Hello! I'm new to this community and am excited to join. I LOVE the video tips posted by Harleigh. I am a retired teacher and have started a new adventure as a children's book author in my retirement. I have self-published four children's books so far and have learned so much about self-publishing, marketing, and the business side of things. Over the last 3 years, I have built my author platform and brand with a website (junebugtales.com), a new blog, and an email list. But I still have lots to learn and I'm looking forward to learning from this community.

Hi everyone, I’ve just published my first book, a Social-Emotional Learning story for children ages 4–8, though I’ve been surprised to hear from readers well into their teens who connected with it too. I’m 60 and very new to the writing community, very late by some standards, but very on time by others. I also live with dysgraphia, which means writing has never come easily for me in a technical sense, but ideas and stories have always come in abundance. For years they stayed in my head. Recently, something opened, and now they don’t seem to stop. I’m finding myself thinking in chapters, scenes, and entire books throughout the day, and I’ve started writing daily because not doing so feels harder than doing it. What I’m trying to understand now, and would really value insight on, is pacing. Not “how many books in total,” but how often is healthy or sustainable to self-publish? How do you balance momentum with craft, especially when the ideas keep coming? I’m grateful to be here and looking forward to learning from those further along the path.

I’m so proud of myself for finishing the cover for my third children’s book! I plan on launching in June! Tips on how to market my launch are much appreciated! I’m terrible at marketing😅

Greetings! I’m really excited to be here. I look forward to learning so much!

Can anyone share their experience? 🙂 Did you write your book before creating your website, or create the website before writing the book? 🤔