Sharing good news of my debut picture book!
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Hi everyone, I want to pop by to share some wonderful news: my debut author/illustrator book "I Lived Inside a Whale" was shortlisted for the 2024 Barnes & Noble Children's & Young Adult Book Awards.
I have been in this forum since 2018. My picture book career started on this forum, and my first gig doing illustration outside of the country I am living in is doing a spot illustration for a 3pp podcast episode.
I am very grateful for the SVS community, especially for the courses, podcasts, and discussions on this forum. It would be a lot harder for me to break into publishing without the support and resources from this community.
If you get a chance to read my book, I would be very grateful if you rate or review the book on Goodreads. It would be super helpful to keep the momentum going for the book.
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Congratulations so much Xin! You truly deserve all this success! I really admire your way of illustrating, so beautiful!
I'll definitely try to find that book and read it 
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Congratulations! That is very exciting, how are you going to celebrate?
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@Katt good question! I do not know yet! Any suggestions? It is always challenging to celebrate books that came out in another country than the one I am living in. I am trying to convince my family to come along to New York for a short trip so we get to see the book in the bookstores
.It is a little far from where we live
But we might just do that... -
@xin-li Congrats. If you do travel to NYC, make it a work trip (a tax write-off?).
Two famous local bookstores carry your book, Strands and Books of Wonder. Consider calling those stores, the Barnes and Nobles on Union Square, and/or the New York Public Libray to see if they are interested in having you for one of their story time reading events.
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@xin-li That's wonderful!! Congrats!
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Super happy for you! The book looks amazing!
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Congratulations, that's incredible news!
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Congratulations @xin-li , that’s amazing news!!!! Definitely will pick it up and support you with an honest review! So happy for you!!!
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Hooray! That's wonderful news!
Congratulations! -
@xin-li I personally would get some friends together for a nice dinner, or celebrate by myself with a nice drink. I also think I would journal about it, things that were difficult, easy, and how I feel...that way I can look back on it in several years, or maybe if I'm in a 'success' slump and remember the positives in my journey.
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Wow!! That is fantastic news! Congratulations! I'm adding this to my buy list!
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Having seen you win pretty much every Critique Arena you entered in this comes as no surprise
But I imagine what makes this extra special is that this is your very own story. Congrats!
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@Jason-Crowley AMAZING!!!
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Fantastic! SO happy for you. I'll definitely check it out.
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@Enni-Heikura, @NessIllustration , @KathrynAdebayo, @Sara_C, @Jeremy-Ross, @Yiming-Wu, @Katt, @Jeanne-M-Bowman, @Jason Crowley, @Lee-White , @larue, thank you very much!
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@willicreate Thank you very much for the tips of local bookstores in NYC. I wish I could visit New York. But after some thought, I felt it would be too time(and money) consuming. Maybe I will wait till my next book comes out. I am in the final stage of revising rough sketches, and hopefully, the book will come out sometime next autumn.
@katt, your suggestions are great! I definitely will organize a small garden party with close family and friends. I often let life chores, work deadlines, and all kinds of worries occupy me, and forget to celebrate good things. When I sold my first picture book manuscript, my first thought was not "Hurray!", but "Am I good enough to pull this off?". The "Hurray!" came after a friend said to me "Go get a drink! You need to celebrate!"
I love your suggestion of journaling. I kept a journal on and off in the first couple of years when I started working as an illustrator. Now looking back, I regret not writing down more thoughts. I have not been journaling for almost a year now. Thank you for reminding me that, I will start it again :-).
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How amazing- congratulations!
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@xin-li Congratulations!!
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@xin-li Woah!!! Congratulations!!!
