I Authored a Children's Book - Side Hustle Nation

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      It turns out that writing was the simple part. What followed was a three-year, on-and-off journey. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce "Rita the Cheetah." It's a growth mindset book for children, presented in an entertaining rhyming narrative.

      The Inspiration 💡

      Our kindergartner came up with the character: a vegetarian cheetah cub who dined on glitter toast and had a tiger mom. 🐯 I thought it would be delightful to transform his imagination into a story we could cherish. But every story needs a conflict. What would this one revolve around? Inspired by Matt Ralph’s "Sam the Speedy Sloth" (episode 450 of the Side Hustle Show), I decided to take a different route: What was the secret her friends couldn't know? The truth was that Rita was… SLOW!

      A Different Kind of Writing ✍️

      With my slow cheetah protagonist in mind, I began writing… whether it was pen to paper or cursor to Google Doc. Crafting rhyming animal poetry was a shift from my usual non-fiction work and the content I create for newsletters and websites! I recalled which books our boys loved most—those I didn’t dread reading repeatedly. Authors like Julia Donaldson, Andrea Beaty, and Mo Willems had a few common traits: consistent rhymes, humor, and unexpected twists. I aimed to learn from these talented writers and integrate similar elements. True to the side hustle spirit, I wrote much of the text while sitting on a park bench, watching my kids play. Between handing out snacks, I counted syllables on my fingers and drafted the next stanza. Editing proved to be challenging. Some of my favorite lines had to be cut due to exceeding the target word count.

      But Rita didn’t enjoy hot dogs

      or antelope roast—

      she preferred fish sticks

      and glittery toast.

      As Stephen King advises, sometimes you must "kill your darlings."

      The Illustration Roadblock 🎨

      Another factor shared by those authors? Fantastic illustrations! A picture book without images is incomplete… and I’m not an illustrator. I reached out to our Side Hustle Nation subscribers and eventually hired an illustrator from Boston. It was a side project for him, like it was for me, and I assured him there was no rush. That was my first mistake. We agreed on a hybrid payment plan: an upfront fee plus 70% of the first-year royalties. My goal was to reduce risk while offering some potential reward if the book succeeded. The initial sketches were adorable, so as a goodwill gesture, I promptly sent the initial payment. That was my second mistake.

      Three years later… and still no finished illustrations.

      Rita’s Revival

      By this spring, I had almost forgotten about the project until my son asked, “When are we getting the pictures for Rita?” I sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, buddy. Still nothing.” At that point, my wife said, “Let me give it a try.” Using Adobe Firefly — along with a lot of patience — she methodically built the book. Character by character, pose by pose, background by background, and page by page. Even with AI, it required significant effort to make it look right. (She initially thought she could complete it in an afternoon… but it turned out to be more complex.) However, the outcome was rewarding! We’re extremely pleased with how it turned out. Interestingly, I believe generative AI wouldn’t have produced this quality three years ago. I had briefly experimented with Midjourney in the beginning, but I faced challenges with maintaining character consistency across different pages or poses. In a way, our unintentional three-year delay allowed the technology to advance enough to achieve this result.

      The Side Hustle Angle?

      In terms of side projects, I’m uncertain if this will yield significant profits. It will take considerable sales to recover our investment. (For transparency, at the launch price of $9.99, we earn about $1.50 in royalties.) However, there were other advantages to the project as well: Capturing a moment of our son’s creativity and transforming it into a tangible reminder on our bookshelf, honing my creativity and adapting to a different writing style, and acquiring a new AI skill to create a real product. You never know; good things can arise from putting content and enduring products out into the world. I’m proud of this accomplishment and pleased to finally check it off my “pending projects” list! Interested in getting a copy?