So this is my first ever blog post. I don't really know what I am doing but I wanted to share the dream with you nonetheless. My dream, to write my first children's book.
I think sometimes it is so easy sometimes to set goals that are too lofty, too far in the future, or too hard to complete and that leads to failure, heart-ache, and disillusionment. So that's why I started small.
I wrote.
Honestly, it wasn't that hard. I just sat down, wrote what came to my mind, created a story, and it took me all of an hour. I was ready to share it with my wife (a kindergarten teacher and resident expert). She lovingly told me "That could use some work." But, in the end I wrote a children's book.
Well, that went so well, why not take the next step. I wanted to write a good children's book (at least one my wife would like). So I began to change the first story a bit, and then decided maybe I would write a different one, and after a week or so I thought I had a good idea. And, much more importantly, my wife did too. But it definitely still needed work.
Fast forward through a month of not really working on it because work got in the way (work is the worst), and I was ready to take another stab at it. However, for some reason, an idea popped into my head and I decided to write it down, and it became the beginnings of Sergio the Shark can't draw (my actual first book). I got home, nervously excited to hear what my wife would say.
"You have to publish this! It's fantastic. Way better then any of the others."
Well that was nice and hurtful at the same time. I thought all of my books were gems, but apparently this had struck on something that she thought was a winner. So awesome, now I have a new dream. Publish my first book.
And now I have a new nightmare, trying to publish my first book.
I reached out to some of the big names. Apart form the vast sums of money that they wanted (for me a vast sum is anything over $100, and they were asking for $1,000's and $1,000's), most of them weren't receiving submissions, or I had to have an agent, or they wanted me to sign my story away with no promises, or they just never got back to me (one of them said it could take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to hear back). This was the worst part of my entire experience.
But then my wife stepped in. My beautiful, wonderful, thoughtful, fantastic, wife (she wrote this part... just kidding, she was the saving grace of this story).
"Why don't you do it yourself?"
Why don't I do it myself? Oh, maybe because I have no idea, whatsoever, how do get an illustrator, and we have no money, and I don't even know how to go about doing this. But after I took a breathe, and really thought about it, I said what the heck, let's do it.
And here is where the journey went from a couple weeks worth of work to a couple years worth of work.
The good, I now know how to publish a book from the first idea through to the actual printing, selling, and marketing. The bad, it was a long way to get here.
The really good news for you. Now that I know how to do it, I decided to start a business that helps people go from idea to a tangible book without all of the hassle, money, and headache that I had to overcome.
And that's why we have Moose and Koala. And for those who ask, it was a story that I had written about my wife and I before I proposed. I am the moose (because I am large and hairy), she is the koala (because she loves to randomly jump on my side and yell "KOALA" and I have to catch her). And, none of this would have been possible without her.
So all of that to say, below is a picture of our first book "Sergio the Shark can't draw." Appropriately it is a book about overcoming failure. And if you are anywhere between the 'I think I might have an idea phase' and the 'What the heck do I do next phase," we are here to help. Shoot us an email at moose@mooseandkoala.com and we don't charge anything. For real, we will help you, guide you, read your stuff, and give you our opinion and advice on next steps. Now if you like us enough, we can help you market, publish and sell (that's the part that costs something, but we can work that out when we get to it). Either way, we would love to hear from you. And look for "Sergio" coming out Spring 2019 and book two in the series "Sergio the Shark can't speak Swahili" being complete by end of the year.
P.S. - If you are a teacher, well first off thank you so so so much. Second off, we would love to partner with you by offering everything that we can for you free (books, ebooks, marketing, classroom design help, book publishing). I am married to a teacher, I know how little you make, how little the school pays for, how hard it is to get anything nice, and how absolutely critical what you do is. Please reach out and partner with us. We would love to support you in any way that we can.
Thanks for reading - Moose
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