on Indie Kids Books:

I once went to a conference where five children’s book authors spoke about their first sale. Each sold their first book to the first editor who saw it, and the book did well.

Well. THAT doesn’t happen very often. I went home and cried because my experience was like most people. My first book, THE RIVER DRAGON, had a nice splash in the marketplace and sold fairly well, but it drifted off into a slumber.

Probably (I’m sorry!) your book one will publish to the sound of crickets. You’ll try this or that—techniques that someone said SHOULD work—and you’ll be disappointed with the sales. It’s rare for it to go any other way.

The Unavoidable Problems with Book One

The problem with the first book is three-fold. First, there’s the problem of today’s crowded market. Every day, new books are released and yours must compete for an audience. Why should anyone take a chance on buying your book when there are a dozen similar ones just out? It’s a brutal bunny-eat-bunny world out there.

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