Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at the York Children’s Literature Festival at Anderson University and share my book series, Katz Pajamas. It was an honor to be invited and share the stage with Ellen Sabin, Jenn Bishop, and Elise Broach. We all spoke about our varied experiences as writers and in publishing, but it was also evident that we  all shared a common passion for storytelling and our work in children’s literature.

In my presentation, one of the things I did was share a little story that I wrote. My goal was to shed more light on the opportunity that is available to indie publishers such as myself.  Here’s the story:

Once upon a time in the land of York, there was a king, King Simon N. Schuster Penguin Pearson Houghton Mifflin Knopf VIII. It was an unfortunate name, but as royalty goes, names get passed down through the generations and therefore by necessity are derivative. King Simon N. Schuster Penguin Pearson Houghton Mifflin Knopf VIII, henceforth King Simon because that was how he preferred to be addressed and who wouldn’t want to please the king, was actually a pretty good king. He wasn’t like an evil dictator hell bent on ruling all of the known world. He was perfectly fine with his 70% tax on his people.

In fact, what he was most interested in, and what he wanted for his legacy was for York to be considered the most fashionable, best dressed nation in the known world. He was fully aware that there was plenty of unknown world left to be discovered, but that was not of concern to him.  What he cared about was his nation being the best dressed.

Because he was so obsessed with the best fashions, he had several agents scouring the land for the best designers. And while many wanted to be on the king’s list of approved fashion designers making clothing designs for all the land of York, only the select few were approved by the agents and fewer still were able to hold court by King Simon.

Now, a lowly peasant by the name of Wanda Bea, another unfortunate name, but in the land of York naming was not given much emphasis, so people there weren’t very good at it, decided she too wanted her designs to be approved and made by King Simon’s fabricators for all the peasants to wear.

Much to Wanda Bea’s dismay, no agent was willing to give her designs consideration. She queried over and over; begging, pleading, and going back to the drawing board to create more and better designs. However, the agents refused her requests. Yes, her designs were a bit different, but they showed promise. Alas, they just didn’t fit into the typical King Simon approved fashions for all peasants to wear.

Because of all this rejection, Wanda Bea began to feel inferior and untalented. She struggled to pick up her pencil and create new designs. Instead she just sat around listening to iTunes and podcasts all day. Believing her was no good, she decided her designing work was a waste.  Heartbroken and depressed, Wanda Bea decided to leave the land of York and journey to someplace where she could start anew. 

For many days she traveled until she found herself in the land of Amazon. It as an amazing place that offered everything from organic foods to electronics and shoes. This land was ruled by multi-billionaire, King Bezos. He was a unique fellow who didn’t restrict the choices of his people or limit the creators. In fact, he was quite proud of his long tail. Where in the land of York it was expensive to produce high-fashion garments, restricting the fashions that were made, in Amazon, King Bezos had created a garment production system called sew-on-demand. Wanda Bea was amazed because now there were no financial restrictions to getting her designs made, and if someone wanted to buy them, a single garment could be produced. This meant that the fashions would be chosen by the marketplace and not by the agents or king.

Wanda Bea was overjoyed at her fortune as she created designs, uploaded them to a fluffy, happy cloud over Amazon, and watched as they were purchased by the peasants.

In time, word came back to Wanda Bea that her designs were now being worn by the peasants in the land of York even though King Simon did not approve. At first King Simon was so angry he was unrecognizable, but then he saw that Amazon was the way of the future. Thus, instead of going to war with King Bezos, King Simon also ordered his approved designs uploaded to Amazon’s cloud.

What Wanda Bea and King Simon both realized was that all designs had a place in the known world. Those that went the traditional path through King Simon and those that came from the independent fashion designer. Ultimately, neither was better. They were just different.

And they all, at least those in the known world, lived happily ever after.

Certainly not Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, but it was well received by the audience and got my point across.