Charlotte Glaze, stormtrucks.

Welcome, Charlotte, to the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

Thank you for having me.

My pleasure.

I would love to start with talking about your inspiration behind your book, Storm Trucks and the Origin Story.

So if you could tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your book.

Okay.

My son, when he was about three, I'd say we live in Oklahoma.

And if you know anything about Oklahoma, there's lots of thunderstorms that we have every spring and fall and tornadoes and such like that, but just regular thunderstorms, too.

And they were scary to him, like, all the loud sounds that the storms made.

But during this time, he was, like, obsessed with trucks and cars and played them, watched TV shows about them, all the things.

And I just had a.

It just came to me one time when the thunder was going.

I'm like, hey, that sounds a lot like trucks.

Do you think maybe there's trucks up in the sky making that noise?

And, like, it seemed to just switch in his brain.

Oh, oh, that's not as scary then, if it's trucks up there making that noise.

And so the idea came from there, and then obviously it doesn't just come out in the book.

That takes time to form it into a story.

Absolutely.

Your character's name is Axel, which I love.

And so was your son the inspiration behind the character in the book?

Not really.

He didn't say, oh, mom, that's me.

Yeah, no, he didn't say that.

But just.

I think he's just a boy.

Any boy.

Like, it could be at any boy kind of character.

He just loves trucks and loves to play with his puppy, too.

Just something very common for a lot of little boys.

Absolutely.

Because that's how my son grew up and now his son's.

Same kind of thing with the dump trucks and the earth movers and stuff like that.

Interesting.

It's funny how boys gravitate to that kind of stuff.

So I'm also interested in talking about your publishing approach.

And I know we had just talked, just so the audience knows, we.

We had just talked about Charlotte's book being available, and now it's available on Amazon, not only in hardcore cover, but also in paperback and in ebook, and the paperback just recently came on the market.

Charlotte, can you just take us through, first of all, the whole process of publishing?

So talk to us.

Are you self published, hybrid published, traditional published?

I'm self published.

And I chose that because I had queried this story and other stories to agents for several years, and it's Just after a while of doing that, and then I just felt like I had gone through enough critiques and enough editing process that I really felt that this book was good book, that maybe it wouldn't have the market that the big publishers are looking for.

But I felt like there is a market for this book and I've put so much work into it already, I would like people to actually be able to read it.

I decided to self publish and I actually.

The hardback.

Here I have it.

The hardback is not from Amazon.

I didn't print it with them.

The paperback is and the ebook is on Amazon, but the hardback is actually coming straight from me.

And I ordered it from a printer, direct from a printer in China actually, and had it.

I ordered a bunch of copies and so I am the distributor.

Now I have to send it out to bookstores or libraries or whoever.

Yes, and I've noticed that a lot of people who do a hard back copy generally either go offshore or look for someone to print through.

And a lot of times, of course, in North America, it tends to be pretty expensive to print a hardback book.

And that was your experience?

Yes, I got a lot of quotes.

I got some from the US and came out of like local or printers.

And I also got some from overseas because I had been recommended just to check it out.

And there's no comparison.

Right.

14 bucks a book versus 3 bucks a book as well.

Which one should I pick?

Yeah, I know it makes it difficult.

And the print quality from what I've seen is very similar.

Yes, Yes, I think so.

And if you look in books at a bookstore, they all have to say where it was printed in the copyright information.

Yes.

And if you look a lot of them mainstream books, they're all printed in China because that's where a lot of the printing presses are in the world right now.

With your experience in that, maybe you could tell us a little bit about where did you go when, like when you first started on this and said, oh, you know what?

It looks like I'm going to have to print offshore.

Like, what was the process and how difficult was it?

Okay.

So I was recommended to go to a website called madeinchina.com and you can put in your specifications for the product that you want.

And it's not even just books.

It's like any kind of manufacturing.

It seems like you can search for printers, like children's book printers, and they'll give you a huge list and you can like query individual ones.

Like you could look through their pictures and samples and stuff.

So it is.

It's time consuming to go through this and look at the different ones.

But so then I emailed back and forth with a bunch of them and I picked two, I think, to get samples from.

So I, like, uploaded my book and then they sent me one copy.

Okay.

To see what it looked like.

And was the book formatting the same as when you uploaded a kdp?

It was a little bit different, but they gave me, like, the specifications and everything.

I will say this might be a big challenge for some people.

I'm actually a graphic designer and web designer by trade, and so I already knew how to lay out the book and do all those things myself.

Which you may have to hire somebody to do the book design for you if you're not.

Right.

And that's what we did.

We used a graphic artist.

Yeah.

The beautiful thing about it, it's that it's not that expensive to hire someone to do that.

And I always feel a lot better using my.

The person I have is fantastic.

And because we've made a couple of changes to our book as we have it into the marketplace.

So again, it's always nice to have a professional.

And you can use.

Usually find them locally, which makes life a little simpler.

You don't have to go offshore to find someone.

Yeah.

You can find a local graphic designer.

Then you started with your hard copy and primarily selling it through.

You started through your website and then you moved it over onto Amazon also.

Yes.

Yeah.

So if you ordered a hard copy, it's not printed by Amazon, that one would be just directed straight to me and I would send it out.

You have your hard copy on Amazon.

So when the order's placed by a reader, a client, do they.

Does Amazon just get a hold of you and you send it directly to the consumer or how does that work?

Yes, I haven't done it yet.

Like, nobody has bought the hard copy yet from Amazon.

Okay.

But they've been buying it from, like, my website because that's what I advertise more.

Because then I don't have to give Amazon a cut.

Yes, no, absolutely.

Okay, fantastic.

And then of course, with.

With your paperback and your ebook that's produced directly by Amazon in their marketplaces.

And they ship it.

Yes.

And then they send you a percentage of the proceeds.

Okay.

And just so everyone knows, that's the model that we use to bring our children's book to life.

The same as Charlotte.

It just makes life a little easier.

Because generally what happens is I found that the turnaround is very Quick with the paperback.

Like you.

I just had a.

I've got an author coming on and they just had a book launch and I ordered their book and it was here in a day.

That's how quick it comes.

So it doesn't really matter what market you're in.

Fantastic.

Yes.

The Amazon Print on demand is really good.

So I did look at IngramSpark too, when I wanted to do a hardback and I found it was.

I was very frustrated with that process.

But they do print on demand too.

You don't have to order like 500 at a time as people order it.

When I talk to other children's book authors, what I've been finding is a lot of them, ingramsparks to be able to put their, especially their paperback into the different retailers, online retailers like Barnes and Noble and Apple Books and stuff like that.

And some do use ingramsparks for their hard copy.

But I find the retail prices are like generally about two and a half times.

Oh yeah.

What it.

So you're finding that yourself?

Yeah, Like I did the pricing of them.

I think I have it here.

I pulled it up like IngramSpark, like one copy.

If I ordered it, like even as an author, copy is like $13 and some change.

Right.

But my hardback that I printed was 321 each book.

And so I was like, this is.

I could order some and break even like way faster if I just order them and just have them all on.

On hand instead of one by one.

Order them for sure.

So you, your hardback, you had to order probably over 2,000 copies.

I ordered 500.

Oh, 500.

That's not bad.

So that just again, that just gives everybody an opportunity to understand that you can get a hard copy sent to you now.

You have of course, you have to pay the freight on top.

That cost that I just quoted you was including the shipping cost.

Wow.

The price per book was actually even less than that.

Okay.

But I just put it together because.

So I would know when I had broke even.

You bet.

So for aspiring book authors, if you really want a hard covered book, the nice thing about it is you can get very good pricing for as little as 500 copies ordered.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you for sharing.

Impressed by that.

And so I decided that's what I wanted to try at least this time.

I don't know if I would do it for every book in the future.

But good for you.

Good for you.

So I was really impressed with your website.

I have it up in front of me.

Your website's lots of fun.

It's jam packed with a ton of activities.

Before I ask you any more, I just curious on it looks to me that your website came first and then your book.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Like I've had my website for a while and I did rework it somewhat as I became an author, but some of the stuff I could keep and use from before and such.

But yeah, I did have a website already.

I have had a blog for a long time before I became an author.

And I usually find with a lot of children's book authors, especially when they've launched their first book, they either launch the website exactly at the same time as the book or they launch the website after the book and then they use some of the graphics from the book to build their website.

That's what we did.

Yeah.

And I think that's a great way to do it.

You don't have to have all the blog posts and such.

Like I have, I just had that, some of that beforehand.

Yeah, but you also have some fun videos.

Yeah.

So when I launched my book, I've been.

Or before I launched my book, I was trying to build my audience and so I tried a lot of different things like a variety of social media posts and things like that.

I did some Facebook advertising and I did a YouTube YouTube channel.

And so I was chronicling my process of making my book on my YouTube channel which people can watch if they're interested in learning how I did it more.

But yeah, it's been fun.

And then I decided to start making some videos, like kid related videos because I used to teach preschool too and because my books are for a preschool market, I thought that would be fun to have on there.

Good for you.

It's nice when that, when you can develop a website and you got some engagement so people go there and they can definitely be engaged and they get to you too.

So that's cool because having it having video and getting to know you.

And I'm curious to tell us a little bit because like you said, you had your website in advance of even becoming a children's book author.

So talk to us about the changes that you had to make as you went through the process to your web.

I did set up an online shop which I hadn't done before.

I used Shopify, but I think it's too expensive.

So I might be looking like I bought it for a year so I might be looking at a different solution after for next year.

But I set up like a shop and so I could have my book and sell it online easily.

And I just had, I created a few pages like I created a page that's just about my book that I can direct anybody to.

If I'm talking to a bookstore or something, I can direct them to that page and it has all the information like the Is Ben numbers and the blurb about the book and about me and stuff like that.

Fantastic.

When you launched your website now because you're an illustrator, a graphic artist, did you do all the work yourself?

Did you have web design skills?

I did do all of it myself.

So I'm like a one man shop here.

Right.

But I just wanted everybody to know that they can hire out different parts of this process.

They don't have to do it all like I did.

I just happened to have a lot of the skills that I needed to do this myself.

It's nice because I've talked to several people and it's interesting when I talk to them about their website and most of them don't have illustration and graphic artist skills.

I think you can find someone locally in a lot of cases that can help you.

And again doesn't have.

It's not really expensive to hire those skills just so everyone knows.

But if you have them, definitely use them for sure.

And I know you talked about Shopify and because I've talked to different people.

Some people love Shopify because of.

It's a, it's really a one stop shop in terms of they do all the, the entire process including collecting the money.

Then I've talked to some authors who use.

It's called Printful and they do exactly the same as Shopify but they don't collect the money.

Oh, okay.

And so you still have to have a money collecting.

Exactly.

So at the end of the day I was thinking so you, you still have to.

Then you've got instead of one stop shop you've now you still have to collect the money.

So I'm not quite sure I.

We haven't leaned towards one or the other yet.

But I'm again, I'm trying to share with the audience, make sure you do your research, understand how much time you want to put into it.

Because like Charlotte, we're a one man shop also.

So it's always it's your time that you have to take into consideration.

Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing about self publishing.

There's a lot more jobs than you think there are.

Exactly.

And I want to talk to you about motivation.

I know you mentioned your son when he was three and the thunder and lightning and all that kind of Good stuff.

Was there any other events that motivated you to say, you know what?

I've had this because you talked a little bit about your background and about reaching out to traditional publishers, but tell us a little bit more about this whole.

You finally said, I'm motivated enough to bring my book to life, so maybe go a bit deeper on that.

Sure.

So I've always enjoyed writing, but I.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, and that was 11 years ago now, I started writing a novel.

And so I like wrote this whole novel.

And then I was like, I don't know what to do with this now that I wrote this novel.

It was for teens.

And so I started looking around at local writing groups to figure out what do I do now?

And I found scbwi, which is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Yes, I am a member also.

Our local group meets every month.

And so I went to a few meetings and I met professional authors and illustrators who have published books and like it.

It was a great.

I've learned so much through all those men and women who are in that organization that, that.

So I went through editing with my YA novel and wrote a few versions of it.

And then I was like, no, I don't think this.

And anyway, so I was trying write a few other things too, as I was inspired by SCBWI people and I wrote a few picture books and this is the one that I decided to really focus on first.

But I have other ones that are coming down the pipe here.

They part of a book series.

A series.

They're all standalone stories.

But I just.

So I was writing and I was sending out queries to agents because that's what you have to do if you want to get a big publisher.

You first you get an agent and then the agent sends it out to the publisher.

And then if a publisher likes it, they get back to you.

And it's like a very long process and very frustrating after a while if you aren't getting the response you want.

So I finally decided, why don't I just try and do it myself and we'll see how it goes.

Also, like, I have two kids and I was doing other things too.

This is just like a.

This was a side project at the time.

Now it's becoming more main project since I published it.

And I want people to buy it.

Right.

But like all these.

So it was years of different steps along the way before I published this book.

You know what I find with a lot of children's book authors, I talked to one lady who lives just outside of Buffalo, New York, and she was a schoolteacher and she had this book in her, and she actually wrote it in the late 80s and then waited almost for retirement to bring the book to life.

So everybody has their own approach.

It's the same with what happened with myself and my oldest granddaughter.

It took us probably eight years before we actually brought our first book to life.

It's interesting how it goes along for everyone.

Yeah.

And I think it's so cool now in this time that we live in, that we can publish ourselves, because this was not something that people could do in years past.

Right.

You either got picked by the big publishers or you just don't become an author.

The book sat in the drawer.

Yeah.

But now you don't have to write the book that will sell 10 million copies.

You could write for your local area, get published and sell it to your local friends and family and neighbors and.

Yeah, absolutely.

And you having the skill.

It's.

It's interesting because I've talked to a lot of children's book authors.

Most have.

They write the book, but they hire an illustrator.

And I talked to a mom and son.

He's the illustrator and she's the co author.

And that's about as close as I've gotten so far.

So you're my first guest who's actually the author and the illustrator.

So tell us a little bit about that process.

The illustration process is a whole nother thing.

I feel like I can write a book fairly quickly, but the illustration takes months and months to do, every one, because you got 32 pages in a book, so in a picture book, and then do a picture or more multiple pictures on each of those pages.

And you gotta think of how to add more to the story with the pictures than what the words are even saying.

So did you write the book first or did you.

Was it a combination or how did your book come to life?

Was it a visualization?

Because being an illustrator, I'm sure you're very visual.

Yeah.

So I write first, but I know some illustrators, they'll draw a picture first and then come up with a story that goes with it.

But my process is that I write the story out.

So I write first and then I break it up into pages.

So you have to take the story and make sure that there's places where the kid just wants to turn the page to the next page.

Like, you have to break the story into the.

The chunks of the pages in order to make sure it's still moving, that you're not saying the same thing on multiple pages.

Yeah, because you don't want the picture to be the same on this page.

And then you turn the page and it's the same picture.

You got to make sure it's going to be something different.

Talk to us about your main character, Axel.

How did you come up with the character development?

Oh, so like the illustration design?

Yeah, I mean, he's got a full.

Head of hair and it's like red, curly hair.

And so I picked that because his imagination is like the main thing about this story.

He imagines there's trucks up in the sky causing the loud thunders and lightning and all the scary parts of the storm.

But then he imagines it's construction trucks working and building something, and so then it's not as scary.

But since it's all about his imagination overcoming his fear, I wanted his design to also reflect that.

And so his hair is like a cloud and a thought bubble.

Oh, yeah.

Awesome.

And so tell us the significance.

Now, I'm sure everybody's saying Axel, I get it.

But is there more to ax the name Axle than just the reference to axles on a vehicle?

No, I just wanted a name that was like name that a kid could be named right now, but also a truck related kind of name.

Okay.

And I originally, in the original version of the story, he had a brother.

And so like, their names reflected both of them.

But then in editing, we took out the brother so it wouldn't be like two storylines that are conflicting with each other.

Tried to just keep it to the Axel and the trucks.

Okay.

Describe to the audience the underlying theme of your book in a few words.

Sure.

It's a story about Axel and his puppy who is a little boy who is afraid of thunderstorms.

And then he imagines that the thunder is from construction trucks in the sky and he has to overcome his fear with his imagination.

That's cool.

And you said you had a teaching background.

So tell us a little bit about the central lesson that you're hoping the book will deliver to other children.

Okay.

So part of the story is Axel.

He is feeling a little better about the storm, but then his pup beats scared and he in turn comforts his puppy and helps his puppy get through the storm.

And I wanted kids to come understanding that helping others is sometimes the way that we can get through struggles ourselves, but it wasn't.

I try not to be didactic about it.

I didn't want to just come out and say that I want them to make that connection themselves as they read the story.

Excellent.

Excellent.

And I know you described your writing process a bit and also as an illustrator, you do the writing first and then the illustration.

So tell us a little bit about your writing process.

It all starts with an idea and then I.

I can usually come up with a first draft without too much trouble for a picture book because that's 500 words or so.

It's not really long.

But then after that it's usually best to set it aside for a little while and then come back to it and look at it with fresh eyes.

And then after I look at it again, I kind.

I want to make sure that it's a real story arc.

There's change from the character at the beginning to the end of the story and that there's actually conflict, there's actually problems that are.

He's he or she is facing and then they have to overcome them.

So look at the plot first.

I would start with like big stuff like that to see if the story's actually working.

Not worried about the commas or each individual word to start with.

But then as you edit, you should, once you have a story, then start like tweaking the sentences and making them clearer and.

Absolutely.

And I know you Talked about your 3 year old son and drawing on your own personal experience was there when you started actually putting your thoughts to paper.

Did you conduct any research on heavy equipment or did you do anything like that behind the scenes?

No, I would say no.

But I had been reading a lot of truck books to my son.

Okay.

I guess that counts as my research, but I didn't do specific research after.

After the other books that I had been reading to him already.

Okay.

And I had to look and try and simplify trucks when I was illustrating them too.

I was looking at things and I guess I was learning some things, but I didn't the trucks because I just.

Want the audience to know that it's more than just trucks that you have as characters in the book.

Also that you've got earth movers and things like that.

Correct?

Yes.

There are different kind of construction trucks.

So there's a crane, there's a bulldozer, there's excavator.

Who else?

A dump truck.

And it's fun because when we were talking about earlier, about our sons or for in my case also my grandsons is they like to play with all types of trucks.

Just not a dump truck or.

Yeah, fantastic.

When you started your book, it's interesting because again with you having your website and built and trying to build an Audience.

And as you were going through that process and then you can't, you said, you know what?

I can do this.

I'm an illustrator.

I have a great idea for a book.

I'm going to finally launch my book.

So when you did that, tell us a little bit about how you thought about measuring your success.

That was probably a journey to figure out what I really wanted to accomplish through doing this because I knew that I probably wasn't going to sell bucket loads of books right away.

It's more of a steady process.

I think I have learned so much through this process that I'm glad I did it, even if I don't sell them all, because it's great.

I've met bookstore owners, I've talked to different gift shops, and I've.

I'm doing some story time activity, like story time at the bookstores and like meeting new people in my community.

And it's so fun.

Like, it's a great opportunity.

Tell us a little bit about that story time.

So I just did my first one and I have about 10 scheduled throughout the coming months.

And so I had a bunch of kids and their parents at the bookstore and I did a few nursery rhymes and like finger plays that were also storm related.

And then I read my story and we talked about it a little bit.

And then I got all of these handmade, like homemade that you could make at home easily.

Musical instruments that sound like different things.

In the storm.

I had all the kids, like, make a storm together with these instruments.

Oh, cool.

Not be afraid of the sound of the storm because that's part of the story too.

So it's cool.

I have like little shakers and little drums that they can make themselves.

And then I also had a craft so they could make one of these themselves and take it home with them.

So did you develop this whole thing over several story book readings at the stores?

So this was my first one, but I developed it based on my years as a preschool teacher in the past.

And I knew, like, how to do a story time.

And I in the future, when I have more than one book, then I could read multiple books during the story time.

But I just have the one right now, so I wanted to have an activity to go with it.

When I think of success, I think most of us is when we get our first book to market, that in itself is a huge success.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

Then the trick is for all of us to figure out, okay, now how do I get my book in distribution?

Because you have to.

You want to sell it so that other.

So that people are reading your book.

And.

And if you have any tips, I would love to hear, because that is a big thing that I'm trying to learn right now.

Well, I love what you've done with the story time, because we have our book in.

In a couple of independent bookstores, and we've actually done.

We've had one store's up to their fourth order, so we're pretty excited about that.

And I.

I finally said to my wife, I said, maybe it's time.

This year is, of course, focus on the podcast, but also focus on the independent books and see if we can get.

I live in Canada, and the province I live in has probably about 25 independent bookstores, because, like, in the States, there's Barnes and Noble and they're in the big centers, and so.

And then you've got Amazon, of course.

But how do you get into the independent bookstore?

That's one of my main goals this year.

And it sounds to me, that's why I was curious about your story time.

It sounds to me that you can build an audience from there and hopefully use that success.

I guess I'm asking this as a question because you got me thinking.

Did the independent book store owner that you did this app, would they give you an endorsement to take it to other independent bookstores?

I did not ask that, but maybe.

I don't know how they're.

If they have, like a coalition of bookstore owners or something, I'm not right about that.

You know what I did?

I went online because I didn't.

I thought, where are these independent bookstores?

So I just googled it and it came up.

There was actually an association of independent bookstores.

And I thought, yeah, so that's.

And that's how I built my list.

Now, some of the.

Some of them are used bookstores.

That's all they sell.

And some of them don't sell children's books.

But at the end of the day, I think I built a list of about over 20 now.

Now I got it.

Now I've got a.

Do the work and reach out to them.

Yeah, so that's how I started, too.

I just googled bookstores, and I started just close to me first, so I could go visit them in person if I need to.

But first I would.

I tried contacting them, like, by email or give them a telephone call and ask if they do independent books.

Like, and a lot of them do.

Like, I've been impressed.

Like, they're so supportive and encouraging because what they're doing is Almost like what we're doing as authors, they're trying to do their own bookstore, not Amazon.

Can they pick the books and all those things?

Absolutely.

Especially if you have a book like mine is about thunderstorms, which we have tons of around here.

Yes.

So it is applicable to my vicinity, where I live.

Yes.

And you know what?

That's the same with us.

Our book is all about the Rocky Mountains and that's all around us in the province I live.

Yeah.

You live in Alberta.

I do.

I live in Alberta.

I was born in Alberta, actually.

Oh, were you Canada?

Until I was 16.

Oh, wow.

Moved to the States.

Yeah.

Interesting.

And what city were you born in?

St.

Paul.

St.

Paul.

On the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Oh, wow.

It's a small world.

So.

So you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Fantastic.

And it's neat because, again, drawing on Charlotte, drawing on your experience where you live now, and developing and then.

And building a book that's relevant to your marketplace.

And so it's important people know that too, because a lot of times that's exactly what a children's book author is doing.

They're drawing on their own experiences and then.

And it's something that's around them.

So the other independent authors that I know in this area, a lot of the ones that are successful in getting into schools and things like that, it's because they wrote a book that was about our area.

Something that happened in Oklahoma or nearby.

You bet.

Fantastic.

It's interesting because you and I were talking about, like, now you gotta.

Now you gotta build the distribution network and all that kind of good stuff and going at it.

Like, every time I talk to a children's book author, they always have another book in them.

And I was talking to a guest from Seattle, and he thought it was one and done, and we just helped him launch his fourth book.

So there is no one and done.

So it sounds to me there'll be no one and done for you either.

No, I.

I'm working on my next book already.

Okay.

Getting the drawings going.

In terms of a business plan, what would you say you're doing differently, bringing your second book to life?

I don't know what I would be doing differently.

I think it will be faster for sure because I've already done all this research and trial and error the first time around.

That'll be nice.

Okay.

I already know what I want to do instead of having to get all the quotes and all the things.

And I took classes about self publishing and all these things just to learn what I'm doing, but I don't have to do that the second time around.

So it'll be much faster and easier, I think.

Okay.

And from a distribution point, you think you'll be faster to market?

Oh, yeah, because I've already, because I've been working on getting into the different bookstores right now already.

Okay.

So when I have my next one, I'll just call up all these people they've already met and say, hey, I've got another book.

And I, I feel like they will carry it just like they carry this one.

Yeah.

And tell us the role of writing now in your life because you've, you had this one book fermenting over time.

It's come to life now.

The second one, like you said, is going to come quicker.

So tell us about how that, how the role of writing has changed in your life.

I guess now I consider myself an author.

And so now I do.

I try to be up here at my desk and working on my book or at least on marketing my current book.

I try to do it at least five days a week, like Monday to Friday.

Get up here.

Um, I usually take a break on the weekends.

Sometimes I work on Saturday too.

Right, okay.

Gotta take a break sometimes so that your brain can just relax for a little bit.

It's interesting what you said too, Charlotte.

When I was talking to a first time children's book author and she didn't have a website, so all she had was her Instagram page.

Of course I try and do some research on my guests before they come on.

And I went to her Instagram page and I noticed she didn't have children's book author in her description.

So I asked her that.

I said, oh, I noticed you don't have children's book author in your description yet you're a children's book author.

And she said, oh, 15 minutes later after we, she had it in there and she sent me an email and said thank you.

I never even thought about that.

So sometimes it's just that obvious, right, that you don't think of yourself as a children's book author.

It still is new to me, think of myself that way.

So congratulations.

You're welcome.

So advice for aspiring authors.

Someone who said, oh, I'm just like Charlotte, but I just can't get this thing out into the world.

What would you say to them?

I would say the number one thing that you need to do is get into a group, like a critique group or an S, C, B, W, I or a writing group if you're not doing children's books.

If you're doing adult books, find a writing group in your area that you can bounce ideas off of where they can look at your work and say this part doesn't make sense or this is unclear.

Over here I have, I have an illustration critique group and then I also have my SCBWI group that I go to.

Wow.

Every month if I can.

And I can't tell you how valuable that is other than just saying, I don't think I would have continued down the journey to get my puck out unless I had these friends that were encouraging me along the way and helping me get stuff done because I had to show them what I had done.

Yeah, that's fantastic advice.

Getting into a group and sharing your ideas.

Bouncing it off like minded people.

I was just gonna say iron sharpens iron.

Yes.

Come against other people and get better.

Yeah.

I always say this question towards the end here because if it's.

If we don't have readers, then why are we doing this?

What's your encouragement for readers?

Why should they purchase your book?

Tell us about that.

I'm.

I think my book is Perfect for ages 3 to 8 and kids who are afraid of loud noises or who love trucks.

There's a lot of kids afraid of thunderstorms.

And I think this book will bring comfort and help them reframe their fear in a new way.

So I would love if people were able to buy it.

I also just, I write books because I want to encourage families to read together as well.

That's a big thing on my website.

If you go to it.

Good for you Is encouraging family read aloud because I feel like that's been so great in our own family's lives and we didn't stop like when they could start reading themselves.

We just read chapter books now all together as a family and it's like a bonding experience and you can discuss ideas with your kids that you wouldn't necessarily talk about otherwise.

And I just really want families to read together.

Excellent.

It's interesting because the author I was telling you about, children's book author, is now on his.

Who just launched his fourth book.

He asked if we would be part of his book launch team and I said to him, would you mind if my grandson did a book review on your new book coming out?

That's what happened.

And we turned it into a short podcast episode.

And my grandson, of course, we talked about the new book.

Getting your children involved, getting them to read.

It's definitely been a lot of fun, right?

Yeah.

I support you A thousand percent.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Final thoughts?

Is there something that you thought.

Oh, Rick, I wish you would ask me that or.

I'd love to share.

Any final thoughts?

I can't think of anything.

No, that's fine.

I just want to.

I just like to make sure if someone said.

Thank you.

Charlotte, I want to thank you so much for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors.

Your generosity and knowledge has been just fantastic, especially from an illustrator's point of view.

Because like I said to you, I don't get that too often.

So I think it gives our audience a chance to again look behind the curtain in the mind of Children's Book Illustrator.

We promise to add all the links to your social media, your website.

I encourage the audience to definitely go to your website.

It's a great website and you'll find the links to that in the show notes.

If you've enjoyed listening to the show, we hope that you would push the subscribe button.

And also feel free to share this episode with anyone who you think would be inspired or enjoyed hearing about Charlotte and her children's book, Storm Trucks.