The Choice to Self-Publish Our Story and Coloring Books

This blog post is part of the Super Cool Scientists FAQ Series, where we answer some of the most common questions about the project.

A popular question we get about the Super Cool Scientists coloring books, especially from other writers, is:

Why did you choose to self-publish?

After searching online for “women in science coloring books” and finding no results, I knew I had to create my own. It was the creative project I had been looking for. However, the idea was full of challenges and I was quickly overwhelmed. I had never written a book, much less published one, and I had no idea where to start.

My background is in biology and my professional role at the time had helped me build a dynamic network of science professionals. I knew I could handle choosing the featured scientists, doing the interviews, and writing the stories. But this was supposed to be a coloring book and I am NOT an illustrator.

Finding an illustrator was at the top of my to-do list because a coloring book full of stick figures wasn’t going to cut it (or maybe that's a whole other niche). After some initial research, I learned that paying a professional artist’s commission fee was also likely going to be my largest expense.

PSA: Support local artists when you can and pay your artists competitively. Period. 

With those things in mind (plus a little anxiety even thinking about how to break into traditional publishing), I started researching the most cost-effective ways to publish a book, keeping my focus on funding on a great illustrator. Being cost and time efficient was key, since I was doing all this on top of a full-time leadership role. But I didn’t want to sacrifice quality, either.

The idea of a print-to-order platform was appealing because I wouldn’t have to pay for or store large amounts of inventory, and someone else would take care of the shipping. Only so many books would fit into my home closet and I didn’t think I’d be able to make regular trips to the post office to fulfill orders while trying to keep on track with my day job—manifesting that I’d get orders, of course. The idea of a royalty check seemed simple and the self-publishing platforms had decent rates for their authors considering those benefits.

Plus, I could start and move through the self-publishing process when I was ready. I controlled the timeline more than pitching the idea and building a relationship with a traditional publisher. The self-publishing route also gave me control over choosing my illustrator, and that was important to me.

Self-publishing seemed like the most energy-efficient option, especially when it came to my own personal energy. I chose Amazon’s self-publishing arm called Kindle Direct Publishing (it was CreateSpace back then), and then it was time to tackle the next challenge. How was I going to pay for it?

That’s when I started researching crowdfunding.