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Benjamin wrote in a recent letter to FutureWord the reason he submitted to a US publisher.
"Well, I was having hard luck with English agents here in the UK. Because of the recession, most were sticking with their "sure things". So on a prayer, I emailed Valerie my full manuscript hoping that she might like and recommend it to her friends (at this point I didn't know who Futureword were). A week or so later I got an email telling me she loved it to which I said, "Thank you very much".
Then a week later Valerie said that she had emailed my manuscript to one of her friends (Cheryl Haynes) and that she will let me know when she made a decision.
This took about 3 weeks. In the meantime I researched Cheryl Haynes and her site and made notes and was very impressed of all of its staff. This made me very anxious for her decision... which at first wasn't what I hoped for lol but in time she decided to take me on and here we are now!!"
FutureWord told the author that his book had a very high potential for a British audience. He insisted that the US audience would be a bigger one. He had been working on these series of stories in his mind long before he located an illustrator. Perseverance is one true sign of a winner. FutureWord let him try his hand at placing it with a UK publisher first. We couldn't believe we were lucky enough to have the story. Just reading it gave this publisher ideas . . .created brainstorms within. I contacted Lea Heil and asked her if she could write a musical score to go with Benjamin's lyrics. There is a rare and unique tale here. He never really showed Valerie the full manuscript for the illustrations. He only told her what he wanted for the pictures. She complied. Such was an extraordinary way of getting a book illustrated. You can almost read the whole process on the Little Rockin' Roger fan page created back in 2008.
Benjamin teaches young teens in IT but keeps a private collection of Little Rockin' Roger stories in his back pocket for when these are sold. The 48 page, perfect bound 8 by 10 is fully illustrated and can be purchased in the US for $12.99 and in the UK for as little as £7.78.
The book is also sold globally and at all retail online bookstores including Barnes and Noble.
So now, what is and who is Little Rockin' Roger? He's everywhere on the Internet. Roger, his mother and his pet fish move to a new home. Roger hums to himself at night because he's afraid. Someone or something starts to hum the tune back to Roger. He suspects ghosts but he can't be sure. Then a mouse leads him to the old attic where a magic glass guitar will make him become the next rock star!
The children can sing the song if the parents can read the musical score. It's a lovely way to teach children to love arts and culture. It helps them to learn music and gives the family a sense of togetherness.
Little Rockin' Roger just may rock your world like he has some of the people on his fan page.
Check out www.littlerockin'Roger.com or go to Facebook. He's listed there too!
Little Rockin' Roger! Oh, yeah! Little Rockin' Roger! Oh, Yeah!
