I hit number 5

​on September 18th One of my pirate books hit number five on our UK Kindle list! I am not even sure how to find this list in Amazon, this happened to be posted by the author who had hit number nine and I saw the post and thought to myself my goodness that book looks familiar! This is very exciting! Now I just need to figure out how to find the list myself

On sale now for $6.74

Christmas Shopping Time!

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Santa : A Bingo Book

I am a Goodreads Author!

 Very excited to find that I had some books listed in Goodreads so I immediately set about claiming the books and setting up my author page!

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22673078.Cassie_Veselovsky

Please check it out and if you have any questions, I have the question link turned on.  Thank you!

My first author signing!

These absolutely adorable kiddos purchased some of my books and wanted them sign.  My heart was so filled with joy it was bursting from the seams all day long.     I did struggle a bit on what to write, but ended up with a quote that I say to my kids just about every single day  "Don't forget to be awesome".   Any Hang and John Green fans out there will recognize the saying DFTBA.  I've used it in bulletin boards and try to encourage others to live by those words.  We may not be able to be awesome all the time, but we can try and we can try to bring the awesomeness out in others.  

 

Expanded Distribution

 WOO HOO!  I've hit Barnes & Noble!

Ok, I applied for Expanded Distribution for all of my books, which in KDP is Barnes & Noble, BUT that is no guarantee they will pick your book!  And to be fair, they have only picked a 1/3 of my titles, but still they have selected some and I AM SO THRILLED AND THANKFUL!  It really means so much to me.

The reach of the written word

 

Oh my goodness, I am SO VERY excited that my children's books have reached Spain and Germany!  I never dreamed!  Or I never thought.... I guess I always had a bit of hope and a dream.

Kindle Editions

 Today has been a day for cleaning up Kindle editions of all of my books and making sure they are available.  It hasn't been the easiest and I still have more to do, but the process has been made much easier with the discovery of the Kindle Kids' Book Creator!    If you are publishing children's books, I highly recommend you checking it out.   If you have something better, please let me know! 

Five is a magic number!

Five is a magic number!  It is used so frequently in rhymes during storytimes.  Why is that?  Why not three or eight or seven?   Occasionally 10 is used, yes, but most often it is five.

I have my own theories.

• Five is easy to show with your hand
• It is faster than doing a rhyme with 10 and time is limited in storytime
• They are easy to repeat and repetition is great for building memory capabilities

Always include counting rhymes when you can since inclusion of math skills (counting numbers in sequence) is a necessary building block for school success!
 

Do you want to review children's books?

 If you look really closely at that photo, you will see the slightly crazed look in my eye.  I absolutely LOVE that I had the courage to publish my books, but on the other hand, I am a bit overwhelmed and am not exactly sure what I am doing!

This is probably why having an agent or publisher is a good idea LOL

It is alright - my goal was never to become a best selling author, but I do want to get my books into the hands of parents or caregivers who could benefit from them.  

I also believe I shouldn't have published every single one at the same time LOL but I had to get them out of my head and into the public.  I hopped on my computer each night after work and all day when I was off to format each title just right.   It was this weird need to get them out into the hands of others.   

I only wish that there would have been more feedback by now.  I have heard from a couple of families and the kids have liked the titles, which is GREAT!  But I also want some reviews or criticisms so I can work on the titles and make them better going forward.

So please, if you have any desire to review children's books, please let me know and I'd be glad to send you PDF versions of any title for review! 

So many books!

 I have been working on advertising, and well, I am not quite sure how I am doing.  I know there is only one or two people actually making it to my blog... if that is you, I would appreciate you giving me any feedback on these sell sheets.

Sharing my Halloween book for kids for free!

 I am sharing my Halloween title for free via a link to a PDF file.   Click here  Candy : A Bingo Book to access the book.  Take a look and tell me what you think.   I really would appreciate the feedback.

My goal in writing the books is to encourage parents to sing with their kids and maybe have a bit of fun while reading.  The positive experience can be so beneficial to the child.   Try it out and give me your opinion! 

KDP Tuesday - just as good as tacos

Yesterday I had my biggest day ever in book selling - I sold 19 copies!

HA! I know you're laughing, and that's ok, but my story is a real story of self-publishing books!  It is a slow growing thing.  Here, take a look:

Yes, I have only sold 56 books since April, BUT I have done it with only self-promotion, which isn't the best thing to get the word out.   I have emailed libraries and posted ads on social media (TikTok, Instagram and Facebook).  I've branched out to try blogging to help spread the world, and I've worked hard at trying to build my author page in Amazon.   

Plus, I've spent a lot of time trying to connect all of my social media sites.

I have sold 56 books!  That is an achievement!  And I've done it without paid for marketing.  When I can, I am going to look into marketing, but for the time being, I will keep doing what I'm doing.  I didn't write these books to become famous.  My goal was to get them out there and into the hands of adults and kids, and slowly, each month, I'm doing that!

Anyone feel like Coloring?

 Coloring in a book...  Gracious no!     Until now!   My husband had this great idea to create a Bingo book for the word COLOR and make it a coloring book.   I loved it!   So we got to work on the words and digging around for suitable illustrations.   This is the result.

I absolutely love it!   Having printed paperbacks via Amazon before, I know the paper and cover will be perfect for crayons or colored pencils.  I hope hope hope that some creative kiddos will get the book, color it and shared the photos with me!  I would LOVE to see what they would do with it! 

Take me to your Reader

 

Now available "The Lights on the Robot" in kindle and paperback format!  This was a fun book to write to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus".   The concept is picking up toys and putting them away in a toy box and a special thing that each toy does.  For the robot, the lights blink!  

And yes, I know, "Take me to your Reader (Leader)" is something typically an alien would say in movies or tv, but I thought it would fit for Robot AND it made me realize that "Alien" is five letters.  Hmm :) 

Spooky Fun Halloween Books for Little Ones

 If you are looking for light hearted Halloween books, check these out online, at your local bookstore, or at your local library!

Five Little Pumpkins Came Back by Dan Yaccarino

    Five little pumpkins get scared on Halloween night in this short, fun Halloween counting rhymewith fun bold, colorful illustrations!

Wheels on the Bus at Halloween by Sarah Kieley

    A fun Halloween song (think Wheels on the Bus) with cats, bats, pumpkins, ghosts and more making all sorts of noise on the bus!  This book will definitely get lots of calls for "again! again!"  Mix it up by coming up with your own creatures that get on the bus!

Candy A Bingo Book by Cassie Veselovsky

    This rhyming romp written to the tune of Bingo follows children gathering candy on Halloween night!  "There is a treat at Halloween and candy is its name-o"  "You get a piece when you trick or treat and candy is its name-o"

Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round by Rosanna Battigelli

    Cozy illustrations support this Halloween romp with lots of repetition perfect for toddlers and preschoolers!

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro

    Lucille Colandro has created fun "old lady" books covering pretty much every holiday!  These silly books provide lots of laughs and some great singing opportunities!

Plumply, Dumply, Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo

    The rolling, rollicking rhyme is perfectly coupled with bold, fun illustrations that are sure to delight your young ones and provide lots of inspiration for their own pumply, dumply pumpkin decorations!

    

Venture into Space

Do you have a child fascinated with space?  If so, check out these two books available in Amazon in both paperback and kindle editions.  SPACE is one of my Bingo books featuring a space cow.  Yes, you read that right!   And Astronaut, Astronaut is written in the pattern of Brown Bear, Brown Bear featuring objects in space from an Astronaut to the universe.

If you would ever like to check out a PDF copy to preview, please ask.  I'd be more than happy to send you one.
 

Acorn A Bingo Book

 Available on Amazon in paperback or kindle format!    Perfect to share with your kiddos 0-5, or anyone any age who loves to sing! 

Kindle Kids Book Creator

On Sept. 3rd I ranted a tiny bit about frustrations in creating Kindle versions of my picture books.  Well, I found the Kindle Kids Book Creator and was going to try that and WOW!  What a difference!

I went on a binge creating ebook versions of all of my picture books.  I didn't finish them all, but the process was so easy.  I didn't have any problems with the illustrations.  Everything converted correctly and looked great.

For covers, I just saved my cover files as jpeg files and edited them to the correct size.  

It took about 10 mins per book for the whole process and no frustration!

Fall Book Craziness!

 

I LOVE Canva!  Used it last night to create an ad for all of my fall books.  OK, I am sure some marketing people will tell me all that is wrong with it... but that would be good, so go ahead and do it so I can learn next time!

In the meantime, check out my fall titles!  They are fun songs to read & sing with kiddos!  And would make wonderful fall month birthday gifts!

Kindle Editions of Picture Books

Going the Amazon KDP route for publishing my children's book titles has been great, except when it comes to Kindle books!  I have really struggled making Kindle friendly versions.  

When publishing my adult title about my grandfather I didn't have as big of a problem however even though there were an awful lot of photos, there was more text than pictures.  I think the main issue with the picture books is that they are so heavily illustrated and the conversion programs don't like that.

What I realized is that I have been doing it all wrong.  Well, not wrong - I have been getting ebooks out there - but they have been taking a lot of time and never just "right".   Doing the tiniest bit of poking around, found that Amazon has a page with downloads focused on publishing for kids!  How to publish your children's books cover illustrated picture books through YA.   

I haven't tried it yet, but that's my big planned dive-in for the weekend.  Wish me luck! 

Happy Fall Ya'll!

 Hayrides and pumpkins, colorful leaves and donuts... and of course Apples!  Get ready for autumn!

Books go with a Latte!

Oddly enough I do not drink coffee in any of it's various forms - not even coffee ice cream and I love ice cream, BUT I woke up today with this thought and had to make it into a post!   Come on, books do go with "a lot" (latte... hahaha!)

Ok, Bring on autumn!