Milestones Celebrated in August 2026

While the goal of publishing my debut children’s picture book seems daunting, (and about 2 years later than I imagined) I met several milestones this year for Grief Like Rain—Hope Like Sunshine.

  1. I finished and polished my illustrations, including setting up a spreadsheet chart to track and edit my illustration elements page by page.

  2. I did my first (and several additional) A/B tests on various choices of cover and titles. Very cool, but difficult when choices were sometimes pretty balanced.

  3. I have a prayer team of over 20 people so far! I am thrilled most of all with this Google Sign up and email.

  4. I’m slowly progressing with cleaning up my online persona (changing one bio and description at a time and adding my new headshot to my online accounts.) So much to go yet.

  5. I have read most of Dale L. Roberts books and joined him on Substack for self-publishing. And have watched loads of back videos of Thomas and Jonathan.

  6. I have 8 endorsements so far! After I created a review copy, and sent a tailored email, so far of the 18 people I contacted, 8 have already sent their endorsement to me!! Including 2 authors with over a 100 kid’s books. Praise the Lord for His Mercy.

  7. I am setting up marketing graphics in Procreate. Still more to decide, but I’m going to add a set of graphics probably to Canva or BookBrush to create branded graphics.

  8. I converted my CMYK files for the print version, to an RGB file for the ebook, and have exported the JPGs and sent them to my expert friend who is going to create an epub file for me.

  9. AND now I have to figure out the best way to get author copies before publishing or pre-orders for my two private in-person events. I’m leaning toward BookVault so I can order PB copies and not technically be published yet on IS and KDP until after the ebook is uploaded. These first copies will be my first attempt to find online reviewers once the ebook is set up for pre-orders.

  10. Kickstarter is almost set up, but I’m so nervous and unqualified to set up prices and budget so I sit there stalled. To jump or not to jump!

Thanks for your prayers!

Thanks for this group.