Conversations with Tracy Tydeman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Tydeman.

Hi Tracy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Where I am now probably began when I adopted my dog Faith, back in 2007. Faith was an adorable, deaf Dalmatian puppy and became my best friend for the following 12 years.

And in 2019, when she passed away, as you can imagine, it was extraordinarily hard to say goodbye. It took several weeks for me to start to come out of the grief. Time helped, but the most help came from deciding to write a children’s story about Faith. When she died I couldn’t help but feel like those who never met her missed out. I wanted to share her with the world and it felt like a book could be a good solution.

Creating Meet Faith – The Story of a Deaf Dalmatian, was a long endeavor, that involved lots of research, learning, and growth for me. Once I decided to self-publish, I found myself creating an entire company around the book. I knew this could help with sales and also open a door for my own graphic design business (I’ve been a graphic designer for almost 15 years).

And it certainly did open doors. Today, I’m focused on getting Meet Faith out into the hands of as many children as I can. And while I still have a traditional job as a graphic designer, I’m also now able to take on my own clients.

Helping smaller businesses with their graphic design needs has always been a desire of mine, and now I’m able to provide those services on my own terms. So a journey that started out as creating one children’s book has turned into a growing business and will hopefully lead to more books in the future!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road, as I’m sure is true for most people! I’ve had little struggles along the way, mostly related to not knowing how to do something and having to figure it out on my own (things like taxes – everyone’s favorite!). I had a lot of problems with Amazon in the beginning. Sometimes, being a small business who is trying to work with a massive empire can be very challenging.

The biggest struggle has probably been with the production of my books. For starters, it was very difficult to find a board book printer that was affordable. I kept getting prices that would require me to make my book higher priced, and one of my primary goals was to keep the book affordable for families. When I was about ready to give up on printing in board book format, I found a company with reasonable prices.

Then when the books finally arrived, everything looked fantastic…until it didn’t. After opening a few boxes, it became apparent that several issues were going on (the biggest two being due to warping, and some ink blotches where it looked like a machine malfunctioned). Some books were ok, but most had someting wrong, and some were extensive (meaning I couldn’t sell them). I was heartbroken. These books were my pride and joy and were supposed to be of the utmost professional quality.

I was at a loss for what to do, so I stopped all advertising while I spoke with the printer and decided what to do. In the end, we worked out a solution, and as I sit here, writing this, I am awaiting the arrival of the new books. And it is extremely nerve-wracking. I have a lot of things on hold while I wait for the replacements to come in. Self-publishing is hard enough as it is, but to have such a huge setback is very unsettling.

However, I know I’ll get it all worked out in the end. And I’m looking at the silver lining of it all. For me, that’s the fact that now I have a bunch of books on discount, and some that I’ll get to donate all around the world. It’s not easy to get them out there without spending a lot in shipping costs, but over time I can slowly sprinkle them around and that was the main goal of my book – to share Faith with the world.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a newly self-published author and illustrator of a children’s book and that path has led me to try my hand at creating some small artistic items that I can sell alongside my book. I’m also a graphic designer, so my attention to detail is forefront and helped me to create a very professional brand around my book and art.

My art is definitely unique. I haven’t really seen other styles like it and while it’s certainly not traditional, I think it captures my strong suits of being artistic, and also technical. My illustrations are a digital colored pencil style that sort of traces photos in detail. So I utilize photos, or composition of photos, and then color over them in a very detailed colored pencil style.

The reason I chose this direction was because I was deciding and discovering how to do the illustrations for my book. I wanted to capture my dog Faith in her true form and also utilize all the beautiful photos my husband and I had taken of her over the years. I wanted it to be illustrative, but also real – so kids would see that she really did all the things in the book. It wasn’t make-believe or pretend. And once I got the style going, they actually got more and more detailed, but I really enjoyed it!

Most importantly, the style of art I chose allows me to shine, and I love the process! And once I reminded myself that was what was most important – loving the process and using my strong suits, I had the confidence to execute it, and I really love the final product.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
If you’re interested in working together on a project, feel free to reach out. I’m currently taking on new graphic design clients and am always happy to provide a free consultation to see if I’d be a good fit for your design needs.

Pricing:

• Meet Faith Board Book: $9.99

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.spotsofjoy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spotsofjoyllc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpotsOfJoy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spots-of-joy/
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4YDNHQB

Image Credits
Richard Stribling and Dan Tydeman