Having Fun Being An Indie Author

Many years ago, I wanted to write a series of children’s books about travel and cultural experiences with both a story and entertainment/education feel to it.  I did some research and was put off by the “I have to find a publisher first!” mentality.  Since there are thousands of authors like myself trying to find publishers and agents, I decided to put that dream aside for a while and continued on working in the entertainment industry.  
​Once my husband and I became empty nesters, I decided to start exploring the writing world again.  I was inspired while living in the romantic French countryside for six months, so I put pen to paper and “Klara The Cow Who Knows How To Bow” was born.  We have a field behind our French farmhouse where beautiful French cows and their calves graze on the rolling hills.  I started with a poem, that turned into a children’s picture book, then my husband suggested I create a rhyming story, which is now the final product. 

​My ambition to write a book became a reality and I loved working on this fun project, but what about getting the book published?  Oh no, here we go again, so I took a course at the London School of Journalism and did some research on self-publishing.   Wow, what an amazing and exciting world self-publishing is!  We published Klara The Cow Who Knows How To Bow on May 17, 2015 and now have thirty (30) paperback and digital books in publication as of October 2016. Our core language is English, and we translate these books in up to ten (10) other languages over time. The English titles consist of:

1. Klara The Cow Who Knows How To Bow (Friendship Series)
2. Alook’s Dance In France (Travel Series)
3. Luna and Alook’s Funny Food Book (Travel Series)
4. Visit Alook’s Kool Place In Outer Space (Travel Series)
5. Dobby Is So Polite What a Delight (Friendship Series)

​I love the fact that I can travel the globe and be a free thinking digital nomad as an indie author.  I make my own deadlines, create my own stories, work from anywhere in the world and am not put into the creative artist box.  It was scary at first, when I put myself out there in front of the world, with very little guidance. But I am so thankful that I have this wonderful opportunity and platform to share my stories with children and their families through songs, books and videos.
We are almost done with our Klara The Cow Dress-up App. Children will be able to dress-up Klara in their favorite clothes, shoes, eye color, glasses, etc. and even print a nice picture of what they have created. 

​I wrote a Christmas song last year (always something I wanted to do) featuring Alook, which is currently in the studio (for vocals), which we hope to release in December, along with an animated music video. We are also working on Luna and Alook’s Fun Music Book and eventually we plan to release some coloring books for the younger children.
Next year we will be publishing 4-5 more books in multiple languages within both the Travel and Friendship Series. We are also excited about our merchandise line of backpacks, key rings, hats, etc. that which will be launched in 2017.
I could not have done this without the help and support of Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace, and the various social media platforms.  Each day I am learning something new that helps support me as an author, songwriter and artist.  A year and half ago, I never would have thought that I would be publishing my own books and that they would be distributed worldwide in many languages?  #itsakoolworld #PoweredByIndie