With the  contract signed, sealed, and delivered and an early summer release (gotta have the book in time for Wahoo football season) ahead, there was still much to do. At that point in the publishing process, the manuscript had been reviewed, edited and scrubbed about 40 times before I submitted it to Mascot, so I was not planning on major editing work for the verses once I sent it to Mascot. But, what really needed attention were the illustrations. I had lots and lots of ideas for the illustrations, and aimed to show my little readers the iconic architecture around Grounds, familiarize them with the most frequented UVA places and lingo, and of course get them excited to cheer for the Hoos!

I wrote detailed descriptions of the visual effect and specific images needed for each spread, or 2 adjacent pages of illustrations, to provide the illustrator. That said, I knew illustrators had lots of experience with capturing a little one's imagination so I built in some flexibility for the illustrator to be creative! I was thrilled to see my verses begin coming to live for our little Hoos!

After much research, I found several publishers who had already acquired a CLC license.  I knew the next step was trying to find the best fit for my book.  To determine this fit, I had to call the publishing companies, shop the book, and discuss terms. Armed with a great idea and the belief that if my son needed a UVA book, many others would too, I jumped in. But sure enough, disappointment was there to meet me. 

The first publisher I contacted had fees that rivaled all four years of my undergraduate education (granted it was in-state and almost a decade ago!) and also kept more than a third of the proceeds when royalties and the like were said and done. My economics and business analysis training (and common sense) kicked in and I quickly realized that I would have to sell nearly 4000 books just to break even. I knew we couldn’t afford that option and continued on to find another publisher. 

The next publisher on my list was Mascot Books.  Mascot Books is a Virginia company with lots of experience working with first time authors.  They specialize in children’s books about schools and universities. After perusing everything I could find on their website and finding that I really liked their vision, I contacted them. After a week of discussing my vision for the book, learning about their in-house illustration options, and negotiating terms, we decided that "Sweet Dreams UVA" would be a great fit as the newest addition to the Mascot Books family. 

One of the things I most liked about this publisher was the way they made it a priority to bring to fruition my vision for the book. It seemed that they were there to guide and lend their expertise, but ultimately “Sweet Dreams UVA” would be my baby for my baby. 

My husband has published for academic journals and law reviews and has also self-published a debate handbook for policy and public forum debate through his organization The Great Debate. With his experience in the self-publishing world I felt confident that I could follow suit. WRONG!

Any true children’s book about UVA must include the mascot, the logos, and the colors, of course. All of which are trademarked, copyrighted, or both! Having Cavalier Man, the sabers, and orange and blue were absolutely necessary, so I needed to work with the College Licensing Company (CLC) who held the rights.

The CLC has agreements with universities across the country so that a company can obtain a license and use the trademarks and copyrights of that university in exchange for royalties paid to the school. This all makes perfect sense, so I began to research how to obtain a local CLC license. The long and the short of it is that it is not particularly easy for a company to obtain a license, let alone an individual.

Since I had not incorporated, did not have a prior sales track record, did not have a liability insurance policy upwards of $1M, and did not have a sample work product of my book on hand to send the CLC, I considered alternative avenues. Instead of obtaining the license as an individual and self-publishing, I could publish through a company that already held a CLC license for UVA.  I concluded that such a company would be my new path forward!