For many aspiring children’s authors, the dream is clear. You imagine holding your finished book in your hands, watching a child turn the pages, and hearing your story read aloud at bedtime or in a classroom. What often feels unclear is how to get there. Traditional publishing can seem mysterious, slow, and difficult to break into, especially for first-time authors. That is where self-publishing comes in. Once seen as a backup plan, self-publishing has become a powerful and

There comes a quiet but powerful moment in a child’s reading life when picture books begin to give way to longer stories. The illustrations grow fewer, the pages grow thicker, and the worlds inside the books begin to stretch wider than ever before. This transition from picture books to middle grade is not a loss of magic. It is a transformation of it. Picture books introduce children to storytelling through rhythm, color, and shared reading. Middle grade novels invite them t