Breakout Session: Make it a System: How to Handle Business, Manage Your Time, and Organize Everything as a Kidlit Author with Emma Otheguy

Make it a System: How to Handle Business, Manage Your Time, and Organize Everything as a Kidlit Author

Emma Otheguy is an award-winning author of several books for children, including the I Can Read series Reina Ramos, the picture books A Sled for Gabo and Martina Has Too Many Tías, the bilingual picture book Martí’s Song for Freedom, and the middle-grade novels Sofía Acosta Makes a Scene and Silver Meadows Summer. She is the author of the Carmen Sandiego novel Secrets of the Silver Lion and co-author, with Adam Gidwitz, of The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Madre de Aguas of Cuba.

Emma is going to take us through the business of writing. How we go beyond just the writing to making this a career. There is a great deal of business (and busyness) that goes beyond the writing.

Emma signed her first contract in 2015. It was published in 2017. She made writing her full time job starting in 2019. 

Emma has been guided by these principles:

1. There is nothing about being creative that makes you inherently less organized, business-savvy, or capable. 

2.  Everything you do has a cost. How do you decide what to work on and when?

3 Publishing is repetitive. Creating a system that can grow with you and that can be repurposed with each book. 

Emma suggests getting really purposeful. Consider why you write. Understanding your "why" will help you decide which projects to focus on. 

A books she uses and recommends for time management is GETTING THINGS DONE: The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen. 

Check out Emma's many titles, and visit her website: emmaotheguy.com