Naomi Smith
Naomi published The Belly Bulb Adventures, a children’s book about growing into who you are.
This awesome first children’s first picture book is the story of Little Bug. While being tucked in at bedtime by Grandpillar and Grandmiller, Little Bug notices how colorful their caterpillar belly bulbs are and asks how they grew. Through the telling of four different adventures, they teach Little Bug that he too will grow and become who he is by the actions and experiences he has in life. When an experience is meaningful, a belly bulb will grow with a POP! and forever be a colorful reminder of that event or feeling.
Naomi requested assistance from the SBDC on publishing her novel. Initially, her preference was to look for an agent and a publisher who loved the book and was anxious to work with her. What she quickly learned is that the market is saturated and even if a publisher would take on the book, it would be up to 2 years before it even hit the shelves. It was then she decided to start her own business was a better opportunity.
During the decision-making time, Naomi worked with Pat Campanaro, an SBDC business consultant. Pat suggested she printed prototypes of the book and set up focus groups with Preschoolers to 3rd-grade classes, child-life specialists, teachers, and parents to test the book. Out of this experience, the book changed a bit and the coloring pages were born, an excellent communication tool for teachers and caregivers.
Writing and illustrating the book is only one-third of the process. The next step was learning an entire business from the ground up. This includes learning about ISBN numbers, copyright laws, barcodes, building a website, learning about shipping rates, PayPal buttons, hyperlinks, etc. “Publishing just one book is actually setting up an entire business around that one product. The final step will be securing my vendors and book signing events; AKA the marketing/promotional side of the business. The SBDC was helpful in all aspects of getting my business off the ground,” said Naomi.
The SBDC Consultants helped them make the right connections with realtors, lodge owners, and lenders including the SBA through MBFC and additional advisors.
To print the book, she worked with an amazing team of people at the Print Ninja. “Soon we were off to the presses! It could not have been a better experience working with them and the book turned out beautiful! I especially like how the coloring pages on the back of the dust jacket turned out,” Naomi said.
Naomi was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and has been a graphic designer for a large healthcare system for the past 16 years.
Naomi, her husband Mark, and her daughter Olivia live in the historical city of Duluth, Minnesota.