The Children's Book Author Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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People will ALWAYS judge your book by its cover: it's the harsh reality! So make sure you get your cover design right. Today we discuss what makes a great cover and how you can make sure your cover helps to sell your book, with Cover Designer, Holly Dunn. Enjoy the episode!
Elena

MORE ABOUT HOLLY DUNN:

Holly is a book cover designer based in New Zealand. She specialises in working with indie authors to make their stories shine through custom illustration and hand lettering. Before switching to full-time design, she worked at a company helping indie authors market their books. Now, along with her design services, she creates resources to help indie authors on their self-publishing journey.

LINKS:

hollydunndesign.com

Instagram

YouTube

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Have you ever wanted to write middle-grade fiction? Or perhaps you already do, but want to make it so good that it wins every award it's ever entered into? Then this is the interview for you! Marc has won over 22 awards and has written and self-published eight books and many have been translated into 10 languages. You'll discover how to work with the best editors, writing in series, and which book awards are the best for exposure and feedback. So settle in and find out all about how to write an award winning middle grade book.  

Enjoy today's episode. 

Elena

MORE ABOUT MARC REMUS:

Marc Remus is a Neo Pop-Art painter, author, and illustrator. Born in Germany, educated in the United States, he graduated in art and illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in the 90s.

​Having a passion for languages, he travelled to seventy countries, lived a few years in Honduras and Japan, and visited over a thousand cities, of which he has painted over two hundred. His art work has been featured in over one hundred magazine/newspaper articles in Germany, USA, and Mexico (TV documentaries available above.)

​During his studies in California, he took his first children’s book illustration class. His teacher inspired him to start writing and not just illustrating. The result was a picture book called Painting Brian, which led to the Magora series. He began taking classes in children's literature in 2003 and worked with some incredible editors. Over a period of twenty years, he developed the magical world Magora based on places he had visited, people he had met, and things he had learned through his studies in acting, cultural Anthropology, and linguistics.

In 2016 the first book of the Magora series was published on Amazon. It became a big success and ranked for five days as No.1 of all children's book on Amazon, with over 35.000 downloads. Since then, the series has won 20 awards.

In 2019, Remus started a new project. He wrote the children's book "The Chocolate Clouds." Since it is an illustrated book with 150 drawings, three years passed before it was finally published in 2021. In just seven months, it won six literary awards among  them the first literary award in the UK (The Wishing Shelf Book Award.)

Following this success, many translators applied to create a version in their language. As a result, many foreign language editions evolved: Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish. Some of these editions are already available on Amazon.


Find him at https://www.marcremus.com/author
https://www.instagram.com/marcremus/
https://www.facebook.com/MarcRemusBooks/

And find the best Awards to enter at https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/ask-alli-self-publishing-advice/

​

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Todays episode is all about having a writing group! I interview first time children's book author, Christina Dankert, about her journey to publication and how having a collaborative and supportive writing group made all the difference. I'm now on the hunt for a writers group too lol!! You will want one too after you listen to this episode - be forewarned. And most of all learn from Christina, and enjoy the show. 

Elena

ABOUT CHRISTINA DANKERT

Christina Dankert is a children’s book author, elementary educator and literacy enthusiast. As an educator, she believes books are a beautiful way to continue to learn and grow. She believes all children should be able to find themselves in picture books. It is through children’s literature and reading to the children in our lives, that will change the world.

FIND HER AT:

https://christinadankert.com/
https://www.instagram.com/christina.dankert/
https://www.facebook.com/ChristinaDankertAuthor

BUY THE KINDNESS MACHINE (and leave a review as it helps an author extraordinarily):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1955119090?pf_rd_r=80RYQMEPDRYJD6JMQ2AT&geniuslink=true

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It was extraordinary to interview Children's Book Author, Developmental Editor, and Podcaster Jennifer Milius. We talked about the importance of  including podcasting as part of your marketing - in particular being a guest on relevant podcasts, and how this can strengthen your brand and reach. We also talked about working with a developmental editor and how it can make your story shine. Enjoy today's interview.

MORE ABOUT JENNIFER:

Jennifer Milius is an entrepreneur, developmental editor, coach and accomplished multi-genre author who leverages her 20-year corporate career, undergraduate Communications degree, and M.B.A. to help writers get out of their own way, leave a legacy by telling their stories and confidently sharing them. 

Having spoken to over 5,000 elementary school students about courage and confidence as well as being host of The TufFish Show, Jen believes when you share your gifts and message, you bring joy to others and show what’s possible for them. Tapping into your full potential means that joy, purpose, and possibility are coming together through you. 

Check out her website at www.jennifermilius.com
Sign up for her course Shine as a Podcast Guest at https://www.jennifermilius.com/offers/mQnoBH9F/checkout

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I interviewed the very charming Mary Anastasiou, Children's Book Author and Creative Director at Larrikin House. I got the inside scoop on how to better brand myself as an author, the importance of social media, working with traditional publishers, and aiming for the moon in your author career. Enjoy the interview.

MORE ABOUT MARY

A self-confessed chocoholic, pluviophile and lover of all things kid lit, Mary writes books that she hopes will engage, inspire and empower little people on their journey to becoming big people.

With 30 years of marketing and design experience, Mary now heads the creative team at indie publisher Larrikin House. Responsible for the creation of more than 60 Larrikin titles. Mary works exclusively with authors and illustrators to create books that (she hopes) will one day become classics.

Author or the much loved 'I want to be...' series, her latest title, 'I want to be a Sports Star' was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Book of the Year awards in 2022.

And, with three new titles set for release in 2023 'Jimmy Bottoms', 'Julius Squeezer' and 'The Art of Making Friends' Mary is set to continue making her own kid lit dreams come true.

A frequent guest-assessor for both KidLit VIC and CYA, Mary loves nothing more than to help others achieve their publishing dreams.

LINKS:

https://maryanastasiou.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/maryanastasiou_author/
https://larrikinhouse.com.au/

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A power charged interview today with Middle Grade Author Brett Perkins who launched his first book The Prison for the Magically Cursed to best-selling status on Amazon in 2022. With his next book in the series coming out very soon, he sat down to chat with me about how to write and market a middle grade book. This and so much more in today's interview.

About Brett:

Brett Perkins is a primary school teacher/author from the picturesque Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
For over twenty years, Brett has been encouraging his students to embrace their imaginations and create their own incredible stories, all the while continuing to fulfill his own dreams of writing.
He lives with his two dogs, Colt and Storm, and finds pleasure in reading, watching a scary movie, or picking up a paintbrush and escaping into art. He loves to travel all over the world and is a massive Pokémon fan.

LINKS:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Brett-Perkins/author/B09WJ6FHW6
Instagram: @brett_creates

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I was lucky enough to get Children's Book Author Darcy Pattison on the show this week, who has published more than 50 children's books under her own publishing house - Mims House. We talk about how to write a non-fiction picture book, exploring merchandise opportunities for your books, marketing, school visits and so much more! Enjoy the episode and enjoy my intro where I talk all about pushing yourself as an author to write more words!

MORE ABOUT DARCY:

Children’s book author and indie publisher Darcy Pattison writes award-winning fiction and non-fiction books for children. Her works have received starred PW, Kirkus, and BCCB reviews. Awards include the Irma Black Honor award, five NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, two Eureka! Nonfiction Honor book, two Junior Library Guild selections, two NCTE Notable Children’s Book in Language Arts, a Notable Social Studies Trade Books, and an Arkansiana Award. She’s the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature.

Always active, before her tenth birthday, she (almost) climbed the Continental Divide, turning back at the last twenty yards because it was too steep and great climbing shoes hadn’t been invented yet. Before COVID, she rode a bicycle down a volcano in Bali, Indonesia and hiked in the U.S. Rockies. On her bucket list is kayaking the Nā Pali Coast of Hawaii and eating curry in Mumbai.

LINKS:

https://www.darcypattison.com
https://mimshousebooks.com

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Hold on tight for another wonderful interview that will encourage you to push forward in your Author journey. Sandra has such an encouraging and practical "get it done" attitude - I changed as a person and as an author from her interview and I'm sure you'll do the same. Plus my introduction is a long one today because her interview really did trigger a transformation in me.

Enjoy the show!

More about Sandra:

Sandra Bennett is the International Award winning author of the Adamson Adventures. A series of middle grade books for readers aged 7 -12 years. Secrets Hidden Below, book 1, was shortlisted in the Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards 2019, while Fossil Frenzy, book 3 was a winner of the Queensland Writers Centre Adaptable Competition 2020 enabling Sandra to pitch the manuscript to film producers for the Gold Coast Film Festival. Fossil Frenzy was also a  Finalist - Children's Fiction International Book Awards 2021 and received an Honorable Mention Middle Grade Fiction Royal Dragonfly Awards 2021. Sandra has also published two picture books and two early readers. She has ten short stories in various anthologies and wrote a graphic novel for low literacy learners in Papua New Guinea for Library For All.

As an Australia Reads Ambassador, Sandra enjoys author school visits, presenting writing workshops and talks wherever she can to encourage a love of reading by engaging and delighting young readers with her thrilling adventures. Increasing literacy in our children is Sandra's passion, and as such she writes books that help both parents and teachers build children's literacy through read-aloud stories, one great adventure at a time.

All the important links:

Sandra's Website: https://sandrabennettauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GingerbreadAliens
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SandraBennettAu

The Australian Authors Society
Australian Reads Ambassador

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Adam Wallace, New York Times best selling author joins me on the podcast today and tells us all about how he discovered his love of writing children's books and today combines self-publishing and traditional publishing to make a full time living. He is incredible at doing school visits and gives the best advice, so if you're considering doing any - listen to this episode!

We do talk about his course on School Visits, but this is no longer available unfortunately. However you can find his free resource on the topic and more at: https://www.adam-wallace-books.com/

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Welcome back to the show in 2023, and I have more incredibly informative, and inspirational interviews planned for you this year. Unfortunately I am still tackling some technical difficulties in my search for the perfect way to record interviews, but I will not give up until I get there. So in todays interview there were several glitches, but it was totally worth persevering as I learned so much from today's guest. Without further ado, I was privileged to interview Jessie Cunniffe who is a professional book blurb writer and coach.

In this interview you'll learn the secrets of salesworthy book blurbs and discover how to implement them in your own blurbs.

Jessie has generously offered 10% off her Book Blurb Magic course and all of her book blurb services with the code ELENAPAIGE - so get blurbed right now. 

Enjoy the show and learning all about book blurbs!

ABOUT JESSIE:

Jessie Cunniffe* is a professional blurb writer and book blurb coach from Sydney, Australia. A passionate advocate of the indie author community, Jessie has dedicated herself to taking the pain out of blurb-writing with her custom blurb-writing and critiquing services and two signature courses: Book Blurb Magic and The Spicy Blurb Playbook. When she’s not writing or dreaming up the next BBM product, Jessie can be found in high school classrooms with a guitar in hand, and has been a regular contributor to the arts pages of one of Australia’s most highly respected newspapers for the past decade. On the occasion that she manages to snatch some reading time, she’s probably buried in P. G. Wodehouse or Agatha Christie.

*Pronounced ‘k-NIFF’

IMPORTANT LINKS:

REMEMBER TO USE THE CODE ELENAPAIGE to get 10% off the Book Blurb Magic Course and all of Jessie's services.*

Website: www.bookblurbmagic.com 

Email: jessie@bookblurbmagic.com

FREE blurb cheatsheet: https://adoracopyediting.thrivecart.com/anatomy-of-a-book-blurb 

FREE spicy secrets romance blurb mini-course: www.spicyblurbplaybook.com 

Instagram: @bookblurbmagic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookblurbmagic

*I've included Jessie's products on this page because I have personally bought and used the Book Blurb Magic course, and want you to also gain the benefit, so if you take action, I will earn some coffee money, ie it's an affiliate link. Remember to use code ELENAPAIGE to get 10% off.