Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep# 194-How A Glen Rock Dad Self-Publishes Children’s Picture Books
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A single bedtime request can change everything. When Sean Noble’s daughter asked him to “just tell me a story,” he invented a tooth fairy named Tula, then kept building the tale night after night until it had real characters, real momentum, and real potential as a children’s picture book. Sean joins us from Glen Rock, New Jersey to share how that small family moment became a self-publishing journey that’s now eight books strong.
We get practical about the craft and the business of children’s books: where story ideas come from when you’re writing from real life, what a typical picture book length looks like, and why illustration style matters as much as the words. Sean also explains how he found illustrators online, including collaborators overseas, and what it’s like to learn the creative workflow when you don’t have publishing contacts or a built-in team.
Then we pull back the curtain on Amazon KDP and self-publishing. Sean walks through the steps of taking finished art files and turning them into a printed book on Amazon, plus the reality of discoverability, rankings, and marketing. Instead of chasing algorithms, he focuses on a sustainable approach: a simple author website, email and social media outreach, and local book fairs that build real community support in Bergen County.
If you’ve been thinking about self-publishing a children’s book, this conversation will make the path feel clearer and more doable. Subscribe for more stories from local business owners and creators, share this with a friend who’s sitting on a book idea, and leave a review to help more neighbors find the show.
seannoblebooks.com
Sean Noble
seannoblebooks.com
scn8488@yahoo.com
Welcome And Guest Introduction
Intro/CloseThis is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host.
Doug DrohanHey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. Today we are joined by a local author and uh you know his own little Amazon.com in his own right. It's Sean Noble of Sean Noblebooks.com. Sean, welcome to the show.
Sean NobleThank you for having me. Nice to be here.
Doug DrohanYeah, thank you.
The Tooth Fairy Story Origin
Doug DrohanSo when did uh you launch SeanNoblebooks.com?
Sean NobleSo I I uh Sean Noblebooks.com is uh kind of like a little happy accident. I didn't I didn't ever have any aspirations to write children's books. It just happened. And uh the the short version is that when my daughter was was little, we had a Saturday morning routine where we would go into town here in Glen Rock and get a bagel, then we'd go to the uh the county park or any park in town, and then we'd swing back to the Glen Rock Library and take out a week's worth of children's books where where I used to read to her quite often. Excuse me. And um after doing this for a long period of time, my daughter one night said to me, Daddy, can you just tell me a story? And I had to figure out something quickly. And she was losing her teeth at the time, so I created this story about this tooth fairy, Tula, and her first tooth trip. And she asked me to tell it to her the second night and third night, and so on. And by the end of 10 days, I had this story that had a main character and supporting characters and character development, and I thought, you know, this this could have the potential uh to be a book, and I spent the last I spent up to two years trying to figure out how to write it professionally, how to get it, how to hire an illustrator, what do I pay an illustrator, how does it get point A to point B. And uh since then I've done written eight books, published uh written in eight, published eight books. I my ninth book is with my current illustrator, and I'm writing my tenth book. So here we are. Wow.
Doug DrohanSo where does where do the topics come from? You know, you've got you know, you've got books that are uh, you know, I guess unicorns and and uh you know, you've uh hummingbirds and and waity bugs and things like that. So where does your inspiration
Finding Ideas Through Real Life
Doug Drohancome from?
Sean NobleSo that's a great word. The the word inspiration is so I have taken the approach not to write children's books for the sake of writing a children's book. I don't sit down at the kitchen table and start typing it was a dark and stormy night. I wait, I always waited to get inspired by something that I thought could be the potential to be a children's book. And the eight books that I've I've published so far have been moments of inspiration, life experiences, true life stories, uh, and that that I feel make it easier to write about than just to kind of figure something out on its own.
Doug DrohanNice.
unknownYeah.
Picture Book Structure And Illustrators
Doug DrohanSo is there a certain formula when you write a children's book, like how many words, how many pages?
Sean NobleSo there's like a maximum so the the from what I learned, because I had to learn all this by myself. I'm a single dad, I don't have a partner, my wife, my ex-wife, I can't, there's no one in my family or my friends that were in publishing, so I had to learn all of it by myself. Yes, but the general rule of thumb for a children's picture book is about 42 pages. So I um and and that's what I've uh sometimes it's 44 or 40 or 48, but each one of my books is about that long, yes.
Doug DrohanRight, but there's not that many words on a page, so it's not like it's uh reading Mo Moby Dick or anything.
Sean NobleNo, no, it's nothing like that. I I my I have a background, I have a I used to read comic books voraciously as a child. I still have a appreciation for that art form, so I I I place an emphasis on the illustration still, so each page actually is illustrated, and I have two illustrators. Okay, I have one illustrator from Ukraine, okay, another illustrator that lives in Turkey.
Doug DrohanAh, okay. And uh and how did you meet them?
Sean NobleYeah, that's a great question. I, you know, when I first started this journey, I didn't know where to find an illustrator. And my first illustrator I found on a website called Etsy. Um she was uh she had done illustrations, um portraits and had never done a children's books before, and I felt that her look and her colors and her lines would fit best with my Tooth Fairy book. So we went on this journey together, each of us having never done a book before, and then I hired her for my second and my third book, and then she was busy, and then I found my Ukrainian illustrator on a Facebook page on Illustrators for Hire. Okay. We've collaborated uh four times so far.
Doug DrohanBut so you didn't go to the book fairs and and walk the book fairs and find people?
Sean NobleYou know, uh no, I didn't. I I found everyone online. And I it's funny because I when I first started this journey, I thought I'd be hiring an illustrator from locally or from New York, Manhattan, Connecticut, and then they're on the other side of the world.
Doug DrohanIt's right, right, yeah, yeah. So I mentioned that because I used to work uh for Nickelodeon and consumer products, international consumer products. So I used to go to the Bologna Book Fair uh a few times, you know, the New York Book Fair. It seems like every city has a book fair. There's the London Book Fair, there's New York, there's uh Guadalajara for Latin America, uh Bologna for mostly Italy, and I think in China there's one. But uh you know, when you go to these book fairs, we would have a huge uh booth, you know, as as uh MTV Viacom Nickelodeon, but there were all these smaller booths where you'd meet, you know, illustrators or learning how to self-publish.
Learning KDP Self-Publishing Workflow
Doug DrohanSo, all right, so you decided, okay, I'm gonna write a book. So how did you learn, like, where am I gonna get it printed? Where am I, okay, I found the illustrator, but how do they, you know, how does that illustration become paper bound in a book? And what kind of paper am I gonna use? And what does it weigh? And what does it cost? Like, where did you learn all that?
Sean NobleSo I I I literally knew nothing about self-publishing whatsoever. I actually thought you in the beginning, believe it or not, I thought I would be publishing book my book from my home and printing it off my desktop. That's how naive I was. I didn't know that the illustrator actually included the words on the page with the illustration. I knew nothing. So I had to really self-teach myself on how to get it done. And umce I wrote my first book, I had to hire my illustrator, and once once that was done, I had to take all the files and figure out what to do with them. And I did some research and I found out that the best solution for me was to self-publish the books, books on KDP, which is an owned company uh by Amazon. Amazon, if you remember back in the day, only sold books, yeah, and so they have their own self-publishing platform. Yeah, so my buddy and I uploaded all the files onto KDP. We had to go back and forth on approving the font and the lines and the format and the paper and the size of the book back and forth. That took forever. But finally I hit the approve button, and once you approve it, and then it goes live on Amazon. And from there, it's we've just been I've been I've fit published eight books since then. Now it's quite easy.
Doug DrohanRight, right, right. Okay.
Marketing, Rankings, And Staying Grounded
Doug DrohanYeah. So how do you get found on Amazon? Does some like obviously, you know, if I go on Amazon shop books, and then if I go to categories, let me go to So I always I always I my I promote my um website, which is which is Sean Noblebooks.com. Right.
Sean NobleUh profiles, of course, all of my books, and then you can click the cover of that book and it takes you to Amazon.
Doug DrohanCorrect.
unknownYeah.
Doug DrohanRight. So if I go on Amazon right now and I go on um the children's books, explore children's books, I see a little blue truck, which you know, my son we had for my son. I see um Building 903, which I never heard of, Cozy Cafes. You know, so one of the things when I was working in um in the industry when you know being self-published was a big thing, everybody thought, oh, why should I work with Hachette or Random House or whatever, and you know, only get a small cut. I should just do it myself. But you know, it's like one thing to create a record or a book, but getting it promoted so people can find you, aka marketing is a whole other story. So it's nice that you're on Amazon, but if I just go on Amazon right now, and you know, you're not gonna be on their first few pages, or there's teachers' picks or editors' picks. Right. Um, it's a lot harder, you know. So, like where the wild things are comes up, everybody's heard of that, right? Creepy carrot's never heard of that. But um, you know, have you ever explored what it would take to get your books to show up higher in the ranking?
Sean NobleUm, I I know there well, here's the thing. I'm a single dad with a sixth grader, and I am self-employed, I run my own company. Yeah, uh, so there's a certain amount of time during the day that I have that I can dedicate towards my books. I did do a little research in regards to that, in regards to the uh uh what there's a word for it. Um but um I think there's fees involved that you have to pay.
Doug DrohanOh yeah.
Sean NobleYeah. And um it it's it's can be tenuous. You and um I approach the book, my book journey as more of something uh as a creative, uh satisfying journey where it's therapeutic and I enjoy the process, and I tend not to think too much about the sales, uh, because I think you can get uh sidetracked from that. So I just simplified it for myself and posted and listed all my books on on my uh my website, and I generate sales that way by email blasts, social media blasts, and I do several arts and crafts and book fairs.
Grassroots Sales And Local Events
Doug DrohanYeah, yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, that's you know, kind of um grassroots stuff, which is great. And you were on the cover of Glen Rock, Glen Rock Living a month, a year ago, right? A year ago this this October. Um you were featured on the cover of Glen Glen Rock Living, which is an affiliated magazine of mine. Um, I have a magazine of Wyckoff and then three others on the eastern side of Bergen County. So that's great. Yeah. Local awareness, neighborhood stories. It's kind of what uh you know causes people to want to pick up the magazine in the first place and see what their neighbors are doing. So that's great.
Sean NobleYeah, you know, I just felt that you know, and I was thinking about approaching publishing companies, and I just thought that it's gonna be me and 500 other people trying to get their attention, and I'm just gonna lose uh time, and I just thought I'm gonna do it myself, get it done, things will happen, doors were open, and uh you know, this is my second podcast. I've been on the cover of a magazine, I'm meeting wonderful people, and so we'll see where it takes me.
Doug DrohanYeah, I mean, the town there's there's enough town days in Bergen County to keep yourself busy. Every weekend in the fall, every town's got a town day, so exactly you could definitely do well there. Um, so do you have like what's your best-selling book to date out of all of your out of your uh catalog?
Sean NobleI I had a series, I had um a talented mom's book and a talented dad's book. And I wrote the talented dad's book. They're called Talented Dad, The Awesomeness of Dads. That was my third book because I wanted to take a break.
Doug DrohanI kind of lost you here. All right, so Sean lost connection. We'll keep talking here. I'm gonna I am going to fill in a little bit. So talented dads is a book about awesome dads, right? Um, they bring joy into our lives in their own unique way. And I think he needed a break, you know, Sean needed a break from writing about unicorns and tooth fairies and then started the talented dads and talented moms books, which um, you know, listen, it's uh it's nice to look at your mom and dad in a different way, you know, and and see how uh hopefully awesome you think your parents are. So I think that's a great book for kids to appreciate the the parents that they have and the different talents that they that they bring. Um in case we don't get him back, you know, Sean Noble Books, it's N-O-B-L-E books.com, is where you can find a catalog of all the books. And as he said, if you click on any of the images of the book covers, it'll take you straight to Amazon.com where you can order the books. They are uh only like $15 each, which is uh are you back? Let's see if we're back. Okay, here he comes. Okay, now you're back. Okay, I was uh filling in for you there. Talking about the awesome dads and moms books and uh and then how people can find you. Um you know, the books, obviously, if you click on the cover from your website, it takes it to Amazon.com and the books are uh are only $15 or $14.99. And um, you know, it's it's a great, you know, I I in my magazines I've actually featured a lot of authors. A lot seem to come from Whitecough. Uh, you know, I have a lot of people. In fact, our our current issue coming out, we're featuring somebody who wrote a book, but in Ulta Pan, uh a few, I think I might have sent this to you a few years back, about a year ago, um, we had a family on the cover with a with a young, you know, infant child, and uh and the dad had uh written a book that we had um that we had uh showcased in the family feature. I'll uh I'll send it to you so you can see it. But it's uh From Pups to Grown-Ups is the name of his book. Um so that was uh interesting to uh see how many people kind of follow their passion and realize, you know what, I've been reading stories to my kids and why not create a book out of it. And I think it's a great thing to do.
Sean NobleSure. You know, uh taking the taking the first step is always the hardest step, but uh you just take baby steps and eventually you'll get there. And uh that's what I did, and now it's just uh writing and publishing self-publishing books uh uh seem to come easily to me.
Doug DrohanMy my 91-year-old father writes a lot of poems, but he's never actually put them in a hardcover. And I think we did something through Shutterfly, uh-huh, but it would be nice to yeah, he should just I should help him. Obviously, he's 91. I should help him with just publishing some of his poems, you know, or all of his poems into one book.
Sean NobleSure. Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Doug DrohanYeah, and get an illustrator. So all right, Sean. So I mentioned your website at SeanNoble.com.
Sean NobleNo SeanNoblebooks.com.
Doug DrohanSeanNoblebooks.com, yeah, sorry, I did say that. Uh and uh, you know, and if they click on any of your uh pack shots of your books, it'll take them straight to Amazon and uh and then that's where they can purchase the books.
Advice For New Creators
Doug DrohanAnd um yeah, so is there any any parting words like advice for anybody who's thinking about you know becoming a self-published author?
Sean NobleUh any if there's anyone uh in the in the uh art field, uh illustrators, poets, uh sculptors, um don't wait to get discovered. Uh just get your artwork out there somehow, some way, and things will things will happen. Opportunities will uh come your way. And uh so far with me that seems to be the case and very happy.
Doug DrohanYeah, that's great.
Sean NobleYeah.
Doug DrohanSo Sean Noble from Glen Rock, Glen Rock, New Jersey, Bergen County, born and bred.
Sean NobleUh yeah, grew up in uh Glen Rock, uh went to Maris College and uh back in Glen Rock again.
Doug DrohanNice, nice. Well, thank you for being a guest on the show. Uh, we're gonna have Chuck say a few words, and you and I will be right back.
Sean NobleThank you.
Nominate A Local Business
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