Book announcements – that’s the “it” I’m referring to in the title. I do them all wrong. I know this. I’ve read various “how-to’s” for launching a new book in this digital age. I’ve received plenty of the emails that are meant to make me feel as though I am missing out on the greatest secret, the best bargain, the most amazing opportunity if I don’t hit the “buy now” button in the next five minutes. They’re counting down the minutes even as I hesitate. If still need convincing, here’s what they’re going to add to this amazing, one time only offer.

We’ve all gotten these emails. As an author, many of them are telling me how I can turn my books into best sellers if I will only follow their sure-fire, guaranteed-to-succeed formula. Of course, I want success for my books. I want them to be read.

When I was in the home stretch with “Wishing Well Magic”, I succumbed to one of these offers, just to see what I was missing. Ugh.

That’s all I can say. I would rather sell zero books than sell them that way.

So I am going to market the Kenyon Bear books in the only way I know how. I’m going to do it in the same way that I shared clicker training with all of you. I’m going to begin by believing in the books. I believed in clicker training – not in the way that people mean when they say they believe in the tooth fairy. I knew clicker training worked. I had the evidence not just in my own horses, but in all of my clients’ horses. I knew it was different. I had seen Peregrine stop locking in his stifles after eight years of struggling to make his body work. He didn’t outgrow the problem. He changed how he used his back. Clicker training gave him the agency to own those changes.

I knew clicker training connected me to my horses in a way that was completely different from anything I had experienced up to that point. It was a difference that was hard to describe. How do you describe the colors of a rainbow to someone who has been blind their whole life? Does their understanding of your metaphors come anywhere close to what you experience?

But enough of you became curious about clicker training and gave it a try. I know some people made a mess of things and gave up on it, but many more of you figured it out. You went out to your barns with your pockets filled with treats. Just as I did so many decades ago, you introduced your horses to clicker training. I shared and you shared, and pretty soon people all around the planet were clicker training their horses.

Clicker training is different. It doesn’t look anything like regular horse training. We use treats! We let our horses say “no” to us. We start with protective contact. We hold targets up for our horses to touch. We train in ridiculously small steps – and we change our horses’ lives.

My children’s books are very similar. They don’t fit the mold of what a children’s book should look like. My characters aren’t super heroes out saving the world, but then neither was Winnie the Pooh or Paddington Bear.

I’m not a parent. I didn’t write stories to teach children lessons I wanted them to learn. I write stories I would have wanted to read when I was little – stories that never betray the magic.

You trusted me when I told you clicker training was worth exploring. I’d like you to trust me again with the Kenyon Bear books. These are books children want to read over and over again. They are books they will tuck under pillow as they fall asleep. How do I know? Because when the first three books were published in the 1980’s, that’s what parents told me.

I set the children’s books to the side so I could concentrate on clicker training. That work is on going. There is always more to be learned. You gave clicker training a try for your study-of-one horses. Now I want you to give the Kenyon Bear Books a try for the study-of-one young readers in your life.

“Wishing Well Magic” is book five in the series. It is about Indy – short for Independence. Indy is a bear with Ideas – ideas that end up getting him in a lot of trouble.

You can order the new book through my web site: theclickercenter.com or from Amazon. When you order through Amazon, do please leave a review. Your five star reviews attract the attention of the algorithms which in turn means more people will find the books.

There, I’ve done everything wrong. I’ve written a long post about the books which was actually more about clicker training than it was about the children’s books. I didn’t offer you special deals. I’m not doing anything the marketers are telling me I need to do to beat the Amazon algorithms.

What I am doing is writing really good stories, stories I would have read and loved when I was little. So if you have young readers in your life, or, like me, you still read with pleasure books that the library puts in the children’s book section, do check out the Kenyon Bear Books. All five books in the series are now available at theclickercenter.com or on Amazon.