There are many unique jobs for teachers outside the classroom. Including Children’s Book Author. I love chatting with teachers or people that have just really paved the way for educators, just to see what life could possibly be like. I was super excited when Vicky Weber and I sat down to talk all things teacher related including how she used her teaching magic to become a children’s book author. 

In her “former” life Vicky taught elementary education, primarily elementary music. And then towards the end of her teaching career, she also taught STEAM. She loved what she did, but education as an industry has definitely changed. And as it changed she found out she was pregnant with her daughter.  

And so between teaching virtually during the pandemic, where she was asked to teach multiple things, and expecting her daughter she knew she needed to evolve too. She was asked while teaching virtually to become a full-time music teacher. To be a fourth-grade co-teacher and also to be on-call tech support for students. All in a very supportive district. So being pregnant and doing all of that, her immediate thought was, if she was in her dream district, where were things headed? 

Let’s dig into the details of how to become an author of children's books as a side hustle. 

Vicky is now a professional children's picture book author. But she originally started simply because she had ideas that she needed to share. She didn't think she would make money doing it. She just thought it would be fun. She had an idea and wanted to make a difference but thought it was a pipe dream. Something she’d look back on in my life and be like, “oh, I wish I'd done that.” But then her husband asked, why not? So she started researching and learning and learning some more and putting in the work. 

She ended up getting her first book published on Christmas Eve of 2019. She started writing books that were interactive for teaching music. Basically educational concepts that were encouraging creativity and the love of music. Teachers began to want more of what she was writing because it was helping them engage kids through the screen. Engaged kids in person without playing instruments that you might need to sanitize, etc. So she kept writing them and really kicked it in overdrive in 2020. Now she has 10 children's picture books. One early reader through Disney and several chapter books under a pen name. And the best part? She has lots and lots more in the works. So it definitely started as just a dream and it turned into a side hustle and very quickly turned into a full-time gig. 

At its core, she is still an educator. She’s teaching through picture books. She may not be in the classroom, but she is applying a lot of the personality traits that were important to her as a teacher. She is spending more time with family, and less time doing things she doesn’t want to do. All while being creative and making a difference.  

How cool is it that her impact can reach far beyond the four walls of her classroom? Knowing that she had this thing living inside of her, that was her life's work and life's calling. She really just started a few years ago and has a book deal with Disney. 

Vicky was terrified in the beginning. Was she making enough money to leave the classroom? Was she good enough to make this her full-time gig? I think that as teachers, we have this expectation of ourselves. We have no problems guiding other people through change. But big changes for us can sometimes be really difficult because we tie teaching to who we are as a human. And I do think it's who we are at the core.

But I don't think that you have to be in a traditional classroom to make an impact.  

How To Become A Children's Book Author

When Vicky took the leap she had no safety net. She had to dive into her side hustle or return to the classroom. At that point, she was not making enough with her books to comfortably leave. She was making a decent amount but was only putting in maybe five to 10 hours a week of work. So she had to weigh the feelings of not having the money to do it full-time. But also not having the capacity to go back to the classroom. She also knew herself, and that if as a family, they weren’t going to make ends meet for whatever reason, she wouldn’t let that happen. She would work at McDonald's.  Or tutor on the side. She knew she would find a part-time teaching gig. She would never ever just stand by and let her family suffer. And that's really what helped her make the decision. She wouldn’t just sit by if something went wrong. But it didn't go wrong. It went really, really well. So well she left teaching in August of 2021 and in March of 2022, she was able to bring her husband home from his job at a high school. 

I think fight or flight where you say to yourself, I'm either going to make it, or fight trying. Some of the best entrepreneurs don't even see that as an option. You may need a backup plan, you know, it might be McDonald's. But the key that so many teachers miss is that they are too afraid of the “what if’s”. 

Vicky is a children's book author, and she creates picture books. but what makes them so special is they're interactive. All her works are educational and written for one of her two customer bases. One line of stories is about her Latin X heritage and the others are all music-related. She found that when she was in the classroom, she had so many students who either love to read or hated to read. And the ones who hated to read loved music. They really got into interactive books, like Don't Push The Button and Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus. All the ones where you shake the book and turn the book upside down and get involved.  And she wondered why there weren't musical stories like that. Because there was no reason for that not to happen. That's what sparked her original ideas. She started testing them out with her students. 

Her bestseller is called Rhythm Rest about a girl, who's a superhero. And in order to activate her powers to help her through the story, you have to clap the right rhythms. So the students have to pay attention to the two inverse rhythms while you activate her powers. She has another book called Tiger Tempo that teaches musical speeds. So to do that, a tiger is running a race. And in order to help him not trip, you have to clap or tap the speed. The best part is it's a book, not a video game, not a movie. It brings life to storybooks. 

Vicky was so inspiring. I've had on my vision board to write a children's book for five years. And so having this conversation, I’ve decided it's happening, we're doing it. I already have the title. It's created in my mind. Now I just need to execute it and get it into the world. 

Self-Published Versus Traditional Publishing: Jobs For Educators Outside Of The Classroom  

With traditional publishing, it's a hundred percent free to the author. So if somebody claiming to be a traditional publisher ever asks you for money, the answer is no. When you self-publish, you are the publisher. 

Vicky chose to self-publish that first book because she wanted to be hyper-involved. That was really something that was important to her because she sees a lot of books about instruments where an instrument is drawn wrong. Or something's backward where the music is concerned. And as a music teacher that always bugged her. So she wanted to be really involved in the illustrations and final touches. 

Traditional publishers and agents are typically looking for stories they know will sell because they're a business.  They want to make money and interactive music and picture books did not exist. They were not a thing. So she was a risk they didn't want to take. So she went ahead and self-published. She was primarily self-published until Disney. She made the bestseller list within nine months of her first book being published and then Disney reached out to her. She thought it was a total scam. Like yeah right why would Disney be emailing her? But she showed it to her husband and he thought it looked like a professional email. So she looked up the person on LinkedIn and they were from Disney. 

Basically, she met with that editor on Zoom and she explained that they had a movie coming out that the public did not know about. They were looking for an author to pen the book version of the movie. Vicky would handle the movie script and they would handle the illustrations. They just needed her to bring this book to life for them. It was a little bit like a puzzle, she had to take the movie script with a limited word count and kid-friendly vocabulary. They had artwork to pick from. She had to sign an NDA. Everything was watermarked with her emails. So if anything got leaked, they would know it was her. It was very intense but in a good way.

She says she made a lot of mistakes in the beginning for sure. And there are sure to be a lot of mistakes to come. That's just part of the game. Selling things online is no joke, and it does take a lot of work. And even though there was such a need for her style of book awareness is still key. If no one knows you are there it's hard to get seen. Vicky had to learn a lot about marketing very quickly.  Now she helps other authors get published, and helps them market their ideas. 

You're supposed to market far before the book is released, not the other way around.  It wasn't until she figured that out that she hit the bestseller list. 

Jobs For Former English Teachers

Start with a marketing plan. Think of it like a puzzle. The more pieces you have, the more complete a picture you have. So if you're only doing one or two marketing strategies, that's a pretty incomplete picture. You're not going to reach very many people. And so it's all about multiple strategies that all work together. Also, try to automate ever possible. In the beginning, there were lots of things she was doing that she didn't need to do. 

She would put a download on the website and you'd have to email her to get it.  And she would manually respond. It was a huge pain and it took forever. She didn't need to do that. That was something that was easy to automate with a good email provider and an awesome email sequence. The biggest takeaway for marketing a book is remembering people connect with your message and your purpose.

A lot of people think marketing a book is showing up and saying, buy my book, buy my book, buy my book, buy my book. That doesn't work. When you write a children's book, there's a reason, something that sparked that idea. There's someone that you wrote that book for. And when you start to share those insights, that story, people care. That's what resonates with people. So at its core, marketing is networking. Marketing is sharing your why, because the right people will get excited about what you have to offer. People will begin to feel just as passionate about your stories as you do. And that's what Vicky was missing in the beginning.  

Becoming The Face Behind The Brand 

Vicky does all her own marketing right now. She does all the interviews and answers all the questions. She feels those connections are so important and you can show up on your own schedule.  But the reason why music teachers love her music books is that they see why she wrote them. The reason why parents love her music books is that they see how they can enrich their kids' lives. How it gives them an opportunity to be creative and try new things. 

Step one to becoming a children’s book author, as obvious as it sounds, is writing. 

Because one of the things that that people really struggle with writing is they think that their first draft needs to be good. Vicky doesn’t care who you are. You could be Dr. Seuss. You could be JK Rowling. No one's first draft is publication-ready! It's not supposed to be. It's the first draft. 

Pick up your phone, open up the Google docs app, and tap the little button that records voice notes. Start by transcribing what you're saying. Getting enough words down on paper gives you something to edit. You can't edit something that's not on the page. Editing is what makes a book special. Editing is what makes a story live up to your vision for it and helps other people resonate with it. So the first hurdle is just to get something on the page. 

In the writing world, there are two types of people. Pantsers and planners. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants. They write as they go, and throw care to the wind. Here we go.  And, the planners are exactly the opposite. When it comes to a chapter book they have to plan. Map it all out before they begin. Otherwise, they don't really know where the story's going and that makes it hard to develop a character. To know what scenery is needed to lead them to the next part. 

Vicky says she is a total pantser. She has a running document literally called ideas for stories. And when she has an idea, she pops it in there. And then when inspiration strikes, she can just roll with it. So at any given time, she may have hundreds of stories sitting in that document. She doesn’t start them until just the right spark appears, which sometimes is in the middle of the night. Sometimes it's over lunch.

That's the beauty of a creator's mind. 

Essential Ingredients Every Children's Book Needs 

#1: Passion

Typically an audience can tell when someone has written a story that they don't have some heart in. And so finding whatever it is, it could even be a small piece. It doesn't even have to be a passion for the subject itself.  It could just be a passion for the character or a passion for representation or a passion for whatever. It just has to be a piece. 

#2: Willingness

The next key ingredient would be a willingness to seek out feedback. A lot of authors will think they'll write, they'll revise, and then they'll get to a point where they can't find anything else to change. That's when they need to either seek out a freelance editor or find some people who will be brutally honest with them.

#3: Desire 

Like anything in life, this side hustle is work. So a desire to live your life on your terms. Lean into your limitless potential. Or just a desire to get your story told. Whatever drives you need to be a key piece of your journey.

 Jobs For Teachers Outside The Classroom: Next Steps

Research the industry you are trying to get into. It doesn't matter which route you want to take. Learn the other side of the coin. It's about what's best for you. No matter what you read online, weigh the pros and cons. And remember at the end of the day, it's about what's best for you. Your budget, your schedule, your family, your goals. You do not have to pick just one route for your career. Create your 5 or 10-year plan and decide what steps will help you get there down this long journey of a road.

Explore the Many Jobs for Teachers Outside the Classroom

Exploring Your Teacher Side Hustle Options

I Quit Teaching 15 Things That Happened

10 Things You Need To Grow Your Six Figure Online Teaching Course

How to Create the Life You Want – CEO Teacher® Style