Episode #59: Did you know you were going to be a successful author when you wrote your book? -With Erin Entrada Kelly

Welcome back to another great episode of Kids Ask Authors! Today we have Erin Entrada Kelly and Grace Lin answering this kid question; “Did you know you were going to be a successful author when you wrote your book?”

TRANSCRIPTS:

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 Mooncake for Little Star." Today, I'm here with Erin Entrada Kelly, the author of many middle grade novels, including "Hello Universe," "Leilani of the Distant Sea," and, "We Dream of Space,". Hi, Erin.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Hi, Grace. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

Grace Lin: Thanks for being here. Are you ready for today's question?

Erin Entrada Kelly: I am ready.

Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a person named Naya and she asks...

Naya: Did you know you were going to be a successful author when you first wrote your book?

Grace Lin: Did you know you were going to be a successful author when you wrote your book?

Erin Entrada Kelly: Wow. Naya, what a beautiful name. So the answer is I did not know, but I will say that I've been writing since I was about eight years old. So being an author and being a successful author has been pretty much a lifelong dream. So from a very early age, I knew that's what I wanted to do, so I've been writing ever since. So I always hoped, of course, that I would be an author and then double hoped that I would be a successful author, but of course there are no guarantees. So all I could do was my best, write as much as I could, read as much as I could, and do my best in the hopes that it would happen, and thankfully it all worked out.

Grace Lin: Yeah. Well, I guess it's interesting because I wonder how Naya quantifies success.

Erin Entrada Kelly: That is a really, really great question because I've thought about that a lot over the years. And in my opinion, success is being able to do more of the things you love and less of the things you don't love. And I love writing and I love reading and now, that's mostly what I do. So that's how I've viewed it. I mean, there's all these different definitions of success, but that's a really great point. What is success?

Grace Lin: Yeah, I'm going to guess, just because Naya, I think is a second grader, that she was thinking success is more about how many books are being sold.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Probably, yes.

Grace Lin: Which is probably how almost everyone thinks about for a successful author, because I think about this question a lot too, and there are two ways to answer it for me as well. The first was, did I think I was going to be a successful author when I first wrote my book in terms of book sales? No.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Right.

Grace Lin: I just always assumed that I would not be successful in terms of book sales, especially because a lot of my books have Asian or Asian-American protagonists. And when I first started, publishers used to tell me, "Oh, nobody wants to buy those books." And I said, "Well, I still want to write them," so I kept writing them. And I just assumed... I was like, "Okay, well nobody wants to read them, but I'll keep writing them." And so that's when I had to learn that I had to quantify success in a different way. And I love your way of defining success, which was doing more things you love and less things you don't love.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Yes, and I've been nodding this whole time as you've been talking because I think people, especially young people, well people of all ages think of success as how much money do you make? How many books do you sell? And for me, when I was starting out, I always told myself, and I still believe this, that if my books find their way to the reader who needs them, even if it's a small group, then I will consider that a success. And so that has happened, which makes me very, very happy. And of course, one book isn't for everyone so I don't really think of success in terms of book sales, but actually of all my books, probably my favorite is my second book, "The Land of Forgotten Girls," and it's probably my least read book. But in my eyes, that doesn't mean that it's the least successful, if that makes sense, because it's still my favorite, even though it's probably seen fewer amount of readers than any of my other books.

Grace Lin: Yeah, and that's what... I came to the same kind of conclusion is that I would measure the success, not by how many readers, but how much the readers that did read the book, loved it. So I realized like, "Oh, maybe I don't have a million people reading my books, but I do have at least five people who absolutely love this book." And that became a new way for me to measure the success of the book, for me.

Erin Entrada Kelly:Yes, and that makes me think too, that success is a tricky and evil game because if you think of it in terms of, "Okay, well, I haven't sold this many, but this author has sold this many books," that's a very dangerous game to play because there's always going to be someone who is more successful in terms of numbers and book sales and deals and movies. And there's always going to be someone else, so you have to really quantify success based on your own standards that make sense, and that are kind to you as a creator. So like you said, if it's five readers who absolutely love the book, then that is a success because you can't measure it against what other people are doing, and I think that's a dangerous game that a lot of people fall into.

Grace Lin: Yeah. So in some ways, I did know I was going to be a successful author when I wrote my book because I decided that success was going to be a book that I loved that at least one or two other people would love too.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Yes. I love that. That's a perfect way to answer the question. Yes, absolutely.

Grace Lin: So in some way, yes, I did know I was going to be a successful author when I wrote my books, but it all depends on how you decide what success is.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Yes, absolutely. Definitely. I love that.

Grace Lin: Well, thank you so much, Erin, for answering that question. I love the way that you talked about it, and thank you Naya for asking such an interesting question too.

Erin Entrada Kelly: Yes. Thank you, Grace, and thank you Naya.

Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Milo! Milo is reviewing, “I funny” by James Patterson.

The book I would like to talk about is I Funny by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein. The main character tells jokes and he’s a comedian. His name is Jamie Grimm. Jamie is in a wheelchair. His whole family died in a car accident. Jamie calls himself a “sit down comedian” and tells jokes like “when life gives you lemons, learn how to juggle.” He competes in a kids comedian contest. Jamie is a good role model for all kids whether they use a wheelchair or not. I think you should read this book because it’s really funny.

Thank you Milo!

More about today’s authors:

Erin Entrada Kelly is the New York Times best-selling author of the Newbery Medal-winning novel Hello Universe, as well as the novels We Dream of Space, Lalani of the Distant Sea, You Go First, The Land of Forgotten Girls, and Blackbird Fly (all HarperCollins). Her short fiction has appeared in more than two dozen magazines and literary journals including the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Tayo Special Issue, Adroit Journal, Danse Macabre, Every Day Fiction, and Boston Literary Magazine. She is a contributor to Library Journal and has been a writer and editor for Thrive Magazine, where she won several awards for excellence in feature writing from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press. She has taught for Rosemont College and Wallingford Swarthmore Community Classes. She holds a BA from McNeese State University and an MFA in Fiction from Rosemont College.

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.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.