Our own Self-publishing Coordinator, Tiffany Obeng, will be speaking about self-publishing at our June 1, 2026 chapter meeting (in-person and online both). Since I interviewed Tiffany and did a blog post about her just last year, we are doing a blog post now about another one of our chapter members, Tonya Ellis (both self-published and traditionally published). The email interview with Tonya is below.
1) Tell us about your writing journey. For example: When did you start seriously pursuing writing? What most helped you develop your craft? What genres do you write?
I've always loved reading books and writing, and I thought about pursuing writing as a career after I won a young author's competition in the fifth grade. Back then, I wasn't sure how I'd make a living writing books, so I decided to become a journalist. After college, I got a job as a business reporter at a newspaper. When my family moved to Houston, I wrote freelance articles about local celebrities for Sugar Land, Cy-Fair and Katy Magazines for ten years.
I became interested in writing for children while sharing my childhood favorites with my own kids. My youngest son didn't relate to many of the stories I loved at his age, and I wrote the SOPHIE WASHINGTON book series hoping it would appeal to contemporary kids.
Later, I pursued traditional publishing. In 2024, I released my SCBWI Crystal Kite Honor award winning, picture book, THEY BUILT ME FOR FREEDOM, through HarperCollins. In 2027 I will release my second picture book, CUPCAKE CHEMISTRY, through Charlesbridge's STEAMWORKS series, and I have two other picture books, a graphic novel, and a novel-in-verse on the way.
2) Did you self-publish before finding an agent? How did you find your agent and how long did the search take?
I started out in self-publishing with my Sophie Washington chapter series. I wrote the first book, SOPHIE WASHINGTON: QUEEN OF THE BEE, in 2013 to check off a bucket list wish to write a book and to entertain my kids. I didn't start heavily marketing the series until 2018. I've sold over 175,000 copies of the books at festivals and events around Houston and globally online. In 2021, Scholastic bought the rights to SOPHIE WASHINGTON: CODE ONE for their Rising Voices program. There are 13 books in the SOPHIE WASHINGTON series.
As my chapter book series grew I wanted wider distribution for my books. During the pandemic I wrote a middle grade manuscript that won a Cynthia Leitich Smith award at SCBWI Austin's conference. Literary Agent, Adria Goetz, who chose my book for the award, urged me to get an agent. Adria wasn't taking new clients at the time. I searched for agent names in the back of SCBWI's reference guide and in the acknowledgement sections of my favorite middle grade books and started querying. Within three or four months I found my first agent.
A year or so before this I had queried another manuscript that got four or five rejections. Based on feedback from those rejections I scrapped that manuscript and wrote the book that ended up winning the Cynthia Leitich Smith prize. My experience in getting an agent isn't typical. I usually hear about people querying for years. But I had written my SOPHIE WASHINGTON series, read hundreds of middle grade books, and studied writing craft for years before I started querying, in addition to working as a journalist, so I was prepared.
3) Did you have any other careers?
I have an MBA degree, and I'm a licensed realtor. I also teach creative writing at Writers in the Schools camps.
4) What are your top tips for pre-published authors?
My top tips for pre-published authors are to read widely in the genre you want to write in, take writing craft classes and/or watch writing craft webinars, get involved in professional writing organizations, like SCBWI, where you can meet agents and editors and get professional critiques, and join a writing critique group with peers. Doing all these things have advanced my career and been game changing for me.
5) Do you have a unique story (fun, inspiring, terrifying, or whatever) that’s somehow related to writing?
To promote my SOPHIE WASHINGTON series I sold books at dozens of book festivals and events. One of my most memorable vending experiences happened at the Texas Book Festival a few years ago. A group of families was crowded around my booth, and a man rushed up and interrupted. He looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. The man said he was in a hurry because he was getting ready to speak, but he asked what my best selling books were. I showed him three books in my SOPHIE WASHINGTON series, and he bought them all. A few minutes after the man rushed off, I realized he was Kwame Alexander! I couldn't believe I didn't recognize him. About an hour later, a throng of people rushed to my booth to buy books. Kwame had given me a shout-out during his presentation! I sold out within minutes. I later learned that Kwame started out in self-publishing and tries to help out up and coming authors whenever he can. I will always remember his kindness.
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