My Santa, Your Santa: A Christmas Self-Publishing Success
A chat with Margaret Thompson, author of My Santa, Your Santa, about self-publishing, editing, and the need for diverse representation in Children’s books.
“Santa’s magic can make him big or small. He can even be slim or tall! He might look like you or me, or anyone in our family.” – My Santa, Your Santa
I remember getting a phone call from Margaret Thompson during the early drafting stages of My Santa, Your Santa. There was so much passion in her voice as she told me all about her idea for a children’s Christmas book that represented diversity, and I knew immediately that I wanted to come on board as an editor.
Margaret Thompson and her husband Roger Weaver (illustrator) were inspired to write the book after realising that depictions of Santa are almost always as a big, jolly, old, white man. As Margaret explains, “We were inspired after having a discussion about my husband dressing up as Santa for our son and him not wanting to because Santa was white. This then led us on a journey of trying to find books about Santas who looked different from the western idea of Santa, and we discovered that there was next to nothing about it either online or at bookstores. So, we decided we would make a book ourselves for our son that showed him that Santa can look like anyone from any family, no matter where in the world they are.”
My Santa, Your Santa is a story about Santa visiting children all around the world. In doing so, Santa makes himself look like and represent people of all sorts of abilities, cultures, colours, genders, and situations. It opens up children’s imaginations and supports an acceptance of Santa looking like anyone. The book also hints at how it is often family members who dress as Santa for holiday celebrations.
When I first spoke with Margaret, she was already thinking of self-publishing rather than going through traditional publishers: “Initially, we just wanted to make a book for our son. We thought maybe a friend or two might be interested in it, but we never cared about it being a big international success or getting it into bookstores. Self-publishing meant we could do it faster and on our own timeline.” Self-publishing gave Margaret and Roger the freedom to write and draw what they wanted, as well as providing a higher royalty rate and faster production turnaround than traditional publishing.
However, self-publishing didn’t come without its challenges. As Margaret states, “We had to learn how to do everything ourselves. We had to watch a lot of Youtube videos about how to format and edit the illustrations, how to format the book layout, uploading, and dimensions for Amazon KDP. Then when our book did start to become more successful, learning how to market it properly through different social media and online ads. In hindsight, I wish we had had more faith in our book from the beginning and I had done more research into marketing and had a proper plan laid out, rather than trying to learn on the go.” Nonetheless, My Santa, Your Santa has sold over one thousand copies and reached the best-sellers list on Amazon, making it a Christmas self-publishing success.
I had the pleasure of working as a structural and copyeditor for Margaret and Roger on this fantastic story. Many self-publishing authors might question whether or not to invest in an editor, but for Margaret, it was a must-have. As she states, “Having someone outside of our bubble to actually look over our book is what made it so professional and widely loved. You might think what you wrote was great and perfect but having someone like an editor to actually check your grammar, sentence structure, the flow of the book in general, and how it aligns with the illustrations is really important. It makes it a more cohesive book.”
“Self-publishing, while faster, can cost you more upfront in terms of paying for an illustrator and an editor. But if you decide to go with a family member or friend to illustrate, I cannot stress enough how important it is to get an editor who will be upfront and brutally honest with you about your story. Without one, your story can't progress and be workshopped into its best form, and without that, it won't be as successful as you might hope it to be.”
From my end, I can say that I absolutely loved working on this book. I could see the gap in the market for children’s Christmas books that represent diversity and felt this story could fill that gap. My Santa, Your Santa is about diversity and acceptance, expanding on Western traditions to show how Christmas can be celebrated by anyone, all over the world. With vibrant illustrations by Roger Weaver and catchy rhymes by Margaret Thompson, this husband-and-wife team have created a must-have addition to any Christmas book collection.
My Santa, Your Santa is available worldwide on Amazon. If you have Kindle Unlimited you can get the ebook for free; the paperback version is available in all countries, and in some specific ones, the hardcover keepsake version is as well. Each book has a page at the end for children to draw their own Santa, and the hardcover version also has letters to Santa and colouring pages too.
If you are interested in more content by Margaret and Roger, you can find them on their YouTube channel, Mixed and Nerdy, where they make content about being an interracial family and how important diversity can be in all areas of life.
