Welcome to Tuesday Debut, my lovelies!

Before we get started today, you know what my first question is going to be. . .

Have you written your Valentiny Entry???

The contest opens in 3 days, so even if you have been spending all your time lately digging yourself out of a snow bank, or doing extra sets of calisthenics to keep yourself warm in these frigid temperatures, or just procrastinating. . . 🤣 you still have time to write! Are you one of those people who needs a tight deadline in order to sit down and get things done? Well, now you have one! If you need to see the guidelines they are HERE.

While those of you who have been procrastinating are stealthily ducking over to that link to check out the guidelines for Valentiny, I will announce the winner of last week’s giveaway from Jessica Yoon, debut author of Jeong Is Jeong. The prize is winner’s choice of wither a 30-minute Live PB Critique / Ask Me Anything (individual or with critique group) or an author-signed copy of Jeong Is Jeong.

And the winner is. . .

Cathy!!!

Congratulations, Cathy! Please email me at your earliest convenience so you can collect your prize!!!

And for this week we have 3 new giveaways! Today’s debut-ess, Sue Sutherland, would like to give away 3 signed, paperback books to 3 different people who have commented – 1 to a commenter, 1 to a commenter’s favorite library, and 1 to commenter’s favorite school or teacher! So generous! All you need to do to get yourself in the running to be one of the three randomly selected winners is leave a comment on today’s post by Monday February 16th at 3 PM Eastern. I will draw the winner’s then and they will be announced at our next Tuesday Debut after the Valentiny Contest is over.

Today’s debut-ess has an experience to share that I think a lot of us can relate to: writing a book they care passionately about that has a very niche market and little chance of a sale to a traditional publishing house. What to do when you know you have something valuable to offer but there doesn’t seem to be a path to publication? Why, self-publish, of course! But that is a whole other learning curve! Please join me in welcoming today’s spotlight debut-ess, Sue Sutherland!!!

Title: TWELVE DAYS AT GLACIER
Author:  Sue Sutherland
Illustrator: Chris Gafner
Publishing House and Date of Publication: Self-published; February 1, 2026
Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction
Readership age range of your book 4-8 years

SUSANNA: Welcome, Sue! Thank yo so much for taking the time to share you publication journey with us today. We’re excited to learn about Twelve Days At Glacier! Where did the idea for this book come from?

SUE: We were in Australia in 2018 when we spotted the book Twelve Days of Australia.  It was adorable.  When we talked to the bookstore owners, they said they had a hard time keeping it on the shelf.  My thoughts were that someone should do this for the USA. It took me months to figure out that maybe that someone should be ME! Glacier National Park is in our backyard so the manuscript came together very quickly.

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

SUE: Honestly, about three days.  This is a simple book.

SUSANNA: Wow! That might be a record! 😊 Did you go through many revisions?

SUE: One.  My illustrator was having a difficult time due to the number of things in the illustration.  He asked if we could switch two items.  Of course I agreed.

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

SUE: I have a wonderful critique group thanks to Amy, April, Hannah, Stacey and Citlali.  I’m a little embarrassed to say that I didn’t use them or an editorial service.  This is a very simple book.

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?

SUE: I queried a couple of small publishers in the immediate area but they weren’t interested.  I have queried some of my other manuscripts that haven’t gotten any traction. My writing biological clock is going nuts (I am 70 years old) and I don’t know that I want to wait three plus years to get this published.  Since TWELVE DAYS AT GLACIER has a niche market – Glacier National Park visitors – I decided this was the book to act as a guinea pig for self-publishing. At that point, there was no looking back.

This is my workspace – office/weaving room.  My husband built these beautiful book shelves just for me.  I don’t know if writing interferes with weaving or vice versa but I enjoy doing both.

SUSANNA: How did you find an illustrator?

SUE: This is an interesting story.  I wrote TWELVE DAYS OF YELLOWSTONE first and my talented, high school granddaughter wanted to illustrate it. During that process, her father, Chris Gafner took an interest.  I asked him if he wanted to illustrate his own book.  He quickly indicated that he was willing to give it a try.  Nine months later he has produced these glorious illustrations. In the meantime, after several years, granddaughter is currently attending Purdue University and there are no completed illustrations.  But she had some wonderful ideas. I’m waiting to see how TWELVE DAYS AT GLACIER does before I proceed with the Yellowstone book.

SUSANNA:  Did you and the illustrator have a contract of any kind?  What types of items did it address?

SUE: No contract – it’s family. Was that a good decision? In this case it worked, but I don’t recommend it.

text copyright Sue Sutherland 2025, illustration copyright Chris Gafner 2025

SUSANNA:  Are you able to give a ballpark figure of any kind about the cost of the illustrator?

SUE: That probably wouldn’t be appropriate but I can tell you about my second book, HOW HANNAH GOT HER LUMP OF COAL. I contracted with Story Catcher Publishing (www.storycatcherpublishing.com) and it costs about $1500 for 18 gorgeous illustrations. There are a lot of scammers out there and I highly recommend Story Catcher Publishing.  Donna L.Martin has a lot of experience that she is willing to share.

SUSANNA: What was the illustration process like since you were directing it? Any particular challenges?  Anything you particularly enjoyed?

SUE: Chris Gafner is very easy to work with.  I think I only asked for one change.  The upper left hand bear on Six Bashful Bears looked grumpy.  I asked him to change that.

SUSANNA: How did you format your book for publication?

SUE: Story Catcher Publishing  (www.storycatcherpublishing.com) did all the formatting for a very reasonable price plus they guarantee it.

SUSANNA:  How did you select a printing service?

SUE: Based on Story Catcher Publishing’s recommendation, we are using KDP Amazon for ebooks and Ingram Spark for soft cover.

SUSANNA: Did you do a print run so you’d have inventory, or is your book print-on-demand?

SUE: TWELVE DAYS AT GLACIER will be a print-on-demand and will be available on Amazon. The ebook is currently available at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=twelve+days+at+glacier&crid=3E1TE1LWOIYXD&sprefix=twelve+days+at+glacier%2Caps%2C413&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

My intent is to make it available in the outlets in and around Glacier National Park.

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

SUE: It took years because I wrote it and then allowed it to collect dust.  But if I were to just count the time when people were actively working on it, I estimate 14 months.

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

SUE: Not yet.

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

SUE: My plans are to keep it simple and work at getting the TWELVE DAYS AT GLACIER into the outlets in and around Glacier National Park.

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

SUE: It took a long time for the stars to align but when they did it became a whirlwind. I surrounded myself with good people who knew what they were doing and together we made it happened.  Don’t give up on your dream.  I firmly believe you can always find a pathway with patience and determination.

SUSANNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with us, Sue! We so appreciate the opportunity to learn from you! Best of luck with this and future titles!

Readers, if you have questions for Sue, please post them in the comments below and if she has time I’m sure she’ll respond! And remember, your comment puts you in the running to be one of three randomly selected winners of Sue’s giveaway – 3 signed, paperback books to 3 different people who have commented – 1 to a commenter, 1 to a commenter’s favorite library, and 1 to commenter’s favorite school or teacher! So generous! All you need to do to get yourself in the running to be one of the three randomly selected winners is leave a comment on today’s post by Monday February 16th at 3 PM Eastern. I will draw the winner’s then and they will be announced at our next Tuesday Debut after the Valentiny Contest is over.

Author Sue Sutherland, who says that when it comes to snacks, her biggest downfalls are chocolate anything and cookies – especially warm cookies.

Social Media Links
Bluesky: suemt.bsky.social
Instagram: suesutherland
FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/683308071110339

You may purchase Sue’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!