Meet Author Evelyn B. Christensen!
E-mail: Evelyn B. Christensen
Web site: Author and Puzzle Creator

Bio:
One of six children of a minister and a teacher, Ev grew up in a lively family where puzzles, games, books, and questions were daily fare. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to jump up in the middle of a meal to consult the dictionary or Book of Knowledge to settle a question or argument. Game rules naturally existed to be revised or expanded. Ev fondly remembers the four-board Monopoly game (laid out cloverleaf-style) that occupied the living room floor much of one summer.

With such a background, along with having a passion for teaching from an early age, it’s not surprising that educational puzzles and games would be Ev’s forte as an author. She has a doctorate in math education and has taught at the elementary, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school levels. The last five years she’s been writing full-time and has had over thirty educational puzzle books published.

Featured Book: Multiplication Mosaics
Want kids to love practicing their multiplication facts? Then this is the book you need! Answers to the problems provide the color code to fill in the squares in the grid. As the colorful picture or design gradually unfolds, kids are motivated to keep solving the problems until it’s complete. The activities also reinforce graphing skills.

Interview:
Q: How did you break into the educational market?
A: I was very blessed. Clip-Clue Puzzles was my first book. It’d been used for several years in a couple of different classrooms before I got up the courage to submit it for publication. The first publisher kept it about six months, which as a newbie I thought was way too long. He rejected it but said I should definitely try to get it published elsewhere. The second publisher accepted it almost immediately. My real break came several years later. MindWare had been carrying my Clip-Clue Puzzles and I emailed them to ask if they’d be interested in carrying my Coin-Clue Puzzles. Fortunately (or by God’s grace, as I believe), MindWare at that very moment was looking for someone to write some puzzle books for them! I’ve written 18 books for them since then.

Q: Describe practical things an author needs to know to prepare a proposal for a puzzle or activity book.
A: Other authors might disagree with me, but especially for a first proposal I think having your sample pages look as professional as possible makes a big difference with editors. (I think that’s one of the reasons my first book sold so quickly.) Sure, the publisher’s design people will end up changing what you’ve done, but that first impression will let the editor know you’re serious about doing a good job. You’re also making it easy for the editor to visualize your work as a book.

For a first proposal it’s probably also important to try your ideas out with some kids in the intended age range for the book. What seems obvious to you may need more clarification with children.

Do check, and recheck, to make sure your activities and answers are error-free.

If you’re preparing a puzzle or activity book that you’re hoping will be used in the classroom, be aware of the effect of No Child Left Behind. Editors used to be much more willing to publish books which were fun, mind-stretchers. Now most of them want everything directly tied to curriculum objectives, because, they say, that’s what teachers are buying.

Q: What are some of the benefits of writing for royalty-based contracts?
A: From my perspective there are two main benefits. The first advantage for me is that I prefer to build an income for my retirement years rather than getting a lump sum immediately. My husband will be retiring soon. Right now we’re in a higher tax bracket than we’ll be later so there are also tax advantages.

The second main benefit to a royalty-based contract is that if your book sells well you get to keep on making money from it. I have several books which have sold more copies than I would ever have dreamed likely. If I’d been negotiating a flat-fee contract, I’d never have considered asking as much money for those books as I’ve actually made from them; and unless the economy gets really bad I’ll probably continue to make money from those books.

Of course, the disadvantage to a royalty-based versus flat-fee contract is that if your book doesn’t sell well then you can end up with a lot less money. This is especially true if your publisher doesn’t give advances which is the case with a lot of educational publishers. I have some books which would definitely have made more money for me with a flat-fee contract. So…it’s a bit of a gamble. Of course, most of the time you don’t have a choice, except in your decisions about where to send your submissions.

Q: Please share one tip you’d like to give to an author who is trying to land that first book contract.
A: This will sound obvious, but it’s still really important to study the market. You need to find the publishers who publish the kind of material you’re creating. When I subbed my first book I subbed it to the publishers who were my favorites to buy from as a teacher—I knew and loved their books and knew my book “fit” their publishing philosophy. If you’re not a teacher, spend some time browsing through the books in your local education store. If you’ve exhausted those resources, I have a list of educational publishers on my website for some additional possibilities at Educational Markets for Children’s Writers.