Celebrating the Best of Royalene Doyle
and her fantastic Conversations
Once upon a glorious time, Royalene gave us her backstory as an author and self-publishing expert. And let us tell you, it’s something special. Royalene started out writing genre fiction in her teens, mastering everything from science fiction to mystery to children’s books, before moving on in her adulthood to overcome that age-old tale of a gifted writer facing rejection letter after rejection letter. Her response? To take up self-publishing, of course! There’s a lot more to the story than what we can summarize here, but one of the highlights is her unwavering faith in herself (and other authors) and her own personal vision. Here is a writer who faced challenges so common (or perhaps even universal) to the profession, and out of her own grit and determination and self-empowerment, carved out her own uncommon response … and success! In fact, Royalene has had a lot to say about success over the years, and we can’t recommend reading her posts enough. But for the background and the foundation of who she is as a writer, and where her advice comes as a self-publishing professional? Read this post for sure.
Next up, we wanted to shine a light on some of Royalene’s method. (And also, let’s face it, there’s something just plain winsome about Winnie the Pooh, and Royalene’s reference here is spot on.) 2013 was a splendid year for Royalene posts (a very fine vintage), packed full of insights into how she goes about starting a new book, particularly a new children’s book. She walks readers through the first step (research), then the next (conversation), and the last (money). Each of these steps presents some obstacles for the self-publishing author to overcome, but Royalene’s clearly defined and organized steps might just prove a working blueprint for those children’s book authors who come after her. Well worth a full exploratory read, don’t you think?
Our last post for the day was the logical follow-up to the previous one; in fact, this post was published just one week after, also in 2013 (as we mentioned, a very fine vintage!). It also seems logical to have begun today’s reminisces with Royalene’s own childhood, middled with her method for writing a children’s book, and concluded with that other big component of children’s picture books—a relationship which in many ways defines the entire experience—the relationship between author and illustrator! Royalene delves into her various thoughts about illustrators, including some of her requirements for the relationship and her tips on knowing when an illustrator is right for you. As she mentions in her post, this is foundational to the creative development of a children’s picture book, and it’s just as important to develop a working philosophy or ethic of how to go about finding an illustrator and establishing that relationship as it is to write and publish the book. If you’re thinking of writing, illustrating, or otherwise publishing a children’s picture book this year, we recommend reading Royalene’s post in full!
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That’s all for this week! We’ll be back next Friday as we detail more of Royelene’s greatest hits, as determined by our blog’s analytics. You can follow Royalene’s further adventures by checking out her Twitter feed (her handle is @RoyaleneD) or her website at www.DoyleWritingServices.com. We miss you, Royalene! ⚓︎
ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. She developed these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, has received excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena. December 2017 marked the end of Royalene’s tenure at Self Publishing Advisor. and we will be spending the next few weeks celebrating some of her all-time hits, her most well-received articles for our blog, in thanks for years of generous service.
Self Publishing Advisor 