Color Coded of Course!

Color Coded of course!

I personally believe that simplicity is a beautiful thing. Keep it simple, don’t make it harder than it needs to be, and figure it in order to get it done. Based on this belief, we decided to get back to the basics.  “Think like a child," so we asked ourselves, "What would the children say?”

Recently we started our own label, an imprint, Rising Phoenix Press. Our reason was simply this: “We started this label in order to do it our way.”  We knew what needed to be done, we were already doing it, but we knew we could gear a program precisely to the needs of our work. 

We were already working hard, the writing; well we’re writers and illustrators, that’s the easy part. The marketing required in today’s industry is extensive, time consuming, and must be planned strategically every step the way or it’s impossible for any author (with the exception of large publishers and that’s dwindling), to show case their work, regardless of how brilliant, sweet, notable, interesting or unusual their story maybe.

We discussed re-releasing the Mischief series under our label, and we knew that it was mandatory to accomplish two major things: (1) Make the covers appealing and (2) Set the Mischief books apart, specifically making them recognizable using one particular thing or feature.

We decided to go back to the basics and think like a child. How do children recognize things? And we asked ourselves, why? “Why do they think like that?” It was very clear; children recognize colors, it’s one of the first things they learn. Think about how many times a child identifies with such and says, “I want the red one, “ or “I don’t like the blue one,” “Can I have the orange, please?” “The green ones are yucky,” “The black one is cool!” Be it popsicles, candies, cars, shirts, you name it, kids recognize their colors.

You can’t get much simpler than that. Think like a child. The re-release of my Mischief books, new covers, are based on the simplicity of a child’s way of thinking.  After all, the series will not end, until I run out of ideas to entertain the children via Lilly, Boris & Jack.  The target market for this series is second to fourth grade. The first cover is green on green, the second, will be a beautiful purple on purple, and we already know what the third is. Naturally we shall create an event around it, marketing, of course.  We anticipate the children saying, “I need this one, the purple one, I haven’t read it yet. “ Possibly, “The blue one Mom, I don’t have it yet,” and “I read the green one, but I need the purple one.”

I think it is easy to feel overwhelmed when one complicates the simplest of things; we’ve all done it, and will likely continue to do so. Now we are stepping back, taking a minute, and asking ourselves, “What would the children do?” We write for the children, do we not? Let’s think like a child for a second, not act like one, just think like one. Simplicity... It's a beautiful thing!