Vegan kids' books

[Jebus]

Dear all, I'm sorry for not being active on the forum lately. A lot of my time has been spent writing books for vegan children which I am happy to announce are now live on Amazon. The series tells the story of how a boy who is bullied in school for not eating meat becomes a superhero after tasting the fruit from a mysterious tree. He uses his superpowers to rescue abused animals and invite them to join his gang of animal friends. Each book introduces the young child (age 6-10) to a separate animal rights issue. Please check out my website at www.banapplebooks.com

[brimstoneSalad]

Wow Jebus, what a great accomplishment!

Can you drop the Amazon link here directly? I will try to spread the word.

[Jebus]

Thank you, Brimstone.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFYZ7FNJ?

[Red]

Looks great Jebus. One question though, is it pronounced ban-apple, or buhn-apple?

[Jebus]

Looks great Jebus. One question though, is it pronounced ban-apple, or buhn-apple?

Thanks. It's pronounced in whatever way you usually pronounce that yellow, bent fruit.

[brimstoneSalad]

I've set it as a global announcement for a couple weeks. Hopefully that will help visibility? I'm not sure.

If I still used Twitter I'd tweet it, but I don't think anybody's on there anymore.

How was the publishing process on Amazon? Can you tell us more about your experience writing and publishing the book?

[Jebus]

I've set it as a global announcement for a couple weeks. Hopefully that will help visibility? I'm not sure.

Thanks, Brim.

How was the publishing process on Amazon? Can you tell us more about your experience writing and publishing the book?

Writing the books was the easy part. I did this during the lengthy Covid lockdowns we had in 2020 and 2021. When it came down to finding an illustrator, I called on the only one I knew; an art teacher I had met during local activism events, such as Anonymous for the Voiceless. I was very impressed by his illustrations, and it was at this point I started to think the books might actually sell.

The hard work began once the writing and drawing phase was done. Editing the books, finding ISBNs and barcodes, translating to German. The formatting phase, in particular, ended up delaying the project significantly.

From now on, it should be easy. The plan is to release one new book every three months until the whole 15-book series is complete. The first books in the series are quite uncontroversial as I didn't want to scare away potential non-vegan readers. I put the more controversial ones towards the end of the series, such as the pig who is about to be slaughtered, and the cow calf who is separated from his mother.

As for the Amazon process, so far it has been simple. However, I am aware of author horror stories, such as printing errors that lead to poor reviews, Amazon shutting down accounts without any explanation or recourse. The only problem was that I wanted hardcovers and for these KDP requires an 80 page minimum (kids picturing books are rarely more than 40 pages). However, I got the hardcovers done on Ingram Spark, who in turn distribute them to Amazon.

[brimstoneSalad]

The first books in the series are quite uncontroversial as I didn't want to scare away potential non-vegan readers. I put the more controversial ones towards the end of the series, such as the pig who is about to be slaughtered, and the cow calf who is separated from his mother.

I was wondering about that. That's smart.

I looked at the beginning of the first book. The pacing seems pretty good, very fast for an adult but these are early reader so it makes sense, the only concerns that come to mind (and these are minor):

Would kids worry about going vegan because they learn they may be teased?
For vegan kids it may help them empathize with the main character and prepare them for bullies, but for other families (maybe not vegan) could it put the kids off? (I don't know)

And I'm not sure about the "Eat strange fruit you find" thing, since some fruit is toxic. Of course kids are unlikely to encounter any strange highly poisonous fruit in real life, but it's possible. I don't know if there's some commentary on this in the book, there may well be.

My guess is that these issues don't come close to undermining the value of the books.

[Jebus]

Would kids worry about going vegan because they learn they may be teased?

And I'm not sure about the "Eat strange fruit you find" thing, since some fruit is toxic. Of course kids are unlikely to encounter any strange highly poisonous fruit in real life, but it's possible. I don't know if there's some commentary on this in the book, there may well be.

My guess is that these issues don't come close to undermining the value of the books.

I actually gave both these points quite a bit of thought.

My concern with the line about being bullied for not eating meat was not so much about kids worrying about getting teased. Perhaps it should be. I just don't think my books will be read by many 6-year olds who are on the fence about going vegan. It was more a concern of scaring away non-vegan parents. However, I decided to keep it in there in order to please the vegan readers, which is my main target group, and those who are most likely to leave a review. My editor was actually strongly against this line, but I decided to keep it anyway.

The boy tasting the fruit was indeed a concern, and one parent even told me I should change it to smelling the fruit. However, I thought it was sufficient to add the line "Since eating an unknown fruit could make him sick."

Thanks for your feedback.

[brimstoneSalad]

My concern with the line about being bullied for not eating meat was not so much about kids worrying about getting teased. Perhaps it should be.

Do you resolve that by having him successfully confront the bullies (as his regular self) at the end of the first book and make them stop bullying him?