Ep. 30: Leah Hernandez on Helping Young Authors Get Published

Welcome to the Pub Date Podcast, the show where two book broads discuss what should happen before, during, and after your book publication date. Brought to you by Broad Book Group with your host Vanessa Campos and Jen Dorsey.

Happy Friday, Jen. How are you doing?

Hey, I'm great. How are you today, Vanessa Campos Campos Campos?

I'm good. I feel very bad because it's nice and cool out here and it's triple digits out with you.

It is. We're working on our third, fourth, possibly 100-plus degree day and the St. Louis stew, like we like to call it. It's a little humid, but that's okay because it gives me a reason to read more, as if I ever need a reason to read more, and gives the kids a reason to read more as well. So we're all in our books today.

I love that. And I also love that you're leading into our topic for today, and I think it's a very good one. You know, I was doing a little bit of research on our next guest, and she pointed out something that I knew was actually a thing, but I was really surprised to hear that less than 7% of children's books are written by Black, Latino, and Native authors combined. And I mean, come on, we need to do a little bit better. Um, but a lot better, right? And I think that our next guest has, has taken that and she's run with it, and she's actually doubled down on it because her— she started a company and it's called Young Authors Publishing. Literally, it's young authors, children publishing books about themselves for other children, and I think it's amazing. I love it. Welcome to the show, Leah.

Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Oh, we're thrilled to have you here. I love it. I love it so much. Um, can we talk for just a little bit about your background and how you got into this and what sparked this amazing idea to, to have kids publishing for each other and themselves?

Absolutely. Well, my sophomore year of undergrad, I actually decided that I wanted to write and publish my own book, and which is my introduction into publishing. And 6 months after I published my book, I had another young lady, um, wanted to publish a book as well. She was based in Belize, and so I was able to help her publish her book. Um, so from there I started this publishing company that would help, um, specifically, you know, young people in their 20s write and publish books. And I was then approached by the Atlanta Housing Authority here in Atlanta, Georgia, and they were looking to work on a new youth development program. And I was like, well, the only thing that I kind of know how to do really well still being in college is writing and publishing books. You know, I've had some small success with that. So I figured I could help kids write a book. You know, they would keep the royalties. It would be this one-time program that I would do. And then I would focus back on working with adults and their books. And after working with 4 dynamic girls, they wrote a beautiful book called Roxy's Day in Vine City, which is a real community community here in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, it was actually being rapidly gentrified, and so they really shared a beautiful story about their experience and what it was like growing up in this place. And, you know, it was kind of an aha moment once we got a lot of support from the community and a lot of support from schools, and, you know, the message resonated so well with so many other students. You know, I had the aha moment to kind of keep this thing going. I was really surprised that it was so easy for them to come up with the topic. You know, kids have a really great imagination, and I like to say that their ideas haven't been jaded by the world yet. And so when they come up with a really cool topic, like, they don't second-guess it. They go for it. And I think that that makes for some of the best children's books.

I love that so much. That's right. I think— and I've heard this from— I heard this once from a registered nurse that you don't hit that moment until, like, second-guessing your life and death and all of the fears until you're, like, in your 20s. 20s. So there's a really good amount of time there where you're just like, I'm just gonna go for it. And you really hit the core of, of children's books because I think— and Jen and I can probably speak to this a little bit more— but, you know, in, in our publishing experiences, we've, we publish nonfiction business books for a living, but you'd be surprised that like every one out of every 10, um, proposals is like, hey, I have a children's book. I mean, we're like, ooh, we don't, we don't do that. But usually, and you know, what we see in our experience is these are adults who want to read a story to their kid and they can't find that book. So I love that you're flipping it on its head.

Yeah, we actually did an in-person event at the Atlanta Jazz Festival and had some book signings, and one of our customers and book buyers, she walked away and she was like, I always had this thought you know, professionals in the medical industry write books on, you know, medical books, and you have, you know, expertise that write books on what their expertise at. And I always had this idea that kids should be writing their own kids' books because adults don't know how to be kids anymore. And when she said that, I was like, I never really thought about it like that. But yeah, it makes, it makes a lot of sense.

I love it. Well, yeah, I mean, when we're, when we're marketing adult nonfiction, we're all about your platform and who you are and how you're the subject matter expert. So Who's better at writing about kids than kids who are being kids? I mean, that's just a— that's a no-brainer, but one that I think a lot of people miss. Like, they want to impart their wisdom and funnel that wisdom down, but the wisdom is— the wisdom is happening every day with these kids. So that's amazing. I love it. What kinds of stories are they telling? You gave us an example. I see some beautiful books behind you. If anyone's watching us on YouTube, they can see them too. Um, tell us a little bit about all the different ideas and concepts and, um, you know, just, just where they are coming from with these kids.

Yeah, our young authors write a range of books. We have authors that are talking about activism, embracing, you know, differences and diversity. We have authors that are talking about emotions. The book that you see behind me, Taking the Flame, is a book about a young boy and young students who have superpowers, and so they go to this special school to harness their powers and emotions. So it's a great book that teaches kids about, you know, how to handle the different emotions that they're going through. We have books about saving our ocean and keeping our earth clean, which is a really big topic for young people and something that they care deeply about. And then we also have topics, you know, about dinner table distractions and making sure that the family is sitting back at the dinner table today, you know, free of distractions, free of phones, free from technology. And you'd be really surprised at the range of topics that our kids are talking about. Bullying is one that we see a lot, but, you know, it reveals itself in, in different ways and in different storylines. But the range is really big, if I'm being honest. But I think that they're all topics that I would say most, if not all, kids experience on a day-to-day basis, and they resonate really well with them.

Sure.

Well, it seems like it— speaking as a parent, I think I always want to ask my kids, like, what's on your mind? And what's bothering you? And is there anything I can help with? And of course, they don't want to tell me those things, unless they come to me first. And so to me, this makes makes a lot of sense because these are things that are on their minds even if they don't tell us that, right?

Exactly, exactly.

So I read on your website, and this is something that I'm, I love, I'm passionate about, and there needs to be more about it. I read on your website that the, um, the royalties get placed into an account, and you guys don't just teach, um, these young aspiring and published authors how to, how to maneuver this, this incredibly complex thing that is publishing, but you also instill financial literacy with them.

Absolutely. So financial literacy is really big to me. That's actually what I did before I got into publishing. I spent 4 years interning with the AUCC, which is a conglomerate of Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse, Spelman, and Morris Brown, and I was responsible for teaching financial literacy to my peers and to my community. And a big reason why I actually started Young Authors Publishing is because I wanted this to be a wealth-building opportunity for young Black and brown people. You know, I had this idea that I would come to college, I would get a really good job, and then boom, I would like make it to wealth and, you know, picture-perfect story. And unfortunately, that's not the case. You know, a lot of, um, young Black and brown people that come from similar communities are going into college, they're racking up thousands of $100,000 in debt. You know, they have an entry-level paying job, and then they spend the rest of their life having to pay back that money. And, uh, they don't really come out of high school with a savings or with a fund to be able to jumpstart their future. And I noticed that that was something that was lacking in our community. And so it was really imperative for me that these books be high quality, high level, so that way they can scale, um, and sell at mass, so that way our authors can actually generate money from their books. And so with that, I also know that access to capital, you know, is really nothing if you don't have financial literacy and you don't know what to do with that money, how to save that money, how to reinvest that money. And so every quarter when we distribute their royalty payments and royalty reports, we actually have financial experts come and talk to our authors about their future, how to reinvest their money, how to save. They're learning about personal finance. And for us, it's really a holistic approach so that way we know that we're not just giving access to capital, but we're giving them the education that they need to really jumpstart their future.

Thank you so much for doing that. I just seriously, thank you so much for doing that. I don't, especially like in, like I'm Latina and in our communities, you just don't talk about money. It's not something that comes up in the household. It's just like, well, we can't afford it or maybe next month or maybe something else, but we never really get down to that, you know, hard about it. And I think that, um, you're setting people up for what I think is really understanding that— and I think that there— it's called invisible, uh, education when you get into college, where everybody else is on a different playing field. They understand, you know, the loans that are coming to them aren't free, they're actually compounded interest, and it's going to take you a long time to pay them off. So I Just thank you. I think this needs to be like a nationwide thing.

Yeah, I mean, we're working on it. It's something that is really important. It has so many different benefits. Of course, the financial component, the financial literacy component. But then I think one thing that I didn't realize when I started this is the healing process that would take place with young people writing their own stories and how introspective and therapeutic writing could be in all of like the socio-emotional benefits and aspects that this, this brings to our young people, which is really inspiring to see as well.

So it feels like a very holistic— we're caring for the soul, we're contributing to other people, we're creating art for other people, we're taking control of our destiny and our financial literacy at a very young age. And to me, that just sounds like such a gift. I mean, you know, to back what Vanessa said, I don't— I feel like kids don't get that baked into this, into the system, right? I mean, my son's gonna graduate from high school next year. They take one class one out of all 4 years of high school that kind of teaches you how to adult a little bit, you know, like, here's how to write a check, here's how to do this. But that's just not enough. Not enough.

It's not. It's not something that, you know, needs to be instilled at a young age and then practiced throughout the, you know, throughout time. And what's the best way to practice than with your own money? You know, before, I think our authors had this concept of money that wasn't real and money grows on trees. And now I overhear authors' conversations of like, oh no, that's too much, I have to save my royalties, like, I can't spend I have to save for this. And it's, you know, such a beautiful thing to see kids actually having to manage their own money and having to be responsible with money at such a young age.

Absolutely. So that's a really exciting part of what you do. Let's talk about some of the other parts of what you do. When you take these young authors through the process, through, you know, idea creation and the editorial piece and the writing and getting to talk about book covers, what lights you up and what lights them up in the process? What's really exciting for everybody as you move through this journey together?

That's a great question. I would say what's probably most exciting for myself and for my team that works with the authors on their book is seeing the progression of their story, their story outlines and plots. I think initially you tell a young person to write a book and they're just like, it's a lot of pressure at first, and then we get a lot of surface-level ideas and then we get, some ideas that we know that maybe don't resonate with them that well, but when we can connect a really great idea with something that the author has either personally experienced or deeply cares about, that's when we get the magic of the book. And, you know, seeing that moment and seeing the progression of it is really exciting. I think for our authors, the most exciting part is when they actually get to hold their book in their hand for the first time, because then it becomes real. You know, I think that when they're writing the book, even when they're communicating with illustrators and getting some of their proofs, they're just like, "Okay, like this is cool." But when they see the actual hardcover book, everything is real to them and their eyes just light up. So that's probably the most exciting part for them, in addition to all like the author events and the tours and being in front of readers and things like that.

I love that you're doing that and you're putting them in the spotlight rather than in the background. Usually it's like, you know, children should be seen. Seen and not heard. Everything you're doing is great, but what I also love is that you're bringing in— you're bringing the knowledge to a whole new generation and a group of people that would normally not get a chance to take a look at publishing. And, you know, it's just like over the last few years we've had a reckoning in publishing where it's like the demographic doesn't meet the audience, the audience doesn't see themselves in what's coming out, and it's just I love that you're helping them into this. So, so tell us about a little bit about the mentors, because I believe that I read that you train the mentors on publishing. So win-win. And these people are in college, right?

Yes.

Okay. So tell us a little bit about that program. How do you select them? Do they like apply to, to be a mentor?

Yeah, absolutely. So we have applications that are open. We primarily are looking again for minorities and underserved communities, people that we don't see in publishing. And so we have a lot of partnerships with HBCUs, um, and a few other partnerships with, with different universities. Um, of course we're reaching out to our English departments, but we also reach out to education departments. One thing that I think a lot of education majors don't understand is the opportunity that exists for them in publishing. I think a lot of times they just think that they have to be in the classroom, but there are so many different positions and roles in publishing that require an educator and require the expertise of an educator. And so our goal is to be able to train them and equip them with the experience that's needed in publishing, because I'm sure I don't have to tell you all, but it's really hard to get employment in industry or in the publishing industry. You know, they want you to have experience, but they don't take on anybody with no experience. So it's like, how, you know, how do we make that happen? So we, um, we have about a 3-week training before they actually work with the authors. Um, in the training, we're going over all publishing. We teach them on our writing curriculum that we actually developed to help young authors develop these stories. And then the first half of the program, they're working with the author to develop their book. The second half of the program, our interns are actually working with our editorial team, our designers, and our illustrators to actually publish the book. So they act as the publishers. They get experience on copywriting, on communicating with illustrators, having to work with publishing timelines, having to communicate with printers and understand the production cycle and process. And then at the end of their program, the book is actually published. And so that's really all the experience that you need in publishing. You can take that and go into any department or any role in publishing, which is our goal, so that way we can have more people of color working behind the scenes. Because we have more people of color working behind the scenes in publishing, then we'll see more diverse books. But I think the disconnect is that there's, there's not enough diversity in the people that are working in publishing, and there are way too many barriers to entry. And so our goal is to just try to limit that as much as possible.

I agree with that 100% and another 100%. You know, my personal experience with publishing has always been that like, oh, they want an MBA, they want this, they want— and my background is in medical device marketing. So it's just like, well, let me just try this. I love books. It's the love of books. And, you know, I think that that's one of the important things is that it's so It makes it seem like it's so, uh, like the barriers to entry is like cloaked in sheets and, you know, bricks and all of this thing. It's, it's— I love that you're doing that and you're walking each and every one of your mentors through the entire experience, because I would, I would bet to, um, I would guess that the majority of the people that are in publishing only know one part of that cycle. And I think that what you're doing is really, really good in setting people up for success.

Thank you.

I agree. And showing them that holistic view, because I think so many people fall in love with the idea of getting into publishing as a career, and they have this vision, and the vision is they're sipping their tea, which I am this morning, but that's beside the point. They're editing books, you know, they're— it's— they see the romantic part. They don't realize that it's also— you have to be good at finance, or at least understand what a P&L looks like. You have to understand logistics and shipping and printing and distribution and all that. So, um, it's It's just so refreshing to hear you say that you're providing that kind of boots-on-the-ground kind of education for folks. I love it.

I think we have a question from our producer, Paul, today.

We do.

I just, I don't want the show to end without her telling at least one story of one author. And she mentioned beforehand that she has an author who's 9, who's written a book, or 8. I can't imagine my grandson at 8 writing a book. Book, but why not? These kids are creating TikTok channels and Instagram channels with millions of followers. Can you tell us one story? Tell us that journey, how you found that child, what they wrote, and, and what's happened.

Yeah, um, so our youngest author today is 8. Um, his name is Lance Hammett, and he's the author of Sea Rod: A New Wave, which is about a young boy who gets superpowers and decides that he uses— he wants to use his powers to save our ocean from litter and pollution. Um, and he helps the people in the town, um, save the ocean as well. And we actually have what we call community partners. So these are afterschool programs, not-for-profits, and even schools now because we're actually licensing our writing curriculum to schools so that way students can be doing this throughout the school year. Then schools will pick their top books that will then be submitted to us for publishing. So we actually found this author through one of our community partners. And, you know, he was actually one of the authors who came in and knew exactly what he wanted to write about, which was saving the ocean. He didn't know what the story outline was going to be, but he just, I think he had recently learned about climate change and was really involved with that and wanted his story to represent that. And he's one of our top-selling authors today. He's a dynamic young person. He's so energetic, and all of our readers really love when he gets to come out to all of our events and share his book.

I would, on behalf of the Book Broads here, I would like to invite him to come on sometime and talk, or with his parents or whatever, and talk about how did he do this and how did they feel about it and what's he get out of this and why does he do this and just his story from his point of view. Because I can't imagine, but I'm an old guy, I can't imagine when I was 8 I was collecting bottle caps, you know. I can't imagine trying to save the ocean, much less write about it, right?

Well, no, we would love that, and I know he would be super excited to, to be able to share his story on this platform as well.

Oh, he could be our first kid guest. We've never had one.

So wouldn't that be cool?

That'd be amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah. So we have 36 of them, so we'll send it. All right. Yes, you can have a few.

Perfect.

So Leah, before we let you go, well, two things. One is, what's something that you wish you knew about publishing before you got into publishing?

That's a really good question. I wish I knew all of the revenue streams and opportunities that existed in publishing. It wasn't until about like year 2, year 3, that until we actually got a distributor, that I had learned about foreign rights licenses and licensing books and book-to-film adaptations and just a wealth of knowledge on how you can actually market your book on so many different platforms. Um, and I wish I would have known more about the distribution relationship and how distribution works, but I think To your point earlier, that's one of those barriers to entry in publishing is if you just don't know unless you know, and you don't know unless you're in the industry and you're actually working into it. But it's— I wouldn't say that it's a regret. I think that my naivety actually helped us in a lot of areas because I was like, well, we can just do this and do that, and not knowing all the roadblocks kind of made me delusional to all of the things that we, quote unquote, couldn't do and that we were able to do along the way. So that would be the top thing I would say is distribution and all of the revenue streams and channels that exist in there outside of just selling your book to Amazon and Barnes Noble.

Well, you know, you called it delusion, but I think that that's exactly what we all need a little bit of when it comes to book publishing or just marketing anything. A little bit of delusion. Can we do that? Well, let's try it. We should always try the new thing that maybe we don't know about and just kind of like keep growing, have that childlike wonder that as adults we call delusion.

I love that. That's, that's going to be one of like our new, um, core, core, uh, corporate items for us is to have childlike, you know, imagination.

Yes, it's necessary everywhere. So Leah, where can people learn more about you? How can people get in touch with you? Teachers, how can they reach out to you?

Absolutely. You can find us at youngauthorspublishing.org. You can follow us on social at Young Authors Publishing. That's on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. If you are an educator, a teacher, we actually give discounts to educators and teachers, and all of our books come equipped with a teaching guide, coloring sheets, stickers, and different activities for the classroom. And so I would really encourage you to go to our website and check that out. If you are a young author, if you know someone who is a young person and wants to publish a book, we do have submissions open year-round. If you go to our website and click the submissions tab, we have more information about that. And if you're interested in licensing our curriculum to your school, your district, or your classroom, that information can be found online, and it helps students from beginning to end on how to write their story. And it's what's helped us be able to have over 36 young people write and publish a book.

Just amazing. I love it. Everyone needs a young author in their lives. We all have one. I mean, I'm just thinking about my nieces and nephews who pick up all my books and I mean, they eat them and destroy them, but that's okay.

There's a public— there is.

I see the vision there. Thank you so much for being with us, Leah, today. I am so happy that you were able to make the time today. This has been amazing conversation.

Yes, thank you. We loved having you.

Yes, thank you so much for having me. I had a blast here. Um, so thank you for welcoming to your platform and allowing me to share more about the work that we do.

Of course, and we'll— we're going to have more of your authors come on. Um, but in the meantime, thank you so much to Paul Roberts of OC Talk Radio and our executive producer Emily Carpenter-Polskamp of Little Red Communications.

We hope that you gained some valuable insights into the world of book publishing. Head over to broadbookgroup.com to learn more about us and all our services, and be sure to check out all our social media @BroadBookGroup. Until then, keep publishing!