This author approached me about publisher her book, about her son who has microtia. This book was a labor of love as she was trying to raise awareness of people with hearing disabilities, and also spread the message that disabilities do not define people!

She was excited to work with a local publisher, someone small that she could talk to. Although I had never worked with picture books before and knew little about marketing children's books, she won me over and I took on the project. 

The author had a short poem of sorts and about 6 paintings she had done herself-she's a very talented artist and art teacher! The problem was that the poem was not really a story and there weren't enough images or text to make a full fledged book. Printers can't make 6 page books at a rate that allows for profitable reselling and readers will likely reject a book so short.

I gave her a developmental edit and also worked with another editor with more experience in the area of children's books. We both agreed that there needed to be a plot of some kind and that the rhymes needed to be more regular. I researched picture book layouts and story pacing and we came up with a nice outline that kept her beautiful words, but added a plot.

We also added some verses that had helpful information to explain what microtia is and how to talk to people who have it. We worked on making the rhymes more regular. As with any project, there's always going to be give and take! But eventually we came up with a nice compromise and some briefs for some new paintings to fill out the rest of the book. 

After a few tries, we found a local scanner who could scan and give us high resolution images. However, I did learn later than many artists paint images that are slightly larger than required and photograph them with a high-quality camera!

Adding the text was not difficult but we did have to work around some issues like the page with the word "individuality" in Latin letters and ASL in a rainbow shape. I eventually came up with the solution of fitting the text around the outside of the rainbow, which turned out well, I think.

Overall, the book has been very well-recieved and I am grateful to have had the chance to take on this new challenge.