Episode 39 How a Children's Book Launch.

Deadline Date Creates Positive Momentum an action we took over 15 months ago triggered a foundation we didn't know we had built.

Today, we want to share a lesson we learned from the importance of sharing your children's book early in your writing cycle to create excitement and promotion long before you have a children's book, we we didn't think sharing our idea would mean someone would steal it.

That didn't cross our minds at all.

There are many ways to promote a new children's book, such as a book launch team.

Your book launch team should be part of a book launch plan, but what's interesting for us is some of the members of our book launch team we.

Didn'T even realize were part of our.

Team until the very last moment.

What's the story behind that?

Let me share that with you.

Our next children's book in the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear series is entitled Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

Our book plan, four Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival, turned out to be a long time in the making.

Our story was about an actual event.

Like most of the stories in the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear book series, the story took place at the Canmore Folk Music Festival, which is located in the Alberta Canadian Rocky Mountains, on an August long weekend with myself, my wife Brenda Lee, our granddaughters Kira Bailey and grandson Leland.

This would be the foundation for our second book.

Our grandkids had enthusiasm for getting this story published as a children's book.

The event had such an impact on our family.

We wrote the story and I had a book cover designed.

However, we had yet to launch the first book in our book series, the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

I contacted the Canmore Folk Music festival organizers over 15 months ago and presented our book cover and an overview of of our children's book.

However, without any success with our first book in our series, we needed to put high jinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival on hold.

As we built some traction with our first book, we slowly worked on our second book and month by month, with revenue from our first book, we started to make headway and by late spring of 2025 we knew we could complete our second book in our book series entitled Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

However, we did not have a specific launch date.

We decided to reach out to the.

Contact that we had made over 15.

Months ago at the Canmore Folk Music Festival.

This person remembered us and was excited that we had stuck to our publishing goal and they offered their support to help us with our book launch journey.

They asked us to launch our new book at the Canmore Folk Music Festival in the Kids section where we would do a book reading, sign our book and sell our book.

Wow.

What a fantastic idea.

The Canmore Folk Music Festival is the oldest folk music festival in the province of Alberta, Canada.

If you are an aspiring children's book.

Author, you might ask us, did you.

Fall into your book plan plan or did we actually plant seeds, never knowing when they would take root?

This whole experience has taught us a lesson.

The moment you conceive or write your children's book, start sharing the idea.

If you have a particular event or incident that you've based your story on, reach out to people involved in the event, even if you don't know who they are.

The Canmore Folk Music Festival organizers asked us if we could meet the deadline of launching our book at the 2025 Folk Music Festival on Sunday, August 3, and even though we have limited time on the kids stage due to sharing with numerous entertainers, we are so grateful.

The organizers have asked us to develop a brief description of our planned activities which we would like to share with you and it reads as follows.

Join Papa Rick and family as they read their new children's book, Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival, part of the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear children's book series.

This story is based on a family adventure at the Canmore Folk Music Festival.

Before the reading starts, Papa Rick and one of the characters in the book, his grandson Leland, will demonstrate their best wiggles and drum rolls and encourage children and adults to show off their best wiggle and drum roll.

And during the reading, children and adults will be asked to do their best wiggle and drum roll when they hear certain words during the reading.

At the end of the reading, Papa Rick will ask a few questions about the story, hand out activity pages, and explain to each child how they can write and illustrate their own story.

Also, each participant will receive a free bookmark with a QR code to give them access to an audiobook.

At the end, there will be a meet and greet with the authors and if you wish to purchase a book, it will be made available.

Papa Rick would love to do a personalized book signing.

As listeners to this podcast episode, I'm sharing all of these details with you in advance of our book launch on Sunday, August 3, 2025 and promise that we will share a Future podcast recap of all our learning after our book launch.

We would love it on August 3rd, 2025 if you would purchase a copy of our new book Hijinks at the Big Head Folk Music Festival and leave us a five star review.

If you happen to be in the Banff national park area, visit Stonewaters in downtown Canmore to purchase a copy of our book or see the online purchase.

Link in our show notes.

On February 23, 2024, I had the pleasure of interviewing our granddaughter Bailey discussing the creation of our upcoming children's book Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

Bailey is our middle granddaughter and is a big part of the story and helped co author this latest version in our book series.

We hope you will enjoy listening to Bailey as she shares her thoughts and giving you insights into the creation of the story and the story behind the story.

Enjoy the listen the story behind the story, Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival is part of the book and audiobook series the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

Hi everyone.

I'm pleased to introduce you to my granddaughter Bailey in today's story behind the Story.

Hello Bailey.

Hi.

The Story behind the Story tells you the events that led to creating this story.

The story behind the story is what happened to me, Bailey, her brother Leland, her cousin Kira, and her friends Linda and Tom.

It was so much fun and we needed to turn this story into something special that happened to us during the Folk Festival event.

In some of the stories in the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear, Bailey is one of the characters.

Bailey chose to be a beaver.

Her character is Bailey the Beaver and Bailey the Beaver is Caboose's cousin.

Bailey is very adventurous like Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

Bailey is one of our audio voices in telling the stories of the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

Bailey Bailey is the voice behind Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival Audiobook.

We hope you enjoy listening to this audiobook.

The Big Head Folk Music Festival is based on the Canmore Folk Music Festival.

The Canmore Folk Music Festival is the longest running folk music festival in Alberta.

Entertainers and musicians come from all over the world to perform.

The venue and stage are located off the downtown of Canmore amongst the fir trees and surrounded by mountain views.

The Canmore Folk Festival offers musical entertainment and a wide variety of musical workshops with performers.

A neat interactive experience, A market full of many different arts and crafts, A children's interactive area to paint, tell stories with lots of Games and so much more.

In today's story, behind the Story, we will discuss with Bailey how this story came to be.

Bailey added her exceptional touch to the creation of this story.

The story takes place in the Rocky Mountains, the home of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain bear, and Bailey the Beaver.

So, Bailey, did you have fun recording the story of hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival?

Yeah, I actually had a lot of fun.

There were some mistakes in there, but it was really fun.

And what Bailey's referring to is that when you're recording something, the neat thing about it, you can edit it and you can say things over.

But you know what?

If you'd make it too perfect, then it's not really like real life.

Real life.

Every once in a while, we all make mistakes and fumble over words, but that's real life, right?

Yep.

And you know what, kids, parents and grandparents, the neat thing about recording our stories is that Bailey read the story.

She made suggestions if some of the words were too difficult to understand or didn't fit appropriately into the story.

And that was half the fun, too, right?

Yeah.

Adjusting and fixing, like, stuff that didn't make sense or making it more so kids will understand it better.

Absolutely.

So Bailey had a lot of great suggestions and.

Which meant that we rewrote it a couple of times in parts, and we recorded it over again sometimes.

But that's the fun behind it.

What's cool is that is part of the fun of the story behind the story.

And when you listen to some of the questions that we're going to talk about here shortly with Bailey, you'll find out that this actually was based on a true event and we were able to turn it into an adventure story, a children's book.

Bailey and I would like to share the story behind the story and hopefully inspire you to take your.

Take your adventures that you've done together as children and parents or children and grandparents and turn them into your own stories.

So please enjoy our conversation as Bailey and I discuss the story behind the story.

Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

So, Bailey, you've had many trips to Canmore and Banff National Park.

What are your first thoughts when you think about your visits to the.

To Canmore and Banff?

I actually.

All my visits have been actually excellent.

So fun.

They're all so fun.

We go on a lot of adventures, like going around town and stuff, and it's a lot of fun.

And what makes this area so special to you?

I think it's like a big part of My life because I've had so many adventures and spending time with family there and stuff.

Right on.

And what's interesting, this story is based on actually your third time at the Canmore Folk Music Festival.

What?

Why did you want to return year after year to the festival?

I wanted to return year after year because one year I had so much fun, the next year I had even more fun.

And the third year was probably the.

My favorite year I've ever gone there.

And folks and kids, even though this was Bailey's third time, it was actually her brother Leland's first time at the folk music festival.

On this trip, we actually Bailey got to share with her brother so many things.

Do you remember some of those activities, Bailey?

Yeah, there was rock climbing.

There was this bike painting thing.

It was in the story where there was paint in the back of the bike, and you would bike, and then it would make you.

Yeah, that was so cool, folks.

Is Bailey actually what she's talking about is gone on.

They had a stationary bike, and they hooked up paint to the back wheel like a.

And it.

And as Bailey pedaled, it would spin around and spray paint onto a blank piece of paper, and then it would turn into a piece of beautiful art, Right?

Yeah.

And we'd get our faces painted.

I remember I was always a cat.

Yeah.

Bailey loved being a cat.

We got some great pictures of Bailey being a cat.

Yeah.

And there was, like, activities.

I still have this clique going around the markets and buying some cool T shirts and stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was so neat.

And what Bailey's talking about is the folk music festival had a huge market area, and local artists and artists from around the world would come, and they would display their jewelry or T shirts or necklaces.

So many different things.

Food.

So many different things.

What was your favorite thing at the market?

My favorite thing was probably the T shirt I got.

It has the Kenmore Folk Music festival on it, and I've had it.

I still have it.

Yeah, A long time ago, but it used to be huge.

Yeah, right on.

And that's the neat thing about it, folks, is every year, they would do up a different.

Different T shirt.

One of my favorites is they had a Volk, an old Volkswagen van as part of the logo.

That was kind of cool, too.

So so many different T shirts over the years.

So.

So, Bailey, do you remember Linda and Tom?

Oh, yeah, I do.

Waiting in line.

We'd play cards, like Uno and stuff.

And then when we would.

We, like, all sit in our chairs watching the bands and stuff play on stage.

Absolutely.

And do you remember where Linda and Tom were from?

North America?

Yeah, from.

They were from.

From Portland, Oregon.

So it's pretty neat to the people traveled from all over the world.

Not only the entertainers came from all over the world, but also what we found was a lot of people in the audience because they loved the Canmore Folk Music Festival and being surrounded by the mountain.

So can you remember one of the neat things about the folk festival is, like, everything, of course, you know, a lot of it is driven by volunteers and getting people to help, you know, how to offset costs and all that.

So they would get local.

Local retailers to help support different.

Different rewards for people attending.

And one of the.

One of the neat things was they had a children's shopping spree at one of the toy stores in Canmore.

What was neat is Bailey's name got called.

Do you remember your name getting called?

Yeah, I remember sitting in my chair and I was just, like, wondering.

I was just, like, looking around, and all of a sudden I hear my name being called and I'm like, what?

And then that's because before we had to do this thing on this paper with checklists, and if you got all them right, your name would be called to win the prize to go to the store.

Right.

And I remember walking up being so confused, but, like, nervous, too, of why they called my name, gave me this bag, this, like, toy that you push its belly and then, like, a ball shoots out of its mouth.

And that was so cool.

And then I remember going.

I think it was the next day, right, we went to the store and I got a butterfly wand and a butterfly tea set.

Yeah, it was really neat to.

Actually, all of us were so excited for Bailey and her name getting drawn.

And she got to go up onto the.

Onto the main stage and they presented her with, as she described, she got a prize before she even got the.

The main prize, which was the shopping spree at the Cammore Canmore toy store.

So it was neat that the next day going down and Bailey presenting her card, and the store was excited for her and they explained how to do it.

Yep.

And away you went.

Right.

Of my funniest things that I remember about that, though, is I did win, but I won mostly because I had Kira with me and she was really helping me out with the questions as I was quite little to probably get them all.

Right.

Right.

So again, folks, that's part of, you know, your cousins helping you out and supporting you and.

And.

And us sharing that our.

Our time together as a family and with friends also.

So that was kind of neat.

Do you remember running up on the.

On the stage to get your prize?

Yeah, I do.

I remember getting up.

I don't know if someone walked up with me.

I think some.

I think Kira did, but I remember walking up and the guy on stage was like, here you go.

Good job.

And walking back, all these people clapping and looking at me.

And I was like, wow.

Yeah, very neat.

Very neat.

And.

And it was.

It the.

There was a lot of people there, so it was kind of neat to go up and feel like you were an entertainer right on the stage.

I didn't really know how to feel.

I was happy that I won, but I was still, like, it was still processing in my head of everything that was going on in that moment.

So.

Kids and parents and grandparents, over the next several months, myself, Bailey, Kira, Leland, Caitlin and Cooper will record many audiobooks about the adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

And we would love to share them with you.

We've actually set up a Caboose's Cub club, and we have three different levels.

So we hope that you'll go to our website@caboose the RockyMountainBear.com and just learn about how you can support us in our adventures with Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.

The neat thing about it is you'll be hearing stories written by myself and Bailey and Kira and Leland and Caitlin and Cooper, and then they're going to actually bring the stories to life through our audiobooks.

So we hope you'll enjoy that.

So, Bailey, what do you like about reading these stories of the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear?

I like, like reading them because it brings back memories of those really good, fun times.

Yeah, going to the folk festival, that was like, that's one of my favorite memories of spending time with family, winning.

And it was just a lot of fun, for sure.

And, you know, you think about that when I guess I'm talking to the parents right now and the grandparents is, you know, all had this opportunity to relive some of our fondest memories with our children and our grandchildren and to actually be able to put them into words and then possibly draw them just is so much fun.

So we hope that this gives you a little inspiration.

I hope Bailey's given you a little inspiration about how you can capture those memories and get to relive them, which is so neat.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with the other kids listening on to this?

I say just really fun to, you know, go on all these memory trips and to, like, tell your story of how fun it was for you and how you can just tell everyone else your story of.

For sure.

And that's.

That's part of what Bailey's saying, is being able to kind of relive those moments.

I don't think.

I think enjoying some of your past memories.

And, you know, we've talked about this before, myself and Bailey and my other grandchildren, and sometimes you think, oh, you know what, we'll just go back the next year and do it again, or whatever.

But life doesn't quite work that way all the time.

So there's things that can get in the way.

And that's what makes doing something like this even more special, is you're able to relive those moments and maybe you can never duplicate them exactly the way they were.

You just have to build new adventures.

Right, Billy?

Exactly.

And what else would you like to share?

When you think about creating these audiobooks and stories, is there something that you think the people can learn from this?

They can just learn about each character and their adventures with, you know, Caboose and going to the Kenmar and stuff, and how they had a blast and telling all their stories of how it was.

So, folks, we want to thank you for listening to Bailey and I talk about the story behind the story.

And thank you, Bailey.

This has been fun.

This has been super fun.

A lot of great things have happened since this conversation with Bailey.

As we mentioned, on Sunday, August 3, 2025, we launch our second book in our book series, the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear, entitled Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

After developing an idea for a children's book story, you've heard how we organized a special event with the Canmore Folk Music Festival, and this was beyond our wildest dreams.

As mentioned earlier, Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival will be available in print and ebook format on Sunday, August 3, 2025.

We're so proud to bring our book over the finish line.

As we mentioned before, if you're visiting Banff national park in Canada, we encourage you to stop by the town of Cammore and pick up our new book at Stonewaters, located on the main street.

We hope our story helps aspiring children's book authors to think outside the box in pursuit of publishing their first children's book.

As we wrap up today's podcast, we want to share a few more thoughts on a book release and offer these following suggestions to support your book launch.

First, ask yourself does this event match your age demographics?

Is it specifically directed at young children who are with their parents or grandparents?

Or is it directed at parents and grandparents who are looking for this type of book to purchase?

Second, pricing for us, we needed to make sure we had a way of accepting payments easily, so we set ourselves up a square account and we can actually take payments on our smartphones.

The other thing is we made the price so that it would round up to a number that people could easily pay cash if that's the way they wanted to purchase our book.

Third thing, even though we were launching our book at a major event, we were using our podcast show and social media to help announce our book launch.

And you know what?

We are experimenting with this and we want to see how it goes.

I thought about checking into live streaming and if this isn't possible, we will at the very least capture on video our book launch event and use it in the future on our website.

Fourth, we're using other marketing ideas to encourage the purchase of our first book, the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear, and we are using free bookmarks and activity pages that direct people to our website.

Fifth, we're looking to have a draw for a couple of our books and have some fun with the audience.

Lastly, we're going to create a podcast show after the event to share ideas with you, our podcast audience, and share our learning.

We hope we've triggered thoughts to help you with your next book launch.

As Caboose likes to say, adventure Out.

Thank you for listening.