Husband and Wife Team, Andy and Bernice Tate, Discuss Their Entry into the Publishing World

We are Bernice and Andy Tate, a South Carolina wife and husband author/illustrator team, the creators of Storybooks-4-Kids, an independent publishing project. Our genre is juvenile fiction. We feature themes of multiculturalism, acceptance, self-reliance, and diversity for children. Since our first book, which we brought to print in May of 2007, with no prior publishing experience, we have published a total of four books. We are selling well and re-investing in our project. Although our goal may seem to overreach, we expect to publish at least two books a year and eventually use the proceeds to benefit a children's cause.

Soon after publishing our second work, Author Solutions’ senior management team formed what appears to be an independent publishing industry first, an Authors Advisory Council. We were invited to be a part of a select group of exceptional independent authors from various genres. We feel privileged to represent the juvenile fiction category.

AuthorHouse has provided our Storybooks-4-Kids project a publishing solution and strategic support system. With no prior publishing experience about how to package, market, and sell books, we put into action a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary marketing strategy. While there are some who suggest that we operate “outside the box,” we pose, THERE IS NO BOX! It is what we don't do that is perhaps one of the reasons why the Indianapolis Star, an Indianapolis regional newspaper, cited us in the Sunday, April 10, 2008 Business section. Perhaps it is the same explanation that landed us on the cover of two important South Carolina regional magazines. In the same month, we got the January 2008 cover of the Hilton Head Monthly and the Low Country Monthly. Possibly it is a similar fascination that caused us to be the subject of an inside cover feature of the Island Packet Newspaper magazine insert (The Bluffton Packet)—with a full-color center page spread in the Wednesday, July 30, 2008 edition.

The question continues to beg: How is it that a first-time author/illustrator wife and husband team from Bluffton, South Carolina get support and representation at a national organizational convention (AARP), a back-cover endorsement from an international educator who has advised three U.S. presidents, an invitation to interview on an Atlanta radio talk show, as well as local Hilton Head Island, South Carolina/Savannah area TV and national media exposure?

People ask, “How did you folks do this? What’s your secret?” The answer is simple—belief…and the same best practices that now have us in a discussion about a possible feature film or TV project based on our newest juvenile book, FunSpell.

The answer to how we do it: In the independent publishing game, it does not matter if you win every event. The idea is to stay in the independent publishing arena. Play the angles; keep the sport going. If there are no players, there is no team; there is no game, no tickets, and no dollars. So, here are the regulations:

Make your own rules.(Advocate, promote, campaign, and sponsor your project in an enthusiastic, ethically self-reliant manner.)
Do something every day that scares you.(You never know what will work until you try.)
Somebody will not always see eye-to-eye with you. (Don't be afraid to challenge difficulty.)
Beware of words.(Words have the magical power to change reality.)
Take the time to be careful.(Some things are true whether you believe in them or not.)
Believe.(Never imagine that your dreams may not come true.)
Visit our AuthorHouse-provided Web site: http://www.storybooks4kids.com to see how it all comes together.