We recently connected with Kristen Acosta and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kristen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

A former colleague of mine planted the idea of writing a book based on an activity I’ve developed for math classrooms. I wrote a proposal to a publisher of education resources in hopes to get them interested in my idea. The publisher got in contact with me and asked me to start writing. I was thrilled and eagerly started outlining the contents of the book. With the publisher’s encouragement, I started writing this incredible resource that could impact thousands if not millions of children all over the country. This was all happening while I was battling breast cancer. I was a determined woman and would not let a little thing like cancer get in my way of me completing this writing project. However, within months of starting this book, the publisher called me to let me know they wouldn’t be publishing it. I was crushed. How could a publishing company raise your spirits and then break you down all within a matter of months?

I set up meetings with other publishers in hopes of getting the project published. Despite my determination, the rejections racked up. My dreams of publishing grew dimmer. The writing project sat on my laptop for a year.

Another colleague asked if I still had this project on my laptop. She, along with my husband, agreed that I should self publish because children need to be impacted by my ideas. I was excited, but yet racked with anxiety. Figuring out how to self-publish my work would be an education unto itself. With plenty of research and encouragement from my inner circle, I hired a graphic designer and a printer to help the project take shape. I had to figure out bar codes, pricing, and copyrights. It was all at times overwhelming. In the end, I published my work and now sell it on my website. I have school districts constantly email me with purchase orders for the book. And as my book gets around, I get butterflies in my stomach because that will be more kids that will be impacted by my work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a math educator for over 25 years. Math educator is a term that describes me being a K-8 math classroom teacher and a district math coach During my time as a district math coach, I started presenting my ideas at local math conferences. I had a website built (KristenAcosta.com) so that I could share mathematically sound resources and ideas to teachers. My. name spread around the mathematical education community. Schools districts and math conferences contact me to train teachers in routines that I’m known for. My small business is called Kristen Acosta Consulting. Thankfully, the work I do with teachers has brought positive results. Students are engaged with math and teachers are exploring ways to make math active. School math scores have increased as high as 10% thanks to my techniques and routines.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I sell my book on my own website (KristenAcosta.com). There are a few reasons why I only sell my book on my website. The first reason is that I wanted to control my own intellectual property. Another reason is that to try to keep the cost as low as I could for my clients (educators), I had to sell on my own website. Other e-commerce sites like Amazon tag on too many fees from your profits. For small businesses like myself, this is an issue. There is a con to not selling on Amazon. Amazon has such a widespread audience and my sales could easily reach more clients. However, I have found that I can “upsell” clients by telling them about my book. If my clients are investing in me as a teacher trainer, then they are invested in my products too.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the reasons that my book didn’t get published with educational publishers is because there was another book on the same subject matter that had been written a few years earlier. In my travels, I constantly heard how it wasn’t a good book for elementary teachers. In my research, I felt that this “other” book was inauthentic and missed the mark with the subject matter. I didn’t understand why the publishers would not publish a second book on the same subject matter.

Despite lots of rejections from a variety of educational publishers, I forged on and self published my own book. I learned to listen to my gut instinct rather than naysayers. It’s been quite a success because as school districts hire me to train their teachers, they also invest in my book. Perseverance can be the key to success (along with not taking “no” as an answer!)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kristenacosta.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristenacostamath/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-acostamath/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristenMAcosta

Image Credits
CAMT, Jen Hunt,