23-year-old Shelby Lago’s love of writing led her on whirlwind journey
In a process not unfamiliar to writers, Shelby Lago can trace the inspiration for her children’s book to the moment when its first sentence came to her complete and unbidden. The 23-year-old Healdsburg native and recent college graduate officially published her debut children’s book, called “Henry’s Unlikely Friend” last week.
“Henry’s Unlikely Friend” is a short rhyming story about a young boy, who finds friendship in a most unexpected place: with a supposedly fearsome monster hiding under his bed. “He gets up some courage to find out what it is, and they end up becoming friends,” Lago said.
Lago credits a longtime love of writing as a motivation for penning “Henry’s Unlikely Friend,” though before publishing the story, she wrote mostly for her own enjoyment. Inspiration came to her over the course of one summer, when “I was babysitting for a little girl, reading her books all the time,” she recalled. While the writing process took about an hour, the book then sat idle on her computer for two years.
In the intervening time, Lago occasionally made minor tweaks to the document. “One day, when I finally felt like it was pretty good, I decided to read it to my parents and my family, and they had a pretty good reaction to it,” she said. “So I just submitted it from there and then I got lucky and they accepted it.”
While reading her work out loud for the first time proved nerve-wracking, Lago said that the honest feedback her family, who owns local business Healdsburg Signs, promised to provide encouraged her to look toward publishing her work. “I can speak in public, but when it comes to reading my own work I did not want to do it,” she said.
With scant knowledge of the publishing world, Lago said that luck was on her side when she met local author Kristina Ashely at a book signing in Rohnert Park. Ashley, who had published a children’s book through Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, filled Lago in on the details of the publishing process. “I decided that my first step would be to submit to the company that she had submitted to,” Lago said. “Then a month later, they sent me an email telling me they had accepted it.”
Over the year and a half between signing on with Tate Publishing and the official publication date, Lago received a crash course on such publishing details as design and marketing. “They want you to market yourself as well as to have them help you,” she said.
Lago was also given significant oversight of the final look of her book, offering ideas and final approval for illustrations to accompany the story. “My dog is even in the book,” Lago said. “I sent them a picture of my dog, so she’s in there, too.”
According to Lago, she was also surprised that the publishing company provided minimal edits to the story that she submitted. “I did not think that I would ever get accepted to have a big publishing company accept my book,” she said. “I didn’t think that in a million years. And especially to not have them really change anything. It really is my work … I think that anybody who has an idea of writing something, they should just go ahead and submit it.”
Lago was born and raised in Healdsburg, attending Healdsburg High School, Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University, from which she graduated in May. Lago will soon embark on the next leg of her professional journey, as she plans to move to San Diego to attend cosmetology school, hoping to eventually return to Healdsburg to work in, and perhaps one day own, a salon.
In the future, Lago said she may look to publishing more of her work. “I already wrote a couple other things,” she said, “I don’t know if I will submit them, it kind of depends on how this process goes, because it’s so new to me. But it’s been really fun to see my ideas come to life in a book and to have people be able to hold it and see it is really cool.”
Lago hopes to schedule book signings in San Diego, as well as when she returns to Healdsburg during the holidays. “Henry’s Unlikely Friend” is available for purchase through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and through the Tate Publishing website at tatepublishing.com. Softcover ($8.99) and hardcover copies ($12) will also be available for the local community at Healdsburg Signs, at 1200 Healdsburg Ave.
