Interview with Laura Schaefer, author of the Planet Explorers series

I met author Laura Schaefer in 2009, after the release of her first middle grade novel, The Teashop Girls. She was the featured speaker at an SCBWI workshop in Madison, Wisconsin, and I was an attendee soaking up her publishing wisdom. After that, we crossed paths several times at various book events. She may have thought I was stalking her, but honest, I wasn't! The writing world can be a small one at times.

Since our first meeting, she's released a new book, The Secret Ingredient, a sequel to The Teashop Girls. Both books were published by Paula Wiseman Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Laura achieved success in the traditional publishing world, but do you think she stopped there? No, she did not. Because she's a new millenium woman, she's also branched out into, yes, you guessed it--the ebook world, this time with a series of non-fiction books for kids.

So now she's the founder and publisher of Planet Explorers, travel guidebooks for kids. I loved the concept and invited her to answer a few questions for the blog.


K.M.: What led you to write travel guides for kids?

L.S.: Planet Explorers came about as the direct result of three different (seemingly unrelated) conversations. The first was an email exchange with my friend Brian, who is a library director in Verona, Wisconsin. He mentioned a few years ago that parents were coming in and asking for travel books geared for readers in elementary school. It seemed incredible to me that this sort of thing didn't already exist, but when I looked into it I found a lot of travel books written for parents traveling WITH kids, not for the children themselves. I also found strictly educational books about states and countries that included information a place's history (but also it's major exports and crops...not exactly scintillating stuff for tourists). I got pretty excited and started contacting every major travel book publisher pitching the idea of kids' travel guides with me as the series author. Some of them were nice in their responses but all of them said no.

To be honest, I moved on to other projects and completely forgot about it.

Then last year, I bought an iPhone and got giddy about apps. My younger brother works in the theme park industry, so when he and I started gabbing about our magical little phones and the concept of "augmented reality," my mind churned and I began talking about developing an app for kids. I have an education bent because I've done a lot of curriculum writing through the years, and my thought was, "wouldn't it be cool if kids could use a phone to learn about a locale's trivia while they're actually there?" I envisioned writing up a fun little quiz for all the major sites in Madison, like the capital, Bascom Hill, the arboretum, etc., etc. But the thing about apps is they require programmers, and I had a budget of zero for that.

Finally, about six months ago, I realized that authors such as yourself and Amanda Hocking were having huge success with ebooks and I could make this concept of "in-the-moment learning" and "kids' travel guides" a reality all on my own. I wouldn't need the help of a publisher OR a programmer. I remember clearly that I was in my car when it all came together in my mind and I almost had to pull over I was so giddy. Planet Explorers was born.

K.M.: You are the author of The Teashop Girls, and The Secret Ingredient, middle grade novels traditionally published by Simon & Schuster. What made you decide to self-publish your travel books as ebooks?

L.S.: I was already interested in ebooks because of all the buzz and I loved, loved, loved the idea of completing a guide and having it published and ready to go a week later. I'm a hugely impatient person and even though I love working with Simon & Schuster and hope to continue to do so, it is really nice to burn through projects at my own pace. The waiting game is a big part of traditional publishing, and to be honest, it just about gives me an aneurism on a regular basis. I can't get used to it. I want action and progress and sales NOW.

The other advantage is the low price point I can offer parents as a result of my choice to self-publish. Planet Explorers guides are $2.99. There is no way a traditional publisher would be able to offer a price that low. I know that the category of "children's nonfiction" is not a big segment of the ebook market yet, but I have faith it will be. It just makes sense to have a guidebook on your smart phone or Kindle. Who wants to carry around the weight of a regular book when you're about to ride Splash Mountain?

K.M.: Your travel guides are filled with fun facts. Can you share a few with us?

L.S.: Sure! Here are some of my favorites.

From Planet Explorers New York City:

*One of the past directors of the Natural History museum was Roy Chapman Andrews, whose expeditions into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia inspired the movie character Indiana Jones.

* The art deco spire on top of the Empire State Building was originally planned to be a mooring mast for blimps (once called dirigibles, zeppelins, or airships). After a few attempts, the idea was abandoned because it was too windy to safely transfer passengers up there. Some say the whole idea was really only a publicity stunt.

From Planet Explorers Walt Disney World:

* The Swiss Family Treehouse is six stories tall and has 330,000 fake leaves attached to it. The Spanish moss is real.

* Some say Pirates of the Caribbean is haunted by a ghost named George.




K.M.: So far you have six travel books in the Planet Explorer series: Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line and Disneyland. How many more are you planning to do?

L.S.: My dream is to do a hundred guides, for both large and medium-sized cities around the globe as well as all the major theme parks. To meet this dream, I'll probably need to work with some additional writers! I am daunted by the potential size of this project, but also really excited about it. I'd love to see the guides evolve to become more and more interactive and visually interesting. I can also foresee writing fiction companions to each of the guides wherein young characters use knowledge and trivia they have about a particular city or theme park to solve a mystery. Wouldn't that be cool? I wish there were more hours in the day!

Thanks so much for interviewing me, Karen. You're the best. :-)

K.M.: You're very welcome, Laura! I wish you every success. :-)

Planet Explorers official website

Planet Explorers on Amazon

Planet Explorers on Barnes & Noble

Planet Explorers on iTunes

Planet Explorers on Smashwords

Planet Explorers on CurrClick

Laura's official bio: Laura Schaefer began her writing career as a book review editor at the University of Wisconsin's student paper The Daily Cardinal. She went on to write regularly for The Princeton Review and Match.com.

Laura is the author of The Secret Ingredient (Simon & Schuster 2011), The Teashop Girls (Simon & Schuster 2008) and Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005). She is also the founder and publisher of Planet Explorers, travel guidebooks for kids. The first four titles in the series are Walt Disney World, Disneyland, New York City and Chicago.

Visit Laura online at www.teashopgirls.com or www.planet-explorers.net. You can also follow her on Twitter (@teashopgirl).

Laura lives in Madison, Wisconsin.