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Writer with His Own Bookstore Proves Book Has Appeal
by Kevin Coolidge
Hobo Finds A Home Cover
Hobo Did Indeed Find a Home I read in my local paper about a class on how to write a children's book. I thought it would be a fun class, and so I jumped at the chance. The story came naturally. It was about my cat, and how my cat came to adopt me. I've always been an animal person, but I grew up with dogs, and was never a cat person. I ended up feeding a stray kitten, and he would be chased away by skunks and possums, and the fat, neighborhood cat, and I would bring him inside to make sure he was fed, and he ended up moving in. I would tell this story to my nephews and they would laugh at Hobo's adventures and how he came to live with me, and basically the book wrote itself. It was a cute story, but I wasn't going to publish it. There are so many new books every year. But my girlfriend loved the book, and a friend of ours, Susan M. Gage wanted to illustrate the book, and so we went ahead with the project. I chose Booklocker because a friend had used them for a children's book and thought well of them. They told me what to expect, and they fit my need for the book at the time. Hobo Finds A Home went on to be more popular than I thought, and people loved the story and the childlike illustrations by Susan Gage. The book was by Hobo, as I felt that it really did write itself, and we sold almost 700 copies in a year out of a small bookstore in a rural town. The book was popular enough that a small press out of Ohio picked it up. The new press, called Edgeliff Kids did want new, brighter illustrations and the new illustrations of the new editon are bright and colorful. I took the old edition out of print, but I still have some copies left, and I display the older edition and the new edition right next to each other, and some customers prefer the older, out of print editon, and several reading teachers have commented how this is easier for beginning readers. Though I love both editons, I do feel a certain sense of fulfillment that many people prefer the "self-published" version opposed to the new published version. So, if you are thinking of writing that children's book, or that novel, don't let anyone talk you out of it. The book may not be a bestseller. You probably aren't going to be the next James Patterson, or Stephen King, but you might just write a book that someone falls in love with, and sometimes that's enough. Visit Kevin's bookstore (online at least), From My Shelf Books.
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