Crystal Swain-Bates
Books: How to Go Natural Without Going Broke and seven children’s books total.
How She Got Started: “I started writing at a young age. As I got older, I looked at other careers and stopped writing. In 2006, I wrote a book called Super Mommy. I put it on hold until 2010 when I was able to find an illustrator. I have book called How to Go Natural Without Going Broke. I also looked into black coloring books and realized that there weren’t many black characters. Most are only for black history month. But it’s important for black kids [to] color fun things without it always being a history lesson. There is room for fun at the same time.
My advice to New Authors: “My advice is to just do it. So many people tell me they want to write a book, but they never stop. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of publishing, you just need to get that book written. Once you can commit to 15 minutes per day, you can do it.”
