|
||||||||||
|
Subscribe to the Absolute Write Newsletter and get the Agents! Agents! Agents! report free! Click here.
|
Win a 1-year subscription to Writer's Digest by subscribing to Absolute Markets-- all paying markets for your writing. Click here. |
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|
Interview with G. Robert
Tell me the idea behind Sillwee Wobbert: The Happy Heart Kid. After my third year of teaching English, I began writing creatively again. I used to write a good deal of poetry and short stories in high school. Well, my creative juices started to flow again. It was also a time when my friends and siblings were having kids and I played a lot with them. Their energy and spark helped me to write several stories about a heart shaped head boy who was very silly. I showed the stories to the kids and even went to libraries for feedback. The children liked them and were entranced by the character. Then my nieces, who I gave credit in the dedication, suggested the boy have a medical condition because of his heart head. It was about that time that my nephew was born with truncus arteriosis (a condition where you are born without one of the major valves in your heart) and my father experienced quintuple bypass surgery. The heart thing was on my mind. I also had been born with mitral valve prolapse (like a heart murmur) which can limit one concerning physical activity. So, I restructured the stories to be set in a health related backgrounds and arrived at Sillwee Wobbert The Happy Heart Kid as the first book. My second in the series will be out this spring and is about asthma. Interestingly enough, the name Sillwee Wobbert actually came from one of my wife’s coworker’s daughter, who is named Vivian. She thought I was a silly guy and started to ask her mother when she would see “Sillwee Wobbert” again to play. The idea simply evolved. Why was this topic important to you? As I mentioned in question #1, the heart issue was an immediate concern. My nephew had to have open-heart surgery to save his life. The doctors inserted a pig’s valve to act as the one that was missing. After a couple years, they had to perform the surgery again to replace the valve with a bigger one that should last until his teen years when he may need a third operation. He is doing fine and adjusting well in school after a slow start. His disposition is happy which I believe helped his condition and hence the “Happy Heart Kid.” In addition, my father almost died but was saved miraculously after he had a heart attack on the job. I have the greatest respect for these surgeons and nurses that care for these patients. I found it interesting that you started your career as a lawyer. Sounds like a pretty big jump to go from practicing law to writing picture books! Did you always know you wanted to write? No, I really did not. As a kid in school, I hated to read and write. I guess that's because I never practiced it as much as I should have and I felt I wasn’t good at it. It wasn’t until high school, where some teachers took an interest in my talents, that it grew and I began to love it. This was the biggest reason why I left the law after eight years to give back to the students, like when I was in school. The writing continued to grow within me and my passion for it blossomed. You started your own publishing company to publish the Sillwee Wobbert series. Why did you go this route?
What's involved in starting up a publishing company? There is a lot. You first need some seed money which I had saved up and it doesn’t hurt if your wife works, too. I found it hard to get anyone to discuss how to publish and the “ABCs” of being successful at it. I guess I don’t blame these folks since they worked real hard at it and were holding on to the traditional method. However, there were groups that I could join and some self-publishing gurus who offered very insightful ways to break in. I read many books on the subject and walked myself through the process. Since I wrote the book, I didn’t need an author. Interviewing for an illustrator and graphic designer were hard. I was looking for someone to represent my style and be on the same wavelength as I was. I got lucky with the illustrator but had to go through several designers before I got a right fit. What I was learning was a whole new industry and language of doing business, and sometimes if you are not communicating properly, things can get difficult. Once we had the book completed on a CD, I found a printer. The best ones have overseas shops because the color is apparently better and the cost is a great deal less than in the USA. The rest is a matter of marketing, which I have been doing on my own. What resources did you use to learn more about publishing? I would offer the following resources: Initially, I read three self-publishing books and went from there: one by Dan Poynter, who has a great web site; one by Tom & Marilyn Ross, who run SPAN; and one by John Kremer, called 1001 Ways to Market your Book. Then I found some niche-specific tomes and gathered information. Finally, I subscribed to a magazine called Publisher’s Weekly, which offers a strong perspective of the industry, I joined PMA, Publisher’s Marketing Association, which helped with all the sales techniques, and I joined SPAN, Self-Publisher’s Association of North America, which is a great networking group. How did you find and decide on the artist, Glenn Lucas? I was looking for a web designer and a friend I grew up with asked me to interview an artist he worked with. I came for a web designer and ended up with an illustrator. Glenn apparently was an artist initially and moved into graphics because it was the trend. As it turned out, he drew all the pictures on the computer so that the images were digital. It is my understanding that it is how groups like Disney do it. I was lucky in the end because he was close geographically speaking and we could visit and chat about the feel of the book over coffee. Rather than marketing this book to the general public, you've been selling it to hospitals, doctor's offices, etc. How did you make these contacts? Believe it or not, I did it all by myself. I really didn’t have a great deal of funds to hire marketing reps to do all this work for me. Because my book represents a niche market, I had to focus on non-traditional arenas. On a day to day basis, I handled the entire calling, packaging books, creating media releases and promotional materials, pursuing leads, follow-up and fulfillment. It is very time consuming. However, once the book started to receive very powerful feedback and endorsements from both the medical professionals and their patients, I began to focus more narrowly on our niche instead of every related entity under the sun. Last year, I focused on individuals and companies to sponsor the books along with the hospitals. We averaged about 300 book sales a month until September 11. Since this year, we have begun relationships with larger distributors that assist in our marketing efforts, since the book has shown great success in this health care environment. How have kids reacted to this book? There is not a day that goes by that I don’t receive a telephone call, email or other from a parent, heart association, support group, hospital or patient that they loved Sillwee Wobbert. It’s better than any paycheck that I have ever received in my career. To know that my vision and message has touched a soul, a life, and helped it overcome some fear or gave him/her a smile or created some love within him/her, is what it is all about for me. I am very thankful and want to expand this positive reinforcement on a greater basis, which is why I have a book series. What's one thing you wish you'd learned earlier about the publishing process? When it’s your product, your passion really helps to guide you on the days that are hard. It is a business and at times very frustrating. I don’t know if there is one thing I wished I’d learned but you should have in place other outlets that help you maintain a balance in your life. You should have an exercise routine, a time to socialize, etc., I guess generally a systematic approach to your mission. Otherwise, it can get very lonely. If you could offer one piece of advice to authors who are considering self-publishing, what would it be? If you truly believe in your message, I advocate doing it. Now, you don’t have to publish thousands of books to see if yours will work. You can do a POD (Print on Demand) model and test the market. And I would not give up your copyright to your work. It is yours and not some other group’s right to dictate why you didn’t receive a royalty that quarter because it was a bad economy. If you do not succeed, well, it’s your baby and that’s that. You only live once. But, by persevering, it may be a better result in the end or evolve into something you never could imagine doing. My book idea has lead me to hundreds of new opportunities and rewards that I would not have experienced otherwise. You never know. Anything else you'd like to add? Just that I am genuinely enjoying myself, and as long as you are not too hard on yourself, it can be a very fun and rewarding experience. Again, I feel I am blessed. I want to share it with others.
Order the book by clicking here.
|
Sponsored links 
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer! How to find a book publisher |
Text on this site Copyright © 1998-2007
Absolute Write, all rights reserved.
|
G. Robert was
born in Hagerstown, Maryland, but currently resides in Silver Spring with his
wife. He has been writing creatively his entire life and loves the spirit of
children. He started his career as a lawyer and then became an English teacher
before writing the Sillwee Wobbert stories. He started his own publishing
company-- Dream Publishing Co.-- to produce this children's health series.
I am thankful
for my legal degree because it helped me move forward in this field. I had run
offices before and knew about contract negotiations, so I didn’t feel
overwhelmed by the business aspect of it. I had decided to take a sabbatical
from teaching and started looking into publishing. What I found was
extraordinary. The whole industry was being revolutionized and restructured. It
was becoming author-driven and with the advent of Amazon.com and technology, it
was becoming easier to transition into it. I investigated further and next thing
I knew, I was piecing together pieces of the puzzle to publish my books.
