Where Are Your Feet? — a picture book about a young rabbit called Noodle whose head is always somewhere else. Fourteen spreads, thirty-two pages, finished print files ready for KDP. I’ve written three books for adults. This was my first for children and my first time illustrating anything. The workflow, in case it’s useful: I developed the story and the character with Claude — the manuscript, the spread-by-spread structure, the scene descriptions, and a lot of back-and-forth about what the book was actually about. Then Firefly for the character reference images, Noodle and his friend Tilly. Then StorySmile to build the spreads, hold the character consistent, and produce the print files. Each tool doing the thing it’s good at, rather than fighting one of them to do everything. Four things I learned: -The reference image decides everything. I locked in a lovely seated rabbit — and then every spread came back with him sitting down, no matter how clearly I described standing. The tool wasn’t ignoring me; it was faithfully reproducing the character I’d given it. I had to go back to Firefly and build a second reference before the spreads behaved. -Use the edit function, not a regenerate. When a scene is 90% right, editing preserves the character, setting and continuity and changes only what you asked about. I wasted several generations learning that. -The continuity note wants one backward reference. Not three, and not a description of what future spreads will need. “Same kitchen as Spread 3.” That’s it. -The automated checker is a nudge, not a verdict. It flagged my rabbit’s ears as inconsistent on five separate spreads — they were fine every time. It also caught a genuine trim-edge problem I’d have missed. Treat it as a prompt to go and look, and trust your own eyes. And the thing that actually mattered: My opening line was “Noodle has very big feet.” Five attempts later the feet were still ordinary rabbit feet, because a soft watercolor rabbit is a soft watercolor rabbit and the style was never going to caricature.

I've been working on something behind the scenes for a while now, and I'm FINALLY ready to share it with you! If you've ever dreamed of becoming a children's book author, you're going to want to pay attention to tomorrow's announcement! 👀 I'm officially launching StorySmile , something I've created to help authors turn their creative ideas into something REAL! ✨ And because this community means so much to me, you'll be the FIRST to get access before I open it up to everyone else! 🎁 BONUS FOR PREMIUM MEMBERS: You're automatically getting 3 FREE StorySmile credits included with your membership! 📅 Tomorrow is the BIG reveal! 👇 In the meantime, tell me: Have you ever thought about publishing a children's book?

Holiday shopping season is about to kick into high gear, and one thing I want to remind you of is that 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀! People LOVE supporting small businesses, especially during the holidays. And if you're a self-published author, this could be a great opportunity to get your books into the hands of local shoppers. One of my favorite things about self-publishing with Amazon KDP is that you can order 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁! Depending on your book's size, page count, and printing specifications, you might pay as little as $3–$5 per book. Now imagine taking those books to a local craft fair, holiday market, book signing, or community event and selling them for $20 each. That's potentially $𝟭𝟱–$𝟭𝟳 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝘀, 𝘁𝗮𝘅𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘀! And here's another reason I LOVE this business model: 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗡𝗢 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗺 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗞𝗗𝗣 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗲𝘀! You don't have to invest thousands of dollars ordering hundreds of books and hoping they sell. You can start small, test the demand, and order more as needed. Think about all the opportunities around you this holiday season. Children's books make wonderful gifts, coloring books are great stocking stuffers, and even nonfiction books can be positioned as thoughtful gifts for the right audience. Remember, Amazon is just ONE way to sell your books. As a self-published author, you're building a business, and sometimes your next customer isn't searching on Amazon. They're walking through a local holiday market looking for something special! 💬 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿, 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁? 𝗢𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻? Let's hear your thoughts! 👇

How do we test the quality of coloring book paper for a coloring book? I want it to be for adults and good quality. Can we do that with KDP?

I just want to encourage anybody who's in this group, put their writing on pause, and needs that encouragement to get writing again. I love how this group is so positive. Every time I would see an accountability post, somebody having a win, or some really cool new tool from Miss @Krista Brea , it was encouraging as opposed to a burden. It didn't feel like I was being naughty by not keeping up. It didn't feel like I was getting more and more behind. It just felt like there was a good place for me to go whenever I was ready. I did some praying and some soul-searching October 1st and came to the conclusion that this book needs to be written this quarter so I'm doing it every morning till it's done, barring 2-3 days of batching emails and posts a month. I'm not marketing to my group. I am not doing other big projects. What I'm doing is writing this book. I've been working between 6 and 8 each morning for 3 days this week and have 19,694 words in my transcript document ready for first level edits. This is more than I did in weeks before. Do I know that these words will probably get cut? Yeah. Will they probably get added to? Absolutely. But I have words on the page that I didn't have before and I have a solid structure and plan for how to get more on the page. I have a rhythm and rhythms can lead to habits. If I keep this up I hope to have enough words on the page to start editing in earnest in the next month or two. That would be AWESOME. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴, 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘶𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗴𝗼 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲!