Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Coombs.
Hi Kate, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Even as a child I wanted to write books. After all, I was a bookworm, and books were wonderful! I started writing poems and stories as a little girl. I remember during my Nancy Drew phase I wrote my own book with a remarkably similar setup about a girl detective. I mostly wrote poetry as I got older, but I started trying to write for children while in college. I ended up with an English degree and eventually taught college English, then elementary school, and worked as an editor and curriculum developer. Along the way, I kept writing, and I started trying to sell my manuscripts.
I wrote a middle grade fairy tale-inspired story called The Runaway Princess that I was able to sell. I also sold my first picture book, The Secret-Keeper. Later I was able to sell my poetry, starting with Water Sings Blue, a book of ocean poems that won a big award, the Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award. That was thrilling! I wrote a funny picture book called The Tooth Fairy Wars, a series of board books about “little naturalists” for Utah publisher Gibbs Smith, and three more poetry collections. The most recent two were published by Sounds True, which I call my yoga publisher. Breathe and Be is a collection of mindfulness poems and Today I Am a River is poems about connecting with nature.
Right now I’m working on some poetry and a middle grade fantasy!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It used to be incredibly hard to sell a book. Now it is even harder! Approximately 500,000 to 1 million children’s books are published each year, and that doesn’t include self-published books. It used to be you could sell directly to some publishers. Now almost all submissions must go through agents, today’s gatekeepers. I don’t have an agent right now, so that creates some hurdles!
Another challenge is to be aware of what the children’s book market is doing without getting too sucked into it. You still have to write what’s in your heart and mind, though it’s easy to worry about whether you’ll be able to sell it.
Distribution is another issue. Most publishers, certainly the big ones, spend the majority of their marketing dollars on big-name authors. And I’m not a marketing whiz!
But I am a writer, and that has to be my focus.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work in more than one genre as a children’s book writer: board books, picture books, poetry collections, middle grade, and even (once) parody. However, I consider myself first and foremost a poet. I come up with some good metaphors and images! I am very proud that my collection of ocean poems won the 2012 Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award, the most prestigious American honor for children’s poetry. Here is my shark poem from the collection:
Shark
He circles and stares
with a broken-glass grin,
his body’s a dagger,
he has lion’s-tongue skin.
He slides through the water
like a rumor, like a sneer.
He’s a quick twist of hunger.
He’s the color of fear.
How do you define success?
In children’s books, it tends to be publishing, sales, and awards. For myself, success is writing something wonderful and loving it, knowing it’s good.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katecoombs.com
