shameless promotion... My new book was released yesterday!!!

mag

@TessaW It was the best thing, I loved working with my mom - I see how it might be tricky to collaborate with relatives, but my mom was great. We were actually shopping this manuscript 5 years ago, with no luck. And when I was already a little bit established, got better with illustrations and my mom revised the MS like a bazillion times - I asked my current editor to look at it and they said it was perfect, because they could easily see this book to be translated and sold for foreign rights so they took it!
I learned a lesson - do not give up, just try to make it better the next time.

mag

@ArtistErin Thank you so much.
Although I am afraid I am the worst person to speak about how promotion works - because I have no idea, I'm terrible at it and every time I just hope everything will turn out good.
I try to promote it on my social media and do not be afraid to push it a little bit. I am not naturally much assertive, so I have to learn this.

Does anyone of you have tips and tricks for book promotion? I'd love to hear!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@mag this is amazing news!!!! aaahhh!!!!

ArtMelC

Wow Mag, congrats you're an inspiration for us all

TessaW

@mag Thanks so much for sharing this!

Johanna Kim

@mag Congratulations! Cover looks adorable:) Cool that you collaborated with your writer Mom!

kirsten-mcg

@mag This is such an inspiring story! Thank you for sharing. Things get better with time and patience, right? Way to go for sticking with it and not giving up!

Neha Rawat

This is soo amazing! Congratulations!!!

crispalomino

@mag what wonderful news! Congrats!

mag

@kirsten-mcg
I’m very happy though I know this is still just a “small” win. My goal is to work outside of my home country, as the rates for illustrations here are really really bad (6 months worth of work for one month salary and it was crazy good deal in comparison for what the usual rates are… and with one of the big publishers in our country) We’ll get a small percentage out of the sales when the foreign rights to this book are sold, but it’s still pretty miserable.
I’m so glad it got translated to English as for me it’s somewhat a foot in a door to the English book market world.
It’s very interesting for me to see how rates for our job can vary hugely. It all make sense of course, since in our language the publisher can sell about 2000 copies of a picture book and it’s considered a best seller and I am definitely glad they don’t just do re-prints of foreign bestsellers but try their best to create some local picture books too, even it’s not that profitable…
It just makes me sad to know that one really need to either create picture books only as a hobby (because the rates are just not liveable) or go outside of our small country and work where the rates are better. But that’s just how this industry is. And I am lucky enough to know a little bit of English.
But I guess it’s just the same in the US too, only the difference would be one starts with local small presses, that cannot afford to pay the “normal” picture book price either?

LauraA

@mag Wow, this is great! Thanks for sharing!

Laurasketches

what good news! Congratulations!!

ann-nadine

This is lovely Mag! Congratulations!