Book Expo America 2015: Follow-up

Book Expo America gave Daryl plenty to think about
as Tails of Whimsy considers publishing options

Getting a book published is not for the faint of heart. Daryl has authored and illustrated three children’s storybook properties to date: “Scooter and Boots to the Rescue,” “The Mighty Machines of Mackie McKeens,” and “Book Mytes,” which is about 90% complete. Even with our wonderful agent Jeanette Smith of All Art Licensing, response from major publishers is excruciatingly slow on Scooter and Boots as are our pitches for the others. With additional publishing options now available, digital and print on demand, Daryl and I set out to find out if newer (and faster) opportunities exist to get our books to their target audience.

Therefore, this year, we put our characters and stories on display at Book Expo America, perhaps the largest of all publishing shows. Louise worked with our children’s book editor Joe Rhatigan to get lots of appointments with publishers and editors. And Joe, with his valuable industry experience, accompanied us to NYC to meet with publishing company contacts. We are grateful to him for serving as tour guide so that we can better understand how independent and digital publishing is impacting traditional print. Also, we gained insight into how Tails of Whimsy might restructure to include independent publishing onto our business mix.

Joe Rhatigan helped us meet, greet and pitch

at Book Expo in New York

We introduced ourselves as a full-service studio, so you may hear more about Tails of Whimsy Storybook Studio. With Joe on our team, we are also available to help other writers develop their content and graphics as well as edit and package their books for print and distribution.

And, we introduced attendees to our new plush dolls of Scooter and Boots. They were shipped to us from our factory in Hong Kong, arriving at our hotel in NYC just as we did.

If you wonder what “independent” publishing means, it now extends to being a self-publisher, author-publisher, do-it-yourself publisher, or “traditional” publisher. Needless to say, Tails of Whimsy has lots to think about as we look to the future.

Scooter and Boots kept their eyes out for visitors
to the Tails of Whimsy booth.