A SUCCESSFUL SELF-PUBLISHING STORY

Today I’m really excited to host author Blair N. Williamson on the blog to learn more about her amazing experience with self publishing her beautiful picture book ISLAND GIRLS: Free the Sea of Plastic.

I’ve been following Blair’s publishing journey on social media for a while, and I’ve been really curious about how she’s achieved such success; so of course, I was thrilled when she agreed to do this interview. I’m sure you’ll find her story as interesting as I have.

A bit about Island Girls: Are the Sea of Plastic (from Amazon).

Inspired by a true story, Island Girls: Free the Sea of Plastic empowers children to help their under-the-sea friends and use their voices to fight against plastic in our oceans.

When sisters Sadie and Josie discover their turtle friends think plastic bags are tasty jellyfish, they take a stand to spread awareness about plastics polluting our precious oceans. Island Girls: Free the Sea of Plastic is a masterfully-illustrated celebration of the beautiful underwater world and a call for all of us to make a change.

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Now, on to our interview.

M. Blair, I’m so glad to be able to have this chat with you. Can you share what’s been your path to publication with this book?

B. Oh my goodness, Mariana, this is such a loaded question but a very important one! I first had a book deal on this book with a traditional publisher – and after seeing the first round of illustrations that came from FIVERR and was clip art of two kids in a forest with a box turtle by a lake… I knew I needed to quickly, but professionally, get my rights back and back out of this deal as quickly as possible. They completely missed the entire message of the book even though we had many emails and calls discussing it before I signed with them. When I realized that no one was going to produce the vision of this book in particular how I wanted it done, I decided I was going to self publish it. Here is some important things that I learned from the process:

HIRE THE PROFESSIONALS!
I know my strengths and know my weaknesses. For example, I know that I am NOT a graphic designer OR an illustrator. So, while formatting a book may be easy to some people, I knew that if I wanted Island Girls to be a success. I had to make sure this book was professionally formatted AND professionally illustrated! More on the illustrator selection process below.

RESEARCH
Do your research about different companies that you may or may not want to work with in your timeframe. There are many different self-publishing companies out there who will want your business, but you have to make sure the one you go with is the right choice for you. You are choosing your teammates, and if you don’t have a good relationship with them from the start, that won’t be a good experience. Here are a few important questions to ask when considering if that company is right for you:

Royalties: Make sure to look at what percentage of royalties that specific company keeps.
Illustration: Do you want them to hire an illustrator for you or do you want to take care of that yourself?
Rights: Do you keep your rights?
Distribution: Will the book be available in only the USA or globally? What stores will the book be available to order?
End result: Look at other books they have published, order a few online, and hold them — feel them — so you can see the quality of the books they produce.

I was working on a timeline from early August to launching three months later and had to have books in hand by February. I had a big opportunity to speak at the Palmetto State Literacy Conference on February 23 and my entire project was a backwards timeline from that deadline in February. I had a very small window of time where I needed to produce the book and get it out into the world, preferably by the holidays, so from August to Thanksgiving we had to put the book together and I needed to find a solid company who would work with me to meet that deadline. Mindstir Media was a company I was seriously considering but they simply said they could not meet my deadline. I ultimately went with Gatekeeper Press who helped bring the overall vision of the book to life. I wanted to make sure that I could get the most out of the publisher that I went with. I almost didn’t sign with Gatekeeper Press on a couple of different items, one being a dust jacket on my book. I almost lost my mind over whether or not I had to have a dust jacket for my book, and I decided that I did not need one and I’m OK with that, for now. It’s been fine in libraries and schools. No one has asked me about a missing dust jacket. The books are still happily sold in bookstores, museum gift shops, and schools, so at the time, that was my decision. I think moving forward, now that I have found offshore printers, I will order the next bulk order with a dust jacket. In summary, Gatekeeper Press was a great publisher for me to go with, so do your research on what publisher might work best for you if you are considering self publishing a book.

M. Blair, it sounds like a lot had to be done and that you’ve learned quite a bit from this experience! I’m glad that you were able to get your book back and that you could make it come to life the way that you had envisioned it. That was surprising for me to hear. Now, can you tell us how you found your wonderful illustrator? Her art is beautiful!

B. Svitlana Holovchenko was an absolute dream to work with. As I mentioned earlier, I had a very specific timeline from August ‘22 to February ‘23 to produce, publish, and have books in hand to present and sell at the Palmetto State Literacy Conference. I knew I needed an exceptional illustrator, so to find one, I used resources on social media and groups I am members of: SCBWI, KidLit411, and Authors and Illustrators on Facebook. I posted the job on these groups, and Svitlana was one of probably 800 illustrators who bid for the job. In my post I told them the time frame, the framework of the story, and I asked them to please submit their under-the-sea samples and/or illustrations of turtles specifically. The minute we saw Svitlana’s work, we knew she was our girl. My daughters and I spent all day going through different portfolios of illustrators for hours. We narrowed our selections down to a handful of illustrators and I interviewed them. It was a unanimous decision that we had to work with Svitlana. She’s Ukrainian and lives in Germany. She does not speak English, so she and I communicated over Facebook messenger chat through translation apps. She was a dream to work with and I was blown away at the speed that she got this done. You never want to rush an illustrator, but she said she could do it and I believed her. In negotiations, we were very clear with our needs in a contract, and we took a leap of faith to trust each other and get to work. She did every spread by hand and the level of detail that she brought was incredible. Better than I could have ever dreamed of. I will give her one more shout out — I had sent her a box of books to Germany once the books were published to thank her, and in return, she sent me all the original watercolor spreads! I love working with wonderful people. I’m forever thankful to Svitlana. She’s so talented and just brought my vision to life unlike anything I could’ve ever imagined.

When you look to hire an illustrator, do your work, do your research, look at their portfolios, get a contract signed, and if your gut feels right, don’t be afraid to go with it! Take the leap of faith. There are so many wonderful illustrators out there, but you must take your time and put in the work to find the gems!

M. I can’t believe you created such a great team and that you both didn’t even speak the same language! How wonderful it is to see everything that can be achieved with technology and by sharing the same vision.

Blair, according to what you’ve learned, what tips would you give authors who are looking to self publish.

B. I want to share several lessons I’ve learned:

MAKE A PLAN

Keep in mind that if you’re going to go the independent publishing route, dare I say… that writing the book is the easiest part of it all. As soon as the book launches, you don’t want to be behind the eight ball. You need to think ahead. You need to plan. Draw up a schedule. Think about, ‘What I am going to do once I have the books? Do I want to do any events? If so, what types of events will I want to do?’ Research! Research! Research! You can find a big event you need your books by or set up a signing and work backwards from there. That really worked for me. It’s a good strategy that I used… BUT there can always be downsides to trying to meet a deadline, like things out of your control (i.e. delays with shipping and printing, landing you at that event without the books in questions!). So, keep that in mind, too. With anything, there are risks!

CREATE SOME BUZZ

I received advice to get some pre-publication endorsements for Island Girls to start drumming up some buzz. I reached out to a lot of organizations asking them to give me a quote or endorsement, plus a few friends who were dive instructors with me or who worked in the
maritime profession. I had a couple brainstorming sessions where I sat down and wrote what I wanted the outcome to be and then thoughts on what I needed to do to make that happen. There was a lot of outreach, cold emailing, and cold calling – and wonderful relationships formed. I created a lot of relationships with organizations who feel very passionate about this issue of plastic in our ocean, and that’s how I got the partnership and backing I have – with the Plastic Ocean Project. Bonnie, the CEO, agreed to write the formal forward of the book and to let me use their logo inside of the book. This was all thanks to a cold call! Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone! People are wonderful if you open up to them and be yourself. With her endorsement in hand, I reached out to other organizations, so they knew about the book, too. Once you have one quote from an organization, you can send that as an example to the next organization and build off that. The more pre-publication support you can get, the better! My goal was to have at least 5 big organizations supporting Island Girls pre-launch so when it came time to publish, they had already agreed to help push on social channels. ALSO, you can use these reviews when you publish on your amazon author page. The bigger the name, the better.

Here is some information I included in an email when I asked for pre-publication endorsements. I sent them a .pdf digital proof from the publisher. I was very polite and basically introduced myself and the reason I wrote the book. I gave a little background on who I am and told them, “Attached is the 408-word picture book manuscript. If you have a moment, please have a read through it and if you are willing, I’d really appreciate a quick quote. This would help me when it comes time to release the book.” I notified them about the release date and I also asked them when I post about it if they would share it on social media, too. It never hurts to ask! The worst that can happen is they say no. If they say no, politely thank them for their time and move on.

GET A PRESS RELEASE

In my work at Global Expeditions Group, I worked a little in the PR / social media side of the business for a while. From those years of experience, I knew it would be nice for me to have a news article about the book being released. I started doing a lot of research on press releases, and who has the best audience for my book. Circling back to MindStir Media – they had a great press release for my children’s picture book Island Girls: Free the Sea of Plastic. It was $799, so it’s a big investment, but I believe it has paid off as the book was on CNN, FOX, and NBC 12. They have great outlets to push the stories to and they were wonderful to work with, so they were a great resource. It was cool for me, too, since I had friends from all over telling me they read about my book in various articles. There are other companies to use, but MindStir was great to work with. I highly recommend them.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SELL SHEET

You will want your publisher or graphic designer to put together a sell sheet for you. A sell sheet is a single PDF that you can email quickly to any bookstore (or anyone else) that would be interested in wholesale ordering your book from Ingram Content Group. Sidenote: Ingram Content Group is one of the largest reliable distribution networks in the industry. The sell sheet should have the Title, About the Author, an image of the cover, a snippet from the press release, and ISBN ordering info for paperback and hardback, plus information on how to get in touch with you, etc. Also make sure it includes high-res photos and graphics, especially of your cover!

PLAN YOUR LAUNCH

There’s a lot that goes into the launch of a book that will help make it more successful. Ask yourself what you want the launch to look like and work backwards from there. How do you want the launch to go? I knew I had a network of friends and family who would support me at
local book events or signings. I started reaching out to people who might host a book event for me. I also had this conference on the calendar for two years that I just went to in late February 2023. There are a lot of different things to think about when you think about making a book launch successful. Some of the most important things? To have a good publisher who will help set it up for sale “the right way” on Amazon, help you set up your Author platform on Amazon, help you register the ISBN number and register with the Library of Congress, and apply for the copyright – all details that need to be done that I had no clue about. Gatekeeper Press took care of that side of things and they were great at keeping me informed, organized, and on time.

M. Thanks for sharing all that valuable information, Blair. Now, can you share how did you achieve Amazon #1 new release author and Book Excellence Award winning status with this book? That’s so amazing! Congratulations!

B. There were a lot of elements I think that came together in order to get that Amazon #1 New Release in multiple categories banner – the planning combined with marketing and timing of the publication all came together for me. Here are some things to think about to help you get that orange banner and win some awards!

MARKETING. Think Outside the Box and THINK BIG.

This is a hot topic! A lot of authors are asking me how I have done such a good job with Island Girls. The answer is with a lot of work and planning! But also, a lot of marketing has to do with relationship building. Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to ask for help. And this includes from big companies or corporations with platforms who might be interested in helping promote your book! I’ll say this again, for any big corporation to want to help you promote your book, it needs to be professionally done! No one is going to want to help push a book that people won’t feel proud of standing behind. I knew I had a polished product with an important message, so I had no issues asking if people wanted to help. If they believe in your message and it aligns with their company or mission, most really won’t mind posting something or sharing on social media. Many people say yes, but of course, plenty say no, too. That’s completely fine! Don’t get hung up on it and move on. Marketing has been a big part of Island Girls’ success, and it starts with being comfortable with putting yourself out there!

Here is a little exercise for you: I want you to think about your book and what corporations or companies may want to get involved with it? Make a list. Example: If you write a book about soccer, I would reach out to some past and present soccer stars, plus organizations like FIFA or ADIDAS to see if you could get a blurb or a quote from them on your story. For Island Girls, I searched on LinkedIn, Google, and searched geographically to see who is near me. Who might care about my book? After I had my list going, I started reaching out to them to get blurbs. It starts with one and then everything can build from there. Once one person or company has given you a blurb, you can then include that in your email saying, “This is an example of what X person said for me, are you able to write something short and similar?” I don’t think a lot of authors do this – so that’s been a way to think outside of the box. Just know your audience. That’s my two cents on marketing. It’s important and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

AWARDS AND REVIEWS
This is something that is important for credibility. When you publish, you will want to make sure you get some buzz through reviews and possibly awards!

Reviews: I took a chance with Kirkus Reviews through their Indie Kirkus Review branch. It’s a lot of money to invest but I do think if you get a good review, or even a starred review, it will pay for itself in sales! I got a great quote to use from Kirkus Indie and they also just selected me to be a featured review on March 15! Very unexpected and I didn’t even know that was a “thing.”

Awards: I felt like Island Girls could be competitive in the book award circuit. I researched a lot to see what awards were still open for publication in 2022. There weren’t a ton, but I decided to go for the Book Excellence Awards. I thought the prize packages looked decent and for an
investment of about $150 I was able to submit Island Girls. I am very proud to say that Island Girls was announced a Book Excellence Award WINNER! As you can imagine, that award has helped me market the book so much. Do you research!

* Another little nugget of info on awards: I wasn’t able to apply for a few of the awards because many organizations require the author and the illustrator to both be US citizens. I wouldn’t change hiring Svitlana for the world… but just keep that in mind when hiring an illustrator if you want to potentially win some of the bigger book awards.

M. I personally didn’t know this about the awards and reviews, thanks for sharing! Now, can you tell us what inspired you to become a children’s book author and write this story? How has your background as a boat captain and scuba diving instructor impacted your writing?

B. My debut book, Island Girls, launched just last year in November 2022. Island Girls was inspired back in 2009 when I was earning my PADI master scuba diver trainer license. In a book, I saw a picture of a jellyfish next to a plastic bag, an image that really stuck with me. While working as a scuba diving instructor, I encountered plastic bags in the ocean, even mistaking them for jellyfish from a distance. The real wake-up call came when I was snorkeling with my daughters, probably in 2018 or 2019. They spotted a turtle swimming toward a plastic bag, and I quickly intervened, stopping the turtle before it ate the plastic bag. My daughters asked me, “Mommy, what are we gonna do about this plastic?” This powerful moment inspired the entire story.

Later, in a writing class, I was asked to write about a meaningful experience, and this manuscript, Island Girls: Free the Sea of Plastic, became my first-ever written work. It has since sold over 2000 copies, named a best book for Earth Day 2022, received a Book Excellence Award Winner recognition and more.

M. That’s amazing! I’m so happy for your Blair! Finally, any new projects that you’re currently working on? What comes next for you?

B. Hopefully Island Girls will become a series of various climate fiction picture books to spread awareness about what is happening in our oceans. There are a lot of “irons in the fire” if you will and we will see what the future brings on this. In addition to that thought, I have an upcoming traditionally published picture book debut, BIRTHDAY BASH, with The Little Press, illustrated by Taylor Woolley, that is set to come out in the fall of 2025. Keep an eye out for that one, it’s hilarious!

And currently, I am overwhelmed with creativity! This is a great problem to have but it also can be very stressful because I can’t spend all day every day writing, although sometimes I wish I could! I recently found a fantastic agency to partner with moving forward. Karen Kilpatrick and
East West Literary Agency. Karen saw the potential in my brand and enjoyed my manuscripts, so we are prepping a grand master plan for me. I am excited about a few Holiday story adaptations I wrote already for Halloween and Christmas and I am also very excited about a PB Bio (series) that I am starting to research. It is a very exciting time for me as a young author. I can’t wait to see what the next year(s) will bring.

M. Blair everything sounds really exciting! I’m so happy about all your new projects and I’ll be rooting for you. Can’t wait to hear the news about more book deals. I wish you the best and thanks again for participating in this interview. I learned a lot and I hope the readers enjoyed it too.

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BLAIR’S BIO

Williamson is a Book Excellence Awards Winner and Amazon #1 new release author of ISLAND GIRLS: Free the Sea of Plastic who loves writing stories that make children laugh, stories that will spark important conversations, and stories that will ignite change to protect our oceans. She is a proud mother and wife, a retired boat captain and scuba diving instructor who also loves sunrises and coffee. Williamson has an upcoming traditional debut BIRTHDAY BASH (Little Press, 2025) and is represented by Karen Kilpatrick and East West Literary Agency.

Twitter/X: theislandwriter

Instagram/Threads: theislandwriter8

Thanks for reading,

M

Cover photo by Jeremy Bishop.