EP 454 - Finding Surprising Success Publishing Kids’ Books with Darcy Pattison

Mark interviews award-winning author Darcy Pattison about publishing childrens' books.

In their conversation, Mark and Darcy talk about:

• Darcy's background on getting into being an author of children's book
• The 70 books Darcy has written in the past 13 years
• The number of different illustrators Darcy has worked with over the years
• The Moments in Science picture books Darcy has written with along with the specific illustrator who has worked on a dozen of those titles with her
• The books for authors Darcy is releasing in January 2026 that collect details about the current state of publishing for children's books
• The challenge of doing layout for a children's picture book
• The importance of an author being clear on their own definition of success
• How children's book authors can find the right illustrator and/or designer
• How Darcy fulfills orders online for her books
• Getting her books into education distributors (Follett, etc - Follett can order their books through Ingram)
• The EPIC app and how Darcy earns money from it
• The various reviews Darcy gets, including paid Kirkus reviews (which are important)
• Who you are writing for versus who you are selling to when it comes to kids books
• Fiction VS Non-Fiction
• The importance/difference of being good at illustration versus being good at text (or even layout)
• The challenge of scaling up things like school visits
• The benefit of finding places that will sell a kids' book in bulk
• And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the unique element of the two audiences for childrens' books, as well as the efficient business mind-set Darcy adopted in her approach to how to grow a more scaleable author business.

Links of Interest:

• Indie Kids Books 
• Mims House Books 
• Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Mark's YouTube channel
• ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
• Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
• Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
• I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises

 

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0