{"id":4188,"date":"2020-09-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/?post_type=customer-spotlight&p=4188"},"modified":"2025-05-06T19:41:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:41:36","slug":"herald-and-sons","status":"publish","type":"customer-spotlight","link":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/herald-and-sons\/","title":{"rendered":"Herald and Sons Publishing: The Ultimate Father-Son DIY Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ethan Herald is a natural storyteller. Almost as soon as he started talking, he made up fully-fleshed characters and\n told his parents all about them \u2014 what they did, where they went, what they wanted for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, five-year-old Ethan is a published author \u2014 thanks to his dad, Brian Herald. Herald, a technical writer by\n trade, was amused at his son\u2019s stories and started jotting them down to remember them. Eventually, he realized\n that many of Ethan\u2019s stories were more than a child\u2019s ramblings; they had recognizable plots with beginning, middle,\n and end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne story in particular really stood out, so I thought that it would be cool to turn it into a book for him and\n surprise him with it,\u201d Herald says. \u201cSo I wrote it out and broke it into pages and made a full story out of it and\n hired an illustrator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He printed a few dozen copies to share and expected to stop there. But soon, Herald dug into the world of\n self-publishing, and the more he learned about the industry, the more he wanted to see what he could do with his son\u2019s\n stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how Herald and Sons\n Publishing<\/a>, the ultimate father-son DIY project, got off the ground. To provide a platform for Ethan\u2019s stories,\n Herald started up their own indie publishing house. \u201cOn our website, we say it tongue-in-cheek: We are building a\n publishing empire on a foundation of child labor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herald and his sons, Ethan and four-year-old Jonah, are a year into the project and have collaborated on two books,\n with a third scheduled to hit the presses this month. To flesh out a world around their characters and engage\n audiences, Herald is experimenting with activities, coloring pages, and videos \u2014 all hosted on their trusty DreamHost website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Telling Good Stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Brian
Brian Herald and his sons Ethan and Jonah showing off their published books and\n the Herald and Sons website<\/a>.\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Herald was part of his own father-and-son business. His dad owned Herald and Sons Construction, and he\n fondly remembers helping out on projects when he was young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe still has one of the \u2018Herald and Sons Construction\u2019 signs hanging up in his garage,\u201d Herald says. \u201cI still see\n that every time I go over. And when I thought of the name Herald and Sons Publishing, I was just like, \u2018Oh man, that\u2019s\n just too perfect. I can\u2019t not do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herald built his humble\n \u201cpublishing empire\u201d<\/a> to provide a home for Ethan\u2019s books online, and the additional projects he creates. From the\n beginning, Herald wanted to make sure to put out a quality story that other kids could relate to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted them to be good stories,\u201d he says, \u201cwith a moral, a lesson, or substance to them, not just these tangents\n that my kids go on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their first book, Forest Explorer<\/em>, features Nino and his younger sister, Tenna \u2014 characters who have\n basically become members of the family now, thanks to Ethan\u2019s detailed descriptions of the two and their adventures.\n In the story, Nino goes on a walk in a forest near his home. He notices flowers, insects, and the smells of the\n forest, and then spots a forest fire, which he tries to put out until the fire department comes to save the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herald asks his sons questions to flesh out and fully develop each story, pushing for more and more details \u2014\n including ones only a kid could dream up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI asked Ethan, \u2018So, how did that fire start?\u2019\u201d Herald says. \u201cAnd he\u2019s like, \u2018A dragon came down and sprayed fire.\u2019\n Oh, of course, the dragon started the fire. Obviously, it wasn\u2019t because the bush was dry, and it was a strong wind or\n anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herald wrote that answer down with a smile, hoping that his son\u2019s thinking would connect well with other children. He\n asked for more details about what Nino saw in the woods, and \u201cI realized that there was a moral there, or a lesson,\n which is being curious \u2014 like, you should always be aware of what\u2019s around you, and you should be curious about what\u2019s\n going on. So I try to infuse that in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forest Explorer<\/em> \u2014 plus its sequel Picture This, Imagine That<\/em> \u2014 and a\n soon-to-be-published Nino and Tenna camping adventure story are available as printed books, e-reader downloads, and\n even audiobooks. Herald hopes these stories, along with the accompanying printable activities<\/a> from his website,\n have some role in promoting language learning among young readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal has become to entertain and inform readers while promoting literacy and language learning,\u201d Herald says.\n \u201cThe stories and the kids\u2019 activities and coloring pages are based around developing language, using repetition with\n words. In the back of my mind, I keep asking, \u2018How is this helpful? Is this actually contributing something to the\n kids reading the story?\u2019 I don\u2019t want them reading empty words with nothing behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong> This\n DreamHost Customer Is Helping a Generation of Young Women Own Their Power<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibility Through Self Publishing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Forest Explorer<\/em> was never supposed to be more than a fun surprise for Ethan and Jonah. But through the\n process of writing and printing it, Herald was introduced to the world of self-publishing \u2014 and the idea that he could\n take action to bring Nino and Tenna to a wider audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got really into a few podcasts, and one in particular, called The Self Publishing\n Show<\/a>,\u201d Herald says. \u201cIt just really struck me how they take a marketing perspective, and not just say, \u2018You\u2019re a\n great writer; your stories deserve to be told.\u2019 It was more focused on, like, the logical steps you can take to\n promote your stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Herald understood there were steps he could take to market his stories, he took it on as a personal challenge to\n see how far he could take Herald and Sons. He doesn\u2019t sell the books directly on his website, but they\u2019re available\n from a number of online retailers, including Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmazon has a really great platform for independent publishers where they offer a print-on-demand service,\u201d Herald\n says. \u201cOriginally, my plan was to set up a seller account and just mail these things out one by one. But that simply\n is not scalable \u2014 I can\u2019t be going to the post office every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s also made the print and audiobooks available to libraries, both locally and around the country, and can track\n when the book is checked out. \u201cTo see it getting discovered in a library and then checked out and listened to, it\u2019s\n kind of cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong> Bibliophiles,\n Unite! Meet the DreamHost Customers Behind Silent Book Club<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking Like a Marketer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Herald has found marketing his books to be a challenge, and he really enjoys that aspect of publishing children\u2019s\n stories. He stays up late at night filling Excel sheets with potential keywords<\/a>, crafting ad\n copy, and finding new ways to get Ethan\u2019s characters in front of more people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just put a book out and just sit there and wait for it to do anything,\u201d he says.
You have to build a\n world around it, have activities that go along with it, and engage people \u2014 get them interested and give people\n something to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of his challenges is catering to two different audiences. The books and corresponding activities are used by\n children \u2014 but the ones doing the spending are parents and grandparents. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to reach the parents and create\n something that they think their kids would enjoy. That\u2019s really tricky, and I\u2019m still working on getting the right\n voice and brand to present our stories as something a lot of kids would like to read.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key piece to organically growing an audience is creating fun, engaging activities and other materials freely\n available online that can introduce kids (and their parents) to Nino and Tenna. Herald offers activity books<\/a> and\n other printable\n activities<\/a>, including weekly word searches, mazes, coloring pages, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particularly popular are his kid\u2019s\n calendars<\/a>. Released each month in color and as coloring pages, the calendars list one fun holiday<\/a> \u2014 think \u201cWiggle\n Your Toes Day\u201d or \u201cChocolate Chip Cookie Day\u201d \u2014 for each day of the month. Herald promotes these calendars on social\n media, using them as a way to bring visitors to his website and build his email marketing list<\/a>.\n At the beginning of a new month, he advertises them on social media and sees big increases in website traffic \u2014 but\n always trusts his web host<\/a> to\n keep everything loading quick and smoothly, even on busy days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home Base<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Ethan
Ethan and his son dropping some copies of a story into Little Library boxes\n around town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This wasn\u2019t the first time Herald has built and managed a website, though. He played drums in a band and started\n a flooring business with a friend and, in both cases, dreaded working on the websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Herald and Sons, he took a leap of faith and switched over to a WordPress\n site<\/a> hosted by DreamHost. Herald had been intimidated by WordPress in the past, but found it surprisingly\n easy and user friendly \u2014 and much more detailed, powerful, and effective than other platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m loving it; it\u2019s so easy to use,\u201d Herald says. \u201cIt does such a good job. I wish I\u2019d used it to begin with other\n websites I\u2019ve worked on.\u201d He does most website updates on a browser, but sometimes he has to make a quick update or\n has a brilliant idea on the go and uses the WordPress app on his phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herald runs social media accounts for the business, but he doesn\u2019t spend a lot of time using them specifically to\n grow his audience. Concerned about social\n media platforms<\/a> and changing algorithms that impact how followers find activities and updates, Herald\n decided to focus primarily on his website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to have your own space, your own home base,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m trying to do a lot of different things\n for marketing, like Facebook and Amazon advertisements, and just using social media a little bit. The website has been\n huge in this, because everything I come up with, it all goes up on the website, and that\u2019s our home base for\n everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website is also key to building\n an email marketing list<\/a>, too. WordPress through DreamHost integrates seamlessly with MailChimp to help people\n sign up for the newsletter to learn about activities and get the kids\u2019 calendar through email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herald is happy with his choice to use\n DreamHost for his website<\/a> \u2014 a choice that was solidified days after he signed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got an email from a marketing manager; her name was Marissa,\u201d he says. \u201cShe reached out just to say hi and check\n in, you know, to see if I needed anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They emailed back and forth a bit. Herald discovered that Marissa had a new baby at home and ended up sending her a\n copy of Ethan\u2019s story. \u201cThat was a personal touch that felt really great,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was validation that I was\n going on the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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