Sophie Washington and Beyond: How One Author Built a 175,000 Book Legacy/Tonya Ellis

It started in a library. A little girl. Her mother beside her. A bag overflowing with books.That little girl fell in love with reading before she could fully sound out the letters. She won a young author's competition in fifth grade and made a decision she never walked back. At fourteen she was published in her hometown newspaper and received her first check for something she wrote. And then Maya Angelou came to her college — and in a car ride from the airport told her it took a year to write I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.Something clicked. She could do this.Tonya Ellis became a journalist, a wife, a mother, and then she looked at the books her children were reading and noticed something missing. Characters who looked and acted like her children and their friends. So she created Sophie Washington, read the first draft to her kids as a bedtime story, adjusted it based on their reactions, and published it herself.That bedtime story has now sold over 175,000 copies.The eighth book in the series was purchased by Scholastic. She has a picture book with HarperCollins. She has publishing contracts with Charlesbridge and Penguin Random House. A literary agent. And six more upcoming books on the way.In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Tonya opens up about the little girl who never stopped believing she was supposed to write. About what Maya Angelou said in that car that changed everything. About why representation in children's books is not optional, and what it looks like when a child finally sees themselves in a story. About how self-publishing built a movement before traditional publishing ever called. About what Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Penguin Random House taught her about the other side of the industry. And about what she most wants to say to every writer who has a story children are still waiting to find on a library shelf.This conversation is for every writer who has been carrying a story that does not yet exist in the world, and who needs to hear what happens when you finally sit down and write it.Tonya Ellis kept every promise she made to herself as a little girl in that library.And this episode is the story of exactly how she did it.🎙️ Host: Imma📚 Guest: Tonya Ellis/ Children's Book Author · Self-Publishing Pioneer · Diversity Advocate📖 The Sophie Washington Series · They Built Me for Freedom (HarperCollins)🌐 tonyaduncanellis.com📱 Facebook & Instagram: Tonya Ellis BooksBeyond the Draft/Where the real story begins after the writing is done.Your words have power. Your story matters. Keep writing.