EP 454 - Finding Surprising Success Publishing Kids' Books with Darcy Pattison

Jan 9, 2026

Mark interviews award-winning author Darcy Pattison about publishing childrens' books.

In their conversation, Mark and Darcy talk about:

• Darcy's background on getting into being an author of children's book
• The 70 books Darcy has written in the past 13 years
• The number of different illustrators Darcy has worked with over the years
• The Moments in Science picture books Darcy has written with along with the specific illustrator who has worked on a dozen of those titles with her
• The books for authors Darcy is releasing in January 2026 that collect details about the current state of publishing for children's books
• The challenge of doing layout for a children's picture book
• The importance of an author being clear on their own definition of success
• How children's book authors can find the right illustrator and/or designer
• How Darcy fulfills orders online for her books
• Getting her books into education distributors (Follett, etc - Follett can order their books through Ingram)
• The EPIC app and how Darcy earns money from it
• The various reviews Darcy gets, including paid Kirkus reviews (which are important)
• Who you are writing for versus who you are selling to when it comes to kids books
• Fiction VS Non-Fiction
• The importance/difference of being good at illustration versus being good at text (or even layout)
• The challenge of scaling up things like school visits
• The benefit of finding places that will sell a kids' book in bulk
• And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the unique element of the two audiences for childrens' books, as well as the efficient business mind-set Darcy adopted in her approach to how to grow a more scaleable author business.

Links of Interest:

• Indie Kids Books 
• Mims House Books 
• Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Mark's YouTube channel
• ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
• Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
• Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
• I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises

 

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The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0