A Pandemic Silver-lining

How Writing a Covid19 Children’s Book 

Changed the Way I Publish

February was not a good month to be sick with a cough. Nevertheless, I had one and it ended up being one of the worst colds of my entire life. At the time, Covid19 was just becoming an issue and my continual coughing caused more fear than sympathy. Therefore, I went into lockdown before it ever became a bad word. Then my kids came down with my colds, homeschooling began, and questions about this mysterious virus began to get real. It was impossible to keep the kids in the dark. They began to worry and their questions became harder and harder to answer. Will we get to go back to school? When can we see our friends? Why can’t grandma visit? Is grandma going to die? Will you die? Can I die? These are not easy questions to answer, especially when no one really knew that much about Covid19.

Lockdown Inspiration

One afternoon while playing around with torn construction paper, I suddenly realized an easy way to explain to my six year old about the virus. Just as many of my stories come to me out of the blue and overtake my thought processes, this one wouldn’t let go. The story of a happy, carefree green line whose life changes suddenly when one day some of the orange and purple lines in her town begin to turn crooked. I began tearing paper, scanning it in, and writing down the story that had appeared in my head. Within 24 hours, I had assembled the beginning of a book which would end up becoming one of the most popular children’s books about the coronavirus. I called it TheDay the Lines Changed. 

My Advantage

By early March stories about the notorious coronavirus began to arrive from all corners of the globe. I began to realize that the story that I had written to console my boys had marketing potential. Large publishers need months to years to bring out a story as they require the collaboration of various people from book designers and illustrators to marketing experts. As someone who had already self-published a couple of children’s books and done my own writing, illustrating, and book design, I realized an opportunity. I quickly got to work. My last book had taken a year to write and illustrate. Nevertheless, within a week I had published the first draft of The Day the Lines Changed on Amazon. I decided to give the first two months earnings (March and April) to local charities which support children’s mental health. After April, I figured if the book was still making some money, I could use the extra cash to pay off my Master’s degree. At the time, I thought I would be lucky if I sold a couple hundred books and I never imagined that the pandemic would get so out of hand.

Learning by Doing

Unlike most children’s books, coronavirus children’s books were an absolutely new idea. I began to look on Amazon everyday. I would type in “coronavirus children’s books” or “pandemic picture books” and see which books continually came up. I began to get to know the competition, which grew by the day. Quickly I began to see why some books sold more than others. The cover looked more professional, you could look inside the book and read the story, the idea was great, or the blurb especially appealing. I began tweaking my story. I improved the cover. I improved my blurb. I increased the look inside function to 70% so that people could read my story. I made a story-time video on Youtube. I began to advertise and post on social media. I started doing interviews. I learned basic analytics. Soon, my numbers began to improve. 

I also decided to contact other authors of coronavirus children’s books. I looked at who was in the top ten and I sent them each a letter. I introduced myself and asked them why they wrote their book and their story. Soon, I began to see a trend. We were mothers, teachers, and all had some artistic experience. In addition, we were all privileged enough to be able to have had the time to do what we did. Writing, illustrating, book design, and marketing all take precious time and usually amount to little income. None of us had a traditional book contract, but we all had the ambition to venture into the unknown. We had all decided that the benefits outweighed the risks. Interestingly enough, for many of my colleagues, this was the first book that they had ever self-published.

As Covid19 began to really hit the US hard, teachers all over began to talk on social media about what they were going to do when they went back to school. Having worked as an educator for many years, I knew I could help out. I used my research to write an article on my blog The Best Coronavirus Children’s Booksfor back to school. I began to receive more emails from teachers wanting to use my lesson plans in their class. More than any newspaper article or interview, social media post or podcast, word of mouth about my book began to fuel sales. By August I began to sell 40 books a day and at its peak, I was selling well over a hundred. In September, The Day the Lines Changed was featured in the Washington Post as one of the top coronavirus children’s books on the market and had made over 10,000 dollars. My book had gone further than I had ever imagined possible.

Moving Forwards

Publishing a coronavirus children’s book has taught me more in 6 months about publishing than all of the writing classes and seminars I’ve been to in my lifetime. A book is so much more than its text. When I wrote The Day the Lines Changed, I didn’t know what would happen. But, I knew that if I didn’t take a chance I would never know what could happen. The worst case scenario was that my book would fail. I was willing to accept that. It is only after you have accepted that you can handle the worst case scenario that you can begin to look at how you can achieve the best. At that point, you can only move forwards. Thank goodness I did.

For more info on The Day the Lines Changed: KelleyDonner.com