Today we’d like to introduce you to Janie Havemeyer

Hi Janie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

I am a children’s book author. I began my career as a museum educator. I switched from teaching in museum settings to elementary schools. My students were first through third graders. While I enjoyed teaching most subjects, history was my passion. All year my students learned about history by doing things. We made a model of a Coast Miwok village. We made adobe bricks in the classroom while studying the California missions. That was a big messy experiment. We recreated a Gold Rush era tent town and invited other classrooms to visit. After teaching for a decade, I began to write stories for young readers in my free time. I gravitated to non-fiction. I joined a writer’s group and found a mentor. I kept writing and submitting my work for publication. Success came slowly. My first big break came when I was hired to write for an independent, publishing company called Goosebottom Books. It no longer exists. But I published my first three books with Goosebottom Books in 2010-2012. Once I had three published books under my belt, I was hired as a contract writer by another company to write books for the education publishing market. I still do that today. I have written over a dozen, non-fiction books for students, ranging in age from six to twelve. This fall I had my first picture book published by The Creative Company, illustrated by Jean Claverie. Motorcycle Queen: The Life of Bessie Stringfield is inspired by the life a real motorcycle stunt women who rode her Harley-Davidson motorcycle around the US in the mid- 20th century. It is an Amazon editor’s pick for best books for ages 6-8. I started writing for kids around 2004. It took over two decades of hard work to get to where I am today. There were many setbacks along the way, and undoubtedly there will be more in my future, but I love what I do.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

This business is a lesson in humility and perseverance. When I first started writing for kids, I would write a manuscript, improve it with feedback, then submit it to editors, asking them to consider publishing it. I did the same with agents, asking for representation. If I was luky enough to get an answer, it was always no. In my experience it was not uncommon to wait a full year for any kind of response from my query letters. I eventually landed in the education market where the business model is entirely different. You get hired to write a book and it comes out within a year. However, I have persisted in writing my own stories, not topics I have been assigned to write, and sending these stories to agents and editors. It can be hard to make the time and commitment to do this, especially when I am busy with contract writing work. But I have always felt I owed it to myself to keep trying. My picture book, Motorcycle Queen, came to life in this way. The Creative Company happened to be interested in publishing a story about overlooked women in history, when I submitted the Motorcycle Queen manuscript to them. I sold the story in 2018 and it came out in 2024. Reese Witherspoon recently talked about how she felt about rejection early in her career. Rejection teaches you perseverance and how to get tough. This resonated with me. I still want to write my own stories and submit them to agents and editors. I am better able to move on from a no, since the early days of submitting. Now, I put stories with too many “NO’s” aside, even if I worked on it for years, and move on to another idea.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

Personally, I gravitate to writing non-fiction stories about strong female protagonists and trailblazers. I especially like stories about women who have been misjudged or erased in history. My stories are for young readers, ages six to twelve. The stories are true stories written in a fiction style. This type of non-fiction is called narrative or creative non-fiction. The emphasis is on the storytelling, but the story remains as accurate to the truth as possible. The books I write for the education market cover a range of topics, from World War Two in Europe to Haunted Houses. I’ll take on any topic because I love the research part of writing non-fiction.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?

A writer always colloborates with an editor. The editors I have worked with over the years have been amazing,. They help me improve my work all the time. It is hard to be a judge of your own prose, so it is tremendously helpful to collaborate with an editor. Not everyone has an editor, so I also rely heavily on two fellow writers We meet monthly to share our work and give each other feedback. I have known these writers for close to 15 years and entirely trust their feedback. I also know many other writers in the children’s literature field. Everyone is very supportive of one another. We know how hard it is to find success. Some of my colleagues have helped me do PR for my latest picture book. They have offerred suggestions about school visits and written about me on their blogs. I am always open to hearing from people who want advice in the children’s literature field or have an idea for a collaborative project.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.janiehavemeyer.com
• Instagram: @janiehavemeyerauthor
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janie-havemeyer-a60a407/

Image Credits

author headshot by @addiehavemeyerdesigns