Teachers Pay Teachers/State Stories restarting

To all my followers,

I apologize for not posting regularly over the past few years.  I hope I still have folks who are interested in the state mystery series as I'm about to get the series going again. 

I've opened my Teachers Pay Teachers store just to put my state stories up in digital versions including the accompanying study guides.  You can find my store here, so please take a few minutes to explore and/or follow.   There are three states available right now with the first one in the series about to undergo a revamping so it matches the rest of the books story wise with new illustrations and cover coming in early fall (late August or early September).  State of Wilderness has been published by a publisher (the first story I had published by a publisher) and since coming out of contract with the publisher has now been republished by me.  It needs some editing to match the other stories available and then I can work on getting State of Quarries and State of Reservations republished since they never were done after coming out of contract.  State of Successes, State of Heights, and State of Nature need a bit of modification (copyright page has changed slightly) but for the most part are completed and up in my TpT store. 

Once these three stories are republished, then I finally will be able to move on to getting more in the series published.  Hopefully we will have between 6 and 10 new stories come out each year until the series is completed.  Books 7 through 10 are in various stages of completion so it's just a matter of getting the illustrations completed and formatting, et cetera on each of those. 

Please pass the word to all homeschooling parents and teachers alike.  The Teachers Pay Teachers site isn't for teachers only.  Homeschoolers are welcome to purchase various curricula supplements. 

Also, just reminding I'm running a gofundme campaign to pay off my first illustrator so I can get going with the new illustrator to get this series back on track.  If interested in helping out, please drop by here and contribute whatever you can to this campaign.  Minus the fees that the campaign takes, everything will go to pay off the illustrator.  Thank you all for helping me and thank you for believing in my series to stay with me.  I promise as this year unfolds there will be more postings here due to lots of announcements and updates.

See you all in the postings - Ma America (aka, Mrs. E, Elysabeth Eldering)

Elysabeth's Writing Emporium: Two Fundraising Campaigns

Elysabeth's Writing Emporium: Two Fundraising Campaigns: Hey All, I started two gofundme fundraising campaigns Sunday morning.  One is more in need of being funded immediately; the second one has...

Exciting News

I know it's been a long time since I've posted on this blog but I have some exciting news about the JGDS series. 

As most of you know I've put the series on hold for a while.  I've not published any new stories in the series and this has been due to mostly a financial reason.  I signed contracts with an illustrator previously for way too much (not affordable to me in the long run) and still owe her some money and I hope to get her paid off this year.  I've missed this series tremendously. 

I've always felt this series needed to be out there.  So exciting news is I've found an illustrator who isn't going to charge me nearly what my prior illustrator was and she is excited about working on the series with me.  Of course, this will be between her own projects and doing work on fiverr.com.  State of Wilderness was the first book in the series and is different than the others so it needs a redo/edit/short rewrite - whatever you want to call it.  So in August of this year, we will start working on State of Wilderness and see how things look time wise for republication.  I'm hoping by late September/early October to republish (second republishing of State of Wilderness) and republish State of Quarries and State of Reservations shortly after as both of these have been missing from the series and need to be republished; within a couple of months after Wilderness is republished. 

Hopefully by the end of 2017/very beginning of 2018 State of Acceleration, State of Imagination, State of Monuments, and State of Production will be published and what is owed has been paid off so that I can put State of Successes, State of Heights, and State of Nature back out. 

I also have a storefront on TeachersPayTeachers (TpT) and will be offering books with study guides over there.  I'm not sure what I'll be selling them for there but it will be in the range that most other teachers sell their stuff for.  I will be conferring with some teacher friends to see where to price my books/study guides.  It will be a slow process to get all the books published but I promise there will be 50 books when it is said and done with a bonus clue booklet and possibly a coloring book, but those are at the end of the overall project. 

I hope all of you are as excited about this project as I am.  For the next few months, there will be a few postings but once we starting working on State of Wilderness be on the look out for more postings as well as some streaming time with the illustrator while she works on the images.  She uses twitch to stream when she is working on her writing or her drawings or other creative projects so I'll be posting when there are streaming episodes. 

Stay tuned for more in the upcoming months as things progress.  See you all in the postings - "Ma America" (fondly known as Mrs. E :))

Revamping the Series

I've had a few ideas on revamping the series and will keep everyone posted when I've come up with the right idea for the series, although it may end up not being a series after all.  I will have to see which route I'm going to take.  Anyway - more when the revamp is completed - E :)

Agent Query Update

Around the middle of June, I sent a query to Michael Bourret from the Dystel Agency thinking he would be a good fit to shop my series to Scholastic.  This week (Wednesday or Thursday) I got a form rejection email from him, stating the series would not be a good fit for their list.  My first rejection.

Around the first week of July, I submitted a query to NatGeo Kids and Schoolwide, Inc and have yet to hear back from either of them. 

NatGeo's site states that they are not taking unsolicited work so my query was mostly how one goes about submitting to them; what the process is and how long to wait for an answer.  Schoolwide's policy states that if nothing is heard back within 6 months to assume that the work was not accepted. 

Since it has been about 6 weeks now, I am planning on submitting to several other places to include Young Palmetto Books (A University of South Carolina Press subdivision geared for young readers); Edupress (this one reaches both homeschooling and regular school systems, which would be perfect for me since my books fit both a homeschooling curriculum as well as supplement a regular social studies curriculum); Creative Learning Press (now Prufrock Press); State Standards Publishing (this is based in Georgia and they are looking for authors to present work about the state they live in but since I'm doing all 50 states, can't possibly live in all of them but I'll do a query/proposal for them and see what happens with them; I also believe I talked with this group when I did the school librarian conference a couple of years ago in Macon, GA); School Zone Publishing; PowerKids Press; and Barron's Educational Series.

All these were found in the Book Markets for Children's Writers 2014 book with over 650 listings.  I went to the index and went through the geography/travel listings and probably some of the regular educational listings to try to find the best fit for my series.  So tomorrow, I'll be delving into making more inquiries and seeing who is willing to pick up the series and publish it so that it gets out there to the schools and homeschooling sector (sounds like Edupress may be my best bet right now for that), but I will do my research and pose my queries/proposals and go from there. 

I keep hoping to hear from NatGeo saying they are definitely interested and offer me a very nice deal for the series but for now, instead of just waiting around, I must persevere and move forward and keep sending out to other possible publishers.  I will keep you updated as soon as I hear more on what happens. 

Series Update

The JGDS series is still on hiatus until I can figure out what to do with it.


I've been trying to decide whether to keep the same format or revamp the whole thing.  I'm on a teachers' sell site where teachers post lesson plans, worksheets, et cetera, and sell them to other teachers.  I recently hooked up with a member who is a "curriculum coordinator"; I asked Mr. Hughes to make an introduction as she is a friend of his.  We started chatting via email.  I sent her copies of the books I had on hand and the study guides of the six books I have previously published.


She just finished an event in or near Provo, Utah, and read the first book and sent me some great information.  She feels my books would make a great Scholastic addition but they are no longer taking submissions from anyone other than an agent.




What this means is that I need to find an agent who can shop the books around and hopefully have Scholastic pick them up.  The process is long and drawn out to go through an agent and as I've never had an agent before, I'm about to find out that the process is more of a challenge than anything else.  The waiting to see the whole series in print is fine with me but I don't know if I want to keep the same format as I've already started or if I want to start fresh and do one novel or regional state chapter books or go a whole other direction.  I think the biggest problem I'll have in finding an agent is that right now I only have six states completed with the next four started and in various stages of being completed.  This is only 1/5 of the total books to be published (if I stay in this format) and I don't know that anyone will pick up the series not being completed.  If I revamp and do something totally different, that means I have to take time to write whatever I plan on doing and then shop it around to an agent, probably another year or so.




I looked at the Agent Query website last night to start getting an idea of some of the agents I might query and didn't get very far.  I'm only looking at agents who deal with children's books.  The three that I'm leaning toward right now are Faith Hamlin from Greenburger Agency, Ellen Levine from the Trident Media Group, and The Betsy Amster agency.  I think Faith Hamlin would be a great agent, since she represents the illustrator for Ms. Lynne Cheney, author of Our 50 States A Family Adventure Across America.  The other two because they have worked with some of the other publisher's who deal with children's books (McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster).  The ultimate would be to have Scholastic pick up the series and publish them but I'll be happy wherever they land. 




So, I'm in a dilemma right now of what direction to go.  Please comment on any ideas you may have on a direction to go in.  Any help is appreciated. - Ma America & the JGDS (Mrs. E :))

Series on Hold

I've decided that the series will be on hold until I find a publisher and can get back on track. Right now, the goal is to pay off Heather and terminate any further work with her (my choice and my doing since I can't afford to pay her with the loss of my job). I've got a possible publisher but nothing will be determined until the end of the year or first of next year. I will continue promoting Ma America and the JGDS series but won't be selling any books for now. All of you who have been entered in the drawing for the red, white and blue afghan, the drawing will still occur the first part of December. Tickets will be available through Thanksgiving, so if you are interested in getting your chances in the drawing, please email me at eeldering(@)gmail(dot)com with how many you would and I'll send you info how to pay for them. Tickets are 2 for $1. You have just under two months to make sure your name goes in the drawing. Nothing else to report here. I will keep you all posted when the series gets reborn. Signing off for now - Ma America - :)

Train of Clues Audio Book

"Train of Clues", my second place winning story and the predecessor to the state series is now available as an audio book through audible.com. It should go live with amazon.com and iTunes.com by the end of the week. Francene is my narrator for this story as she will be the narrator for the state stories and hopefully I'll find a sponsor soon so we can get the state stories back on track. I'm waiting on a cover from Heather for State of Wilderness so that I can go live with that as an audiobook, hopefully by the end of the month. (Singing the Heinz Ketchup jingle here - Anticipation, it's making me waiting.) - Check out the three books available as audiobooks and listen to the samples and let me know what you think of my narrators - Ma America :)

Desperate Sale

This weekend only, I will sell copies of State of Wilderness, Successes, Heights and Nature for $7.50 each; regular price has been reduced to $8.50 on both amazon and createspace but direct sale will be $1 off each title.  Need to sell 20 copies total with payments made directly to paypal.  For more information, please email me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com with subject "Desperate Sale".  If you are interested in obtaining your signed copies, please contact Elysabeth Eldering before midnight Sunday.  - See you all in the postings - Ma America - :)

Train of Clues Free Days

Mark your calendars - July 11 and July 12 will be free days for "Train of Clues".  I've decided to remove all books from Nook and Smashwords, not that "Train of Clues" was actually on either of those, and do some free promotional days for everything.  "Train of Clues" will go free again in August but I'll post and let you all know when.  Next Thursday and Friday, "Train of Clues" will be your first chance to download for free. 

For those of  you who don't remember, "Train of Clues" is my first ever story, first entered contest and a second place winning story, which actually was sent to an editor with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for her opinion on a direction to turn this into a series with each state being the mystery.  "Train of Clues" is a birthdary party, scavanger hunt on a party train to a mystery destination.  The idea to make each state the mystery came after winning second place. 

I am currently looking for a sponsor or sponsors for the state series so I can get that going again but right now, the series will remain on hold until I can get Heather caught up and be able to pay for future books.  If anyone knows of someone who would like to be a financial sponsor for the series, please pass my contact information, which can be found on the JGDS website home page.  I'm available any time to talk to anyone who has the finances to back a series like this.  I've got a couple of feelers out and will do some followup time next week but I also know that gaining a sponsor takes time, although I've been thinking of this the better part of 3 or 4 years now.  Putting this out in the universe and hoping a response comes in quickly.  Hope you all enjoy your free download of "Train of Clues" next week.  - See you all in the postings - Ma America :)

One Week ACX Update

State of Successes has been live ffor one week now and the only download has been the one I used one of my credits to get my own book.  I know Francene has told everyone and she has folks who are teachers and anxious to hear the book, but so far no one else has purchased a copy from audible.com, amazon.com or itunes.  See you all in the postings - Ma America

State of Successes is Available on audible.com

State of Successes has gone live on audible.com and will be available on itunes and amazon.com within the next few days, according to the email I have just received saying that it is available.

If you are not a member of audible.com and become a member and make State of Successes or Finally Home, which also went live today, one of your first three purchases, I get a small bonus.  Remember I'm doing a royalty share on paying the producer for the books, so the more sales the better we both benefit.  State of Successes is retailing for $4.86 or 1 credit (you earn credits by becoming a member and every month you pay your membership fee, you will get that credit.  When I first signed up, membership was $7.49/month for the first three months and then goes up to $14.99 thereafter.) 

Within the next couple of weeks or so, or at least by the end of July, I will be sending Francene the manuscript for State of Wilderness to start working on producing.  From this experience, I look for that one to go live by the end of August or first part of September, depending on when I get the manuscript to her and what her schedule is like. 

Looking forward to hearing what others have to say about the audio books. See you all in the postings - Ma America (aka Mrs. E :) ) -

State of Successes audio

I finally got the cover from Heather and have uploaded it to ACX.  I did the finally approval of the audio book this morning.  I've posted the sample file on the sidebar here.  Unfortunately, Francene, my narrator, doesn't have a website, so I guess if you have any comments, you will have to leave them here and I will pass them on to her.  Here is the cover for the audio book:

I think it is pretty  cool to have the logo on the side because of the squareness of the cover.  It looks, as Heather stated, like a stamp.  Hopefully the audio files will be live within the next few days.  The audio book will be available on amazon.com, audible.com and itunes.  See you all in the postings - Ma America :)

Really, Call Me Slack

Wow, it's been 2 months since I've posted anything on this blog.  I'm surprised blogger hasn't shut it down for being inactive.

Some updates are definitely warranted by now. 

AUDIO BOOK UPDATE:  I found a narrator for the state series and State of Successes is all but  finalized.  The only thing holding me back right now is the cover.  I got the first cover from Heather (same cover as the printed cover but has to be changed to fit the standards for audible.com's preferences - now has to be squared like it will go on  a CD package) and noticed she didn't have the JGDS logo on it and that is really the key to the covers.  So I'm waiting for her to get that completed so I can upload it and sign off on the audio file to publish it.  Francene did a great job reading the game part and making it sound like the game - I hope that once the audio is released and with some other things going on that I can get back to the series and start putting more books out.  State of Wilderness will probably be contracted in June, with State of Heights in August and then State of Nature in late September/early October.  As soon as State of Quarries and State of Reservations are republished, then they will go up as audio books as well.

Republishing the books is a matter of funds right now.  That brings me to my next item.  Looking for a sponsor for the books.  Who, you ask, would be a  perfect sponsor for the series?  National Geographic Kids, of course.  I tried to call them this morning to get the ball rolling but the office is closed for the holiday (most everyone else is closed just Monday but the folks in DC seem to take the holiday to include the Friday before - lol).  Anyway, if things work out as planned with them as a sponsor, I should be back to getting books in the series published.  My campaign with indiegogo didn't work out at all as no funds were raised and that is sad since the series really does have merit and should be in schools. 

Speaking of schools, I was doing laundry the other day and met a teacher who is teaching 4th and 5th grade science now but just had surgery on his knee so wasn't at work but lucky for me we started chatting.  Next year he is teaching 3rd grade.  We talked about my books and I gave him a copy of State of Heights which he plans on making sure he uses the books in the fall.  I hope he contacts me for more books and possible school visits, et cetera.  Slowly but surely I am making my way to the schools, one teacher at a time, and if I get my sponsorship from Nat Geo Kids or headquarters, that will catapult me to the desired effect I want.   I'm not looking to get rich but to have the books in the schools and being used to supplement the curriculum, means I get my name out there.

TRAVEL AND TOURISM WEEK:  To show how slack I've been, I didn't even post about travel and tourism week which was this month.  I participated this year again and found it interesting that Amos had left and I didn't even know it until I had called near the beginning of the month (perhaps even the end of April) to talk to him and find out about scheduling some time to be at the welcome center.  Ma America was officially released during that visit (new costume and new look for myself).  I didn't get any pictures of her due to my camera battery dying, but I did get a few pictures of the tables of others who were participating that day.  You all will be seeing Ma America from the next event.

HIGH COUNTRY FESTIVAL OF THE BOOK:  June 22 is the High Country Festival of the book in Boone, NC.  This works out  for me as my parents lives in Lenoir and Boone is about 35 miles from them, so I don't have to pay hotel cost or food as my parents will feed me  -  lol.  The festival is being held at Watagua High School, so if you are in the area June 22, stop by and visit with Ma America. 

LOVE TO LEARN HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE:  I didn't get to participate in this event last year because of lack of funds but this year, it is being held in a new place, Valdes, NC, which I found out  from my dad and  looking at the maps is only about 9 miles from my parents.  August 3 I'll be in Valdes, NC for the Love to Learn conference.  I'm looking forward to a new crowd of folks.  I will have to make sure my father announces to his church folks because I know there are some people who do homeschool in the church family and they could come to the conference if they are looking for new products et cetera. 

I'll post more as soon as I know what direction the sponsorship goes and as we get closer to events coming up.  See you all in the postings - Ma America, aka Mrs. E :)

Anderson County Library Spelling Bee

Tonight is the annual spelling bee, and once again I've been asked to participate.  We are hoping to take first place which has eluded us the past couple of years by a very slim margin.  If not, I guess we will have to be happy with second place.  One of these days, it would be nice to be the top dogs - lol.  See you all in the postings - E :)

This and That

I've been neglecting the JGDS series and blog postings for a while. So, since it has been over a month since I last posted here, I'm going to do a brief "this and that" posting here.  For more details of what has happened this week, please stop by my other blog and check out today's "This and That" posting as well as a special deal I have going on for this week on books and bookworms for the last minute gift on your list.

This past week, I sold four copies of State of Successess to the Belton Museum along with three copies of Finally Home. 

The weekend of November 16-17 I did an event at Cascades Verdae and sold a total of 17 books - 15 of them state books.  My best event to date.  It doesn't come to enough to really pay Heather and get more books published but that day will hopefully come.  I would love to get more states published but right now they will remain on hold until I start seeing orders of at least 1000 per title or larger.  I need some serious print runs in order to get back on track. 

I also am available to do school visits so if you are a teacher or librarian following this blog in the Tri-State area - NC, SC, GA - and would like to book me for your end-of-year fill-in, I'm available.  See you all in  the postings - Ma America

Sugarfoot Festival Update

For all the details from this weekend's event, please stop over to my other blog and read the This and that posting.  It was warmer than it was last year and the crowds just didn't seem to be there but overall it was a good event.  Mrs. E ;)

Sugarfoot Festival

It's that time of year again and our small town is gearing up for the Sugarfoot Festival, basically your street fair where folks come from all over to enjoy the entertainment and check out the vendors hocking their wares.  This year is going to be a little different and as I drove into town today to go to the post office I saw them setting up the mini carnival rides and what not.  Tonight is family night so hopefully that will boost the town's economy a bit. 

Once again, I will have my tent set up and will be selling books - everything published to include the republication of a corrected version of "Train of Clues".  If you are in the upstate area of South Carolina and don't mind traveling a bit, stop on over and visit.  I'll be in booth #56, right near the old flower shop (or so I've been told).  See you all in the postings - Ma Amrerican (aka Mrs. E) and the JGDS :)

Georgia COMO update

Last week was the Georgia combined librarian event in Macon, Georgia. The trip down there wasn't too bad except my GPS took me the round about way to get to Anderson to get to the back road to head down to Macon. The traffic was light until I got around Athens but then again, that is the home of Georgia University (or maybe it's the University of Georgia, whatever it is - home of the GA Bulldogs) and I had missed a turn which would have taken me directly through downtown Athens. Coming back, the GPS wouldn't let me go the back way around Athens and on Friday afternoon the weekend of the GA-Carolina football game at 3 or so in the afternoon - not a good time to travel through Athens. The drive was really rough on my knees for some odd reasons and next year, I need to remember to make several stops along the way so as to get out and stretch my legs so I won't be so stiff. My left knee is finally recovering almost a week later. The school librarians weren't really at the event as expected but overall I did make some good contacts. Met Mimi from State Standards Publishing who led me to Follett (a distributor). I was supposed to be in the SELA booth but when I got there Thursday morning (after setting up my table Wednesday evening), I had been reduced to a corner that was totally invisible to anyone. Gordon was nice and said he had a cancellation and he was going to put me in that booth, which just happened to be next to Rainbow Books (another distributor) and about three tables down from Davidson Title (another distributor). When I found the Follett booth and talked with them a few minutes, they directed me to the Mackin table which is yet another distributor. Now why are distributors important to me and those four contacts especially important? These are the folks who can get my books in the schools because the schools tend to get their books from distributors directly rather than from the authors or through Baker & Taylor directly. During the authors' reception, I shared a table with Minnie P. Harmon and have got her working on publishing her books through createspace (she is published with xlibris right now and her books are expensive - $30 for a hardback and $20 for a paperback - with no margin for profit or any real way to cut her prices). We are also considering sharing a booth next year at the event and hopefully that will help. I also talked with a lady from Surpass Software who is a retired librarian or teacher and has written some jingles on how to remember what a dictionary is, a thesaurus, et cetera. She will be publishing her compiled songs into a book through createspace as well. I had two ladies attend my workshop and they were pretty good at shelving my books. One of them said the whole reason she was in my workshop was because apparently my books were being talked about from one of the schools in their district. I contacted the librarian in that particular school but she said they didn't have my books in the library but that wasn't to say that a teacher may have bought them and has them in her class, so there is no telling who has any copies of my books and where they got them from. I'm just glad someone is talking about my books. So as you see the contacts were well worth the trip. I'm looking forward to next year's event and will hopefully have a big foot in the door if the distributors carry my books. (That's the hope and then I can start publishing more states and pay Heather, so keep those distributors in mind and send some prayers up that they start carrying my books.) The next event is next weekend - the Sugarfoot festival and I would love to see my afghans sell (that will get me back on track with my car payments) and some books as well. If the weather stays cool like it has been since last weekend, then my afghans should be a big hit as people will be looking for a way to stay warm. Until next week - Ma America (aka Mrs. E) and the JGDS :)

Gearing up for GA COMO

This is the week. I'm making a trip to Macon, Georgia, for the GA Librarian conference. There will be at least 12 states represented in the SELA booth, which I'll be sitting in to help man the booth. If the SC School Librarian Association conference is any indication of what to expect, I should do well. I'm heading out Wednesday about midday and should return Friday evening some time. I will be away from the computer but will have my tablet, which is mostly for taking credit cards but also will be entertainment for me during down times. Afghans are almost completed. I have 3-1/2 skeins left on the one I'm working on now (Mirage, which is similar to the Aspen colors but with more blue and tan than the tans and browns that the Aspen has in it). I've finished all the other afghans I'll have on display for sale and I need to work up some bookworms in the Mirage color. I'm so looking forward to this event since it promises to be quite a large event and hopefully a way for me to get my foot in the door. Will post pictures and more information next weekend. Hope you all have a great week - see you in Macon - Ma America (aka Mrs. E) :)