back at the Manger
Author: Brenda B. Covert
Illustrator: Happy Rose
Publishing House: Ambassador International
Date of Publication: November 18, 2025
Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction
age range of your book: 4-8

SUSANNA: Welcome, Brenda! Thank you so much for joining us today! We are looking forward to hearing about the origins of your debut! Where did the idea for this book come from?

BRENDA: The idea was born during a Write2Ignite virtual picture book master class author Laura Sassi presented in 2021. Laura described various story structures, and when she described the parallel story style, mentioning the old “meanwhile back at the ranch” storyline, my mind immediately went to “Meanwhile Back at the Manger.” I carried that excitement into the breakout room and got started outlining the story!

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

BRENDA: Let’s say 2 years, although I didn’t work on it continuously for those 2 years—I’m a master procrastinator! I had an outline and a beginning. I was motivated to finish when Write2Ignite scheduled a master class led by Kim Peterson called “Hooks, Queries, & Proposals: Angling to Land a Contract.” I needed to finish that manuscript to take the most advantage possible of that class, so I did. I received encouragement from my writers critique group as I polished the story in advance of the master class. (In case anyone is wondering, I’m on the leadership team of Write2Ignite and also co-host the Write2Ignite Podcast, and that’s why Write2Ignite is a big part of my writing journey.)

Brenda says she is a child at hear (and she doesn’t look like she’s procrastinating here at all, does she? )🤣

SUSANNA: Did you go through many revisions?

BRENDA: More like tweaks than revisions. Looking for passive segments and making them active. Looking for ways to include more of the senses in the story. Making sure my sentences are varied in length. It took me quite a while to craft a satisfying end.

SUSANNA: When did you know your manuscript was ready for submission

BRENDA: When the members of my critique group were excited about the results! It just felt right and was impossible to imagine it getting better than it was. Spoiler alert: it could, in fact, get better than it was. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

SUSANNA: When and how did you submit?

BRENDA: That 2023 master class offered an opportunity to submit directly to a large publishing house that doesn’t normally accept unsolicited submissions. I sent my submission with the query letter I’d perfected with Kim Peterson’s help. One month later, I received a compliment with the rejection message. My story was “a clever twist on the classic Nativity story,” they said as they passed on it. With that, I pivoted and submitted my story to a small publishing house that I’d had a past relationship with. Having edited for 7 years for Ambassador International, I knew the kind of picture books they had published, and I also knew they accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Meet Josie the Adventure Cat. She’s beautiful, smart, brave, tolerant, quiet, and affectionate; she’s my comfort cat and asks to be picked up and sometimes hugs my neck. The perfect companion for an author!

SUSANNA: How long after you found out about your book going to acquisitions (if you did) or after you submitted were you told it was a “yes”?

BRENDA: Between 3-4 months after I submitted my manuscript, when I’d lost hope of anyone being interested in the story of Jesus’ birth told from the viewpoint of a stable boy, I got an email with a contract attached!

SUSANNA: When did you get “the call”, which these days is more likely to be “the email”?  (Best moment ever! 😊) and how did you celebrate (if you care to share 😊)

BRENDA: I received an email on November 4, 2023 with a contract attached! I had to re-read it multiple times because I lost all comprehension with the news that they wanted to publish my book! Lol

SUSANNA: How long was it between getting your offer and getting your contract to sign?

BRENDA: No time at all!

SUSANNA: Was the contract what you expected in terms of advance, royalty percentage, publication timeline, author copies etc.?

BRENDA: The contract was standard for a small publisher: no advance, 15% royalties on the first 5,000 sales, 18% royalties on sales from 5,001 – 10,000, and 20% royalties on 10,001 and up. I received 16 author copies, and if I want more books, I can get a 35% discount on 50-99 books, and 40% off 100+ books. The author agrees to give the publisher the first right of refusal on future literary works that could be classed as a subsidiary or part of a series from the contracted literary work. The author retains movie, television, and video rights. And, of course, there are situations where all rights would revert back to the author, which is in our best interest.

SUSANNA: Can you tell us a little about the editorial process?

BRENDA: For me, the editorial process was fairly easy. Most changes were minor and were easy to accept. One disappointed me, but I understood the reasoning behind it. One I opposed, so I respectfully laid out my disagreement, and in the end it remained as I wrote it. The author and editor work together as a team, and sometimes that means compromise is possible. It’s important not to get emotional but to maintain professionalism as you argue your POV.

SUSANNA: What was your experience of the illustration process like?

BRENDA: With small publishers, you get more input in the illustrations. I was sent 1 or 2 sketches of illustrations at a time for my input. Then if I had suggested changes, I would see the revised sketch, and eventually the finished, full-color illustration. Seeing the illustrations go from sketch to finished illustration was a highlight of the publishing experience!

I didn’t include any art notes with my manuscript. I felt the text laid out what the illustrations would be. Any ideas I had for extras, like a barn owl hidden on most pages, or the “cow pie” in the scene where Thomas the stable boy is cleaning, were offered after seeing the original sketch.

SUSANNA: Did you get to see advance reviews from Kirkus, SLJ, etc? What was that like?

BRENDA: No.

Brenda and her granddaughters (who I’m sure are her #1 fans!)

SUSANNA: How long did it take from offer to having the first copy in your hand?

BRENDA: One month short of two years!

SUSANNA: What kind of marketing and promotion has your publisher done for this book?

BRENDA: They developed a media release for my book and have been pitching the book to reviewers and podcast hosts since before its launch, in addition to including it in a response to a call for titles from Publisher’s Weekly. A few children’s book reviewers who received pitches have requested copies, which the office has mailed. It will also be featured in an upcoming post, featuring gifting suggestions, as part of their holiday social media series. I’ve asked about getting a trailer done, so that’s also a possibility.

SUSANNA: Describe any marketing/promotion you did for this book.

BRENDA: I made some videos and some graphics to share about the book on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and a bit on YouTube, and then I created a website for it. I’ve been interviewed on 2 podcasts so far, and my favorite gift shop created an event on Facebook for my book launch, which occurred in “Santa’s living room!” I turned one page from my book into a coloring page, and I had stickers made of the same page of Jesus in the manger with lambs looking on.

Brenda reading her book during her Santa’s Living Room event!

SUSANNA: How long was it between the time you started writing seriously and the time you sold your first picture book?

BRENDA: Decades! I started writing human interest articles for a local paper back in the mid-90s. In 1998 I sold an article to Today’s Christian Woman and a poem to Clubhouse Jr and thought I was about to arrive! At that time I’d been a member of the local Writers Guild for about ten years, sharing mostly short stories I’d written for kids and others for adults while I was working on picture book ideas and an adult murder mystery of the cozy kind. I attended 2 mystery writers conferences in the late 90s. Then my marriage fell apart, and I had sole custody of my young children, so survival became my life’s goal. In 2002, I landed a job writing reading comprehensions in the field of education and shortly after that I also became an editor for the other writers on the team. I returned to the goal of writing picture books around 2015, but while I had gathered heaps of rejections in my earlier years of writing, I didn’t submit any of my manuscripts in this last decade until this one.

SUSANNA: What is the most important/helpful thing you learned on your way to publication? (Or what is your most helpful piece of advice for up and coming writers?)

BRENDA: My advice, if you’re re-telling a classic story, is to find a way to make it fresh. This can be done using a different setting or a different POV. Ask yourself “what if” as you brainstorm. By the way, my publisher just recently told me that they get too many Christmas submissions, and my jaw almost hit the floor! They accepted my story because of the new POV with Thomas the stable boy who briefly decides he’d rather be a fisherman. The book shows you what’s happening to Thomas elsewhere while a miracle is happening back at the stable.

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

BRENDA: I’ve already shared so much, I don’t think there’s anything left to tell!

SUSANNA: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today, Brenda! We are so grateful for the opportunity to learn from your experience! And I know I speak for everyone in wishing you all the best with this and future titles!

Readers, if you have questions for Brenda, please post them in the comments below and if she has time I’m sure she’ll respond! And remember, your comment will put you in the running to be the randomly selected winner of a signed copy of MEANWHILE BACK IN THE MANGER if you leave it by Monday December 1st at 3 PM Eastern!

Author Brenda Covert

Website: https://BrendaCovert.com
IG – @bbcovert
Facebook – www.facebook.com/BrendaCovertEdits
Twitter – @TheBrendaCovert

My publisher’s website: https://ambassador-international.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmbassadorIntl
Instagram: @ambassadorintl

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

Indiebound/Bookshop.org
Amazon
Barnes&Noble

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, Barnes&Noble, 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!