Throughout my 30-year career, I’ve written nonfiction for
major houses like Harpercollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, National
Geographic, Random House and Lerner. It’s been fun to imagine myself a part of
the big dog team. But publishing more recently with Sasquatch/Little Bigfoot--a
smaller house in Seattle—has given me a big new win.
My first book with Little Bigfoot was CRYPTID CREATURES: A
FIELD GUIDE (2019). My book about mysterious creatures, TALES OF THE CRYPTIDS
(Lerner, 2006) has been a favorite among elementary school readers for almost
20 years. But as those readers aged out, they asked for a meatier bone—a bone I
hoped to deliver. Lerner wasn’t willing, but Little Bigfoot was.
Instead of mimicking the 72-page TALES OF THE CRYPTIDS picture
book, they allowed me to write the expanded 224 page paperback my older readers
wanted. They even let Rick Spears, the illustrator who made TOTC a masterpiece,
create original art for the project—a lot of it.
We offered well documented eyewitness reports on 50
different unconfirmed animals with three illustrations for each one—an adult, a
baby and a skeletal feature. I loved the book throughout the process, but I
expected it to take years to be discovered. Silly me.
Almost immediately, the book—distributed by Random
House/Penguin—sold like gangbusters. After 18 years, TOTC has 145 Amazon reader
reviews. Five years into CRYPTID CREATURES, there are more than 700, most of
them five stars.
Little Bigfoot promoted the book with gusto, in part because
they had fewer titles to present than the major houses might have. My editor
was exceptionally gifted and the publicist lined up the best television
coverage I’ve ever enjoyed.
I attribute the success to Little Bigfoot’s willingness to
take a chance on a book I was convince would find an audience, when the big
houses refused. The partnership was so successful, I have another Little
Bigfoot book on Washington State’s only dinosaur fossil discovery coming this
fall. SEA MONSTERS: A FIELD GUIDE and BABY CRYPTIDS (a board book) will be
available from Little Bigfoot in the fall of 2025—all illustrated by Rick
Spears.
Publishing with any house is a win, and I’d still work for
the big dogs if the opportunity arose. But I’ll never overlook the little guys
again. Little Bigfoot may be small by New York standards, but the results have
been super-sized for me!
About the Author: