Welcome to Tuesday Debut, Everyone!

In case you were wondering, today is a very authorly day!

It is James Fenimore Cooper’s birthday (you know, the Last of the Mohicans guy), Agatha Christie’s birthday (no memory prompts needed 😊), and the date that Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was published!

So it’s a great day to debut!

And we have a terrific debut-ess today whose beautiful book is debuting October 6th and who has two other picture books slated for publication in the not-too-distant future!

But first, GOODIES!

Last week’s debut-ess, Jen Anyong, author of THE GHOST WHO SAVED HALLOWEEN, kindly offered TWO free picture book manuscript critiques (non-rhyming) AND a Free Virtual Classroom Visit for a Teacher! And the lucky winner are. . .

Kelly Pellico – PB Critique

Kate Grimm – Virtual Classroom Visit for a Teacher

Judy Pariser Scharf – PB Critique

Congratulations, Kelly, Kate and Judy! I hope you’ll enjoy your awesome prizes! Please email me at your earliest convenience so I can get them to you!

Plus we have a new giveaway this week! Today’s debut-ess is offering a 30-minute Zoom Ask Me Anything with an individual or their critique group (the AMA does not include manuscript critiques)! What a great opportunity! To get yourself in the running to be the randomly selected winner, please leave a comment on today’s post by Monday September 21st at 3 PM Eastern!

Now, without further ado because I know you can’t wait to hear all the very interesting information our debut-ess has to share, please join me in welcoming Karen Gebbia, author of the lovely WAITING FOR ICED TEA!

Title:                                      WAITING FOR ICED TEA
Author:                                  Karen Gebbia
Illustrator:                             Mette Engell
Publishing House:               Magination Press
Date of Publication:             Oct 6 2026
Fiction or Nonfiction:          Fiction
age range of your book:      K-3, ages 5 to 9
ISBN: 978-1433849350

On a stifling summer day, Charlotte’s t-shirt feels like a hot, heavy blanket, and all she can think about is Nana’s sweet, lemony, real iced tea. But you can’t rush real iced tea. It takes all day to make. Charlotte wants to wait patiently, but waiting is hard. As Nana and Charlotte find useful ways to pass the time, Charlotte discovers that the slow moments spent together might be the sweetest thing of all.

Includes a secret recipe to try at home, and a reader’s note for adults on helping kids learn how to wait.

SUSANNA: Welcome, Karen! Thank you so much for coming to chat with us today! We’re excited to hear about your journey to publication with this beautiful story! Where did the idea for this book come from?

KAREN: Unlike many manuscripts that begin with an inspiration, an emotion, a childhood experience, an image, a phrase, or some other creative spark, this book developed from a very deliberate craft challenge I set for myself. I wanted to see whether I could create a picture book that combined two formats/structures/sub-genres – a lyrical, atmospheric, sensory, vibe-y feel AND a traditional story arc – and do both well, when many picture books tended to do either one or the other.

I began by imagining places from my childhood that embodied all the sensory vibes. The one that seemed most promising for that happened to be my grandmother’s home in Maryland’s hot, humid, low country at the height (depth?) of summer. That gave me a sensory foundation. Around that, I wove a traditional story arc (with all the elements of problem/want/need, external obstacles/action, emotional arc, character growth, relationship, pacing, twist at the end, language, etc.) around Charlotte and Nana sharing sweet moments together while waiting for and making iced tea on a stifling summer day. It was important for the external arc/desire (icy cold tea) to be inextricable from the setting (a hot summer day in a place where sweet tea is a cherished summer tradition).

Because of the number of layers I was trying to interweave in this book, I had to create a multi-columned template to track each layer, then liberally swap puzzles pieces back and forth among the columns until they fit in a way that seamlessly interwove those layers into a coherent story arc.

SUSANNA: What an interesting challenge and approach! How long did it take you to write this book?

KAREN: I worked on this book for about nine to twelve months before sharing a draft with critique partners. Two more years and many revisions later, I shared it with my agent. It went on submission soon thereafter without any real changes. After it was acquired, there were a few minor tweaks during the editing process, but nothing major. So, about five years from idea to publication.

SUSANNA: Did you go through many revisions?

KAREN: Writing happens in the revision process. I don’t number my revisions. And I NEVER label anything “final,” ha! Rather, I rename the document by tagging the current date onto the end of the file name each time I open it and make revisions. I couldn’t possibly count how many times I revised it (dozens at least).

One strategy that I have found especially helpful (to all of my work) was to create my own “template of doom.” After being inundated with a seemingly endless variety of revision advice and templates from different courses and books, I consolidated the components into one global revision guide that covers just about every element of revision in one place (a large poster board taped with 6 pages of typed outline) where I can see everything at once. Every manuscript has to survive the Template of Doom before it goes to my agent.

SUSANNA: That sounds pretty cool! I would love to know what made it onto your Template of Doom! When did you know your manuscript was ready for submission?

KAREN: For about two years after I first shared it with my critique partners, I revised, shared it with them again and again, set it aside for months and picked it back up with fresh eyes a few times, shared it again. When my critique partners were certain that it was ready, and I had nothing to add beyond deleting a word then reinserting it then deleting it again, it was time to share it with my agent. The practice of setting it aside for months and rereading with fresh eyes is always critical to the revision process.

SUSANNA: When and how did you submit?

KAREN: I do have an agent.

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 😊)

KAREN: My agent submitted to a small round of editors in late 2024. The timing was not great because the manuscript happened to involve a grandparent/grandchild relationship centered on a cultural food/drink at a time when the market was absolutely flooded with books in that sub-genre. And, of course, editors often aren’t reading over the winter holidays. We received some wonderful regretful passes, mostly lamenting about conflicts with similar books on their lists. So, we decided to hold off further submissions until at least the following summer, but more likely for a couple of years. At the time we made that decision, we didn’t know that the manuscript was still under consideration at Magination Press. The acquiring editor had sent it out for external review by children’s psychologists to assess whether it would be suitable for their press, which is their practice. It was a delightful surprise to receive the offer around four months after submission when we thought we would have to wait a year or more before the market might consider it. The other two books I have in press were picked up much more quickly, so I wasn’t expecting an offer!

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

KAREN: It was quite prompt, within a week.

SUSANNA: Wow! There is such a range in the contract wait! Some people wait months, and you got it in a week! Was the contract what you expected in terms of advance, royalty percentage, publication timeline, author copies etc.?

KAREN: Although this is the first picture book I have in print, we had sold two picture books to a Big Five publisher before this book was sold. Those two have a longer timeline from sale to publication so they will come out after ICED TEA. They had higher advances but lower royalty rates than the Magination contract. The basic terms did not require a lot of discussion because my agency had already negotiated more favorable terms for their clients with major publishers. My agent did negotiate 20 author copies on all three books, which was more than the publishers provided in their standard contracts. The biggest negotiating point for my other two books centered on the phrasing of the publisher’s options for future work. There was no option clause in the Magination contract.

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

KAREN: The editors and art director were fabulous, very responsive to my questions and input, and simply a delight to work with. The text editing was very quick, with maybe a couple of word changes, nothing major.

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

KAREN: When the utterly adorable sketches came in, there were some email discussions with the editors and art director to do a vibe-check, make sure the spatial logistics worked, and make sure that everyone on the team – author, illustrator, art director, editors – was thinking the same way, but I did not have any direct contact with the illustrator. I did not include any art notes.

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

KAREN: I haven’t seen any editorial reviews, and am not sure whether my publisher submitted the book for such reviews.

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

KAREN: About 15 months (which is incredibly fast for a picture book!).

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

KAREN: The publisher has been wonderfully responsive to my requests for images that allowed me to create stickers and other promotional materials. I don’t know their entire marketing plan, but I do know that they provided advance reader copies for review via Net Galley, they promote and distribute heavily to the school and library market through Lerner, and they were very receptive to my input on special sales opportunities. They also asked me to film a reading for their YouTube story series and a reel for Instagram.

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

KAREN: I’ve had so much fun making stickers, coasters, a table stand, and a scavenger hunt game for bookstore visits, and getting the endpapers printed on fabric to make a table runner, tote bag, etc. I’ve also organized a local bookshop tour; been invited to a few blogs; and created some Instagram reels (with more to come as the publication date approaches).

One thing that I have found incredibly helpful is joining co-marketing groups with other creatives who have books releasing in the same year. We boost each other’s social media posts and, perhaps most importantly, write reviews that help boost the profile of the books on major bookseller sites. Also, I get to read so many amazing books that are coming out from other creators before they hit the bookshelves!

Here are some fun swag images using Mette’s art (with permission of course!). If it’s of interest, I made the swag on Vista Print, and I used Spoonflower to upload the endpaper art and reproduce it on different fabrics in order to make the dress to wear at readings and bag to carry at readings and events. I also made table runners.

SUSANNA: Wow! So many fun ideas! I love you created your table runner! How long was it between the time you started writing seriously and the time you sold your first picture book?

KAREN: About 3.5 years from the time I went “all-in;” maybe 5-6 years since I started seriously writing for kids; and 20 years since I wrote my first picture book manuscript before life got in the way and writing was put on hold!

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?)

KAREN: Oh, the topic of this book – PATIENCE! And persistence. Keep at it! And find a supportive community of creators at a similar stage in the process to go through it together!

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

KAREN: Now, perhaps more than ever, it is critical to submit work that is absolutely polished and has multiple strong hooks. Editors are busy and are inundated with submissions. They simply do not have the time or energy to undertake significant developmental editing on a promising manuscript when they have so many manuscripts that are already pristine.

SUSANNA: So true, and great advice!

KAREN: Thank you for the opportunity to share my story with this wonderful community!

SUSANNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this series and paying it forward to other writers, Karen! We are so grateful for the opportunity to learn from your experience! Best of luck with this title and the two you have with Nancy Paulsen, as well as other future titles!

Readers, if you have questions for Karen, please post them in the comments below and if she has time I’m sure she’ll respond! And remember, your comment on today’s post by Monday September 21st at 3 PM Eastern, puts you in the running to be the randomly selected winner of a 30-minute Zoom Ask Me Anything with an individual or their critique group (the AMA does not include manuscript critiques) from Karen Gebbia!!!

Author Karen Gebbia

Website: https://www.karengebbia.com
Instagram: @karengebbiawrites
Bluesky: karengebbia@bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.gebbia.98

Magination Press:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maginationpress/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APAbooksforkidsandteens

Mette Engell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metteengell/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mette.engell

You may purchase Karen’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!