Third Time is a Charm

My grandmother used to say, “Third time is a charm.” It was her way of encouraging me to keep going.

I look at three as God speaking. Don't ignore it.

Kinda the same, but different.

At 61, and recovering from a car accident earlier in the year, I wrote a book, Little Bit Broken, and sent it off to my editor, Chelsey.

Then I had a month and decided to learn some AI tools, because you need to be one day smarter than your kids.

So I wrote a children's book called PK: Pretty Kitty, Story of a Mysterious Cat, and sent it off to be self-published.

I bought 50 copies on the first run and found all sorts of mistakes. Using AI to illustrate a children's book is not as easy as it appears. For example, I missed a five-legged sheep on the back cover.

And, of course, the dyslexic issues don't magically disappear because you're using AI.

So I fixed a couple of those mistakes, made a second edition, got a bit cocky, and bought 100 copies.

I sold four at a farmers market and donated part of the sales to Healthy Lamoille Valley. The rest went up to the Wilson Farm Stand. Some sold in July and August, but by September, only one or two were finding their way into new homes.

I sent promotional copies to friends in Minnesota. One went to Wales, another to England, and someone bought one and sent it to Slovenia. I sent one to Texas, another to Tennessee, and overall, I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

But then I found more mistakes.

And the five-legged sheep, which I thought had been discharged, had somehow reappeared.

So there's that.

Now for the third and final try.

I decided to find a company that would edit, review, print on demand, and distribute the book to 20 different sites, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I found a new startup company called Embark through a Facebook ad. After some great conversations with the team, I had a Zoom meeting with Kevin Brown.

This guy is hysterical and sweet, and I feel like it's a good fit.

I like to know who I'm working with, and I want them to know me, in all my quirks. If we're going to work together, we might as well know what we're getting into!

It will take about four to six weeks before I see the proof, and then it's off to marketing.

So Pretty Kitty is officially off my shelf of things to do.

Well, almost.

I still have a bunch of first editions floating around, each with a five-legged sheep hiding somewhere.

If you're at all interested in owning one of these rather unique editions, send me an email and I'll ship one out.

$18 plus shipping, and I'll even sign it.

After all, how many children's books come with a five-legged sheep?

Third time a charm.

At least that's what my grandmother always said.