I just saw my picture book, “I am a Bon Dancer,” listed on Amazon and various websites, and I thought I’d share it. My aunty used to call me, “turtle” as a kid because I was so slow, which is ironic. After all, I feel it’s taking me longer than most people to publish my first book. I heard one author say it took her three years to publish her first book. Here’s how long it’s been for me.
I wrote the initial manuscript in third person for this book when my oldest son was less than a year old. I remember going to my local SCBWI event at the University of Hawai’i law school building. At that time, Matt de la Pena was speaking, and this was before he wrote his first picture book. I was nursing my son at that time and could only be present for half the day. This was more than ten years ago.
- I sold my picture book in 2021.
- My picture book was supposed to come out summer of 2025.
- It looks like it’s coming out in 2026.
- My baby will be 13 next year.
- This means it took almost 12 years to come out from idea to publication!
This doesn’t account for the fact that I wrote my first picture book as a kid and majored in English. This has been a long time coming. I still don’t believe it will actually be published. Here’s crossing all the toes and fingers it comes out next year!
