Episode #133: How do you publish a book? -with Janet Wong
Welcome back! On this week’s Kids Ask Authors, we welcome our special guest, Janet Wong! Janet and Grace answer the kid question, “How you do publish a book?”
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace Lin: Hello. I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, Where The Mountain Meets The Moon and the picture book, A Big Moon Cake for Little Star. Today, I am here with Janet Wong, the poet, author and publisher of books like Good Luck Gold and More, Apple Pie 4th of July and Things We Eat. Welcome, Janet.
Janet Wong: Thank you, Grace. I'm so happy to be here. What do you want to ask me? Go ahead.
Grace Lin: Well, I actually don't want to ask you this. This is a question from a kid and the kid is named Sophie and Sophie asks:
Sophie: How do you publish a book?
Grace Lin: How do you publish a book and I'm so glad I have you on because I think you are the perfect person to answer this question.
Janet Wong: Oh, I love it. Sophie, what a great question. I would have given you a different answer 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. But today, I have a brand new answer that fits these brand new times. Well, what's new about these times? What's new is that anyone can publish a book and I believe that everyone should. Well, there are a couple of ways to do it. One is the traditional way where you send a manuscript off to a publisher and you hope that they're going to want to buy your book and print it and distribute it, publish it. But the other way is you just publish it yourself and you could call it self-publishing or you could call it indie publishing, like independent publishing, indie publishing or you could call it craft publishing or artisanal publishing. What it means is you do it yourself. You write something up. You upload it to one of the services. There are many, many services that will publish it for you. If you want, you could do what I've been doing with my recent books that I've been publishing with Sylvia Vardell.
Janet Wong: We upload them to Kindle Direct Publishing, KDP, and then we click a few buttons. We get a proof. We look at it and then we hit, okay and then 24 hours later, it's on Amazon for anyone to buy and the last three books that I've done with Sylvia Vardell, we've donated 100% of the profits to a charity, IBBY Children in Crisis Fund that helps children all over the world. So go ahead and do it. It's that easy to publish something and if you want to do it as a fundraiser and donate 100% of your profits to the charity of your choice, maybe a charity that helps endangered animals or cancer victims, go for it. Publishing has never been easier. So Grace, does that answer the question?
Grace Lin: It does and it's such a great thing. Though, Sophie, I suspect that you might need your parents or your guardians or an adult, maybe a teacher, to help you navigate all of that just in case.
Janet Wong: Yeah, Sophie, you definitely need your parents to help give you permission because one of the first things, for instance, if you were going to use Amazon, if you were going to use KDP, Kindle Direct Publishing, one of the first things that they would ask is for a taxpayer ID number, like a social security number, some kind of tax number, because you have to pay tax on what you earn and they just assume that people are going to want to buy your book and so you need to give some kind of tax number. So you do need your parents to get involved at the get go and teachers or parent volunteers, if you want me and Sylvia Vardell to navigate this for you and to produce a book that has the poems by all of your, say, third graders, this is something that we're starting this year.
Janet Wong: We're starting a project called Think Poetry and Think Poetry, you're going to be able to find all the details in a couple of weeks on our pomelobooks.com website and we're going to go into schools with a five week program where we coach teachers, coach students, put together a book and a month later you'll get 100 copies of that book delivered to your school. You'll be able to flip open the pages and say, "Wow, that's my poem," and so if you want to go that route, look for the Think Poetry information at pomelobooks.com.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's such a great idea. I love that.
Janet Wong: Thank you.
Grace Lin: Because so many students ask me about getting their book published and I come from the very traditional one, the one that you were talking about 10, 20 years ago and I'm like, "Well, it's very difficult." You have to send your story to an agent and then the agent will send it to the publisher and then the publisher might decide to publish it and that takes maybe 3, 5, 10 years and what you're describing now happens so much quicker and so much easier and that's really lovely and kids could do that within a school year, which is really great. I think-
Janet Wong: Not just even a school year. I mean, really from start to finish, from the day your teachers first watch the video until the day that you have a book in your hands with your poem in it, that whole period is only two months and I think that one of the ways that we can really make a difference in this world and you, Grace, have spoken so eloquently about this in your TED talks, in the speeches you've given when you've won awards, books can make a difference and they can make a difference because of the content and also they can make a difference because of the money that we raise. Right? So even if some kids get together and do a book of poems and drawings and paintings and stories and little nonfiction pieces about endangered animals, even if they only earn $100 profit from that book, if they donate that $100 to something, a nonprofit like WWF, if they do that, they have made this world a better place, right?
Janet Wong: And there aren't a lot of ways in which kids can do something to raise money to give to nonprofits that are doing good work and so that's one reason I'm really 100% behind this because we need to. Each one of us needs to do something to make an impact on the world. Can I read a poem on that topic?
Grace Lin: Sure, sure.
Janet Wong: Okay. This is a poem called "You Can Do It Right Now."
Grace Lin: What is it from?
Janet Wong: It's from the book Hop To It: Poems To Get You Moving. Hop To It is an anthology of poems by 90 poets and the book was put together by my friend and colleague Sylvia Vardell and published by our company Pomelo Books and here it is. You can do it right now. It goes like this. You can shout at a March. You can quietly pray. You can read the news and share it today. You can send the mayor of your town a note. You can make a sign that tells people to vote. You can talk to your family. You can listen to friends. There are different ways to reach the same ends to fight injustice, to show that you care. You can do it right now from anywhere and I think that publishing is one way we can do it. So I am just thrilled with that question that Sophie asked.
Grace Lin: That's awesome. Thank you so much, Janet and thank you so much, Sophie, and I hope everybody who listens, especially any guardians of kids that are listening to think about taking you and Pomelo Books up on that awesome, awesome program. So thank you, Janet.
Janet Wong: Thank you, Grace. Bye.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Thank you so much Sophie!
Today’s KID BOOK REVIEW comes from Penelope! Penelope is reviewing Things We Do by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell.
This book is full of poems written by different authors. The poem titles are in alphabetical order. The poems are based on a word that starts with an alphabet letter. The words are actions we do. There are pictures to go along with the poems. Words were highlighted in the color yellow whenever the title word was mentioned in a poem . I liked this book because I like reading poems and because the pictures are very colorful. Lastly, I liked that the people in the pictures are doing the action described in the poem. I would recommend this book for people who love poems.
Thank You Penelope!
More about today’s authors:
Janet Wong has written more than 30 books, including ten collections of children’s poetry and nine poetry anthologies. Her work has won a number of awards, such as the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, the Stone Center Recognition of Merit, and the International Reading Association’s Celebrate Literacy Award. Several of her books have been included as ILA Notable Books for a Global Society and NCTE Poetry Notables. Additionally, a poem from A Suitcase of Seaweed (1998), one of Wong’s most notable titles—updated with 50 new pages in A Suitcase of Seaweed & More (2019)—was featured in the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Poetry in Motion program. In 2012, she embarked on a new endeavor as co-creator (with Sylvia Vardell) of The Poetry Friday Anthology series, published by Pomelo Books. Sharing other poets' work, particularly the work of new poets and #ownvoices poets, is the focus of her current work.
Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.
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