Back in the Stone Age, well maybe not that far back…
When Linda Karimo was very young, she learned to read at the knee of her Irish immigrant grandmother. Nannie, as she was known to the family, was just learning English herself.
They read all the classic children’s stories together. There was one in particular that became the inspiration for Linda’s current series of children’s books.
Moving forward, Linda was always a ravenous reader. She would often read all the books by a given author and then go onto yet another great fiction author. Espionage, legal, medical, suspense, and some “who done it” were her game.
Her day job as a Copywriter paid the bills while she dreamed of writing an extraordinary series of children’s books.
So, what childhood story prompted Linda to write a series about those characters?
It was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Linda’s nickname was always Goldilocks.
She transports her readers into the world of bears whose lives are not much different than humans, just bear style.
She has a conversational style of writing and wants her readers to feel a part of the action taking place, not just looking through the window watching it all going by.
A Lifetime full of love and compassion!
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: www.lindakarimo.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KarimoLinda
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Linda-Karimo-Author-
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-odubayo-thompson-56743445/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accounts/onetap/?next=%2F
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/business/hub/
About the Book
Meet Mama Bear and her sweet little bear child, Baby Bear.
Sometimes he doesn’t do what Mama Bear says, sound familiar?
This one particular day when Mama Bear was cooking spaghetti and meatballs, Baby
Bear bounced his ball against the cave wall.
Baby Bear knew it was on the forbidden list.
He did it anyway.
Mama Bear gave him the look.
He did it again.
Find out what happened to Mama Bear’s spaghetti dinner and naughty Baby Bear.
ORDER YOUR COPY
Amazon → https://amzn.to/3nQtP6s
How long did it take you to
write your book?
In about a month or so, my
conversational style loaded with dialog makes it reasonably easy to create a
quick draft. Then it's off to the races from there. I want my readers to feel a
part of the action taking place, rather than just watching it all swim by
through the window.
What has been the most
pivotal point of your writing life?
What a wonderful moment it
was to hit the publish button on Amazon.com. When in late November 2018, I
published the book: I Know My Way Memoir: Always Remember to Color the
Sky Blue. But the more thrilling event was to hold the book in my hand. For
most of my life, being an avid reader of several genres, just the excitement of
ruffling my fingers through the pages of this book and knowing that little old
me had written every word.
For some reason, my
excitement has been building with greater intensity waiting for my first
children's picture book to be published on October 17.
Luckily the manuscript
was read by some very prolific authors in that genre. To my amazement, they
gave it a thumbs up. How thrilling to hear this news.
It might sound easy to write
this type of book, but children's picture books must engage the parent who will
most likely read it to their kids. Simultaneously, have full-color full-page
illustrations that will act as a magnet for children's attention and enjoyment.
What an incredible and
fascinating moment to learn that it makes me a best-selling author. How
unbelievably cool that would be to proudly place those precious words next to
my name, website, and anywhere else on the internet!
As of October 15, the Kindle
format has been in pre-order for a few days, and I learned that it is now #1 in
New Releases. Could I really be moving toward that elusive brass ring of
bestseller status? Time will tell.
What kind of advice would you
give other children's picture book authors?
Wow! Here we go…
The best advice that I could
extend to those first time would-be authors is to slow down writing your book.
You will be bombarded by several experts jamming your inbox, telling you that
it should only take a long weekend or get published in a month. It can be
daunting and make you feel, what's wrong with me, why can't I do what they say?
It's tough to turn a deaf ear to all the noise.
When you have a manuscript
that you feel is as good as it can be, it's time to reach out to a professional
copyeditor. The copyeditor will put a second pair of eyes on your work and fix
any grammar issues. This is a critical step, and it shouldn't be neglected.
Suppose you want to get
people to look at your book cover on Amazon or other retailers. In that case,
you definitely don't want to scrimp on this essential cash layout. Not a good
idea to use one of the millions of templates out there, and believe me,
reviewers can tell the difference. Again, seek out professionals who are well
qualified to build you a stunning and engaging book cover.
You will also need a small
website to start, just somewhere to talk about your book.
The best place to build such
a website would be wordpress.
Lesson learned that you can't go it alone and always
stay sane.
We hired Alinka Rutkowska, a USA Today Best Selling
Author. To her credit, she has mentored many authors to bestseller status on
Amazon.
Here's how she helped…
The first item on our list was to go over the book
interior with a fine tooth comb to make sure that the wording was precise and
understood by a child's parent reading it.
The next step was writing the description for the
book page on Amazon. Keywords and categories were discussed between Alinka and
me. This was a critical step because if not selected correctly, nobody will
ever find my book.
While this was going on, my research for sites that
would promote my book for a fee led me to a really great website, reedsy.com.
After creating a spreadsheet and having chosen promo sites that work with my
genre, I was ready to implement all this once the book became live on
Amazon.
Next, my research suggested that it would be a good
idea to run a blog tour. Yes, I could do it myself, but there are so many
moving pieces that the decision was made to hire an expert to do all the work,
and the cost was surprisingly a lot less than I thought.
Moving forward to launch week, enter Alinka's
expertise again on launching the book to bestseller status, which was the
guarantee when hiring her earlier. So with a big dash of pixie dust and the
promotions that I set up myself, my confidence is higher than when first
publishing the memoir mentioned earlier. Of course, time would tell.
Bottom line: Potential new authors should take the time to write a really engaging manuscript. Stick to professionals when editing your work and designing your book cover.
Don't
forget to build a small website, even if it is only one page to start.
Create a team to help you
make it all happen.
Good luck, author-to-be, and
enjoy the publishing journey.