Creating a Niche in Chapter Books: Author Interview with David Horn

What made you choose writing books for middle-grade readers? How do you determine the length and vocabulary for this age group?
I started writing at the chapter book level when my kids were at that reading level. At that age, once you got through the big series, I felt like there wasn’t a lot of variety for a voracious reader. And at the same time I was telling them stories at dinner, just to make them laugh, so I decided to try writing a chapter book. 

My first draft was terrible, but I learned through doing about the right word count and chapter lengths that worked better for young readers. For example, when I got the first paperback author pre-release version of my first Eudora Space Kid book, I realized some of my paragraphs were way too long and took up the entire page – very bad. So I quickly made everything shorter. But I didn’t’ realize it until I went to print. So there was a lot of learning by doing.

When you wrote your first Eudora Space Kid book, did you plan on making it a series? You have 5 books in that series. Will there be more?

At the time, I definitely thought it could be a series, since I had a word document with all the stories I ever told my kids jotted down (brief paragraph synopsis really). So when Eudora Space Kid Book 1 did okay, I decided to keep going. There are still stories on my document I haven’t written or released yet, even if my kids are well out of chapter book age now. In fact, I plan on starting art on Eudora Book 6 (a super-special type book) in the fall.

How did you go about finding an illustrator? 

I think you can find an illustrator in a lot of ways – SCBWI, any gigging sites, general search. My advice is that the cover is most important – they’ll never even see the insides if they don’t like the cover. Like picture books, chapter books have an assortment of images inside the book, but mostly are black and white sketches (that saves a lot in printing costs). However, the illustrator will also need to be able to do a full color cover. 

What advice would you give for finding an illustrator?

One thing I learned, which I didn’t know at first, is to go through your manuscript and mark where you think interior pictures would be good and then describe them as much as possible (I use comment bubbles for this). Then you can count them up and know you need a certain number of illustrations. You may have an idea what size you want them too. It’s easier to price out illustrators if you know how many pictures you need.

 You’ve now written two re-imagined fairy tale books from a contemporary viewpoint. What inspired you to make Sylvia Locke as a new vision of Cinderella?

Sylvia Locke also started out as stories I told my kids when they were at the chapter book age. They asked for a fairy tale for some reason, and I couldn’t just use Eudora, so I told a story about what happened after Goldilocks and the Bears had set all these traps for the next intruder – and it ended up like a Home Alone type story. Sylvia Locke started out as Goldilocks cousin, who was even worse than Goldilocks. When I started actually writing it out, I somehow lost the cousin thing and it just ended up with the bears moving.

And then my kids wanted to hear more about Sylvia Locke. So in the next story I told them, it just factually made sense that after breaking into a neighbor’s house her grandparents would send her away to live with other family who could actually watch over her, and it just became Cinderella.

I still tell my kids stories sometimes, and they’ve even heard ridiculous crossovers of Eudora and Sylvia.  

Are there other fairy tale characters ready to make their debut in other books?

Because I have this neighbor of Sylvia’s do a prologue and epilogue, I think he always gives a hint as to what the next story will be. I imagine Tairy Fails to be a serialized walk-through of all these fairy tales that Sylvia just happens to live through. Book 3 is supposed to be Rapunzel and I’m working on the manuscript now. I’m hoping to get Sylvia under water for the Little Mermaid at some point too. Haha.

How do you market your books? 

Because I’m only self-published, the marketing is hard. I try anything and everything to see what sticks, but I’m finding it’s all hit or miss anyway. 

 What is the best marketing/publishing advice you’ve received or could give?

Unfortunately, the best thing is just Amazon reviews. The more you can get, the more readers think your book is legit. But how do you get them consistently? I’ve been trying ARC sites more geared for self-publishing which have been okay.

Are there any other points about writing you would like to add?

Chapter books are hard! A lot of work for a small segment of the population and a lower price. You have to really love it. 

Give me a short synopsis of your latest book release or upcoming one.

I’ve actually been trying my hand at a few YA manuscripts and I hope to have some out later this year. And, like I said, Eudora Space Kid #6 will be out next year hopefully, and the working title is Admiral Eudora – so she gets a promotion in that one. Haha.

Tairy Fails #2 is out September 3 and the synopsis is: Fairytale Land's baddest girl is about to head to a prince's ball. A modern, twisted retelling of Cinderella. Perfect for elementary school kids and early chapter book readers.

That's all for today's interview. I encourage you to get some of David's books. I'm already a fan and a reader of his works. Here are a couple of links to connect you to his writing. 

https://www.eudoraspacekid.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/EudoraSpaceKid

And here's a bonus for my readers, leave a comment on this post and we'll pick one reader who'll receive an eBook copy of Tairy Fails Book #1. So do that now. It can be as simple as I want to be in the giveaway. We'll chose a winner next week! 

Writing Books to Intrigue Your Own Kids and Others: Author Interview with David Horn

What inspired you to write Eudora Space Kid?
Eudora Space Kid started as stories I told my two daughters at the time. They were right in the chapter book age and I had already read them bazillions of those books – some of them over and over and over... One night at dinner, and I’ll never know why, they asked me to tell them a story (I had never done that before). So I obliged and decided to combine my love of science fiction and their chapter book genre into my unexpected improv story. And, thus, Eudora was born.

The Great Engine Room Takeover was the very first story I told them that night at dinner. My wife was the one who said I should try writing the story as a book, as we were always looking for good chapter books for our kids. The second book in the series, The Lobster Tale, also started as a dinner time improv story.

When did you actually start writing your book?
From first putting pen to paper, it took me around two months to write the first draft. And it was pretty terrible! But I had a great collaborative editor who really liked the “bones” of the story and taught me how to write a chapter book for real (sentence, paragraph and chapter structure).

If my editor didn’t see something in it, Eudora may have ended right then and there. But from there, it took maybe a year between that first collaborative edit to get to the final manuscript (but some of that delay was due to COVID).

Are you active with any children’s writers’ groups?
I wasn’t active in any writers’ groups at all, so I had no help other than the great editors I found. Looking back, I really should have been in a children’s writers group. Only now after my second book do I realize, hey that would have really helped, so I’m looking now to do that. At least I have something to offer a group now? And in another sense, maybe I benefitted somewhat from not being in a group - if I knew how hard it was, I may not have done it! Ha!

As an indie author, you foot all the bills for publication. What made you decide to go that route?
In all honesty, I didn’t have a choice! No agents were interested. I think the chapter book market is a hard sell. But I absolutely love chapter books. I love the simple joy and wonder in them. And I knew I wanted to publish this story for my daughters (they were so excited).

I’ll never know what traditional publishing would have been like, but one thing I really liked about self-publishing was getting to work with the artist and design everything in the exact vision I had (although the amazing Talitha Shipman brought so many funny ideas on her own). I got to have input into all the art, like design the uniforms, the ship, how the characters should look, all that stuff which I loved. It was like being the producer of a movie.

Do you do your own formatting, or did you hire someone?
The Great Engine Room Takeover was my first book. I had no idea how to go about formatting a book. Some illustrators I contacted were like “tell me how many illustrations you want and what sizes and formats” and I was like “Huh?! Don’t you know?” So I set out to find an illustrator who could do the interior design too (they’re hard to find), so they would bring their experience as to what I really needed since I had no clue. And Talitha hit a home run with it all.

After getting through my second book, The Lobster Tale, I think I know how many illustrations and what sizes I would need when I look at my manuscripts. But back then – huh?!

With chapter books your illustrations can be in black and white in the interior not full color, but you still need to get a stunning cover (and you did with Eudora). How were you able to do that? 
Thanks, I’m so glad you like the covers! My advice would be – you should judge a book by its cover and put the extra cost into that. Being a new author and The Great Engine Room Takeover being the first book in a series, I think that cover was the absolute most important and best piece of marketing I could have done.

For those who think it would be fun to write and pub a chapter book, what would you tell them about putting together a book?

In terms of priority, I think the most important thing is great, thorough professional editing, but second to that is the cover.

What surprised you the most in publishing your first book?
The thing that surprised me most is how long it takes to self-publish a book. For my type of chapter book with detailed illustrations, the illustrations alone can take six months. To be honest, I already have lots of Eudora books written, but from editing to illustrations, I’m hoping I can self-publish them all before Eudora gets too old! Ha!

How did you go about finding the right illustrator?
For young kids and an unfamiliar science fiction story, I knew I wanted a graphic novel style that had detailed illustrations that could help explain the text and unfamiliar action.

I looked at a ton of different portfolios for illustrators until I found one that fit the graphic novel style I had in my head. And because of scheduling difficulty, I had to do that all over again for The Lobster Tale. I was so happy to find Deven Hoover who had such a great comic style which was perfect for the series.

How did you go about choosing the illustrations you wanted?
For the actual illustrations in both books, I wrote out in my manuscript suggestions for different pictures I thought would be good and we worked from there using the illustrators’ experience to figure out what would be best. For both books there were a few rounds of adjustments to characters and scenes – I imagine that is one of the benefits of self-publishing. I think going back and forth made for better illustrations.

What type of promotions have you done for this book? 
As a new author, anything to let people know I exist helped. The best promotion was a book giveaway I did to help build a mailing list and generate interest where I couldn’t have otherwise. Also making my first ebook free at Amazon helped generate exposure to new readers and get some reviews.

What’s the best writing tip you’ve learned or been given that you’d like to share?
I think it helps to let something sit for a while and then go back to it later with a different mindset (that’s kind of why the different stages of editing are so important). Sometimes when I go back to something, I come up with new jokes to add!

What other works do you have in the process?
I have a whole bunch of Eudora books written that are waiting to be published. Along the way we’ll meet some new, really silly characters and get to know our current characters even more. I’m also thinking of a new series, but that’s in the initial phase only.

Any last words or tips?
I’m still learning. If you’re self-publishing, to stay true to your vision. Write what you would want to read. After readings hundreds of chapter books to my kids, I wanted to write something I would like to read to my own kids. Ultimately, you want to be happy after you hit the publish button!

That’s all for today’s interview. If you’d like to learn more about David’s books, here are some links to get you started.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TC5WZLK

https://www.eudoraspacekid.com/

https://www.facebook.com/EudoraSpaceKid