Tracy C. Gold

I’ve been sitting on this secret for a long time: I am so excited to announce that my debut picture book, “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby,” is coming out from Familius in 2021! It’s going to be a board book, illustrated by Adele Dafflon. Update 2024: You can buy it on Amazon (affiliate link) and via other retailers! I am psyched to bring this book into the world for babies and toddlers to chew, and potentially even read. I decided to wait to announce the deal publicly until Familius had chosen an illustrator—and I’ve been waiting since July. I’m so happy I finally get to shout about it, and I could not be more excited that Adele will be illustrating the book. Her style is whimsical, bright, and simple: perfect for babies. Check out her gorgeous Instagram.

There’s a whacky story behind how I got this book deal. I’ll start at the beginning. I’d always thought I’d love writing picture books—I wrote poetry and fiction, after all. But I never tried to write a picture book until I had my daughter and found myself reading multiple picture books every day, or rather, reading one picture book multiple times a day (one week it was Brown Bear, right now it’s Jill Twiss’s Marlon Bundo). Suddenly, picture books were pouring out of me. I wrote them in the notes of my iPhone and periodically emailed them to myself. 

As my baby becomes a toddler, we are learning lots of new sign language together to help us get along until she can communicate with words. We love reading “Nita’s First Signs” (affiliate link) written by Kathy MacMillan, illustrated by Sara Brezzi, and published by Familius. Honestly, learning a few basic signs myself was a challenge I had to conquer before teaching them to my daughter. “Nita’s First Signs” is parent (idiot) proof, and made learning signs like “milk,” “more,” and “all done” very easy for me, and thus for my daughter. It’s a wonderful board book with sections that pull out to show details about each sign.

I give this book to my friends who are expecting new babies, so I thought it would be a great book for my first official giveaway. Besides, I know Kathy from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and she’s amazing, so I’m always happy to boost her.

So, how do you enter to win this book? Sign up for my newsletter (below) before 10/15! I’ll pick a random subscriber to win a copy and announce the winner in my newsletter. I’ll reach out for your address, and send the book to you anywhere Amazon offers free Prime shipping. 

I promise you won’t get inundated with email—I plan to send emails once a month, max. They’ll be stuffed full of great resources about writing, editing, the publishing process, and parenting, with a side of news about my own writing career (and future giveaways)!

Here are a few pictures of my daughter and my dog being adorable with our copy of “Nita’s First Signs”! (Don’t worry, I’m sending the winner a new one without any baby boogers or dog slobber!)