Let's Ask - Question # 3

Today is week three of my new series Let's Ask which will be featured every Thursday on my blog. Lately, I've had so many unanswered questions about getting published and marketing children's books I thought why not just ask the experts one question per week and then share their knowledge of the business with us. *Experts = most likely a friend/acquaintance with experience writing children's books or publishing them.



My third Let's Ask question is for Sarah Perry (see below for her bio info):



Author Sarah Perry


My question for Sarah: If you had a choice to go the ebook route or the tradition printed route the rest of your writing career which would you choose and why? If you plan on visiting schools for your eBook, how would you implement that?

Sarah's response: I have to say, I'm a traditionalist and the allure of ink on paper is not lost on me. This is not to say that my ebook experience has not been phenomenal, because it has been, but I still get so many people asking me, "When is the print version coming out?" or, "I want an autographed copy!" that it would be so great to have that too. I guess, my true cheater answer is that in this day and age, people should have the option. Even if the main push is digital, to have POD (print on demand) copies available for those who prefer them. I think that might be ideal. Because, I have to add, it was so cool to hear that narrator interpreting my words. It was a double whammy of awesome to see those gorgeous illustrations and hear someone else reading my words. But it would also be great fun to turn those glossy pages too.

As far as school visits, I have gone to my daughter's school (informally, not as a full fledged author visit). Luckily, they have Smartboards so the teacher just loaded up my book and played it for the kids. Then she asked them some questions about the story and then they got to ask me a little about it. For schools with Smartboards, or even a computer lab, a digital presentation of the book works great. For lower income schools without the technology, an author with a digital picture book could, hopefully, bring a laptop and hook it up to a projector to share the book. Technology makes a lot of things possible and we're living in a very interesting time with diehards on both sides, print and digital. One day, this will be a laughable dilemma, I'm sure.



Written by Sarah Perry

 Sarah Perry discovered her love of writing stories in 2nd grade and has been at it ever since. Her first picture book, Pajama Girl, was the grand prize winner in the first MeeGenius Author Challenge. Further adventures of Pajama Girl are forthcoming in 2012. Sarah is also revising her YA manuscript, Dream Girl. When she's not writing, she's working part time as a librarian, being a wife and mother full time, reading, or playing around on her favorite social media sites. (and sometimes doing laundry).
Sarah's blog - http://writertherestless.blogspot.com/
Sarah's Facebook page-www.facebook.com/AuthorSarahPerry