Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food...

… and Other Life Lessons. Today we talk to Jodi Carmichael, the newest author at Little Pickle Press about her first publication, a middle grade novel about a young boy with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Dani:  Jodi, how did you come to write Spaghetti?

Jodi: It’s a funny story. I was asleep and Connor, the 8-year-old main character in Spaghetti, woke me up chatting about his day. He wouldn’t stop talking until I typed out everything he had to say. It was like I was channeling him. It was the single coolest experience I’ve had as a writer.

Dani: Did you submit it to various publishers?

Jodi: Only to a few. Connor feels like my third child and holds a special place in my heart, so I was careful about which publisher I contacted. Plus receiving rejections on his story felt more personal, like my own child was being rejected.

Dani: What were your expectations around getting the book published?

Jodi: I’d read a lot about how greatly publishing has changed over the past five to ten years, so I was ready for anything. From speaking to other new authors, I expected to have no marketing support, little attention, and have to do a majority of the PR. (This is now fairly typical in publishing.) With Little Pickle Press my experience has been a welcome surprise. They spend a lot on money on marketing and it shows.

I not only want my book to excel, but I want to make a decent living as a working author, so I’ve been willing to do anything and everything to make Spaghetti successful. Little Pickle Press has been very open to me helping out wherever possible. It feels like I’m a part of the team – which is pretty awesome.

Dani:  What in the publication process was different from what you expected?

Jodi: The e-book has got to be the biggest. At first, it was hard to wrap my head around, but I am so glad I followed my intuition and went with Rana’s (LPP's chief executive pickle) vision. We’ve been doing extremely well on Amazon and we have still to launch on the other platforms.

Editing was a dream. I got to work with Judy O’Malley who has worked with some of the biggest names in children’s literature. I never expected my chapter book to have so many beautiful illustrations, either and because we launched digitally first, we were able to do this.

Dani:  How is the book being promoted and to whom? Is this a niche topic? Who is your largest audience?

Jodi: We hope our largest audience to be every 8 to12-year-old child on earth! Yes, we have set our sights high! We do have a primary audience of kids that are on the autism spectrum, as Connor has Asperger’s Syndrome. I purposely left his diagnosis out of the text for a few reasons. I wanted the book to have a mass appeal; I wanted any child that was having difficulties in school to relate to Connor; and I didn’t want it to be Connor’s main characteristic. My goal was to have Connor be a smart, quirky boy who just happened to have Asperger’s.

Dani: Will the book have a print version in the future?

Jodi: Little Pickle Press has a print version ready to go – we’re just waiting for a sufficiently large order to justify a print run. Even though the e-book is amazing and we’re meeting our environmentally responsible mandate, I am really jonesing for a paper copy.

Dani: Where can we download the book? And how can we connect with you?

Jodi: Currently you can download a Kindle version from either Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. After March 3, the e-book will be available on iOS, NOOK, KOBO, and Sony. 

And, you can reach me on my website at www.writingandotherlifelessons.blogspot.ca or on Twitter at @Jodi_Carmichael  or on Facebook!

Dani: Thanks for joining us, Jodi. Terrific article about your book and Asperger's in the Winnipeg Free Press. It's loaded with all kinds of good information, readers, if you have questions about Asperger's.

If you have questions for Jodi, please leave them in the comments. She'll be dropping in to visit and respond.