00:00 Tasha: Welcome to Diary of a Dreamer, where resilience unlocks your potential. I’m Tasha Eizinger, and each week I’ll bring you powerful stories and practical insights from my own experiences and inspiring guests. Whether you’re facing challenges or chasing dreams, this podcast is your go-to for motivation, building confidence, and practical tips for transforming obstacles into opportunities. Be sure to check out my website, tashaeizinger.com.

00:28 Tasha: Let’s dive into today’s episode and start turning your dreams into reality. One of the number one questions I get asked is, how did you become an author? Which is such a funny question to me because it’s kind of hard for me to think of myself being an author. Not because I have imposter syndrome or anything like that, but I’ve never really been a writer. I jot, but even like with journaling,

00:58 Tasha: I don’t really journal. I did find in English class, you know, writing essays and things like that. But to be somebody who loves to sit and write, not me, okay? I am a public Tasha and I process through speaking more than I do internalizing things in writing. However, I’ve learned that I like processing life through picture books.

01:26 Tasha: And some people like to process life through journaling, speaking, chapter books. For me, it’s been picture books. And at the time of this recording, I’m getting ready to publish my sixth book in the Little Shot series, which is kind of wild. So I wanted to share with you how you can become an author if that’s something that’s on your heart. So first and foremost, if you have a story inside of you, please write it down.

01:54 Tasha: Who cares about the next steps and where it’s going to go or not go or who you’re going to share it with? Get it out of you. So my first story came to me because of a quote. This quote was something a mentor told me when I was doing network marketing. He would say, what’s a big shot? It’s just a little shot that kept shooting. And I had heard that quote several times, tucked it in the back of my mind. And when my baby was born, my first child.

02:22 Tasha: I started telling her this. I was like, you’re such a big shot. What’s a big shot? It’s just a little shot that kept shooting. And I got curious. And I think sometimes writing is a great place to be curious and figure out what do these things mean. I guess that’s why people journal. They’re curious about themselves and their day or interactions. Whereas I got very curious about this specific quote.

02:46 Tasha: Why am I saying this to my daughter all the time? I know I want to speak life into her and be encouraging, but why this particular one? So then we can account it to sleep deprivation brain, perhaps. I started thinking about what’s a big shot? What’s a little shot? What does that world even look like? And all of these thoughts started swirling around in my mind, and I created Little Shot’s World.

03:14 Tasha: However, I couldn’t get it on paper. So if you’re struggling to get your idea on paper, maybe you need to jot some things down. You can put down whatever pops into your head. You could put post-it notes on a wall and move those notes around and do character development, the setting, the plot. However you need to get it out is fine. For me, I had to speak it. I put my baby in her stroller.

03:43 Tasha: And I put my phone on the top of the stroller and pushed record. And I recorded the first version of the Little Shot Courage. It ended up being probably like 2,400 words, which is way too many. So we’ll dive into that in just a moment. But it doesn’t matter. And then I went home. This was, of course, before AI. So this was back in 2015. And I typed it.

04:11 Tasha: from my recording. And I read it to my mom and my husband. And it was in that moment, I was like, I’ve got to get this into a book for my daughter. Well, actually, that moment came before I knew I wanted to get it for my daughter. But in that moment, I knew I wanted other children to have this book, not just my daughter. As a former classroom teacher, I know children need

04:37 Tasha: this book series. I also know as a parent that this type of messaging is very helpful to parents and teachers. And to this day, I have not found a picture book series that addresses how to deal with life. I found aspects of it, and there’s really great books out there that address different aspects of dreaming or

05:02 Tasha: handling life, things like that. But really, what does it mean to dream big and to go for it? And what does that look like as you continue on? Because I knew after I finished the first book, which my original vision was get the first book on paper. And then it was for my daughter. And then it was for other people. And then I thought, wait a minute, I can’t stop there. So my vision has continued to evolve. And I ended up creating a series.

05:32 Tasha: So I drafted the other six books. I thought about what comes next, next, next. And I went through, did not have the character values for the cover, didn’t have the right word count or the editing, none of that. It was just getting it out of me. The number of people who’ve told me that they have a story inside of them or they’ve gotten a rough draft and they’ve done nothing else with it, but they want to, it hurts my heart, friend. Please.

06:02 Tasha: Get it out of you. And if you want to do something with it, then do something with it. You don’t have to. It can just be a story for you and your family. If you want to get it out there, that’s what this conversation’s about. All right. You got it out. That’s great. Now what do you do? You need to research what makes a quality book for your genre.

06:26 Tasha: And start doing basic searches of word counts, story arcs, if that’s applicable. Chapter books and picture books are very, very different. So a chapter book, you’re going to have to have the right amount of details within your wording. So you need to research how do you create character development and how do you give details but not too many. Just start searching things.

06:52 Tasha: print it off or whatever, save it on your computer. You don’t have to do a whole lot with it right now. And then with a picture book, remember that you can leave some of the details out because the illustrations should be able to fill in the gaps. That’s the biggest difference I feel like with chapter book writing and picture book writing.

07:12 Tasha: Make sure that you put notes for the future illustrator of your book. And maybe it’s you. Maybe you can also illustrate it. But put notes in there that this is an important part of this world that’s been created in my head. So make sure that you make those notes and that you know the word count.

07:34 Tasha: Right now, the word count for picture books is between 500 to 550 words. My original concept was 2400. That’s way too many words. Also, I want you to go to the library. Your public library is a great resource. I love our public libraries in our area. Go there and ask the librarian in the section that you’re writing for. So if it’s children’s books, adult books, whatever it is, go ask the librarian for their favorite reads. Let them know that you’re a budding author and have a lot of questions. They might even have how-to books as well as look at them.

08:15 Tasha: Go pick up the books. Flip through them. Ask what’s really popular right now. And go flip through them. Hold them. Look at the cover design. Feel the pages. This is relevant later, but feel the pages. Take everything in. Take pictures or get copies for your own home. And determine what you love about those books.

08:43 Tasha: and asking the librarian lots of questions about what is it that makes you love this book? What gets kids or adults to check this book out frequently? What’s so special about it? You can also go look at award-winning books. One of the things I’ve learned about award-winning books is You have to apply for the awards, and a lot of times you have to pay money, and of course you’re sending copies. It’s actually very expensive when you are a new author, unless you have a big publisher that’s doing all this for you, to apply for all these awards. So just because it’s award-winning doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it, but it also gives you a frame of reference of what critics are looking for, if you will. All right, now’s the hard part.

09:29 Tasha: You thought the other stuff was hard and getting out of you was hard? No, it’s the editing. You’re going to keep editing this entire time until it’s officially published. So I want you to take all this new information that you’ve learned and chunk it down and piece by piece go through and be ruthless. Be ruthless with your editing.

09:58 Tasha: Because you want to make a quality book for your reader. So there have been certain things that I’ve had to cut from my books that I’m like, hurts my heart a little bit. For example, in book six, Little Shot’s grandma originally was making sugar cookies, which was something special that my grandma did. She had these amazing sugar cookies and she would have a big bowl of them outside of her door and I’d always go.

10:27 Tasha: grab a couple when i was in high school and i’d visit her and then a couple on the way out and it just it was so sad but the illustrator was like hey could we make them chocolate chip cookies instead because visually it’s going to be more interesting and of course i said yes because the illustrator’s right sugar cookies in general are not as interesting i guess unless you put sprinkles on them

10:55 Tasha: But for the illustrations, it’s changed to chocolate chip cookies. Does the reader know? No. Does the reader care? No. Does it actually matter? No, it really doesn’t. So go through and reconsider what makes sense for your reader. And you’re going to have to go through and make a lot of changes, which can be hard.

11:21 Tasha: So give yourself some grace here that if it’s hard, that’s okay. But if your ultimate goal is to get it into readers’ hands, you need to do this. If it’s to share with your family and friends, keep everything in. Just keep what you want in. That’s totally fine. If you’re wanting to make a marketable book, that’s what you have to do. After you’ve made edits, here again, it doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re not going for perfect yet, okay?

11:47 Tasha: We’re making it better, something that has more clarity, something that doesn’t have too many gaps in it that people can understand the storyline without being in your head, right? Now I want you to reconsider what is your vision now? So like I said, my vision was for my daughter and then other children, then a series, and it’s turned into an actual business with so many other elements with the books being my foundation.

12:15 Tasha: I didn’t have that vision at the very beginning almost 10 years ago. So that’s okay to just take steps. I want you to always continue to evaluate your vision. Based on your vision, you’re going to assemble your team accordingly. It’s crucial to have a team of people and your team’s going to look different based on different aspects. And actually this component of being an author is going to be a couple other YouTube videos and podcast episodes, blogs, all of it. So that way it’s all broken down for you and you have a step-by-step. So I’m going to breeze over some things right now. Don’t worry, there’s going to be more to come on this specific topic because it’s really crucial.

12:59 Tasha: I think one of the first aspects of your team, and you can change the order however you want, but for me, it’s beta readers. You need to have people who will be honest with you about your writing. And this was an idea brought to me by my illustrator, Miranda. She said, hey, I think we should have beta readers and beta viewers. I was like, yeah, that’s actually a good idea.

13:27 Tasha: Because I know what this world looks like in my head. She knows what she’s wanting to create with illustrations. But we need to have people who can tell us what they like, don’t like, where it’s confusing, where there needs to be more details, less details, all of that. Now, I know it sounds like I’m jumping ahead here by saying my illustrator. Typically, you can do the beta readers before you have an illustrator.

13:57 Tasha: I had to do some things out of order, but if I could do it again, I would have beta readers first to make sure that there’s a clear story to start with. Okay. Now you can find beta readers. I’m sure you could like Google it. You can look it up online. If you ask people who know you, you know, the people who tell you the truth, no matter what, you also need to have people who maybe are.

14:26 Tasha: depending on your market right so like teachers you could have children if it’s a picture books kind of hard because they don’t get the story without the pictures and that age typically is going to be really bored if it doesn’t have pictures so i wouldn’t necessarily have children be beta readers but if it’s a chapter book you could have you know your age group reading it and then

14:51 Tasha: you can go to if you have any local like universities or colleges where there could be students or something like that where you can have them read it one of the things that i’ve done in my books is acknowledging those beta readers in the front so they get a free copy of the book they get that recognition of being a beta reader or beta viewer if you if you have an illustrator even if they’ve they’re professional humility is

15:18 Tasha: like the number one aspect of anybody i work with so if they have too big of an ego that they’re not open to having beta viewers i personally wouldn’t work with them we are firm believers on our little shot team at leaving your ego at the door and doing what’s best for the project and the project is the books or other things that we work on together so having beta viewers is important because

15:43 Tasha: Like the original concept of the Little Shot star kind of looked like a sea star instead of a star in the sky. And we didn’t want Little Shot to be mistaken for Patrick from SpongeBob. SpongeBob is not in alignment in any way, shape or form to my picture book series. So we don’t want that mistake. We also don’t want kids to be confused. So having different sets of eyes saying what they like or don’t like.

16:11 Tasha: is really important for the illustrations as well. You can take whatever advice you get from the beta readers and use it or not. So some of the advice I took and ran with it, a couple of people told me they were concerned that the language was too advanced for the age group I was writing for. And I had a couple people say that and I had to consider it. So take all the advice you get and consider what makes sense

16:40 Tasha: for your vision. And I’m a firm believer that if you use big words with children, they will use those big words. So for example, macaroni and cheese. If you call it pasta, they’re going to call it pasta. If you call it mac and cheese, they’re going to call it mac and cheese. If you call it macaroni and cheese, they’re going to call it macaroni and cheese. Whatever words you use are the words that children will use as well.

17:09 Tasha: I also know that there’s a science behind using too many big words and it being frustrating, right? I don’t need to make a college level textbook for an eight-year-old. I understand that, but I felt like the vocabulary was right where I wanted it to be. And the gamble worked out because we had it Lexile leveled and it worked. That was a stroke of luck, but I stood my ground on that. And I told my publisher, I was like,

17:36 Tasha: I really want to stick to this vocabulary. And she was supportive of it. So that was great. So some of the things you might just stick to it. It’s your story. And listen, if it doesn’t sell, you can change it. That’s another conversation for another day. But you can make changes even after it’s published, depending on the process that you use and the team that you have in place. That’s not ideal, but you can. If it ends up being a total flop, it’s not a failure.

18:04 Tasha: Okay. I just referenced my publisher. The next step is you want to determine how you want to publish. This is going to be a whole nother video, podcast episode, blog, everything, because this is a really big decision and there’s certain questions that you need to ask yourself. So basically publishing would be working with traditional publishing. You can self-publish, you can do a hybrid model where it’s a little combination of both. There are different ways to publish, which will determine

18:33 Tasha: You’re printing distribution decisions and building out the rest of your team. So your publishing decision is really important. And that’s why it’s going to be a whole nother segment because we’ve got to dive into what all of that means. And that way you can make as informed of a decision as possible. I also strongly encourage having an attorney. So I have used, I have used two different types of attorneys. I have a trade working attorney because I knew I wanted Little Shot to be a trademarked logo.

19:02 Tasha: That’s a different type of attorney. Sure, you can find it online and do it yourself. However, I didn’t want to do it that way. I wanted to be 100% sure that it was done correctly because in the terms of law, if you say one thing wrong, it can completely change the entire document. I’m not an attorney, so it made sense to hire somebody. It ended up being rather expensive, unfortunately.

19:30 Tasha: But that’s the way it goes sometimes. Also, I have an attorney for my business. You may not need an attorney right away, but research and have a good referral. This is a person who can set up contracts for you. I know that I’m fortunate to have connections through our library and through…

19:53 Tasha: IUSB has a business department. So maybe your local college has like a business department where they offer free mentorship and can help maybe direct you. There’s also something called SCORE where they are people who will mentor and help you as well. So I’ll include those links so that way you have resources and opportunity to look into what makes sense for your business because it would be so sad to me to set up.

20:23 Tasha: all of this vision, whether it’s your books or having representation of your books, and then something down the road wasn’t done correctly here in the foundation, and you could lose it. And I just think it makes sense. You can decide if you want an attorney or not. That might sound a little intimidating. I think it makes a lot of sense. You should probably also have an attorney help you set up if you want an LLC. Is it going to be a C-Corp, an S-Corp?

20:52 Tasha: Are you a sole proprietor? Like how is your business going to be set up? That paperwork you can do, I think it’s like $35 online through your state’s government and get all of that done. But here again, finding advice through either a mentor who is a qualified mentor on this aspect of business. Let me make that clear. Just because.

21:19 Tasha: what works for me has worked for me does not mean it’s going to work for you and what makes sense for you with your state your business setup and all of that so make sure that you have a qualified mentor to determine do you even need an llc do you want it to be a dba which is doing business as how do you want to do that and make sure that you’re setting it up

21:43 Tasha: correctly. Because the goal right now, if you’re going to publish it, is to make money. And if you’re going to make money, you need to make sure that you are abiding by the tax laws, which also leads me to, I recommend having a CPA. There are so many tax write-offs that you can get as an author that maybe you couldn’t have gotten before. Okay, you do need to be bringing in some money to show it’s actually a business and that you are

22:11 Tasha: really wanting to make money with this. It’s not just a hobby, but some tax write-offs that you could consider is maybe Wi-Fi for your home, maybe your computer if you need a new one. Of course, it has depreciation tax write-offs, even your printer and paper and your phone, depending on how much you use it for your business. There’s so many things that you can write off if you have InDesign or Adobe Illustrator.

22:39 Tasha: You want to take advantage of the tax laws that are there to help you keep growing your business. So make sure that you have a CPA who understands home-based business because that’s what this would most likely be considered. I’m assuming that you’re working in home. And that way you can get all of the tax write-offs that are legally and ethically available to you. If you decide self-publishing, I know we’re going to dive into publishing.

23:08 Tasha: more down the road, but I want to throw out some other people that may be critical for your team. Maybe you’re capable of doing all this yourself. Great. If not, these are other people to consider. An editor. Make sure you have a good quality editor. There are even really big companies that publish books and sometimes I still find mistakes. I know people probably have been able to do that in my books as well because things get missed.

23:35 Tasha: A lot of eyes can see it and it can still get missed. So you want to make sure that there’s somebody who’s trained on finding everything possible. Your cover design is crucial. It needs to catch somebody’s eye and catch their attention so that when they see it, they want to pick it up. So having somebody that can create a beautiful cover design. Here again, you might be able to do that, but have beta viewers. Have people give you feedback. Go take it if you get.

24:03 Tasha: you know, to the point that you have proofs, take it to a bookstore, a library and hold it up. Does it stand out? So that’s really important. Your cover design is really important. If you’re going to have an illustrator, some things to consider is payment, royalties. How is all of that going to be set up and make sure it’s in writing? This would probably be a good time to have an attorney draft that.

24:30 Tasha: And also, I would probably put in the contract that it could be re-evaluated on a certain date. I don’t know if that’s allowed. I’ve been very fortunate, the people that I’ve worked with that have been really flexible with me, but you want to make sure things are in writing. You, with self-publishing, will have to definitely figure out your printer and how you’re going to print it, bind it, distribute it, all of that. That itself is going to be

25:00 Tasha: another segment as well because that’s another really big decision and then do you want a publicist or a booking agent somebody that’s going to help you get the word out there somebody that can do your marketing because that’s a whole another animal regardless of how you publish though this is just a side note you’re going to have to do your own marketing as well

25:21 Tasha: Nobody loves your book as much as you do. Nobody is going to want to share it with the world as much as you do. So you will have to be responsible for a lot of your own marketing, regardless of the publishing that you choose. All right. So you’ve assembled your book. You’ve assembled your team that makes sense for you. We will talk about publishing and printing and things like that down the road. Then what will happen is you’ll get proofs.

25:47 Tasha: This is a great thing to show on social media because it’s really special. After all this hard work, like I still remember getting the books and especially my first ones and you get the box in the mail and all of that hard work, this whole vision that you’ve had in your head. Yes, you’ve seen it on a computer screen, but there’s nothing like holding it in your hands.

26:16 Tasha: And you can set up your phone, camera, whatever, and show you opening the box and your initial reaction. It’s really special. And it’s not going to be perfect. Most likely, there’s going to be changes that you’re probably going to need to make. But it’s just finally becoming really real.

26:46 Tasha: You get to see your name on the cover of a book. And when you open it up on the copyright page, your name, if you have an illustrator, anybody that’s really been key to creating it, their names are in it. You can flip the pages. Like, yeah, make sure you use that as part of your marketing content because it will be a very real reaction and it’s amazing.

27:12 Tasha: So you’ll get proofs. Go through it with a fine tooth comb and edit like crazy again. Because if you’re going to make changes, now is the time to make it. Even if you’re like, it’s probably not that big of a deal. If it’s bothering you, it’s going to bother you when it’s published. And it’s a lot harder to make changes after it’s published. Do it now. Give it, you know, if children are part of your…

27:38 Tasha: target audience and it’s a picture book let them look through it my daughter has actually caught some things and i’m like oh none of the adults caught that and you’re right that does make sense and maybe we’ll have some other kids take a look at it too and just ask them not feeding them information like hey do you think this looks like xyz no let them look through it and say what do you think about this picture what do you think about this word

28:04 Tasha: and see what they have to say have some other you know your beta viewers and beta readers i wouldn’t buy a ton of proofs just because it all ends up adding up a lot financially because you might have to do multiple rounds of proofs another thing is coloration can be a big challenge and obstacle so we’ll talk about that in printing but there might be things that need to be changed way back from scanning

28:30 Tasha: All the way up through maybe a word choice or something wasn’t adjusted that needed to be adjusted. So you want to make sure that you go through it and love it. There also comes a point where you might have to say this is good enough. Be aware of that as well. There have been times where we’re like, this isn’t exactly what we wanted, but we all agree on the team. This is good enough. We’ve got to get it out there.

29:00 Tasha: there’s a balance there okay now before your book is officially published you should already be letting people know i wouldn’t do it probably too early in the process just in case there’s major publishing issues or you decide not to finish it but you can be doing teasers along the way whether you have a website which i do recommend having

29:24 Tasha: Or your social media, even as you’re out and about and meeting people, all of that, you need to be letting people know. You can even give a general time frame. I usually say like the spring of or March of this year or whatever until you actually know. But you should already be making sure people know before it’s officially published. So the day it’s published and goes live.

29:50 Tasha: People can be buying it and they’re excited to buy it. There’s all different ways to do that. You need to determine what’s your marketing plan. You can, of course, work with a marketing company. I love the one that I work with. They create beautiful templates for me and my website design. All of it is incredible. They also have a social media club that makes it very affordable to get some templates and advice on.

30:18 Tasha: social media marketing. So I work with Stratos Creative Marketing. I highly recommend them as a company. Everything that they’ve created for me is beautiful and polished. I love it. So I’ll make sure I include their link as well. You can work with whoever you think makes sense for your business. Isn’t that so fun? Your business. This may have started as a book and could be turning into a business. It doesn’t have to, even if it doesn’t become

30:47 Tasha: a growing business you still need to find a way to get it out to people if you’re wanting to share it with people some things to consider would be having a newsletter website social media youtube you can do author visits at schools libraries figure out where are your people where are your people and get it to them

31:14 Tasha: Here again, our library is a great resource. Hopefully your library is a great resource as well of marketing information and finding your people. So make sure you go to your local public library and see if they have resources for you to help you get the information out there. And all along throughout this journey, continue to ask yourself, what is the vision for your book?

31:44 Tasha: For your business, what do you want that to look like? Never forget your original why. Your original why was probably because I’m bursting to get this story out or I know that people need this message or I’m excited to inspire others or this is hilarious and people need to read it so they can laugh. We can always use more laughter. Whatever your original reason, never forget that. That’s your guiding light or your North Star.

32:12 Tasha: But as you continue on, if you’re really wanting this to be something that turns into a business or makes an income for you, you will probably have to expand beyond that to really get it out there. But always carry that in your heart, the real reason why you did this in the first place.32:41 Tasha: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Diary of a Dreamer. I hope you found the stories and tips shared today to be a source of motivation and strength. Remember, every challenge you face is a chance to grow and move closer to your dreams. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone who could use a boost of encouragement. Please check out my website, tashaeizinger.com.