Writing a children’s book was always my “mom’s thing.” She had mentioned it years earlier but was struggling to find a topic. We brainstormed a little together, but then we moved onto other conversations and just casually mentioned it in passing for several years.
Fast forward to the summer of 2020 and I was exploring around my in-laws cabin in South Pass City, Wyoming (basically in the middle of Wyoming that hardly anyone has heard about)! I had a one-year old son and I wanted to give him a book that showed him the history of his cabin’s location.
{Side note: South Pass City was the reason America was able to expand Westward. Without South Pass City, wagons and explorers would never have made it over the other steep terrain near Colorado, New Mexico, Montana etc. }
I left the gift shop very discouraged because I just assumed someone would have written a book about why this area was so cool and put it in children’s terms. Was I asking too much??
I called my mom shortly after I had returned to cell-phone service and said, “mom I have the perfect book idea for you!” She agreed it was definitely an idea but here is the kicker- she said she needed my help. I was surprised because I had never thought of that as something I would do. I never thought of myself as a writer. But guess what? That day my mom and I became writers when we started the nine month process of writing South Pass: The Gateway to the West.
The steps of writing a children’s book
- Research
Since neither of us had ever done anything like this before, the first thing we did was research. We needed lots more information about South Pass City in order to get started. My mom did the bulk of the research and we discovered so many amazing things about the area that made this book even more special.
2. Draft a rough draft
We met every Sunday afternoon over Zoom calls to decide what was important and what wasn’t for children. It was important to us to make sure it flowed well and was interesting to kids.
Once we had content and a rough structure of how the book would play out, we agreed we needed an illustrator. Well, it just so happens that my husband’s grandmother is an artist who actually owned two art galleries in the area. My mom reminded me of this and Sali Freese Allard was immediately called and asked to be part of this project. She said yes and actually had many of the pieces we already needed since she has been painting the area since the 1970’s!
3. The logistical, boring stuff
Then came the process of copyrighting, getting tax items in order, finding a printing company, keeping it as low-cost as possible, investing our own money, keeping it secret, finalizing the pages with editing, working with inDesign to get a Proof to the printing company, and finally getting the book in our hands.
4. The final product (nine months later)
We used PBR Printing in Cheyenne to do the printing for us. This was an expensive option ($10/book), however we liked the idea of supporting a local Cheyenne business and we had instant communication with them since they were so close. We liked having more control over this part of the process.
April 27th, 2021 (nine-months after my trip to South Pass City) was a very special day! We had all 300 books in hand and could finally announce to the world what we had been working on.
To read more about our story and get more information click here: https://southpasschildrensbook.square.site/about
Leave a Reply