Hmmm.
On yesterday’s entry, I saw 7 comments… figured I was spammed! But, no!
You were nice enough, once again, to encourage me, this time to write another kids’ book!
Something with a ranch twist to it, instead of a dairy “feel”.
Well, I have done that once… That’s how this blog turned into Red Dirt In My Soul! You can hear it here.
Another blogger has had some success with her book, Amanda Radke’s Levi’s Lost Calf.
I haven’t read it, but she’s lucky enough to be able to promote it widely…
What I found out about children’s books, is you don’t get to pick your illustrator. If I meant to talk about Herefords or Angus, and the artist drew Holsteins… I wouldn’t have control.
That’s why my book is my photos altered in Photoshop…
Ever since my boys had to read Cowboy Small when they were little, because there wasn’t a “current” cowboy series… I have wanted to write a series like that. I figured I’d just write about what my boys did on the ranch.
Everyone I talked to thought there’d be a demand… but, really, I don’t think there is.
Times have changed.
No one wants to grow up to be a cowboy. Where are today’s Roy and Gene?
The politics are all messed up… ranchers are “bad” for the environment, beef is “bad” for you, flyover red states are just full of ignorant hicks. I can’t really see publishing companies being interested!
Self publishing is the other option. But to get costs down, and I mean *down*, you have to order a ton of books! That’s why I still have some Red Dirt In My Soul sitting here… I couldn’t afford to get the number that would make them cheap enough to sell to many places. Like our museum. They said they’d love to have my book, but their markup is so high, on top of my cost, that no one would spend that on a paperback!
So, really, honestly… thanks for the encouragement and I’d love to fulfill that dream, but the cost is such a gamble… and I lost a lot of money on my calendars last year! I hate that! and I have to decide quickly whether or not I’m doing *that* again…
But, thank you! thank you!
I’m just gonna have to live with my Pet Peeve #532…
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September 17, 2011 Honestly
September 17, 2010 A Picture of Progress
September 17, 2009 It was 1969…
September 17, 2008 A Bad Bike Ride (Elsa’s troubled life!)
