From the Compost Heap header. A pencil style illustration of a compost heap with flowers and plants growing around it. A bee buzzes by and a white rabbit hops by.

  • Our first picture book proof!

    Here’s an update, on How it Feels to Me, the picture book about neurodiversity I’m co-creating with illustrator Gracie Klumpp.

    We’ve reached the proofing stage!

    I couldn’t be more excited to share a peek our progress!

    Before finalizing color palettes and fonts we decided to order an early proof to see how everything looks on paper. Something I’ve learned about self publishing is that early proofs can really help save time by identifying problems early on before they multiply.

    Gracie put together a few spreads to test colors, fonts, and print quality. (Pinch & zoom to really get a good look on mobile.)

    A rose colored background with various figures hand illustrated under a tree and notes about the different brushes and styles. The character is wearing a sweater vest and plaid pants and is illusrated with a variety of different hair textures and face shapes. One is hanging upside down from a tree branch.

    Lucky we did because we’ve completely changed our printer! (But more about that later.)

    Here’s a really fun spread we’re experimenting with.

    This is a visualization of sensory modulation that invites the reader to turn the book upside down to see how the levels change.

    Volume level and dials across the page. Sounds in the red include siren and wind. Handwritten text reads: Try turning the book upside down! (Then, upside down.) Need to perfect this but, see how the levels are better now? That's sensory modulation. A note compares hard contrast buttons and lower light effect.

    The next spread continues on from the first page, “All brains are different.”

    “Just like all bodies are different.

    We can see some differences, like if someone is tall or has curly hair, but we can’t see people’s brains.”

    A cream page with a layer of grid paper cutout to depict a city skyline. Characters are illustrated in different body types, races, and ages. Some are quick sketches and those toward the front are more complete. To the right is a dark skinned character with curly hair and a blue halo of photographed objects surrounding them. The objects include: blue objects including seaweed, shells, and a ticket stub.

    Here’s one more peek at some of the character work Gracie has been doing. I love seeing the concepts I’ve written about come to life!

    Cream page with pencil style illustrations of a character in a plaid sweatervest. They have curly hair and mid tone skin. One vignette shows them looking through a kaleidescope. Another holding a teacup and tasting the tea with head turned and lips pursed. Another squatting down and smelling a flower. One holding a bunny on their shoulder. One holding a soda and listening to the bubbles with little popping stars around their head.

    These aren’t even finalized illustrations, but I’m already in love.

    Two days before my birthday I opened a box to find this beauty inside…

    My pale hand holding a copy of How it Feels to Me. A dark skinned human standing at the center is surrounded by a halo of objects: tokens, leaves, a traffic cone, seashell, and more color swatches. Written by Sarah Shotts. Illustrated by Gracie Klumpp.

    Holding the proof in my hands was absolutely magical. It’s real. We are making this book.

    And (unfortunately) it’s more needed than ever.*

    Imagine my surprise when I opened the cover found someone else’s book inside.

    The first 2/3 of the proof were pages from a completely different picture book. 🤯

    I immediately texted Gracie to check the second proof. It had a completely different (but equally egregious) error. That edition had a huge white bar down the center.

    The way this printer works these books were considered “final” and not “proofs.” †

    Needless to say we are investigating different printers.

    We’re currently exploring 48 Hour Books.

    There are some pros and cons.

    The quality will be excellent. We’re very happy with the sample book they provided.

    But, the books are going to cost more than we budgeted. We haven’t finalized how much this will be yet. 48 Hour Books just invested in new printers and updated prices aren’t out yet. But the difference is considerable.

    We’ll also be required to purchase a full print run (with a minimum of 100 books) rather than print on demand. This is the only way for the price of each book to come even close to our original budget.

    There’s also the small matter that each proof will now be $40 instead of the budgeted $20. But this price difference ensures books (and proofs) are made with care.

    I’m prepared (and able) to cover the difference in cost, but if you’d like to pitch in you can send donations via Venmo. I’ll share more concrete information about the pricing differences once we have that.

    Is this the first time you’ve heard about How it Feels to Me?

    Here’s a video from our crowdfunding campaign sharing the inspiration behind the book and our goals for self publishing.

    If you haven’t preordered a copy yet you can preorder here.

    Changing printers will definitely extend our timeline.

    But we’re confident it will be worth the wait.

    While we wait for 48 Hour Books to update their printers Gracie will continue refining the illustrations. Allowing me bandwidth to focus on proofs for Entwined & Ember (this is a big year for me!)

    THANK YOU SO MUCH, each and every one of you, for all the ways you’ve supported this project!

    We appreciate you.

    P.S. If you’d like to support the project and don’t need a copy of the book you can also choose to donate a copy which will go to a school, library, or a neurodivergent family in financial hardship.**

    preorder or donate a book
    footnotes

    * The US Government has recently categorized autism and ADHD as “epidemics” and is spreading harmful misinformation. I addressed it briefly in my new post titled, What is Autism?

    † The printer was Ingram Spark, for the curious. We’d already dismissed Amazon for the hardcover edition. (Although we plan to release a paperback through Amazon later on to make the book as easy to find and accessible as possible.)

    ** If you donate a book we are happy to find the book a home or to send it to the school or library of your choice.

    Read more: Our first picture book proof!