The Write Path #36 - The Story of Juneteenth, with Author Tonya Ellis!!!

TONYA DUNCAN ELLIS is author of SCBWI Crystal Kite Honor book They Built Me for Freedom: The Story of Juneteenth and Houston’s Emancipation Park (HarperCollins, 2024) and Cupcake Chemistry (Charlesbridge, 2027). She successfully self-published the 13-book Sophie Washington chapter series, which has sold over 175,000 copies. Tonya’s books have been featured on NPR, PBS Kids, Great Day Houston, and The Houston Chronicle, among other outlets. 

Her website:  https://tonyaduncanellis.com/

Welcome to the Write Path Podcast, where being an author, an actual author, still matters. This isn't the place for the Chat GPT experts or the AI buffs to churn out soulless content with no heart.  This is the place where authors share their journeys, explore their creativity, examine the "Why?" behind it all and come together to celebrate each other. This is the podcast for authors, about authors, and by an author, where the truth still counts and words still have power. Join Us!  You have a story to tell!

Contact us on all our social media platforms and email us at thewritepathpodcast@gmail.com  

This is the place where authors know that every page... is a step forward. Let's move forward together, let's move forward today. Listen now.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Right Path Podcast, where being an author, an actual author, still matters. This is the podcast that's for authors. It's about authors. It's done by an author. Folks, this is where we share our journeys. We explore our creativity. And most importantly, we examine that ever-elusive why behind it all. Our guest today is a remarkable young author who is doing some great work. She is the author of the Sophie Washington Children's Series, 13 books there. She's also written They Built Me for Freedom, the story of Juneteenth and Houston's Emancipation Park. And then she's got a few upcoming books, which we're going to talk about as well. She's also a speaker and she's a diversity advocate. Please welcome to our show, Tanya Ellis. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

All right. Thank you for being here. Um I I love what you're doing with the books. Uh I got a chance to check some of those out on your website. And uh, I mean, the art is great, the stories are awesome. I love what you're doing with the heart behind them. Uh, tell us a little about you, uh, Tanya. Who's Tanya Ellis? How'd you kind of get started in all this?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Okay, thank you. Well, thanks for your kind words about my book and my website. I'm based in Houston and I'm a children's author, as you mentioned. I started out as a journalist years ago. So from the time I was a little girl, I loved books and writing. And back then I had never met an actual author. And I didn't really feel like that was something I could do as a career, but um my teachers encouraged me in school, and I worked as a journalist for a while. And so then I got married, had three kids. Um, I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky, not far from where you are from in Indiana. And but my family moved to Houston, and so I started writing for some family magazines in my community, um, freelance articles about local celebrities for a while. And that was a fun job that I could do at home. I had I have three kids. And during that time, I would be sharing books with them that I loved as a little girl. And a bucketless dream of mine had always been to write my own book. I used to tell little stories to my kids that they would love and read them as bedtime stories to them. But I noticed that my youngest son didn't really relate to a lot of the books and some of my old favorites that I would share with him. And I thought, well, maybe I could write a contemporary children's story that he would relate to. And that's how I got the idea for my Sophie Washington chapter book series. So it's about a little girl from the suburbs of Houston and her diverse group of friends because Houston is one of the most diverse cities. It's actually the most diverse city in the United States. So it's it's the virtual melting pot of all these different people, cultures, and there's so many interesting things here. For example, in my neighborhood, I've in the springtime, if you take a walk, you might see an alligator in the waterways. We have wild boar running around. Every year we have the rodeo. People wear, we wear our cowboy hats, cowboy boots. So it's a really interesting culture here. So I incorporate elements of the culture into my books, and then they're young kids, they're um tween age around upper elementary school. So they learn about being good friends, getting along with their siblings, managing screen time, and other issues that kids face in today's world. So there's 13 books in them. They're kind of like a little sitcom. In each one, they have a problem, a little adventure, and then they learn a lesson in the end. So I did well self-publishing those. Um, I shared them with my kids' teacher. The first book is called Sophie Washington, Queen of the Bee. And it's where Sophie's in the school spelling bee against Mr. Know It All, and she learns about hard work and perseverance. And so the librarian encouraged me and said, I it those books kind of fit a niche because the family is an African-American family, but they're living normal life. It's not a trauma story, so it's just relatable for most kids. And so they started selling. So she had me in for school visits at her school and referred me to a couple other schools. Then I started doing community events and uh promoting my book on social media. And so, and especially during the pandemic, I did little campaigns where I would have kids wearing t-shirts with Sophie Washington and sharing photos of them, reading the books. Parents would be writing me in, thanking me for the books. And I ended up selling. I've sold over 175,000 copies from the series. And then Scholastic bought the rights to one of the books. Uh, the eighth book in the series is where they're in a computer coding competition at school. And so they reached out to me and bought the rights to that for a STEM program. So um, it really has grown. It was fun writing the series. So during the time I was doing that, I started seeking a literary agent because when I started out, I self-published those books. I just was doing it kind of for fun, really. But as it started growing, I wanted bigger distribution and more growth with my books. So I got a literary agent, and during that with a manuscript for another novel that I had written. So it won a competition, and then that's when I met my current agent. It's kind of a long story, but and so I got an agent, and I started, she asked me if I like to write picture books. And I said, No, I really haven't written picture books because that book kind of had a lyrical quality to it, she said. So then I started learning about picture books and fell in love with that genre, and I wrote a picture book. Um, the picture book that was later They Built Me for Freedom, my debut picture book with Harper Collins. So I had written that one and um it sold before my novel did. Wow. So then um, yeah, so that's kind of my background, how I got into writing children's books.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Okay. I I love I love this. The um now I was reading uh that you the first Sophie book that came out, The Queen of the Bee. You read that to your kids and kind of gauged their reaction. So in effect, they were your first content editors.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Exactly. So the book is kind of based on they're all fictional stories, but all three of my kids were in spelling bees, and I was a judge in the spelling bee competition too. But they would when I would read it to them, they may say, Oh, you know, this is boring, oh, kids don't talk like that. And I would kind of get dialogue from things that they would be saying with their friends because I would be carpooling them around just hearing the kind of things that they would say.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Nice. Are the kids actually characters in your series, or are they just kind of loosely based little characters?

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Very loosely, loosely, because Sophie is kind of based on my daughter, who was 10 at the time when I was writing. And then I have two sons. Sophie has one brother, but he is similar to my sons in ways where at that age they used to love jokes. He he always uh is telling little jokes and playing pranks on her, and he loves video games, which my sons did and still they still do. I want to throw the games away, but but yeah, so they're based on my kids and some of their friends, but they are fictional.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. Um now when you write the books, um, is there a is there a point to the books? Are you trying to kind of um you know get a a message out through what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Some of them are. I don't, I don't try to be didactic or they they say in the children's book or kidlet community, it's what they it's called kidlet. You know, you try to steer away from being, you know, hard heavy-hitting with messages, but I do teach lessons in each of the books. The first book she learns about hard work and perseverance, and the second book in Sophie Washington, The Snitch, she encounters a bully at school. So it teaches children how to react when they encounter a bully and when they need to go to adults. And that was inspired by my own daughter being bullied at school, she and her friends, and she was more afraid of being called a snitch than telling someone when someone was bullying her and her friends, and they were more afraid of being called a snitch. And then in the book, things just get out of hand and somebody gets seriously injured because the children don't speak out. So then they kind of learn that they need to tell an adult what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Wow. Okay, so the the characters in the book are leading by example to teach the lessons how you're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Right. So you're right. In it, you don't see the adults in most of these children's books. It's kind of the kids teaching the less, you know, they're going through the experiences and learning these lessons. The adults are kind of on the periphery of the story.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Right, right. Now I know that um, you know, in inclusion, diversity, and that sort of thing is very important to you. And so that's a key element in the way you make the book. Um, and is that another case of sort of leading by example because the characters, you know, uh represent that, and so it just sort of is absorbed by the kids as opposed to coming right out and saying it.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Right. It kind of naturally flows because, as I said, Houston is so diverse. So in my books, we have a character from Nigeria, they're Hispanic characters, Indian characters. So they're introducing aspects of their culture in the storylines, and it just kind of naturally happens in the books.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Nice. I like the way that you're you're getting your message out, especially when it comes to kids. I've read a lot of kids' books. I have three who are grown, I've got a grandkid on the way, and uh I've read a lot of kids' books, talk to a lot of children's authors. There's an awful lot of the message being um conveyed in the book from like the parent to the child. Um, and then it almost comes off like this is how things should be, but they're not representing them as they are. And it seems like you're taking a very different tact here where you've built the books to say this is normal.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Right. And Sophie is a flawed character. In one book, she um in Sophie Washington, My BFF, the tenth book in the series, she is plagiarizing in school or letting her friend copy her because she's trying her fatal flaw is that she wants to be liked so much by her friends. So throughout the series, she gets into trouble by not always doing the right thing. I mean, they learn the lesson in the end, but they're flawed characters, which we all are. So that makes it more relatable to kids because they can see themselves and experiences they may have or challenges in the character, and then they can learn how to work through issues in their own lives.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Nice. All right, love the messaging and the way you're doing it. Um, the the characters themselves, I'm curious. Did you uh in terms of your process, did you sit down and say, All right, this is who my main character is going to be, here's the backup characters, and create them? Or was it uh as I'm writing, these characters are kind of coming to life and hitting the page?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Well, in uh when I started the series, I did have Sophie, was of course the star, and her little brother Cole. Um, I had those in mind. They had their grandmother comes in sometimes, Grandma Washington, with different lessons. So I did kind of have character sketches that I um came up with as I started the series. And in each book, I generally introduce one new character per book. So um in one, uh, the third book, Things You Didn't Know About Sophie, she's not telling the truth to be liked and getting into more and more trouble. And there's a new boy that comes that she has a crush on. So um she's trying to impress him. They're in like fifth or sixth grade, but it just shows her getting into more and more trouble, trying to get his attention and being jealous of other girls in the class. So um the different characters bring in, you know, different aspects or help teach the different lessons in each book. And they have one character from Nigeria. Her best friend Chloe has dyslexia, so she's in some of the books, and in my BFF, that's a big aspect because Chloe is envious of Sophie because Sophie does so well at school and it's very easy for her. So, and then they're plagiarizing and having so they always have different little dramas and scrapes in each of the books.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Nice. Are you basing this? Uh, and I know you said that there was a bullying incident, you know, unfortunately. Um are the books all based on issues that like you you or your kids have, you know, encountered, or did you kind of come up with some of these before you uh got into reading the books?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

I came up with some on my own, like with the plagiarism. I actually did meet with my older son, and I'm like, I gotta come up with something. What is we went to breakfast and he was like, Oh, plagiarism might be a good idea. And then I have one where they're learning about entrepreneurship. My 11th book, Sophie Washington Lemonade Day. That book came about. Um, that is an actual event that started in Houston, and over a million kids nationwide have participated in it, where they have these super cute lemonade stands with different flavors because I was a judge in one of the competitions. They had strawberry, hibiscus, cucumber, and all these cute things. They make their own business plan. So I actually saw this at my church, and the kids dressed in themed t-shirts, you know, they have all these neat things going on. So it was just adorable to me. So I said, oh, that would be a great idea for a book. So that was how I got that idea. And I actually reached out to Lemonade Day National and they included my book as um on their website. So they endorsed the book. So that was great. So I come up with ideas, you know, in coding, I just became fascinated with it because my sons love gaming. And I said, well, maybe you need to learn about coding or something where you can make some money from this since you want to spend all your time gaming. I can't even, I can code basic things, you know. I'm not any kind of expert. So that was how that idea came. So it's really things that I'm interested in that inspire me. And my the last book in the series, Treasure Beach, I love going to the beach. I love snorkeling and marine life and things like that. So I said that'll be cool to have Sophie go to the beach. And Galveston Beach here in Texas is about a 40-minute drive from my home. But in it, I had them go to Corpus Christi and they see sea turtles, they learn about the USS Lexington and different aspects of Texas history. So it's whatever I'm kind of interested in. Some things are based on things my kids have done and my family has done, others are just kind of where my interest leads me.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Gotcha. The uh in terms of the process um the of of coming up with the books, are you one of these uh I'm gonna put an hour a day into this and at this time I'm gonna sit down and do my writing, or are you uh, hey, whenever it hits me, it hits me.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah, I really, especially with the Sophie Washington books, I was on a really strict routine because I had other things, work I was doing, and especially when my kids were home, was when I was writing this, they were younger. So I'd get up around 6 a.m. or 5:30 in the morning before I had to get them to school and work for an hour each day. And these books are all they're 20 chapters each, the chapters around the same length, and they all have 20 black and white illustrations. So it kind of became like a formula, you know, just like with the your sitcom. I kind of had a formula, I had my base characters and how they're gonna behave, and I would introduce my new problem and new thing in there. So it got to be where I could kind of churn those out pretty quickly by the end of the series. Once I had a problem and knew what I wanted the resolution to be. And one of them, uh class retreat, they go on a camping trip and they they think Bigfoot is there, and they're afraid that they're seeing that in the woods. So that was a fun one to write.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Okay. You just mentioned the the series being completed. Is the series over at 13 books?

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Yeah, I stopped at 13 because as I got with self-publishing, as you probably know, it's like running your own company. And once I got a literary agent and started writing picture books, I wanted to spend more time with my writing than with learning all the updates on Amazon and learning all, you know, it's just constant. You've got to keep up with all these things. So I focused more on my traditionally published books now.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Okay. Wonderful. Now, um, when you were doing the self-publishing, you had to handle all of it, of course. I mean, that's the advertising, the marketing, a whole bit.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Um, but you managed to sell 175,000 copies.

unknown 17:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

So what I mean, people are gonna hear that, they're gonna go self-publishing 175,000. What is your secret sauce? Because there's people out here laboring away to try and sell four books. Right and all in the world.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Um I have an MBA, so I do have a marketing background and I enjoy doing marketing activities. So that's one thing I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Um, but for me, I spent a lot of time in community events. So what I would do is, and because Houston is the fourth largest city, so it's a big market, I was out, you know, at events maybe two, three times a month, going to farmers markets, holiday markets, and then I'd get permission from the parents and take pictures of the kids. So um, I'd put those on social media to get sales. And especially during the pandemic, that helped me because they would um be purchasing more books. Some of those sales weren't all full price. I had them in KDP, Kindle Debrect Publishing, so they would be, you know, discounted ebook sales are included in those totals as well. And um, but the main thing, and I started a Sophie Washington Ambassadors Club with my readers. The parents and children really loved these books. They had a big affinity for the characters, they would be emailing me. So, what I would do is start ambassadors' clubs where they would um get a t-shirt or get little swag and things for promoting the books. And I had the first book in the series perma-free, the ebook, which it still is perma-free. So it has over 2,000 reviews. So that way um people would just get into the series and I focused also on bulk orders through with schools and organizations as well. So it's yeah, it was a lot, it grew over the years, yeah. And it's been out. The funny thing when I go to school visits, I some of the children weren't even born when the series came out because I wrote the first book in 2013, but I started heavily marketing it in 2017. I kind of wrote them and I didn't really know what I was doing, so I kind of was learning. And once I started seeing that they were selling, because I prom I uh published them through a hybrid company that's now no longer in business. Okay. And I kind of was thinking, oh, this is just something fun I'm gonna be doing for my kids, and just I always wanted to write a book. But once they started selling, I said, Hey, I need to crank it up and start doing some more with this. So that's when I focused on those community events, and I was just out working to get the word out and get orders with schools and in bulk sales.

unknown 20:36

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

I think that's what helped.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

And you brought up schools. You actually offer a teacher's guide, workbook, uh sort of companion for teachers who want to teach these in their class. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Yes, on my website, I have a curriculum guide for Sophie Washington series books. I also have trailers, animated 30-second trailers that give the storyline for all the books, and there are book discussion questions that are free downloads on my website at tanya duncanellis.com.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

All right, Tanya Duncan Ellis.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, that's the name of my website.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Got it.com. Okay, perfect. And uh and we'll talk about that again. So the series itself is done in terms of there's not gonna be any more Sophie Washington books coming out, is what you're telling this this public who's just crying hearing.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Right, because for me, Sophie doesn't get royalties, so the other books are with bigger companies. HarperCollins will pay me royalty. So that's what I'm focusing. And also creatively, I did love Sophie Washington. If I ever wrote anything else, I might write a spin off with Cole, the little brother. He was a beloved character, her little brother. He's so funny, and you know, he's just uh he's very interesting. People love him, but um creatively, I enjoy posting. Poetry, writing lyrically, learning different things in writing and writing in different genres. So that kind of led me to start writing in the picture book format because you have to tell a complete story in 500 to a thousand words and make it engaging and something people want to hear read aloud. So for me as a as a creative person, as a writer, it it's fun to try new things. Sophie Washington was, I loved writing those books, but after a while, like I said, it became kind of formulaic and I wanted a new challenge creatively as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Nice. Now you've got another book besides the Sophie Washington books out that's currently out, and that's uh They Built Me for Freedom, the story of Juneteenth and Houston's Emancipation Park. Um and that's not part of the Sophie series. Uh tell everybody a little bit about what that book is, since that is out now, and they can find that on your website.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Right. So that's a historical picture book that tells the story of Emancipation Park, the first place Juneteenth was celebrated. And in it, I personify the park and have it going through history, telling how it came to be. And so as it tells its own story, um, it tells about protests that happened in the park and different things as it goes through time. It's telling you the story of Juneteenth, and it's also telling you the story of the African-American experience. Because in the book, as it shows how people were free, how there was a renaissance in the park, everyone was in it, then the park went down when it was time for integration. It doesn't specifically say that, but I noticed this as I'm reading the book myself. So in the time of integration, when people could go to other parks, because in the in its heyday, the people could not go anywhere. African Americans could only go to that park in Houston. They were banned from other parks. So once it opened up with integration, the park went down and it deteriorated. And then the community leaders who remembered going there as children raised money to revitalize it and it had a renaissance. And the interesting thing about the park is that um there are mosaics and statues around the park created by an artist named Reginald Adams, who painted a mural in Galveston where legend has it that Juneteenth was actually announced. So there's all kinds of rich history in the park, and the buildings in the park were um developed in 2017, some updated buildings by Philip Freeline, who is the architect that did the African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C. So it's it's cool to me. I'm a very big history buff, I love history to see all of this coming together in this one place here in Houston. So it was fun to write about that. And when I sold this book, I had a two-book deal, so I have another book coming out. It may be 2028. They're looking for the illustrator now. It's called Um Brave Girl in a Blue Coat. And it was um, it tells the story of Kathy Williams, the first Buffalo soldier, female Buffalo soldier, which were the African-American soldiers. And she kind of was like a moolon. She disguised herself as a man and was in the military. So that one's gonna come out probably 2028 by the time they get it done. So that was sold at the same time they built me for freedom. So I'm excited that'll be coming soon.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Nice. And then that um the story about the the little girl in the blue coat, that's also a children's book and a picture book.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Right, it's a picture book, and everything I've write right now is picture, or they're children's books, they're for kids. Gotcha. But actually, the cool thing about picture books, I've learned so much history and about so many things with these small picture books. Because as I said, they are you know limited to maybe a thousand words, sometimes fifteen hundred for nonfiction, but they pack in so much information in these small books.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Nice. All right, and I love what you're doing here. The um so those are the books that are available on your website right now that we've talked about. And then you've got new stuff coming up.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Right. I have some unannounced, well, one book that is announced um in March 2027. I have a book called Cupcake Chemistry, which is part of Charles Bridge Publishing Steam Works program. And those are books that are commissioned to uh teach kids that science is part of our everyday world. And they are they feature multicultural characters, so there's going to be eight books in total in the series. And mine, cupcake chemistry, has the kids learning that cooking is an art and baking is a science when they make cupcakes with their grandma for the family cookout. So the dad's making barbecue and he's putting in a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And so they think they can do that with the cupcakes, but they have disastrous results when they do that. Yeah, it's like a funny, fun little story. And the grandma's teaching them about precision and accuracy and measurement as they make the cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Nice. Unfortunately, that reminds me a lot of some episodes in my own kitchen. So that's why I always laughing. I'm like, yeah, that sounds about right. So um, okay, and that that's cupcake chemistry. That's coming out soon. Um, and then that obviously that's still a children's book. You're staying in the children's book arena, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Right. I enjoy writing for children, and um it's different. Learning different genres is a lot, you know. Writing for adults would be totally different. I'm probably like a big kid, you know. I just have that voice of a child. I have another book coming out that is a novel in verse, and it's a middle grade book, so that's for um middle school age kids. I it hasn't been announced yet, so I'm so excited about that. And I love that because I've won a novel in verse, it includes poems, but they tell a story. And so the cool thing for me is that I had written the original manuscript for that book during the pandemic in 2020. That book won a prize and got me an agent, but it didn't sell. And through the years, I've been learning about writing in verse and reading probably about 40 or 50 novels in verse, and then last summer, my agent had suggested I rewrite it as a novel in verse, and I did, and then it it sold this year. So I'm so happy and excited that we'll be starting edits on that this summer. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

All right. Anything else coming out that you can tell us about?

SPEAKER_01 28:46

And I have um I have like three other picture books coming that are not announced. I can't I'll I'll be announcing them. So follow me at Tanya Ellis Books and you'll learn more about those. And I have a graphic novel that I'm working on. So I'm so excited about that. Are you familiar with the graphic novels?

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yeah, I just did an interview yesterday with someone who does graphic novels. Now, is this going to be a printed graphic novel or a digital graphic novel?

SPEAKER_01 29:15

It's a printed uh graphic novel. The crazy part about it is I am the programming chair for my um Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators group in Houston. So I bring in speakers every month to talk about different aspects of children's books. And I had a speaker talk about graphic novels and how to write them. And then the next day, my agent um emailed me that a big five publisher wanted me to write a graphic novel for a historical series. Right, and I was like, I cannot believe this is happening. So this um spring, I was working on the manuscript for that graphic novel, and that you is a big challenge, you know, because I'd never written one before. And even though there aren't any words on the page, my script was like a 200-page script because you're telling the illustrator what to draw and what the images were gonna be in the novel. Yeah, so I'm so excited for this. This is a big public figure, and um it's kind of contemporary history, so I can't wait for that to come out. So I'm gonna be working on that this summer. I sent in my first draft, and then I have to wait for the editor to come back with notes on changes or updates for that.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Wonderful. Wow. I mean, you have a lot going on. Is this, I mean, is this what you do full time?

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Well, no, I do other work and it waxes and wanes. The crazy part with all of this is most of these books I'm telling you about, I wrote years ago, and I've just been working on them, and it all somehow has just come together this year for me. Because last year, at times you were like in misery waiting, and like, am I why am I doing this? You know, because the books I sold, I've sold four books this year, and they're all things that I've worked on for years. And last year I spent a lot of time revising some of my manuscripts and working on them with a critique group I'm in of with some other authors. And I don't know how, but all these books have just been selling.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

I'm so happy. I'm like, thank you, Lord. Hey, and there are books I've worked on for years because one I had worked on for years, it's about the rodeo and black cowboys. It's about a little boy that goes to the rodeo, but it's a funny story, a fun little he's with his grandpa. It's a heartwarming story, but he learns about black cowboys at the rodeo. And so, but he's doing little rodeo things, which is a huge part of the culture here in Houston. And there's something called mutton busting where they ride a sheep and they do that. So he's I was I was really happy with that because I've been wanting my own cowboy story, so I was so happy that's sold.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

My goodness.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

It's not announced, I shouldn't even be telling all of that. But hey.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Too late now. That's right. It's out of the bag. All right. Uh uh no, I love this. Uh, you have so much going on. It's uh you can tell that you just absolutely love writing and putting this out there.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah, I really do. My family, I know they get tired of me. I'm grateful that they listen to me go on and on and make up all these stories and tell them about them. But I do love what I do and I love writing for children. I love being around little kids and inspiring them to read, especially with all the distractions and everything that's going on nowadays. Right. So it warms my heart to see them excited about books and literature and learning.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Nice. The uh I'd like to go back to one other thing here, and uh outside of um you know the content of the books, you've made a uh a transition that a lot of authors, I think, wish that they could make, and that is that you went self-publishing to kind of get started, then got the agent, and then you know, got the publisher. Um, and I think a lot of folks you know would love to make make that move, but uh you have successfully done it. So I'm curious, maybe off the top of your head, one or two things, what is the the biggest difference to you um in terms of self-publishing versus working with the agent slash uh publisher?

unknown 33:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

For me, the biggest difference is just having the distribution and having the option to have my books with um big five publishers. Because, like, for example, with They Built Me for Freedom, when it came out, it was in every bookstore. When I went anywhere in the country, it was there. So that's what I wanted. As far as marketing, when your book first comes out with the launch, they do do things for you, but you still have to do a lot of the work and grinding on your own. It's not like you've made it. That's something I kind of want people to know. Even then, I still have you still have the rejection, you still have the striving and struggling. So um, you know, it's it's hard just because you even sold one book doesn't mean you're gonna sell another book. Because I've seen that with some of my peers as well. And then once you get those books published, you want to be in different conferences or on panels. I guess it's just human nature, and then you may not get accepted for certain things. So but the big thing for me is the difference was that I have more entree into bookstores and um have the distribution, and that's what my primary goal for moving to traditional publishing.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Nice. Nice. Um when we write our books, it seems like uh we're always writing our books um uh with someone in mind, or we're speaking to them when we're writing the books um through our purpose, you know, in writing them. Maybe you encountered this too. As you're writing your books all the way back to the very first Sophie Washington Queen of the Bee, um, who were you writing these books to or for?

SPEAKER_01 35:19

I with Sophie Washington, I was writing them for children just to show them that they belong and show helping them to see themselves in a book. Because as I noticed with my youngest son, my two oldest kids enjoyed reading like I did as a child. My youngest son didn't like a lot of the books I was trying to introduce him to. He didn't relate to them, and that's why he wasn't enjoying reading as much. So I want kids to know that there are books for them and that um, you know, so that they can be engaged and excited about reading as I was as a kid. And then with my picture books, I love sharing my own history and culture with other people, and I kind of am just drawn to things I'm interested in. I love with my book, Cupcake Chemistry, um, they that company had another uh series called Storytelling Math in the Past that I had been trying to write for, and I was rejected for that one. And I've just loved these cute books about science and technology that get kids interested in it and see that it's part of their everyday life, and again, that they belong and that it's for them. It's not some pie in the sky thing.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Nice. As someone who has uh has accomplished as much as you have, you know, in this relatively short time, and and and I don't I don't mean to discount the amount of time, but you know, um the uh because I know you've been working on this a lot, but you have achieved quite a bit of success here. Uh as you look back on everything you've done since publishing your very first book, is there anything you you would maybe do different?

SPEAKER_01 36:55

That's a good question. Um not really. I've enjoyed the journey because for each step along the way I had different goals for myself. I remember doing one of my first events, and I was so happy I was at a church doing a little event, and somebody had Amazon bestseller on their book. And I'm like, I want to be an Amazon bestseller. And I've kind of just grown as you know, each step. And every time along the way, just different serendipitous things have happened. I remember one time when I was trying to get an agent and I was getting rejection emails, and I said, I can't do this anymore. I'm so tired. What is going on? And I got an email from a parent with a little girl dressed up as Sophie Washington. And there's a book called Hurricane, where she has a little cowboy hat and a little pink shirt that says um Houston Strong. And I've almost cried seeing that. So I've had little signs all along the journey that encouraged me. But I've been happy with everything that has happened. Maybe if I could go back, I might have tried traditional publishing initially with Sophie Washington, but I wasn't aware of it. Yeah. So I wasn't really thinking about that. I just kind of wrote the book and published it. And I was very happy with self-publishing as I started out, but then it became overwhelming with so many books and so many responsibilities. So I wanted to do something different.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah. All right, great answer. I appreciate that. Um, I appreciate you sharing everything and your story and uh you know letting everybody in on what's going, uh, what's coming up. Sounds like you have an awful lot of projects coming, so we'll be watching for those. I do have one more question for you as we kind of round this up, but before we do that, give everybody your contact information. How can they find you? Where can they find the books and so on?

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Okay. So you can reach me on my website at tanyaduncanellis.com so you can see my books and get more information there. And I'm very active on Instagram at Tanya Ellis Books. So you can um see all the different things I'm up to on there, and I'm also on Facebook at Tanya Ellis Books and TikTok. I'm on there, I post some things, kind of repost from Instagram, and they're all at Tanya Ellis Books.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Nice. Okay. All right, wonderful. Uh, my last question for you is because there's so many aspiring authors who listen to this program, and uh, they're always asking questions and sending in DMs and uh asking our authors when they come on. So I'm gonna go ahead and ask you what is your best advice to an author out there who is just simply not quite where you are yet?

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Um, I would recommend that you we read widely in the genre that you're writing in to learn all the elements of story in that genre, to become an expert. Join professional groups. That was a big help for me when I joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, where you can network with other peers doing the same thing that you're doing and learn through, I learn through webinars, writing conferences, some are online classes. So that's what I would recommend you do if you are serious about moving forward in either self-publishing or um traditional publishing.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Great advice, great advice. I expect in nothing less at this point, someone who's accomplished what you have. So I I love it, I love it, Tanya. Um, all right. Um, folks, uh author of the Sophie Washington Children's Series and uh They Built Me for Freedom, the story of Juneteenth in Houston's Emancipation Park, uh the upcoming cupcake chemistry, and more and more and more. And I have a feeling we're gonna have you on 10 or 11 more times with all of your big things you have coming out. Tanya Ellis, uh, thank you for joining us, Teddy. You've been absolutely delightful, and uh, I just appreciate everything you share with us today.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Okay, well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Thank you. Folks, it's been another fantastic episode of the Right Path Podcast, where truth still matters and words still have power. Folks, this is a place for authors who know that every single page is a step forward towards finding your right path. Until next time.