At least once a week, a prospective client asks me, "How much do you charge to publish a book?" Friend, I've worked really hard to find a good answer to that question, but the standby answer, "It depends," is the best I can do in the moment. I reviewed my catalog recently, and I found joy in the variety of my clients' work and their motivations to write. Projects range from articles on Curly Bill of the Wild West and high-end real estate on Florida's Gulf Coast to heart wrenching memoirs to poetry anthologies to journals for athletes to love stories to adventure novels to devotionals and Christian literature to .... Thankfully, the list continues, which means the Crippled Beagle Publishing team never gets bored. We learn with every experience and take time to improve practices and refine our skillsets. Some of our favorite projects are children's books that grandparents write. Well, guess who motivates them. Right! The grandchildren. My grandmother Freddy (surprise twin to Betty, thus the name---never rush a name in Hogansville, Georgia, folks---ha!) sewed each of her seven granddaughters handmade, stuffed dolls. She made dresses, bonnets, bloomers, and blankets for all of our play babies. She also sewed beautiful, quilted Christmas tree skirts for all ten grandchildren. My other grandmother, Wimmie, somehow created two children's books in which the main character was JODY! I treasure those books now 45 years later, and I can see them from where I sit right now. TREASURE. When Grandmama Freddy passed away, I said to my cousin Toby, "I know she was elderly and this is natural, but it doesn't feel right." She said, "No. Not when you want them to live forever."
What a legacy the written word is, no matter the motivation or content. We may not live forever, but our books just might.
Recently, client and grandmother Beth Adams Staff published her first book. CONGRATULATIONS TO BETH! Here is Beth's book page on Amazon.com.
Little Auggie enjoys a barnyard adventure just right for his age and meets several farm animals. Young readers will delight in the simple prose and gentle artistry of this heartwarming story about a little boy and his love of horses.
Below are a few children's books by our parent and grandparent authors. If you'd like to learn more about any of these titles, go to crippledbeaglepublishing.com and visit the catalog page HERE. There, you can click links to the books' Amazon.com pages.
What's your legacy? What motivates you to write? WHO motivates you? If you are considering a legacy project of any kind or would like to try a different genre, reach out to me to discuss specifics. I am developing a tool to help you plan projects and will gladly share it with you. Reply to this email or contact me at dyer.cbpublishing@gmail.com. To download the free Step-by-Step Trail Guide from Idea to Published, Profitable Book, click HERE:)))
Happy writing!
xoxoxo
Jody
