Hello, readers! Today I'm delighted to share with you a fantastic Birth Stories for Books guest post by Deborah Holt Williams, author of the darling new picture book, NIGHTY NIGHT, DINOS (illustrated by Anna Doherty, June 2026).
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| by Deborah Holt Williams and Anna Doherty |
Deborah's inspiring story is one of hard work, perserverence, and success, and I'm so happy to share it with you, today. (Something extra special about this book is that it's published by Familius, the publisher of my next book!)
Take it away, Deborah!
I’ve been making up and writing down stories since I learned to write in first grade. My family moved a lot, and my Little Golden Books from my grandparents didn’t always make the move. I had a brilliant idea—if I could write my own, I’d never be without books! So at age six, I decided I would become an author.
I read and wrote all through my school years, and in high school I was a correspondent to our community newspaper, the Tonawanda News. I got a journalism degree in Madison and wrote for the UW campus paper, the Daily Cardinal, and got hired to work at a small town paper in Evansville, Wisconsin after graduation.
I got married and we moved to the Colorado mountains. As the family grew to include five children, I made up a lot of bedtime stories but I was too busy to write them down. When the last child was in school full time in 1998, I joined SCBWI and started submitting. I read in the Children’s Book Insider newsletter that two teachers had started a publishing company and were looking for early readers, so I sent in a story I used to tell my youngest, called “Awful Waffles.” And they bought it! And then they bought four more over the next few years. The teachers sold their little company to the educational house Continental Press, and none of my new submissions were accepted from then on. But at least my five little books are still in the catalog, helping kids learn to read after 25 years.
The next chapter in my writing career came after ten years of rejections. Finally in 2010 I sold a poem to Highlights, and over the next few years I sold 12 more and also sold stories to Jack and Jill, Turtle, Appleseeds and other magazines and on-line sites for kids as well. I loved working with Highlights and I started attending their workshops in the Pennsylvania woods, but my dream was still to write a beautifully illustrated, hard cover, traditionally published picture book.
The magazine chapter was followed by another ten years of rejections. But I took classes, entered contests and never gave up, My first picture book, Nighty Night, Dinos, began as an entry in a bedtime poetry contest in January of 2020. It didn’t win.
But I loved that poem, so I reworked it as a board book and submitted it to Familius on February 15, 2021 and heard back the very next day! The head of the publishing company (with the wonderful name of Christopher Robbins) really liked it, but Familius had several other dino board books coming out at that time. So we kept in touch, and in 2023 he asked if I would add four more stanzas so they could make it a 32-page board book! YES! Absolutely! I revised the manuscript and sent it in, with hope in my heart.
And speaking of my heart…In November of 2023 I underwent a procedure where a device was threaded through an artery and into my heart to prevent blood clots from forming which could cause a stroke. It required staying one night in the hospital, and when I couldn’t sleep I turned on my laptop around midnight, and there in my inbox was the contract for Nighty Night, Dinos! It would be released in June of 2026.
I was thrilled, but cautious—I’d been subbing stories since 1998 and I’d had two books that had come close in the past. (One made it all the way to the acquisitions committee of a wonderful publisher and the final NO came in 2014--while I was getting chemotherapy for my triple negative breast cancer. That was a low point in my journey! But I'm fully recovered.) So when I got an email from Familius early in 2025 I was sure it was to tell me that, since paper came from Canada and since books are printed in China, and both countries had been charged tariffs, that it would be too expensive to create my book.
But I opened the email—and it asked if I would consider writing a series of Nighty Night books! They sent me eight possible topics and invited me to think of others. In April of 2025 I signed the contract for Nighty Night, Puppies and then in June of that year I signed one for Nighty Night, Bears! Both of these are due out in 2028, thirty years after I joined SCBWI and began subbing to agents and editors. I’ll be 77 years old! Persistence and luck, finally rewarded.
Nighty Night, Dinos, with lovely illustrations by Anna Doherty, will be out in June of 2026. It has received very positive reviews from the School and Library Journal and Kirkus.
I have to again mention that this all happened after many many years of rejections. The key is to keep going. Enter contests, take classes, subscribe to other authors' blogs and newsletters (like Dawn's!), and participate in a critique group. Write one story after another! And one of the most helpful tips I can offer is--volunteer at your local library! I go in for about an hour a week and they give me a rag and a bottle of cleaner and I wipe off books in the children's section. It gives me the chance to look at what's new, and to see which publishers put out books like what I'm writing. I check out several books which benefits the library's circulation and gives me the chance to study books for what works and what doesn't. I'll turn 75 shortly after my first picture book comes out. Hopefully your road to publication won't be quite as long as mine, but hang in there and keep on writing and submitting! Never give up on a dream!
What an inspiring story-behind-the story, Deborah (and an important reminder to keep learning, keep writing, keep submitting, and keep believing in your dreams)! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. Brava!
And now, dear readers, you know what to do. The best way to thank an author whose insights have been helpful and/or inspiring to you is to support their work. Buy their books. Request them from your library. Read and share them with others. NIGHTY NIGHT, DINOS is available everywhere books are borrowed and sold, including your own local, indie bookstore, or online at bookshop.org. *Disclosure: As an affiliate of Bookshop.org I may earn a small commission from books purchased through links on this post.
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| Deborah with her dinosaur in her garden in the mountains of Colorado |
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Birth Stories for Books is an occasional feature of Dawn Babb Prochovnic's blog. Dawn is the author of multiple picture books including, Lucy's Blooms, Where Does a Cowgirl Go Potty?, Where Does a Pirate Go Potty?, 16 books in the Story Time With Signs & Rhymes series, and the forthcoming title, Mama's Home (and Baby Too!). Dawn is a contributing author to the award-winning book, Oregon Reads Aloud, and a frequent presenter at schools, libraries, and educational conferences. Contact Dawn using the form at the left, or learn more at www.dawnprochovnic.com. Subscribe to Dawn's newsletter and never miss an update.
