Don Draayer on His Roots and What He Has Learned About Publishing
Posted by Steve Frazier
on Jan 10, 2012
Our Program on the 10th was a talk by our own member, author Don Draayer. He has recently written and published a children’s book. His talk was principally about the challenges a self-publishing author faces.
The first challenge is to write the material. Normally, once a book is accepted by a publisher, they take over and do all of the printing, promotion, and such. If you are self-publishing, all of these burdens fall on your shoulders. The first problem is to find an appropriate artist who will do the illustrations in a children’s book. The ideal answer was former club member, Al Tollefson, who did a masterful job of visualizing and drawing the main characters. Don then contacted a firm that helps self-publishers and found them to be very helpful – almost too much so. Don told us that he had 13 calls with proposals for special promotion programs when his book hit the streets.
His story was surrounded by reference to the beginnings of his life in Hollandale, MN., where his grandparents and parents had farms, and where he and the other kids were taught strong personal values – religion, honesty, hard work, and such – values which have lasted for his lifetime.