Reaching Your Goals with Author Christie Welsby
On this episode of Financially Naked: Stories from The Financial Gym, Shannon sits down with returning guest Christie, an elementary reading specialist, to discuss her journey of self-publishing her first book. Christie shares her experience writing Meet Us, the first book in her Forward Motion Readers series, a decodable book series designed to make early literacy engaging and accessible for young readers.
Together, they discuss the self-publishing process, the costs, and the rewarding impact of seeing children benefit from her work. Christie also shares how financial guidance from The Financial Gym empowered her to take this leap, showing how financial health can open doors to your dreams and unexpected opportunities.
Podcast Notes
The Journey to Create Forward Motion Reading
Christie works as an elementary reading specialist outside of Buffalo. After writing short-form content for magazines, she decided to write a book for young readers. As a reading specialist, Christie noticed a need for more resources for specialized early reader learning.
Inspired by the “Science of Reading” method, Christie’s books blend phonics with engaging content to help children enjoy reading and better understand language. She wanted to write something different than the early reader books that already exist.
Her book series, Forward Motion Readers, is designed to support early readers ages 4-7, or older kids who may be struggling. Instead of small books, they are chapter books. They look and feel like books the older kids are reading, which makes them feel a sense of maturity like the older readers.
The first book in the series, Meet Us, has been well-received by friends, family, and students who have read it. The book is engaging, consumable, and feels like a big kid chapter book.
Self Publishing: The Choices, Costs, and Learning Curves
When she was thinking about the book, Christie’s friend recommended self-publishing. After researching and chatting with a few companies, she partnered with Palmetto Publishing, which offered a supportive, à la carte approach that fit her vision and budget.
This first book was a learning process. To stay budget-friendly, she designed all her illustrations in Canva, which took a lot of time. Her goal was for the illustrations to be inclusive so all readers saw themselves in the book.
Publishing the book cost Christie around $4,000. The illustrations make it more expensive, but it was worth it for her. She knows now that she will need less of the services offered by the publisher, which will make publishing the future books less expensive than the first.
The book will also be available as an e-book, and Christie hopes her book will be published in schools, libraries, and literacy communities. While it’s not a textbook for school, she wants it to be a supplemental tool for early readers.
Financial Health and Creative Pursuits
Christie credits The Financial Gym and her Trainer for helping her set financial goals that allowed her to pursue self-publishing. Working on her financial health created a foundation that allowed her to pursue this project.
While Christe would love to make back the $4,000 she spent to publish the book, the real return on investment is the joy of seeing young readers enjoy and find value in the book. She gets emotional whenever she hears a story about the impact of her book.
You never know what project or idea you may want to pursue in the future, and that’s okay. Shannon’s goal for all Financial Gym clients is to be financially healthy, so money is never a to pursuing your dreams.
If you want to work with a Certified Financial Trainer to help navigate your finances, schedule a free warm-up call today! If you have any ideas or questions for the show, send an email to trainerpodcast@fingyms.com.
Resources
Connect with Christie Welsby
Website: https://www.forwardmotionteaching.com/
Instagram: @forwardmotionteaching
Facebook: Forward Motion Teaching on FB
Email: forwardmotionteaching@gmail.com