Transitioning From a Self-Published to Hybrid Author by Author Karen Pokras and The Backyard Secrets of Danny Wexler Giveaway

Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have debut author Karen Pokras here to share a guest post to celebrate the release of her MG historical The Backyard Secrets of Danny Wexler. It sounds like a great story that combines historical with mysteries to solve. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

Eleven-year-old Danny Wexler, the only Jewish boy in his blue-collar town during the late 1970s, is obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle. When a local child goes missing, Danny's convinced it's connected to an old Bermuda Triangle theory involving UFOs. With his two best friends and their Spacetron telescope, Danny heads to his backyard to investigate. But hunting for extraterrestrials is complicated, and it doesn't help that his friend Nicholas's mom doesn't want her son hanging out with a Jewish boy. Equipped with his super-secret spy notebook, Danny sets out to fight both the aliens and the growing anti-Semitism in the town, in hopes of mending his divided community.

Now here’s Karen!

Hello and thank you so much for inviting me to write about my publishing journey!

My journey started out later in life, as it took me a while to figure out that I wanted to be a writer. In fact, growing up, I probably wanted to be anything but a writer. I was a numbers person (still am, really) and spent much of my professional life writing only law and tax related emails and memos. But I had a story floating around in my head and a nagging feeling that I’d be missing out on something truly amazing if I didn’t try to write it. Turns out, I was correct – just not about the story. That didn’t turn out quite as amazing as I’d hoped. I’m talking about taking the leap into writing. And while the road to publication has at times been rocky, I haven’t looked back since, although I still do love my numbers.

Putting aside my first non-amazing book, I wrote a second story just over ten years ago and thought it might be good enough to publish. But I knew even less about publishing than I knew about writing. I first learned about self-publishing and felt it was a great place to start, enjoying the business end of each process: editing, cover design, formatting, timing, and marketing. I continued down this path for several more books, winning a few literary awards along the way. But as much as I loved the experience of self-publishing, I met certain roadblocks when it came to stocking my middle grade books in schools and public libraries and became curious about other types of publishing and what they had to offer in terms of distribution.

Finding an agent took many years, several manuscripts, continued growth and learning as a writer, countless internal pep talks, and a lot of patience. At some point, I lost track of the number of rejection letters I’d received. But I’d also been receiving some requests for partial and full manuscripts. Those little inklings of interest, even though they didn’t turn into offers, kept me going, and I kept writing new stories. Then, in 2018, Barbara Krasner from Olswanger Literary offered representation for the manuscript that would become THE BACKYARD SECRETS OF DANNY WEXLER, and I was thrilled! Upon Barbara’s advice, I decided to first submit to PJ Library’s PJ Our Way program. My manuscript went through a few rounds of deep edits based on thoughtful and invaluable feedback from PJ’s young and grown readers, and I’m excited to say THE BACKYARD SECRETS OF DANNY WEXLER will be a PJ Our Way monthly selection next summer. From PJ, we found my publisher, Kar-Ben Publishing, an imprint of Lerner Publishing.

My book hit the shelves on November 1^st!  Another thrilling moment!

Admittedly, after self-publishing for many years, I was worried that transitioning to a more traditional model might be challenging. I was used to having complete creative control over things like cover design and even editing, and everything moved much faster with self-publishing. Did I really have to wait nearly two years for my book to come out? But, once the process began, all of my worries disappeared. Each step of the publishing process has been truly exciting through this new experience, and now that DANNY WEXLER is out, there’s nothing better than seeing it in reader’s hands. It’s also great to see it in so many schools and libraries.

Going forward, I have two new middle grade manuscripts: one currently on submission, and another that has made its way through PJ Our Way’s critical eye and is ready to go on submission. I also have a new agent as Barbara decided to take a different career path. I’m so grateful for all that she did for me and look forward to an exciting future with my new agent, Sera Rivers at Martin Literary. Stay tuned!

Bio:

Karen Pokras is the author of the middle grade novel The Backyard Secrets of Danny Wexler (Lerner/Kar-Ben, November 2021) and the author of numerous award-winning self-published books. A numbers geek at heart with degrees in law and finance, Karen enjoys a good spreadsheet almost as much as she loves storytelling. Always an avid reader, Karen found her passion for writing later in life. Over the past ten years, Karen has spoken at various workshops and events on topics related to marketing books and writing for children. A native of Connecticut, Karen is a daisy lover, cat wrangler, occasional baker, and the proud mom to three brilliant teens/young-adults who still provide an endless stream of great book material. She lives with her family outside of Philadelphia. ​For more information, visit karenpokras.com.  Karen can also be found on social media, mostly on Instagram: @karenpokras_author  and occasionally on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/karenptoz and Twitter: @karentoz .

Giveaway Details

Karen has generously offered a hardback of The Backyard Secrets of Danny Wexler for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by December 18th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This giveaway is U.S.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews and Giveaways

Monday, December 13th I have an agent spotlight interview with Jemma Cooper and a query critique giveaway

Wednesday, December 15th I have an agent spotlight interview with Stacey Kondla and a query critique giveaway

Thursday, December 16th I’m participating in the Dashing December Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, January 5th I have an interview with debut author Leslie Vedder and a giveaway of her YA fantasy The Bone Spindler and my IWSG post

Monday, January 10th I have an agent/debut author guest post with Charlotte Wenger and Nancy Tandon and a query critique and MG contemporary The Way I Say It giveaway

Wednesday, January 12th I have an agent spotlight interview with Haley Casey and a query critique giveaway

Sunday, January 16th I’m participating in the Winter Wishes Giveaway Hop

Monday, January 17th I have an agent spotlight interview with Shannon Snow and a query critique giveaway

Hope to see you on Monday!