Keris Thompson, the Galloping Frog.

Thanks, Charis, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

Charis has written a children's book, as she mentioned the Galloping Frog.

And I look forward to our conversation before Charis.

We get into the details of your book and your children's book authorship.

Can you tell us what does it mean to you to be a children's book author?

Oh, my goodness, what an opening question.

So being an author or publishing a book, if I take it back, has always been on my list of things I've always wanted to achieve and I've dabbled with.

Do you do a novel?

Do you do something that's crime?

Or if Harry Potter hadn't have been written already, some.

Something along those lines.

And I would just trip myself up all the time and decided actually I think being a children's author takes the pressure off in terms of I was getting stuck in my own head of the detail.

If you read novels, all the detail they.

All the research they must do.

But I thought, no, the whole point for me was to have fun, to bring something to life that was very personal to me.

And we'll get into it.

But just the joy now of hearing children talk about the Galloping Frog, that is something very sentimental to me.

Is there.

There aren't words that can describe why that's so special.

So it is way up there.

It's still very weird to know that I'm a published children's author, but it is very special.

Good for you.

And you don't find that with a lot of my guests is that just being able to say those words on a children's book author and to actually open up their book and have it in their hands seems to be like, paramount to the whole process.

Absolutely.

The first time I got the copy in my hands, it was a very surreal moment.

And then to see other children with it, to see it on a bookshelf.

It's still very new.

I only published in August, so it's still very new to me.

It's only been a couple of months, but it is very special.

Congratulations.

What I'd like to do is now talk to you about the inspiration behind the book and how did it all get started.

So give us your origin story.

When I was a little girl, me and my brother's younger than me, we would go to visit my grandparents and they lived in a little town in England.

And near the town, in my head, it feels like it was hours away, but I had little legs.

So it probably wasn't.

There was this creek with stepping stones, and we loved it.

Being able to go across stepping stones, across this little creek, it felt really dangerous and adventurous, but the walk there felt like forever.

And so my granddad, he didn't speak very many words.

He was a very quiet man, but he was so silly when he did come out with stuff.

It was silly and it was funny, and it normally involved noises and characters.

And so one day we were walking along and we're obviously bored or we're tired or we're hungry.

And he just went, shh.

I think I can hear it.

And we're like, what, Granddad?

He's like, I think I can hear the Galloping Frog.

Like, what is the Galloping Frog?

He'd never mentioned it before.

We had no idea what he was talking about.

He da dum the Galloping Frog.

And that was it.

That's all he would say.

And then the next time we would visit him, it would come up again.

Granddad, what's the Galloping Frog?

And we would get little snippets.

We knew he lived at the marshes.

I don't know why.

My granddad said he had fangs, which, you'll be pleased to know, was not in the book.

I thought it was a little bit too scary.

But we would get just little snippets of who this character was.

And then Even into my 30s, I would visit my grandparents.

And even my husband knew about the Galloping Frog because it was this famous character in my childhood.

And so I would say to granddad, so who is the Galloping Frog?

And he would just laugh.

He would just laugh at me and walk off.

So we never found out.

My granddad.

Then subsequently, he passed away.

I hadn't lived in Canada that long, so I flew back to see the family.

And when I came back to Canada, I remember sitting in my living room and it just.

I don't know, it just came to me to say, I need to turn the Galloping Frog into a story.

And so I sat there.

I grew up with Dr. Seuss in my house, we all read Dr. Seuss books.

And I could hear this melody in my head, and I thought, I just need to start writing down words and just trying to bring that story to life.

And so that's why this is so sentimental.

So.

Because to hear other children now talk about the gallivant frog, it's just.

I would love to know what my grandad would think to hear that this character is now out there.

But, yes, that's the origin of it.

If that answers your question.

Yes, and that's so neat.

I've heard a lot of inspiration by grandparents for sure, but I've never heard it quite that way.

So it's neat that your grandfather put this galloping frog concept in your mind and then let you run wild with it.

Yes, absolutely.

And the characters all the way through the book, there's different animals.

They are all animals he had and they are all named after animals that he had.

So everything through this book is very much inspired by my granddad.

My granddad's name was Jerry, which we find is the name of the frog.

It's all about him.

And I put at the beginning it was about.

He made us nonsense, magical.

Anything he did.

If we were baking bread in a bread machine, he said, you have to make noises at it otherwise it won't rise.

And it was just silly things like that that he would do.

And so hoping that's what comes through in the book is that it's fun, it's light hearted, it has a nice message to it, but it's very much my granddad.

Fantastic.

I'm interested especially as a. I'm going to call you a newly minted children's book author.

And like we talked about earlier, generally I find that children's book authors, they write their first book, the biggest thing is the passion and actually being able to get the book in their hand and start flipping through the published book.

Now that you have that, you have this uniqueness because you now you've got a product to sell, in essence, you've got a book business.

So have you given much thought to how do you develop a children's book business for yourself?

That's a very good question.

It is one of those things you don't think about.

As you say, it was at first it was writing the book, then it was convincing my uncle to illustrate the book, which I'm happy to cover later as well.

But it was, that was a lot of time is getting my uncle to agree to do that and then the backwards and forwards of doing that, then the book becomes live and you think, oh, I've got to tell people.

Exactly, you have to tell people.

And so I actually have a business in marketing and communication which kind of gives me a little bit of a head start, if you like.

But marketing a book is a whole new world.

Obviously you start off by telling your friends and family.

They knew it was coming for a long time, they were all very excited.

And I know a lot of people with children, so that also helps.

I know a Few teachers.

That also helps.

So I posted on my social Media, on my LinkedIn, on my Facebook, that it was live because of my business and my professional career.

I've got a lot of contacts on LinkedIn so that also helped.

But once that first flurry goes, it's, oh, now what?

So then you have to think of it as a business and you'll laugh at me.

So I was launching the book the first week of August and I was also launching something new with my business the first week of August.

And in my head I thought they're two different things.

It's a personal thing and it's a professional thing.

My advice is don't ever do that because I was literally launching two business journeys the same week and it was using my brain.

So I have taken a slightly different approach since then.

I went to local bookstores, asked if they would be interested, which led to a book reading, which then means you have to advertise your book reading.

I have reached out to other bookstores in the area.

So someone else has taken it on, but that's on a consignment basis, which is a whole other world I've had to learn about.

And then it's them, what else do you do with it?

So I'm still very much in my early days of working that out.

You have the influencers who find out and they reach out to you and say, for a fee, do you want us to promote your book?

And I have said no, that's not why I got into this form.

This isn't meant to be the biggest money making activity.

This was for me to get my granddad's story out there.

So I'm not looking to invest more money into influencers and things.

That's a personal choice.

But I have signed up for a Christmas market in my town.

I'm going to be sending the book to see if anyone wants it for their children, grandchildren for Christmas.

Good for you.

And then we'll just see because that's a risk in itself.

I have to as you've got to order the book out of your own pocket to then sell.

So then it's how many authors do you, how many copies do you order?

So you don't have tons in your own home?

Yes, forever.

So I'm very much learning.

But yes, it is a business world and that is very much something to keep in mind.

Thank you for sharing that because just was talking to a lady who wrote Shirley Merle.

It's a book series that she wrote in England and we were talking about her second book called Shirley Merle and Clever Trevor.

But she was talking about what you just mentioned about these influencers because she has a pretty large Instagram following.

But she was finding that people were coming out of the woodwork to tell her how they could help her sell thousands of copies.

And she said to me, she said, you know what, Rick?

After I gave it a lot of consideration, I decided I'm not going to pay for this.

What I'm going to do is see if I can find influencers who will do it for free or at the very least, they'll do it for receiving a copy of my book.

And she said, I have been pleasantly surprised at how just offering someone who's an influencer a copy of my book has worked extremely well for me.

Maybe looking through Instagram or Facebook and see who influencers are and seeing if they're not asking for money, maybe those are the people to talk to and seeing just offering them your book might be a very inexpensive way to help promote your book.

Took that lesson today and I've been at this for a couple of years.

Now, so I hadn't considered that.

I thank you very much for the tip and I'll look into that for sure.

No problem.

Now, I noticed of course you have the soft cover of your book and you also have the ebook and do you have plans for a hardcover?

I. I don't.

I'll never say never for now, as you so obviously Amazon, they don't offer the hard copy.

Hardcover copy, yes.

So when I was first looking into how on earth do you self publish?

Thankfully.

So my uncle, he had already self published children's books.

He is a graphic designer and obviously it was nice to keep it in the family as well.

I had spoken to him about how do I even do this?

I'd heard obviously of publishing through Amazon.

I looked up ingramspark and that gave me a headache.

I looked up some other options and before that I did reach out to agencies.

I sent my first draft, which was very different to what I've actually ended up publishing.

But I sent that out and I just wasn't hearing back.

So I decided, no, I'll do the self publishing route.

But my uncle asked me at the time, if you publish through say a local book printer, you could get a hard copy.

And he showed me a hard copy of a children's book he had done.

But then that's the whole issue with then you are investing money to get that printed.

For me to have all the copies in my home, I then have to Work out distribution.

And then it's way more of a business than I have signed up to at this point.

Whereas the Amazon there are pros and cons for sure.

But for me it was the convenience.

That one, it means that I can't have the hard back version.

Does that mean I could do it in the future?

Maybe.

I don't know.

But it all.

I suppose it all depends how the next year goes.

I've also had questions.

Are you writing the second book?

And you think, oh my God, I've only just done this one.

So I think it's a case of I'm enjoying the journey.

Okay.

And, and we'll, we will see.

Because I've even.

I know you've got the bear as well behind you.

Yes.

I've been asked, oh, you're gonna have a frog.

Stuffy or plushy?

I don't know, I just, I've just written the book, so I think it's just, it's enjoying the process.

Enjoying things like the book readings, the Christmas market, and then let's see what happens next year.

And that's the beautiful thing about children's books is that they're timeless.

Yeah, they really are.

And you also get a new audience every year because.

Yeah, of course.

Bringing children into this world.

I love that.

I hadn't ever thought of that.

That's brilliant.

What do they call it?

Renewable resource.

I love that.

It's a gift that just keeps on giving and it makes your children's book timeless.

You're absolutely right.

And that's the reason I bring this up is as we get some of our audience, as I mentioned before, is aspiring children's book authors.

And so by you sharing, they can get into your head and then because they're having the same thoughts.

And so did we.

And when we brought out our first book, the next question was, oh, when are you coming out with your second book?

And eventually we did, but it was about an 18 month journey.

And a lot of times as a self published, indie published children's book author, or even self published, a lot of times we tend to get ahead of ourselves and we'll publish the next book before we have ever recouped our initial investment.

I'm glad you said that because I love a spreadsheet.

I have spreadsheets coming out of my ears for all various things.

And I sat there this week and actually made a spreadsheet of what I have done so far.

So how many copies I've ordered from Amazon then?

How many have I sold?

How many have I Gifted.

How many have I sent out to people for review that owe me them back so that I can keep a track?

But also, how much money does the Galloping Frog owe me because I've had to buy these copies?

Amazon takes two months to pay out.

I, although I did the book reading and the bookstore gave me some money that hasn't yet, I haven't yet recuperated my costs from all the copies that I ordered.

Then I have this Christmas market coming up and you think for round numbers, if I order a hundred copies, which is very ambitious, and it's $5 a print, that's $500 plus delivery, plus GST out of my own money and I might sell two.

So it's trying to work out the balance of.

You're completely right.

It's the how much do I want to invest now and how much do I want to push this out now?

And also then are you losing the love of it because you're turning it more and more into a business and less into what you set out to do in the first place?

So I'm just trying to, I'm trying to balance it all.

I don't want to be massively out of pocket equally.

I don't want it to become all encompassing.

I just want to enjoy why I wrote it in the first place, which is then going to readings, going to preschools, talking to children about it.

But it would be nice not to be hundreds of dollars behind at the same time.

And the beautiful thing about Amazon is because it's print on demand, unless you're doing, like you said, going to the Christmas market where you don't actually know how many you're going to sell, that becomes an investment because you're probably going to buy more than you're going to sell.

That's always a challenge.

Whereas if you selling through Amazon on print on demand takes the pain of tying up a large investment into your book.

So it's definitely a balancing act for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

And this is the thing that you said earlier is this is the stage you don't think about when you're just trying to come up with a creative idea.

Mine's a rhyming book, so I'm spending all this time thinking of rhyming words and words that children will resonate with.

You don't think, what is my profit margin going to be between Amazon online and a Christmas market?

Your brain just doesn't go there.

No, but it is important when you are thinking about even things like the hardback cover.

If you want to Go and get that printed.

That is an investment.

And then you're going to have all these books in your house.

So unless you know that you're going to go and do those sales, it's a very interesting journey.

I've had a lot of growth this.

Year, personal growth, and I love this.

Sharing is so that aspiring book authors know that in the beginning it's going to be a slow and steady wins the race.

As long as you keep doing something every day that gets your book out into the world, at some point you'll maybe pick up some traction and take it from there.

You have.

In terms of your publishing, you're a independently published book, correct?

Yep, correct.

I had to look up what that even means.

So I applied for the ISBN number, which was very easy in Canada.

Very easy.

And it sounds like it's way easier in Canada than the uk.

And also in the United States, you have to pay for versus Canada.

It's free.

It's a free service.

Free and easy and quick.

Yes.

And the other positive thing about it is that versus the United States, a lot of times they try and sell it in bulk.

So they try and convince you that you need.

You're going to be this incredible children's book author and you should buy 10 right away.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

So I always caution people, I always say, start with one.

Don't get attracted by this whole idea that all of a sudden you're turning your one book into a series of 10 children's books.

So, yeah, that is sneaky.

No, I was pleasantly surprised because my uncle had given me advice about his process in the uk.

Canada, I think I applied.

I think it was days.

It really was quick.

And then you go into the Amazon.

Yeah.

If you don't mind, Karis.

Oh, it's actually.

It's instant.

Yeah.

I remember it being very fast.

And then you put all the details into Amazon and answer all the questions.

So that's.

I say the other bit that I hadn't quite prepared for is when you start putting it into the Amazon system and it starts asking you for keywords and what categories your book comes under and the age where anything.

Oh, God, I hadn't thought.

I hadn't thought of this.

So I started doing.

And obviously, because I'm from the uk, it was asking me, do you want it to be like, what market do you want it to be sold at?

Do you want Amazon.com which is us or ca or.co.uk.

and whilst they get sold across all of them anyway, you could pick one.

So then I'm thinking, why do I need to pick one if they're being sold?

So I end up.

Thank goodness for ChatGPT.

Is all I'm gonna say is because we were going backwards and forwards of just working out what does it mean, what keywords do I want?

What is my book actually about?

What are the themes?

What would someone search for in Amazon to find my book?

So I was a little bit fortunate in that my book was ready in the April and I uploaded it all, but I wasn't going to actually make it public until August.

Okay.

Mainly because I was going back to the UK and I was seeing my nan and I wanted to give her the first copy.

Oh, terrific.

Isn't that nice?

Yes, it was really lovely.

But what that meant was, although I put all the information in April, I had months to reflect and so I could go back in and tinker with it before it then went live.

And you can change certain things now, like the keywords and the categories.

But it was good to be able to play with that and give myself a little bit of time.

That's when you start really getting into the marketing side of your book.

It's always difficult.

I decided to go with dot com and then the rest of the world and that was just a choice that I had made.

But I figured that we've got a big juggernaut of a purchasing power down in the US so I thought, okay, start with.com, then.ca and then all the other markets.

It doesn't cost you anything.

And then you could say you've got global distribution.

Exactly.

I think I ended up after because I was trying to work out do I pick UK or Canada.

And I think in the end I picked UK simply because I knew so many parents in the uk.

Okay.

And it made.

So from what I understand, and you may know a lot more is really that only makes any difference if you think you're going to get into the top 10.

It really helps with that getting up the rankings.

And I thought, I think a lot of my initial sales at least are going to be from the uk, so it makes sense for me to put that.

And then if I end up going and it did enter, I think we got to number 46 of the top 100 books in frogs and Toads, which I will take gladly in the UK charts.

So it makes a bit of a difference in that respect.

But otherwise, no, it's available in all the markets anyway.

But it's one of those things that as you'll go through the system.

It's another question that makes you go, oh, I don't know.

I just want my book to be popular.

I don't know.

And you know what's interesting today?

When I first started this podcast show, I thought most of the listeners would be from Canada and the U.S. a North American thing.

And even though the majority of our listeners are in the us, I have found that we are now listened to in 28 different countries.

And I thought, whoa, that again, I just am always blown away.

Like, I looked this morning and I noticed that we had listeners in the UK and we also had listeners in South Africa, which I thought, South Africa.

You started looking at these things and thinking, you know what, thank God for Amazon having worldwide distribution.

And it's another reason why you should.

Because it doesn't cost you anything.

Make sure that you're available worldwide.

Because it's not just our podcast show that eventually children's book authors will go on other podcast shows or do other media, including your social media.

It's worldwide.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And if it doesn't cost you anything, Caris, then why not?

Yeah, we.

I think my biggest sales have come from the uk, as I predicted, and then Canada is close behind.

There have been sales in the US and then randomly, as you say, I had a look the other day, I've sold two copies in Spain and I.

Had a guest on, oh, it's several months ago now, but she actually sold some books in India.

I said, did you know anybody in India?

She said, no, I don't know anybody in India.

So you just never know.

And that's what's amazing about the technology we have now.

Yes.

If I'd written a book 10 years ago, there's no way it would have the same reach.

Absolutely.

It's a completely different world.

It is.

It's totally.

And it's so user friendly.

And that's what I'm trying to encourage aspiring children's book authors to understand that it is relatively easy and you just have to get started.

So I want to come back to your publishing journey for a second because that's where people try and figure out, do I go independently published, which means you're the publisher, or do I go hybrid or self published, which means you get a self publishing company that helps you through all the steps.

You went independently published, and part of that was because your uncle was a published children's book author, is that correct?

Yes.

So he had so to give you a bit of background.

So I had written the book in January 24th okay.

And I dabbled with it, kept playing around with it.

I would send voice notes to my friends for them to play to their children to see what they think.

And I was getting good feedback.

So I thought, you know what?

I'm gonna ask my uncle if he would like to illustrate.

And he was really busy at the time.

And I said, no worries, I'll see if I can do it a different way.

So I looked into, do you get an illustrator?

Where on earth do you start with that?

And I thought, I'm not even going to entertain that.

I'm already confused.

I will go to publishers and they can do it all for me.

And all right, it will cost more, whatever it works out being.

But I'm all about convenience.

I started looking into that.

Then you find out you actually need to go to agencies who then talk to the publishers.

So then you start looking up agencies.

And then I emailed all these people and I did all my research, and some of them say, they'll get back to you in 10 weeks.

Or if you don't hear it's a no anything.

I'm in no rush.

So I.

Because I'm so optimistic, I thought, I'm not going to email five people in one go.

What if the first one says yes?

So.

So I would take it a person at a time.

Some would reply and say, thanks, but no thanks, and others you just wouldn't hear from.

So then I'd reach out to the next person.

So I did that all of last year.

I actually went back from my brother's wedding, spoke to my uncle again, and I went, any chance you would like to illustrate my book?

And he was actually freelancing at that point.

So he said, I'll take a look at your book.

Thank you.

I went, if you're not interested, I'm not offended.

Bless his heart.

He read my book and he said, I really like it.

However, I have some suggestions.

And he gave me the best constructive feedback I think I've ever had of how I could change the book based on his experience of writing children's books, of what would help it really come to life.

Okay, so we went backwards and forwards.

And what's amazing about this is that everything me and my uncle did was all via email.

We never spoke on the phone.

So all of his feedback, all of my changes, all of his, all backwards and forwards on email across the time zones.

And he got to the point where we were both really happy.

He started illustrating it.

And so he said, from his experience at this point, just publish it yourself.

Get it onto Amazon.

It's the free way of doing it.

And when you start to look at forums, people who have published either through with support.

Sorry, I just want to.

And that was the Galloping Frog, correct?

Yes, order the Galloping Frogs.

What I had found is that a lot of people who have gone down the formal publishing route have then said, do you know what, if I was to do it again, I'd just do it myself, unless they've been incredibly successful.

And so I thought, why not?

I'm.

And that's when I started looking into the Amazon versus income spark and, and all that.

So that's the journey I took.

The only thing I would say is I was extremely fortunate to have an uncle who's a graphic designer who had already published his own books, who knew the system, who knew the process.

If I didn't have that, I don't know what I would be doing now with my journey because I needed an illustrator.

So that's when I would have got a little bit more stuck.

But if you do know someone, then it certainly does help.

Absolutely.

And it's interesting because our journey was a little bit different.

Of course, during COVID I ended up writing two business books and from that I had submitted them just like you did through, through an agent, through the traditional publisher came up crickets or thank you but no thank you.

So I ended up indie publishing two business books, which then I developed this skill.

And so then when my oldest granddaughter wanted to do a children's book, she co authored our first book with me.

I had the skillset to do that.

And so what I've been trying to do with our podcast show too is bring on guests who can help you become an independent publisher versus a self publisher or a hybrid self published author, which there's nothing wrong with that.

Like you said, you have to pay for that service or you can become an independent children's book publisher.

But how do you do that?

And so that's what I'm hoping to show people is given behind the curtains, because at the end of the day, you're looking at having an editor.

You have to find an illustrator.

And now there's a lot of companies that actually act as agents for an illustrator.

But you know what, we found our illustrator online and I tried to find a Canadian, but I couldn't.

Our illustrator is in the uk, but I've talked to so many children's book authors now, a lot of Americans who are using Canadian children's book author illustrators.

So they're finding these people.

You can find them, especially through social media.

Now, sometimes you have to go through an agency to find the illustrator, but a lot of times, if you just look at going to a bookstore and look around and write down your favorite illustrator of children's books and then reach out to them, you might be pleasantly surprised that you can do it on your own.

Yeah, that's a really good tip because I think it's.

They're the stumbling blocks.

It's the.

You've come up with the idea, you've written the book, but then it's how do I do this bit?

And how do I.

And then.

And that's when it can feel really daunting.

Yes.

So I think.

And again, it's the technology we have access to now.

There are so many ways to reach out.

And I would have worked it out eventually.

Yes.

But I might still be in that process now.

So I am extremely grateful to my uncle.

Really curious, because you told your.

The story of you and your brother and your childhood and the creek and the stepping stones through the creek and your grandfather talking about the galloping frog.

What's interesting to me is the one thing I really found very unique in your book was the one feature of the one band frog.

Yes, I love that.

And so you haven't mentioned it yet.

So how did you go from the galloping frog to the one frog band?

The one frog band.

Yeah.

Tell us about that.

So this is the big thank you to my uncle.

So my first draft of my book, I always wanted it to be about how you shouldn't base your thoughts on assumptions.

So the whole point of the book is that they hear this rumor about this frog and everyone adds to it and that actually those rumors aren't true and that you shouldn't jump on the bandwagon.

You should find out for yourself.

It was always meant to be that big moral of the story.

So my first.

I can't even remember what the first version of the book was like because a lot of it's the same.

It has the rhyming, it has the dumb throughout, it has the different descriptions of the frog.

But I think what really helped me was my uncle pushing me to say, it's the story's there.

The moral of the story is there, but it's a bit meh.

And we tried to put the fangs into the story and it just wasn't working.

They were just scary.

And my granddad obviously thought it was funny, but we thought maybe other children wouldn't.

And so we were trying to come up with ways of how could a someone mistake a feature of the frog?

But actually there'd be a really fun side of a fun explanation.

And it would have been something my uncle said about an instrument.

There was definitely something he said, or maybe he's playing the accordion or I can't even remember what instrument he said.

And in that moment, my brain went immediately to the Mary Poppins film.

The original.

Yes.

Where you have Bert walking down the street playing.

He's a one man band and he's got.

He's playing every instrument in the.

Every instrument.

And he's got the drum on his back and my.

I don't know why it happened, but my brain went the da dum that the children hear.

That could be the frog hopping.

And as he hops, it hits the bass drum.

The dumb.

So when.

As soon.

And so I'm really funny.

When I start to think things through.

I can't sleep properly because my brain is on overdrive.

So I'm trying to sleep and then my brain will go, cymbals, he's playing the cymbals.

So I write it down and then I try and sleep again.

So I would.

Then I went back through the story and every bit of the frogs that the animals had confused.

We had large hands, whatever it was.

I would then go, what could that be?

What musical instrument could that be?

How could that equate?

And so that's how he ended up becoming the one Frog band.

And we wanted it to be this big reveal.

It really makes me smile because that's not the idea I had when I first started writing the book and I'm.

Sure made me smile big time.

That's it.

And I'm sure many authors I've read books before and gone, oh, that was pretty neat, that thing.

I wonder if they planned that.

I hadn't planned this initially, but it makes me smile because I think my granddad would love it.

It is so up his street.

It's his humor, it's his.

The whole making nonsense.

Magical.

It's so him.

So it really does make me smile.

It's the nice reveal of the book and then everyone comes together at the end and it just.

Yeah.

Again, it makes me think of Bert from Mary Poppins.

Yeah, it's terrific.

I really like how you did that.

Thank you very much.

So, yes, that definitely.

As I say, it was nice to have someone in the family who wasn't just talented with his drawing.

But also he really did challenge me with.

Your book's great, but have you considered pushing yourself a little bit further?

If Any of those publishers had come back to me or agencies had come back to me originally and said, oh, we love the Galloping Frog.

It wouldn't be the story it is now.

So I'm actually very grateful that they all declined.

We got to turn it into what it is now.

I would be fascinated if I was to send it now, if they would have a difference of opinion.

But yeah, I'm really proud with how it's come out and hearing the children say it as well is really nice.

And you should be.

That's fantastic.

I notice you don't have an author's website.

Do you have plans to have a website?

Oh, it's so funny.

I looked at this literally this week.

So my brother said, you really need to grab the domain of your book.

So you start looking into it.

And as I say, I work in marketing and communication, so I have my own website that I manage.

I have my own domain, I know all of this stuff.

But I looked into the website for the Galloping Frog and I thought I could easily do this.

It would take me less than half a day.

It would be easy to do, but do I want to pay that additional cost right now?

So the cost of the website, the cost of the domain.

And in that moment I decided I don't have the brain space for this right this second.

I do think it's something I would like to do, but because of my background, I always look at the why.

So if I was to have a web page, it is simply to have a web page.

So if someone decided to have a look, it's there.

But it would only point people back to Amazon.

Right?

So if it's only pointing people back to Amazon, is it worth the X amount of dollars every single month?

Versus I have the Instagram, I have the Facebook, they're free.

They both point to Amazon, that's free.

I have the Amazon authors page.

That's free.

How much am I missing out with having a webpage?

And I did type into ChatGPT, have you heard of the Galloping Frog?

And it did spit out that it knew that I had written it.

So my AI is picking up that I've written a book and it's linked into Amazon.

So a long answer to your question is I probably will because I'd to.

Is it financially sensible?

Probably not.

I don't know if this answers your question in the best way.

You know what?

Because people, including us, had the same thought.

Because when we first published our book, the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear, the first Thing that people said to me, oh, what's your website?

I said, website?

They said, yeah, where's your home for your book?

I never even gave that any consideration.

And so eventually I decided, I guess I better have a website, because most of the guests, book author guests that I've interviewed, I'd say about 95% of them have an author's website now.

I'd say about 80% of them use their own name.

But I didn't want to do that because we were turning this into a book series.

So I felt that it should be a standalone website based on the adventures of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.

And that's.

We just took that route.

A lot of authors have all these book ideas in their head, but they're separate ideas.

They're not a series.

So I've talked to some who have four or five books, but they're all different in their makeup.

Yeah.

And that.

That would make absolute sense because going back to the why they're promoting them as an author, they have multiple avenues to advertise, if you like, and explain.

I was laughing about the name bit because I really tripped myself up with.

When I was setting up my Instagram page, is it going to be the Galloping Frog, or is it going to be Karis Thompson, author?

And I kept going backwards and forwards because, to exactly your point, if you go with the Galloping Frog and I write a second book, then I've messed up.

If I go with Kerris Thompson, author, and I only ever write the Galloping Frog, that relies on people knowing how to spell my name.

So is there more chance for someone searching the Galloping Frog than searching Cerys and actually spelling it correctly and finding me?

So I actually went with, so my Instagram is the Galloping Frog, as is Facebook, because it's more rememberable than my name.

Yes.

If you search, my name pops up.

Anyway.

It's not.

It's a unique name.

So my LinkedIn pops up.

I. I say that I'm a published author on LinkedIn, so if I was to have a webpage, it would literally just be my company website.

I talk about the fact I have a book, so it's on the Internet, but I didn't know whether it needed its own, like, website space.

You can set up websites for free, obviously, but then it gets clunky.

The URL gets clunky.

So for now, I've put it in the this is too difficult for me to decide box, and I will revisit it if I do ever come out with Second book, then.

Absolutely.

It would make sense.

But I hope if anyone's listening and they're thinking, oh, do I have to have a website?

There are so many ways I think you could approach it.

Absolutely.

And like you said, you can link to your Amazon account through all your social media.

Yeah, they're all there.

And every time I post, I've been quite lucky because I have a business Instagram page.

I first promoted the book through that because I already had followers.

Then I started posting from my Galloping Frog Instagram page and connected them as collaborators.

So they appeared on both.

Yes.

Now I will just start posting more and more on the Galloping Frog page and then you can link to Amazon and you can do various things.

So.

Yeah, but that to your very first question, this is a whole side of writing a book that you don't think about.

You're now getting into marketing and digital marketing and websites and SEO and.

Absolutely.

Even for when I first started, when we first launched a book, and then I was trying to figure out, as we talked earlier, what's going to be my marketing plan.

Like, how am I going to build our approach to marketing for the book.

And one of the things that I decided on was a podcast show.

And of course, I have the kind of the same feel.

If you look at our logo in the back, the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors, it has that outdoor recreational feel, the woodsy kind of brownie greeny effect.

The only thing is that I didn't want to spend a whole bunch of money on a separate website.

So if you go to our website, The Adventures of Caboosetherockymountainbear.com on There is our tab for our podcast show.

But if you actually put in Adventures in the heart of children's bookauthors.com but it redirects you to caboose the Rocky.

So again, it all comes down to, like you said, managing your costs until at some point, you're at least generating some revenue to offset some of these costs.

Absolutely.

And it all just boils down to what are your objectives?

Mine was get the story out there.

I've had videos and voice notes of my friend's children reciting the book, talking about the Galloping Frog.

And for me, I've won just to hear another child talk about a character my granddad had made up for when I was a child.

It doesn't get better than that in my mind.

Absolutely.

That's what I keep trying to keep in mind.

My goal isn't to become A world renowned book authority.

But if someone else's goal is that, yeah, you need a website, you need a marketing plan, you need to be pushing out and not just waiting for people to find you.

It just boils down to what is your.

What are your objectives, what's your vision?

Me?

Mine is just very humble.

If people read it and they like, just makes me feel good.

Absolutely.

And you know what the whole thing is like you said, you've got your.

The Galloping Frog on your Instagram page, on your Facebook page.

And how we met was.

We met through.

I visited a independent bookstore in your hometown.

Now it's your hometown.

Yeah.

Of Cochrane, Alberta.

And for the listeners, Cochrane, Alberta is in the foothills of the rockies, probably about 45 minutes from Banff National Park.

So tell us the story about how did you find a couple of book retailers?

So I know you're in the independent bookstore found.

Talk to us about that relationship and then talk to us about the local pharmacy, because I find that very fascinating also.

Yes.

So when I said to you earlier in the podcast, so I thought about what can I do?

And the bookstore in Cochrane is one of the hubs of our town.

It's not just a bookstore.

You go in there, there's couches, there's.

You can order coffee.

And it's an independent store.

Everything's mix matched.

It's just, it's a really lovely homely store and they host different events.

And so everyone's in that store all the time.

So I love going in there.

And I looked on their website just to see, because I don't know how bookstores get books.

I just assumed they order it from somewhere central, from serious publishers.

I had no idea what this world was.

So I went on their website and it says local authors.

And I read the rules because they have different rules if different stores have different rules.

And it said, reach out to us as long as you meet this criteria.

So I emailed them and they said, come in, bring your book, bring your information, we will read it.

If we think it is a good fit, we'll get in touch.

So I dropped it off and a few weeks later I got an email to say that they loved it and that they wanted me to do a book reading.

And this was almost the entry in.

So I did this book reading, obviously told all my friends about it, put it all over social media.

We have a community group here in Cochrane, so I advertised it on there.

And so I, I didn't even know how this was gonna go.

For some reason in my head They've got like a little stage and I thought, oh, maybe they'll introduce me and I'll do this book reading.

And then they'll say, if you wanna buy it, come to the till at the front.

They didn't.

It wasn't like that at all.

It was basically, you've got two hours in the store and as people come in, if they want to hear it, read them the book.

And I thought, that's very daunting because now I'm promoting myself, which.

That's a whole other side of book writing.

You don't think I just wanted to read the book?

So, thankfully, all my friends turned up at the same time.

So I got to read to a crowd and there was a table of people who weren't with us who heard it and bought a copy.

There were some other people that'd seen on social media, I was doing it, they bought a copy.

And anyway, I was there for the two hours and it turns out I sold the most books they've ever had at book reading in that store.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

So then they bought an additional three copies, asked me, and obviously I signed all these copies as well.

Asked me to sign it, which.

That again, you think, I don't know what my signature is.

I'm just.

It's just little me.

I don't know what I'm writing in a book.

So I signed these extra books, they put them on the shelf, and so obviously I'm taking photos, my book's on a shelf.

And they sold.

They.

I went in one day and I saw that there was a copy left.

And then I went in the next day and the copy had gone.

And so I felt so bold.

But I emailed my lovely contact and said, I've noticed that the books have gone.

Would you be interested in any more?

And she said, absolutely, we'll have another five.

So I'm back on the shelf there and then, because I know you'd gone into the store.

And so she emailed me to say that there was a podcast.

And so that's how I found.

It's called Found.

Yes, Found Books.

Downtown Cochrane.

Yeah.

For those coming to visit the Rocky Mountains and go to Banff, if you actually go into Cochrane, Cochrane is about 15 minutes west of Calgary.

They have the most unique.

They call it Historic Downtown Cochrane.

And the Found Bookstore is right there.

So you're making your travels.

So you got a little extra time.

Do as Charis has said.

Go and see something.

A unique bookstore that has an espresso machine going.

They Actually have.

They have LP albums like the old records they do, yeah, it's very eclectic and quite unique.

So do yourself a favor if you're going and heading out to the Rocky Mountains and make a side trip into downtown Cochrane.

Glad you said that because it's a beautiful store and I've worked there in an afternoon before because it's just so comfortable and they have this really cute children's corner and that's where I did the reading in there.

So that was that.

And then I have a friend who works at the local pharmacy.

So we've got a number of pharmacies in town, but there's two pharmacy they, they do lots for our community so much.

They have community Roots program.

They are another hub of Cochrane.

And so my friend said they, they like supporting the community and they have books in the store.

Why don't you reach out to the owner to see if he would be interested?

And so again, so I reached out to him, he asked me to drop the book in.

He really liked it.

So he said, oh, we work on consignment and this is where I learned what this word meant.

But we.

So we'd found they bought the copies off of me, so I get the money.

So it doesn't matter if they sell or don't sell, it's not on me anymore.

Whereas with a consignment they say we will take so many books for our shelves and you will get the money once they sell.

So obviously it's on me because I've now got four books on the shelf at two Pharmacy.

So that's my money essentially sitting on the shelf until they sell and then two Pharmacy will pay me.

So it's a different style and so it's interesting to try out both because.

I think many, many of the independent bookstores, that's how they operate.

Yeah, it's certainly.

I've had a few more reach back out to me and that's how they work.

So again, that gets back into the how many am I ordering off of Amazon?

How much am I in pocket versus how much is going to be on the shelves?

You end up doing a lot of math, which I hadn't expected to do.

But yeah, he was really lovely.

Reid who owns Two Pharmacy, he asked for four copies to go on the shelf and again, if it goes well, obviously there might be appetite for more, but that just.

It's two very big names in town where people can find my book and it's just nice to go into a store and see it.

So I want to Talk a little bit about character development.

I know that you said that you named the galloping frog after your grandfather Jerry.

Yeah.

So that's very cool.

And you also said that you went back to England to take the first copy to your grandmother, and did you reveal to her that you had actually named the galloping frog Jerry, or did she read the book and that's when she found out you had actually named it after your grandfather?

That's when she found out was when I read it to her.

Okay, so tell us your reaction.

Oh, my goodness.

And I'm sure she won't mind me saying, both me and my Nan, we don't cry.

We're just.

It takes a lot for us to cry.

And I.

As I sat next to her and I thought, I'm gonna read this book to her, and I could feel the tears appearing.

And I'm thinking, I've gotta read this whole book.

I've gotta keep this together.

But it's because I knew it was Geri, and I knew, God, I'm gonna have to say that.

And I.

So I managed to keep it together.

And my Nan, she's.

I love her to pieces.

She's my best friend.

She.

She just said the.

I think she said, oh, isn't that lovely?

Yes, yes, Nan, thank you.

And she also made on me.

Laughter she went, that's different to the first version you read to me, like, a year ago.

And I said, oh, yeah, Uncle Martin, so that's her son.

So he.

We've worked on this together.

And we changed the direction.

And she went, oh, yeah, this is much better.

And I was like, okay, I get dump of approval from that.

But it was very special.

And because she obviously, all the animals, she recognized.

Daisy the terrapin is still in her garden now.

Wow.

So.

And I tried desperately to take a photo of Daisy to put on Instagram, because how cool is that to have the cartoon and the real life animal there?

Absolutely.

Daisy kept hiding.

So I couldn't take a photo of Daisy.

But every animal, my nan was going, oh, because she loved Buster.

She's.

Oh, this is great.

Yes, it was very special.

And then to leave a copy with her, which is really nice.

That's terrific.

That's terrific.

Let's just talk a little bit more about the theme of your book.

And is it an extension from your own life?

I.

Do you know what?

I don't.

I've questioned myself on this.

I think there were so many lessons that you learned from school and even the workplace.

Even now, you might have someone say to you, oh, that person, they might be like this and you think that's your opinion.

Right.

But everyone is different, everyone gels with different people.

Everyone has different communication styles.

So someone that you might not get on with necessarily doesn't mean that I might not get on with them.

So I think it's just something that I have noticed.

As I say, I work in communications so it's something that maybe I'm just more attuned to that people can very quickly follow other people.

And I don't know if you've ever seen Traitors, the reality TV show.

You know what, I'm not a big reality.

No, neither am I but my mum badgered me to watch this show and it basically has this sort of crowd thinking in mind that someone's decided, oh, this person, they must be the traitor.

And everyone jumps on a bandwagon because everyone wants to follow what this other person says.

And I don't know, I just think it was something I keep seeing whether social media also plays a part.

You see a lot of negativity, a lot of opinions being thrown backwards and forwards and so maybe subconsciously there was something there of why don't you just go and find out yourself?

And I love stay open minded and not judge.

Be curious but not judge.

And yeah, I have a feeling if I was to really sit and think about it, there is something much deeper there.

But it is something that I think we see a lot in the world that's very sad at the moment and hopefully this is a nice little story to remind children that people are different and that's okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

I couldn't agree with you more.

So your writing process, you've really shared quite a bit about your writing process because.

No, but it's so true because you, it's how it all unfolded for you and your journey and then your contact with your uncle and having him as a resource and at the time when you first started out he was a little busier.

You didn't get the same TLC or Loving Care as the as you went along and then to get the recommendation.

So tell us about if you going to write a second book, what would your writing process look like versus what you just went through?

Oh my goodness, I'd definitely be finding my uncle, that's for sure.

Do you know what?

I don't think I'd do much different.

So I have, when I was reaching out to agencies, a lot of them wanted to know if you were planning second, third, fourth books and one of them like you have to give Your synopsis of these books.

You couldn't just submit one book.

They wanted to know that you were gonna write more children's books.

Yeah.

So I had to think about it on the spot.

And I did think of another book based on my dog, who he is the boy of my life, but he is grumpy and misunderstood.

And I saw there is definitely a moral of the story here.

So I've got an idea.

But I love rhyming.

I always have done.

When I was a kid, I'd write poems.

There's something about it and I get.

Because in my communications role, you don't get to play around with adjectives that much.

In corporate, business style communication, people don't have time.

You just gotta get to the point, keep it short, keep it sweet.

Less is more, let people skim.

So to play around with descriptive words was so much fun.

And I love the challenge of getting descriptive words to match in rhyme.

I just listen.

I just.

I've always loved it.

And when it works and you go, yes, that's really clever.

Yay.

I would still do rhyming and I would sit and play with the story for a bit.

And I think with the galloping, it just came as I went.

I know some people will sit and they'll write the beginning, middle and end.

I didn't do that.

I was gonna do a creative writing course.

I didn't do that either.

I thought, no, just, you know what you wanna do, so just play around with it.

And I think I'd do the same.

I would play around with what words resonate with my dog, what rough story do I want?

And then how do you turn that into this, like, melody almost?

Yes.

Then go to my uncle and go, what constructive criticism would you give even if he didn't illustrate it?

Because that was a big ask that he did out the kindness of his heart, which I am very grateful and privileged for.

It's great having people around you who give you what you want to hear and all the nice compliments.

But I needed someone like him to go, it's nice, but you could do better in a really friendly way.

You need someone to be pushing that creativity.

And one thing I want to say, especially if you're an independent children's book author, what I noticed is when you get constructive criticism and some of that comes through the Amazon reviews or book reviews, and as long as you don't take it personal and it's constructive to help, it's quite interesting.

So when you do an indie published book, you can actually modify maybe not the illustrations, because that comes at a heavy cost.

But if the words, or if you have too many words or the words aren't quite right or and you're getting that feedback, you can go and actually change some of the words or take out words or whatever it happens to be.

And as long as it's moving the book closer to gets it to be better, then why not do that?

I just want to people to realize that as an independent children's book author, you're not, the book is not.

And the words are not set in stone.

Oh, no.

And so there's two things I could share for that One, I started just on a Word document and that's what me and my uncle were emailing backwards and forwards.

And then I started sending voice notes to my friends because I thought if I'm saying out loud, I'm going to hear if the sentence structure is clunky.

So that's really helpful.

I will say.

When I first got feedback from my uncle, because of the time zone difference, I woke up to an email with, you could do better in nicer words.

And it's 6am here, I'm still waking up.

That is not the time to be reading something that you are so emotionally attached to.

And thankfully I was sensible enough to not respond straight away and wait until I've woken up, had my first cup of tea, reread it again with the intent that he would have sent it with, with all the good intentions and just read it and go, do you know what?

He's right.

And if he's saying this, other people will think this and I'm too close to it.

This is what I do day in, day out with other people's communications is there's nothing to your point, there's nothing personal.

I'm just saying that this is how this is going to resonate better.

And that's all he was doing.

So I took the personal side out of it, listened and said, yeah, okay, yeah, we can do better.

And I'm just, I'm so pleased we did.

Yes, but you can certainly.

I think I noticed one.

There was a capital, A rogue capital letter at the start of one of my sentences that I didn't like.

So I went in and changed it.

Within Amazon, no one knows, right, apart from me and everyone now on this podcast, but no one knew at the time.

So you can go in and change.

Stuff and it doesn't cost you?

No, not at all.

We talked a little bit at the beginning about book authorship and how you visualized your book and all of that.

So I'm curious, I want to talk to you about your measurement of success.

Now that you've been at it for a little bit, I'm curious on what you envision for yourself for the book to be successful.

As I said, the getting the videos of the children reading it.

That to me, I'm already successful.

That's.

There is a little girl.

She's my friend's little girl.

She's three years old and she can recite it word for word and does to her family as like a showpiece.

So that is the biggest measure of success.

I.

Do you know what?

I. I don't know because I didn't go in thinking, oh, I'm.

I must sell so many books.

I just wanted it to be out there.

So I have sold over a hundred books, which.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

That is, I think, way more than I had ever anticipated.

You know what?

I talk about this on the show.

The average book, children's book, sells between 100 and 500 copies over the lifetime of the book.

Wow.

So there you go.

Yeah.

So you can see you're well on your way.

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

So that's amazing.

The reviews are all positive.

And what's nice is that I am getting, I say, random.

A contact that I might have met has bought the book.

They are under no obligation to contact me, but they do to say, just so you know, we really enjoy the book.

So again, if it was rubbish and people bought it, gone, oh, that was rubbish.

They just.

They don't have to contact me, but they are going out of their way to message me to say, we really enjoyed it.

It's a favorite in the family.

My friend sent me a photo of his little girl.

She had woken him up, I think, at 5am to read it to her again.

He told her, it's way too early, go back to sleep.

So then she went back to sleep cuddling the book.

And I got a photo of her cuddling the book in bed.

And I just.

Even if I don't sell any more.

That's amazing.

Absolutely.

One of the nicest things that happened to us a couple of nights ago is a friend of ours had bought our second book, plus our plushie, and he was reading the book and his grandson was hanging onto the plushie and they sent us this picture.

And it's such an awesome picture.

Yeah, that's so cool.

Yeah, it is.

It is.

So what got you to do the plushie?

Because as I said earlier, that is something I am.

I would love to do in the Future.

One of our retailers said to us, we sell a lot more books when they have a plushie.

And so I took probably about a year and a half to figure out how to do that, because it's not inexpensive to do.

And of course, our garage is full with these plushies.

I think I should have had maybe a stronger plan.

I'm sharing this with our audience.

I'm just working on that now because we do have four retailers with the plushies.

It.

It'll take more than that.

We've applied to a couple of markets, Christmas markets, because I was talking to some of the children's book authors who do have plushies, and they said their most success comes at markets to sell their plushie because people like to touch them.

Yeah.

And you can sell them as a packet.

That is exactly why someone said to me, you need to sell plushies at the Christmas market with the book.

And ultimately you go, that is not as simple as that.

I could get a generic frog.

Yes.

But if I wanted the one frog band, that's a whole other game.

Now, what you can do, this is what I recommend.

There's no obligation.

There's a website, actually, a children's book author from Oklahoma said to me, I did this.

I used this website called madeinchina.com and she encouraged me to use that.

And I reached out to two different suppliers.

They came back.

I had to pay $85American for the sample.

But after they sent them all the pictures.

Okay, so it was all, like you said, email.

I took our.

The one back here, which is our prototype, which is much larger, and I took her clothes off and all of that, laid it out, took pictures, sent it.

And then they came back with a prototype, which is behind me.

I didn't like the prototypes.

It didn't have the smile.

Oh, yeah.

That we have.

If you look on our book, Caboose has a smile.

Yeah.

But if you look at the actual one that we made, that small change has the smile.

So there's the difference.

Oh, I love that.

Oh, it does make a big difference as well.

It does.

So that's what we did.

But I use Made in China, and their pricing was extremely good, and it allowed us to have now enough margin to sell it to the retailers, but we had to order 500 units.

Well, I should have a look.

Yeah.

But anyway, this is.

This is the thing.

It is the whole game of how much do you want to go down this rabbit hole?

I'm curious.

Are you devoting any more time to your writing?

Not right now.

Simply because I have a million and other one things going on say with my business.

And I'm.

Now I can say this in the podcast because my nan won't be listening to it, but I'm knitting her a blanket for her 80th birthday.

That is taking.

I am very slow.

Knitting is not a skill that I was blessed with.

That is taken all of my spare time.

Okay.

Right now, no.

But I think, do you know, I think it's good to have a break to let this simmer, to see where it goes.

And then if the time feels right, then we'll see whether there's a story about Cooper the dog that comes out at some point.

But for now, that's why my youngest grandson's named Cooper.

Is it?

Oh yeah.

So Cooper is our.

He's a five year old dog and he's just, he's got all the personality to make a brilliant story.

But for now I just need the.

I just need.

Yeah, I just need to enjoy the Galloping frog.

Good for you.

So, advice for aspiring authors.

What advice would you give aspiring authors?

Oh, so I think you said this earlier.

Just start.

Which be the most annoying thing for someone to say because if anyone's got a brain like me.

Yeah, but start where?

Give me more instructions than that.

I was just from, as I said before, I dabbled with starting to write some chapters for some bigger novels.

I was thinking it was going to be more young adult, teenage and I thought, oh maybe, maybe I'll go down the fantasy route because then no one can fact check me if I make stuff up, no one can tell me it's wrong.

So I did a chapter of that and I just didn't enjoy it.

And I was, I think I realized I was trying to force myself to enjoy it because I knew I wanted a publishing book one day in my life.

I was trying to force something.

Whereas this came to me at the right time, the right story.

And I just sat down one day, I just remember my husband was out at work and I just sat down and started writing.

And then give yourself time, which again is the second most annoying thing someone can say because if you're excited and you're impatient, time is not your friend.

But it, it is important, I think for your brain and you still have a life.

Unless this is your sole job, your sole purpose, you have other priorities.

And as we've mentioned throughout the podcast, there are then so many elements to this that it could, then you could very quickly fall out love with this, for sure.

Encouragement for readers.

So tell Us why someone should purchase your book.

Oh, why?

Why wouldn't you now want to know about Galloping Frog?

It's a fun read.

I say, if anyone enjoys Dr. Seuss, I took a lot of inspiration from those books.

I think it also has a bit of a Gruffalo type feel to it of people going through the woods and finding out clues.

So it's fun, it rhymes.

It's got the one frog band, which people now know, but it's got that moral of the story.

The illustrations are beautiful and yeah, just.

I don't know, it would be nice for my granddad's story to just carry on.

And I put on social media the other day when I said, oh, we've sold over a hundred books, let's see how far in the world the Galloping Frog can gallop.

That's terrific.

And it's fantastic because it's a love from your heart for your grandfather and that's pretty darn special.

Welcome.

Yeah, I think he would be laughing a lot.

I think this would be right up his street.

So that's terrific.

Final thoughts?

Is there something you said?

Oh, geez, I wish Rick would have asked me that question.

Is there final thoughts?

Something I should have asked you or something you'd like to share?

I think we have covered all of it because I really wanted to share about the email because I just think that is amazing that we could communicate across time zones, me and my uncle, via email.

It just shows what you can do.

Yes.

And it's the same with the plushie now.

Exactly.

I never talk to a person once I have a contact, but it was all email and even taking the pictures and sending them to him.

And then from there they developed the smiley.

Yeah.

Which is brilliant.

So I think we've got that.

That the techno technology is your friend.

And I think, as I say, I used AI to help me understand Amazon, Kindle Publishing, because I went onto the.

And if you go onto their website, it's an awful website and it's very overwhelming, it's very daunting.

So I used AI to say, can you just explain to me, as if I'm 5 years old how I go about uploading a book to this system?

And it taught me through step by step.

So use technology to help you.

You can do literally all of this as close to free as possible and then have fun and have fun.

I love that.

Charis, thank you very much for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors.

Your generosity of time.

I really appreciate that your insights and your passion and your inspiration on how took the love of your grandfather and your interaction with him and turned it into a children's book is just really inspirational.

And we promised to provide the audience with links to Charis's social media and if you've enjoyed this episode, if you could hit the subscribe button to listen to future episodes.

And feel free to share this episode with anyone inspired by or and who enjoys hearing about Charis and her children's book, the Galloping Frog.

Thanks Charis.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rick.

Thank you for having me.

And thank you to everyone for listening.