Just a quick note to brag about my first book. Put Away Your Phone has been awarded semi-finalist in the Royal Palms Literary Contest and is now a finalist for the award in the Picture Book category!
Won't know the final results until they hold their annual banquet in October. But the author, Tracy Bryan, and I are holding our fingers crossed til then. This would mean a great deal in legitimizing this self-published book. We each put a great deal of work into making it as professional, entertaining and helpful as possible (okay, the author gets a lot of credit for that. But I put a lot into those illustrations too!). It never occurred to me that it would be lumped into the same category as those self-published books people create just to show their grandkids. I mean, I understand. It didn't go through an editor, but it did pass through a ton of professional critiques. I really feel that if people take a look at this and put it up beside other traditionally published books it will compare favorably (that's a modest way of saying it deserves this award).
I'm just sayin'!
