Lori is a multi-award-winning children’s book author, freelance writer, and marketing director who lives in Chicago. Lori is the mother of two little ladies who are small but mighty. Lori is certified by the CDC in Bullying Prevention and Response Training and is an Ambassador for the National Bullying Prevention Center. At 5″1, she wishes her children’s picture book “Being Small (Isn’t So Bad After All),” was around when she was growing up. Lori’s books are published by Mascot Books.
Transcript:
Katie:
Hi everyone. Thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics podcast. I’m your host, Katie. And today I am so excited to be talking with Lori or Linskey. She’s a multi award winning children’s book, author, freelance writer, and marketing director who lives in Chicago. So, Lori, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Lori:
Hi Katie. Thanks for having me.
Katie:
Absolutely. So I would love to learn a little bit more about you, your background and kind of how you got to where you are today. Sure. Well, okay.
Lori:
Until a couple of years ago, I was kind of just your average mom. I’m hustling as a marketer in Chicago. And as I said, a couple of years ago, something really changed the course of my life. And when my daughter Haley was three years old, so she is now seven. She came home from preschool crying and I asked her what was wrong. And it took a lot of coaxing. And I found out that her teachers were redecorating the preschool classroom for the spring and they hung a growth chart on the classroom wall. And that was the first time that Haley realized that she was different from her peers. And it was also the first time that they realized that she was different from them. All her friend’s names are at the top and the bottom at the top, in the middle of the growth chart.
Lori:
And Haley’s name was all the way at the bottom by herself. And she realized that she was the shortest one in class, but what’s more, she walked into that classroom every day and saw her name at the bottom and felt like she was the worst because we’re conditioned to think that being at the top is the best. And so she became upset and irritable and her friends and her teachers kind of starting calling her little names like shorty and peanut, and she didn’t like it. And so, you know, I was really frustrated as a parent. I felt like I couldn’t get through to her. I am only five one. So I also struggled with short stature, but not to the extent that Haley did. And so I figured, okay, it’s, it’s at this point it’s like 20, you know, 20, 15 or 2016. Let me just go on Amazon and try and find a book about short kids and be able to point to that child in the book and say, well, this child made these decisions and this is what you can do as well. And much to my surprise, there were no books about short kids. And so that was my aha moment. And I decided I have a journalism background. I am a freelance writer and I also went to journalism school at Indiana university. And so I said, let me write a book for Haley. And what turned into a simple book from hate for Haley became a bullying prevention book for hundreds of thousands of kids everywhere. And so my first book being small, isn’t so bad after I was born.
Katie:
What an incredible story. I love that. I love hearing like the stories behind the, you know, especially children’s books. And so you mentioned you kind of have a writing background. So obviously this is not your first time writing anything, but is this your first time kind of writing and the children’s book and children’s literature space?
Lori:
Absolutely. Yes, until the end, until that point, I write for Chicago parent magazine. I’ve been doing that for a number of years. I’ve been writing for different online blogs for scary mommy from Motherwell, a lot of parenting blogs and a lot of newspapers and magazines, but I had never written a book I always wanted to, it’s just like always been a bucket list thing for me, but I never, I’ve tried to sit down before and I never had the inspiration of like, I can write a story about this. And so this experience with Haley just like hit me over the head. And I kind of knew that that was my purpose to write that book. Yeah, absolutely. And so what was the experience like compared to, I’m just thinking, cause I have a journalism background as well, and I’m thinking of, you know, reading magazine articles or writing features or essays or something like that.
Lori:
It has to be completely different than writing a children’s book. So what was that process like and how was it different than what you had experienced before? Yeah, it was completely different in some ways it was better because, you know, when you write for magazines and newspapers, you’re having to use, you know, very intellectual words. And really when you’re writing a children’s book, you have to dumb it down. I mean, it has, I wanted my book to be relatable to kids, you know, babies up until age eight or so. And so I purposely did it in rhyme because I love rhyming books. There’s my first memories as a child. I remember my dad reading dr. Seuss books to me. And I think rhyming books are great for kids because they can, it helps promote early literacy and they can anticipate what’s next and kind of help out with sounds.
Lori:
And so the rhymes are simple, but I was able to use Hayley as an editor for me, you know, at the time she was three and four when I was writing it and she would literally put her thumbs down if she didn’t like something and stick her tongue out and say, boo. And she was definitely my most critical editor I’ve ever had, but when she likes something, she would do a Cartwheel. So I found myself leaning on Haley more than anybody else because she was the perfect target demo for the book. And then I would think of things about being small and she would say, no, mommy, it didn’t happen like that. It happened like this. And so she also really kept me in check and I realized for a long time, I started talking in rhyme too, because when you write and rhyme, it’s only natural to continue rhyming.
Lori:
So that was my life for several months. That’s hilarious. And I love that. That’s such a cool experience to have with your daughter. I mean, how amazing I’m sure she’ll remember that forever. And so how long did it really take from the beginning time that you had this idea to kind of having the published book in your hands? How long did that actually take? Probably took about a year and a half. I was really very fortunate in the sense that once I finished the book, I had a lot of family and friends and even people I turn to on Facebook and I said, Hey, I’m writing a book. Would anybody take, you know, a non-biased read of it? And I had a lot of people give me some suggestions and so I fine tuned it. And also I was very fortunate in the fact that I sent out 200 query letters to publishers and literary agents and I got 199 either knows or no responses, but it was that one.
Lori:
Yes. That I got, that was so amazing. It was from mascot books. And I’m really fortunate because I absolutely love working with them. I’m doing two other books with them and they’ve just, they’ve changed the course of my life. It’s really been an amazing journey. And just to think that it all came from a simple growth chart blows my mind. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I’d love to kind of talk about that process of you reaching out to publishers and agents, because I feel like that’s such a daunting task and believe me, I’ve been in, it’s a similar experiences where you either get so many rejections or you’re not hearing back at all. It’s just crickets and it can get a little frustrating and that’s putting it lightly. So did you kind of have any experience like writing query letters or reaching out to people? How did you find all that knowledge to, to reach out to these literary agents?
Lori:
I found a lot of Facebook groups for authors, especially kidlets authors and used a lot of tips from there. I also purchased the writer’s market book, which was really helpful in helping me craft query letters. And I joined the SCB DWI. So I’m in Illinois. So it’s the society of professional writers Illinois chapter. And I really got some, a lot of tips from there, but I think what I did not like about the query process is that everything was so formal. I really wanted to tell my story about Haley and then jump into my book. And I had to make sure everything was double-spaced appropriately. I had to address the people with the right, with the right way. I mean, I had to use comp titles. And so what comp titles are comparative titles for your book? And what’s funny is I said, I literally said I’m not including comp titles because the reason I wrote this book is because there are no books in this space.
Lori:
And I went a little bit robe when I was doing the query lenders because I wanted to insert my personality and I wanted to talk about Hayley. I attached a picture of Haley and I had somebody that I know that does voice over talent. I had to read the book for me on audio so I can send them an audio file of it because people’s experiences in reading books are vastly different, especially rhyming books. And so I wanted to publishers and the literary agents to hear how the rhymes sound when they’re read properly. So I think that really helped me a lot too. And I would say, you know, I had sent out all 200 of these query letters and, you know, within the first month I heard back from mascot books, which was completely amazing. I thought this was going to be a multiyear long process.
Lori:
And once I heard from mascot books, the rest is history. Oh yeah. That’s amazing how quick that happened, how exciting it’s. So once you heard back from them, what was the next step? So the next step there, so max got books is a more unique situation. They’re hybrid publisher. So they’re a cross between a traditional publisher and self publishing. And so what you do with mascot is very different than what you would do from a traditional publisher. Mascot was almost like my agency and I was their client. And so they, you know, the first thing is they edited my book and I had, was paired with a really great editor and I really liked it. I think that for me at first, it was really hard to let go of some of the things that I wanted in my book. I was married to some of the verbiage, but I learned really to take constructive feedback.
Lori:
Well, it went through several rounds of editing and then they sent me a couple of portfolios and I was able to ask some illustrators to test sketch. And I was, again, very fortunate. I found an illustrator who I fell in love with her name is Vanessa Alexandra. And she was amazing in bringing the story to life. I actually sent her photos of Halley of Halley’s classroom at the time. And she did such a great job in depicting what I had in mind for the story. And so from there, it was kind of little tweaks from there on out. So once we edited the book and she was chosen illustrator, it was just laying out the pages and choosing the cover image. And I mean, mascot really took care of all that stuff for me, they handled all the distribution and fortunately I have a background in marketing and so I was able to do my own marketing for the book. And I fell in love with book marketing also.
Katie:
Oh yeah. That’s a fascinating kind of world that I’m not very familiar with, but I’m very interested in. So what were some of the avenues that you chose to market the book? Like what platforms did you gravitate towards?
Lori:
You know, initially when I was writing the book, it was a book for Haley and it was a book to make Hailey feel better about her height. And then I thought, well, maybe it could work for parents that have short kids that are in the same scenario that I was in. And the reviews started coming in of my books and there was so much mention of bullying prevention. And so then I started taking a look at my book and that lens, and I realized that the book could be used as a tool for bullying prevention because it teaches self acceptance and self confidence. And it kind of teaches you also that your words have power on others. So when I started marketing the book, I really took that angle of, you know, 160,000 kids stay home each day to avoid being bullied. And so if this book can just help one person with their self acceptance and self confidence, the nets done the done the work.
Lori:
And so I really started focusing on that bullying prevention angle. My daughter is a very great speaker. I mean she’s seven years old now and she’s been on every news outlet in Chicago. She’s been on a lot of radio stations. People love to hear her story because it’s inspiring. I mean, she was a child who dealt with bullying at a young age and she’s come out the other side and she’s also become such an empathetic child because of that. So we’ve been very lucky in the marketing aspect and being able to tell our story, and I will say additionally, I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of awards for the book. With the most prominent one being, it was the 2019 recipient of the author Academy awards for best children’s book. And so that really gave me so much credibility in the author space, especially as a first time author.
Katie:
Yeah. I’m just looking at the list of awards you have. It’s just really incredible. And I can only imagine how awesome that is to have something so close to your heart, be appreciated by other people as well. And you have a second book, the tooth fairies tummy ache, which is the cutest name and the book cover is adorable. So what is it
Lori:
So that I also worked with mascot books and Vanessa as well. I did have some other illustrators do a test sketch and nobody in my mind, nobody held a candle to Vanessa. She’s amazing, but that book is a more imaginative book. So the backstory is that when I was little, I was probably about six. I literally lost my first tooth. Like my mom threw it in the garbage and we couldn’t find it anywhere. And I remember laying in bed thinking like what’s going to happen if the tooth fairy doesn’t come like, can I, can I trick her? What can I do? And so I ended up just writing a note and I got money anyway, but the book is kind of like a plan, my imagination as a six year old. So it’s about a little girl who swallows her first tooth. And obviously she’s very upset because she, you know, she doesn’t think the two, three is going to visit.
Lori:
So she puts a kernel of popcorn under her pillow too, you know, as a kind of way to trick her. And it’s a really silly story that the popcorn starts popping and all sorts of problems start happening. And at the end of the day, the story is about truth telling and honesty and how the girl at the end of the day, she should have just been honest and told the tooth fair that she swelled her too. And so I’m a big fan of less invasive books. I use them for my own kids, as I said, my older daughter is seven and my younger daughter’s four. I think lesson based books are such a great way to teach kids about the world around them, without making them feel pressured or in trouble. Instead of saying, we need to talk about bullying or we need to talk about lying. We can literally just read our children a book and then talk about what happened in the book and they can get the lesson that way without having these awkward conversations. And so that’s what I love about both being small and the tooth various tummy ache as they teach lessons in a way that doesn’t feel forced.
Katie:
Absolutely. I think that’s such a wonderful approach. You know, you said, you mentioned you have a couple of more books that you’re working on. Is that something that you’re working on currently or is that in the future?
Lori:
Sure. I actually just signed a deal. I’m another one with mascot for my third book. It’ll be out in 2021 and it’s called balloons for tire. And this is another one that’s very near and dear to my heart. About two years ago, we lost our cat tiger. And so I decided the best way talk to my kids about it was to do a balloon release for tiger. And I wanted them to do something tangible to, you know, help with their griefing breath, their grieving process. And afterwards, the kids were asking so many questions, where did the balloons go? What happens if they got stuck in a tree, could a bird eat, could somebody see them when they’re on a plane? And so, you know, I just had a hard time talking to the kids about grief. And so then I thought it could be a really cool story. If you talk, if you do the journey of the balloons and really what happens to the balloons on their way up to heaven in a way that is not spiritual or faith based just a more whimsical look at, you know, for example, the two, three even makes a cameo in this book. She scoops them up on her toothbrush while she’s riding in town and they see spaceships and they see astronauts. And so it’s just a way for kids to deal with pet grief from a different angle.
Katie:
I love that. And when do you know when that might be coming out? Probably
Lori:
You’re right. 20, 21. And I’ve got my fingers crossed here.
Katie:
Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, since, you know, your stories are so personal and they come from real life experiences, have you heard much from your readers or maybe other kids that have read your books? Have you heard from your readers at all,
Lori:
Especially about being a mom? That’s my favorite part is to listen from readers. I have a lot of people that buy books for children that are doing growth, hormone therapy. And I heard from one reader very early on that she bought the book for her daughter who was going, she was about to start growth hormones and the girl read the book and said, I don’t want to do it. I’m okay. Being short. I don’t need to be taller because look at all these things that I could do being small. And so that was like, Oh my God, I couldn’t believe that that book was touching her in those ways. I mean, that was amazing. And I also had the opportunity to speak to kids at Lurie children’s hospital in Chicago, and I read them the book and I kept it very light just due to the circumstances and why everybody was at the hospital.
Lori:
I said, could somebody tell me why they’re different? I’m different because I’m lefthanded. And a girl immediately raised her hand and said, I’m different because I had a heart transplant and I have someone else’s heart beating in my chest. And that comment just gave me chills to see that being small as resonating with kids of all sizes, it’s resonating with taller kids. They’re seeing that, that their words have power over others. They’re seeing that they come with their own set of challenges. I’ve heard from tall kids and tall parents that the problem that their problem where people think the grass is greener on the other side, isn’t necessarily the case because when you’re taller, you come with the expectation that you’re smarter because you look older and that you’re more athletic because you’re taller. So it’s just so interesting to use the book, to see the book viewed by so many people and how it resonates with them.
Katie:
Absolutely. And for people listening, who might be interested in writing,
Lori:
Whether it be you know, just writing for a magazine or an online space, or maybe even children’s books, do you have any tips and tricks that you used in your own writing process that you could pass along to them? I would say, I mean, the best thing for me was to solicit feedback from my family and friends. And mostly my friends, even people on Facebook and LinkedIn that were in my network that I hadn’t talked to for a while. And just cause of course, family is going to tell you when your close friends are going to tell you, they love what you’re doing, but if you can get unbiased feedback and that’s the best thing, and that helped me, it really helped me along the way to be able to go back to these people and say, okay, I know you didn’t like that stands out.
Lori:
What do you think of this? And to just get that feedback really helps you, I think take criticism also better when it comes to the actual editing process with a publisher. Yes. I think one of the hardest things when it comes through writing, especially when it’s a very personal subject is taking criticism. Did you do you mentioned that maybe it didn’t come as easily as you would have hoped, but how did you kind of get used to that and make it something, you know, constructive, you know, I realized that it, that some of the, some of the things I absolutely said, you know what, I appreciate the feedback here, but I pushed back. I said, but I really want to keep it this way. And you know, some of the feedback I realized made the book better as well. So I stuck to my gut on a lot of things, but, you know, you have to give and take because sometimes you see things with tunnel vision and, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of times I would read my book from the end up because I feel like when I would read it from start to finish, I memorize it in my head and I already knew what it sounded like.
Lori:
So I would skip over details, but reading it from the bottom up, made me rethink the words and the verbiage that I chose. Oh, that’s interesting. I’d never, would’ve thought to do that, but I could definitely see how that would change your perspective a little bit. Interesting. And you know, now your kids are getting older. Are you, are you planning on kind of staying in this realm that you’re working at right now, as they get older? Are you going to explore some, some different topics and different subjects? I, you know, my goal in life was always, I mean, I don’t know if I’m ever going to accomplish this, but I always wanted to write a book about my grandparents. They are late Holocaust survivors and they have an amazing story to tell they were profiled as part of the Steven Spielberg films. He did a documentary and their story is an Israel and yadda sham.
Lori:
And it’s something that I really want to do. And it’s, it’s something that’s very hard for me to do because you know, it would be essentially immersing myself in their tapes, in their story for quite a bit of time. And it’s, it’s not, it’s not an uplifting story. I mean, it’s a tough truth story to tell it’s something that’s always been on my bucket list. So I’m, I’m hoping to work towards that and do that one day. But I think for now I’m going to stick in the children’s space and hopefully I don’t want to try too hard to think about topics or books, because I think I tend, I’m a person that overthinks things. If things come naturally to me like these three books, did I hope to go with them, but I think overthinking things is the worst for me, because then I forced myself to write a book about a topic that I’m not interested in. And I think the best books both come out of your own experience and then fill a need for something that’s missing.
Katie:
Yeah, absolutely. I can totally relate to that. I’m an over-thinker as well. And sometimes it’s beneficial, but a lot of the times it could be like self sabotage, so totally relate to that. And is there anything out there that’s been helpful for you, whether, you know, as a writer or kind of as an entrepreneur or just in personal development, whether it be books, podcasts, courses, anything that you would recommend to the listeners that they should check out?
Lori:
I definitely lean in my lean in, on my LinkedIn network a lot. I’ve reached out to people that I think have had connections that I’ve been looking to make connections with. And so I think don’t be afraid to use your LinkedIn and reach out to people that might be able to help open doors for you. I also joined the society of children’s book, writers and illustrators, even before I had my book written because I wanted to poke around and learn about the world and talk to some of the members, especially locally. There are also some local chapters of my society of children’s book writers and illustrators that meet at bookstores near my house. And so I’ve gone to those before, and I just love connecting with people and sharing different experiences. And you never know who may help you, and you never know who you may help.
Lori:
I’ve also become very inter intertwined in the Facebook author community. The author community is amazing. People want to talk your ear off and they want to help you, and they want to be helped. And it’s really great collaborative ideas. One of the most awesome things is after my book came out, I met a girl who also was from Chicago. She lives about 20 minutes away from me and she released her first book right before I did. And we became really good friends and we call ourselves work-wise because we do events together. We go to Barnes noble together and we read books together. When we do signings together and it’s just, people are more interested in events that feature two authors than one. And we talk about how we talk about the writing process. We do activities with kids. We went to the Chicago toy and game fair and had a booth together. And so it’s really fun to have a partner to do that stuff with. And it’s nice because our books are not by nature. They’re not competitive. They just stay, we help one another. And it’s a really nice, it’s a really nice relationship to have with someone else.
Katie:
That’s awesome. That’s so nice to hear. I love hearing stories like that, and I know everyone’s going to want to check out your books and learn more about you. So can you tell everybody where they can find you online?
Lori:
Absolutely. My website is Laurie or Linsky author.com. It’s L O R I O R L I N S K Y. And then author.com and my books are available on Amazon. That is probably the best place to find me and my handles for Facebook and Instagram or at
Katie:
Laurie or Lynskey author. Perfect. That’s fantastic. And I’ll link to all of those in the show notes so everybody can find them and check them out. So Laurie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It’s been such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for having me. I hope to come on again when I’ve got another book. Absolutely. I’d love to have you.
