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Stacey Kannenberg |
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Stacey’s 18Q |
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The Eighteen Questions |
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18Q |
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Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
Stacey is CEO of Cedar Valley Publishing and Stacey Kannenberg Unlimited |
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Bibliography |
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URL |
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1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you? As a Journalism major I choose the writing profession, yet was never in the writing profession after college, instead I ended up in sales management for 14 years before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Ironically, it was while trying to get my oldest child ready for Kindergarten, that I decided to start writing professionally. I couldn’t find what I wanted so I created, published and co-authored Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.) I was the editor of our school newspaper and enjoyed a free-lance career while in high school contributing to several surrounding local newspapers. I continued writing in college, graduating with a Journalism Major, English Major and Technical Writing Minor. I developed a magazine during college called Professional Sales and was surprisingly offered a book contract to release it in book form. I passed as I felt I needed experience in sales in order to write it. So I spent 14 years as a sales professional to get experience in sales and worked up the corporate latter at several Fortune 500 companies and had many positions created for me based on my recommendations and passion. Ironically, I forgot about the book and magazine on sales and decided to become a stay-at-home mom. And getting my daughter ready for kindergarten, gave me the idea so I fell back into writing and then to self- publishing. It seems as if every job and professional experience I have ever had, has prepared me for this one, as if this is what I was meant to do!
3. When did you ‘know’ you were a writer? In high school, when I was getting paid to write for several local newspapers. I was a natural born story-teller and that’s really what writing is....telling a story with words.
4. How would you describe your style of writing? I am a conversational writer, if there is such a thing. Those that know we well, say they can hear me talking when reading my writing.
5. What is your writing process? I try to get something down on paper until I am stuck. Then I read it over and over again and make continuous edits until I am able to move on again, until I get stuck. So then I read it over and over again and make continuous edits until I am able to move on again, until I get stuck. And on and on we go. I never have a completed manuscript until I am ready for press, because the editing process for me never ends, I continually read it over and over and edit it over and over and over again.
6. What was your path to publication? It was a series of Oprah shows that inspired the idea to write the book. So I did. Then it was a show on self-publishing that Oprah had that gave me that idea. And then it was Dan Poynter’s book that guided me down the path to becoming a self-publishing success story.
7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? Dan Poynter’s Marketplace newsletter is a great place to network with authors. I email author’s looking for additional information for their book about many different subjects, if it is a topic that I feel is of interest to me, I write a 10 minute email and BAM the next thing I know we are emailing back and forth and it’s my blurb on the back of their book, promoting me too. I also review other people’s books to build my name recognition and credibility on the web -- every review listed is another potential place someone will see my name on the web...it is free and it is priceless credibility.
8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer? I am continually amazed at how small the world of publishing really is and that in a short time you can start building a following and a reputation! I have found that the best friends you will ever find, are those people that are trying to do the thing you are doing and working just as hard as you and are often people you have never met but they become your closest friends via email. Networking, editing, turning obstacles into opportunities, some more editing, network and jumping hurdles are key!
9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity? This isn’t a job for me. It’s not about money. This is my passion. This is what I was meant to do. I have a mission. This is not work to me; this is truly a labor of love. I have never been so sure about anything as I am about this amazing journey of mine! This is what I love to do and I will be telling my story and doing the exact same thing, just reinventing it for many, many years to come!
10. What is your proudest writer moment? Both of my Let’s Get Ready Series book were just approved into the prestigious and rigorous State of California’s Educational Purchasing Program. Schools districts purchase them for the entire Kindergarten and/or First Grade enrollment. Or when a parent tells me how the book has helped a child that has never shown any interest in school, excel.
11. What’s the best advice you were given about writing? Judy Bridges, my book consultant extraordinaire, “Just shut up and write. Edit it and write some more. And did you buy Dan’s Poynter’s book, The Self Publishing Manual yet?”
12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment? I was honored to publish a couple of books for Jodie Lynn, syndicated columnist and parenting expert. I missed a huge typo in her Syndication Secrets book that still makes me cringe. When adding the page numbers, they were flush on the right on both sides, so on the right side they were correct, but on the left side the number was near the binding......yikes!!! Miss Perfectionist meets reality. It happens so let’s turn it into an opportunity and tell everyone how I messed up to save them from ever making the same mistake.
13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer? I am now the sole owner of Cedar Valley Publishing. Becoming the sole owner of the company was a legal and emotional nightmare that reinvented me to becoming even better! That means I am now the writer, the marketer, the public relations guru, the publisher, the distributor, the printer, the chief financial officer, the sales rep and the editor all rolled into one. It’s hard now finding time to write.
14. What is your writer life philosophy? Inspiring Others Empowers Me ~ Stacey Kannenberg
15. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? I am Mom to little girls ages 7 and 5 and wife to a semi-pro fisherman and part owner in the family tool and die shop, so we like to fish and go boating. We live for tearing up the yard on our ATV’s and enjoy trail riding as a family.
16. Who do you like to read? I am embarrassed to admit this but I love regency romances. That is my favorite thing to do, grab a great book and escape for the night! I am currently reading Michael Levine’s Broken Windows. I recently read and absolutely loved, Dan Castro’s Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy Into Triumph and Dr. John Mike, Brilliant Babies, Powerful Adults. Both were life-changing reads for me!!!
17. What’s your advice for new writers? Don’t be afraid to ask questions and listen to answers. Most importantly, if you are in this business because you want to make money, then you might be in the wrong business. If you plan to be talking about your book for the next twenty years, then you might be in the right business. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as an over-night best seller, instead in was many, many nights that went into that over-night sensation.
18. What are you currently working on? I am consulting for numerous first time authors, such as: Man The Rails by Leah McDermott, Bobby Brights Christmas By John Brooks and Tom Hignite’s Miracle Mouse, due out in July. I am publishing Barb Rockaway’s Mommy, Where are You? and Daddy, Where are You? slated for July of 2006 and Aaron Hurvitz’s, Here, There and Everywhere to be released in fall. I am working with Hignite’s Miracle Studio to animate the Cedar Valley Kids and bring them to DVD. I am working on Let’s Get Ready for Pre School! and Let’s Get Ready For Second Grade! as well as Spanish and Hmong translations for Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade! I am working with Oklahoma Legendary Sportscaster, John Brooks on an educational patent. |
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