When a narrator can’t get the characters to behave, all sorts of chaos breaks loose.

Megan Woodward has visited my blog before. She is the very serious author of This Book Is Definitely Not Cursed. She is also a comedy writer with an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA. She loves tacos, hiking, writing dumb jokes, and laughing till she pees her pants. Megan lives in Portland, Oregon, with her kid, partner, bonus kid, and two cats. They all happen to have butts. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTTS is a meta picture book. The narrator tries to get the characters to behave, but they all misunderstand with increasing hilarity. It’s no wonder a book this funny got published!

Welcome back Megan!

Me: I love how funny your story is. It’s so tongue-in-cheek. What gave you the idea?

Megan: This idea started with the title. Sometimes I play around with idioms and puns in order to come up with funny story ideas, and so I was doing that when I came up with NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTTS. Almost immediately, I pictured an uptight narrator who didn’t want anything inappropriate in the book, including butts. And the cast of uncooperative characters (who happen to have butts) was a natural development from there.

Me: I love how conversational the book is; it seems so simple but we know nothing is ever simple in a picture book! How hard was it to make it fit into a 32-page format with such excellent page turns? Did it undergo a lot of revisions?

Megan: Not a LOT of revisions, but a few. I definitely had way too many funny joke ideas for this, and a lot of them had to be cut. But the version my agent submitted is the version that got published. There were almost no changes from my editor, and the rest was really up to Janelle Wahren to work her magic on to make it fit into a 32 page format. I can’t take credit for that part.

Me: Can you talk a little bit about how your book came to be at Albert Whitman & Co.? I understand that they filed for bankruptcy recently. Did you submit your manuscript before then? Or did it somehow catch their eye in some other way?

Megan: No, this manuscript was subbed to them AFTER they filed for bankruptcy. They are still accepting submissions! I honestly didn’t even know my agent was submitting to them, and likely would have told her not to, had I known. I did have some hesitation about signing with them, but in the end I decided that they must need to keep purchasing books in order to stay in business and pay back authors they owe. So I’m really hoping that my book helps with that. And so far, I think my decision was a good one. Albert Whitman has been great to work with so far, and nobody else was willing to take a chance on this out-there manuscript, so… I am grateful to them for that. Otherwise, this would likely never have gotten into kids’ hands. I hope they stay in business just so they can keep publishing innovative books!

Me: There is advice out there for picture book writers that meta manuscripts are done and over with; some say the same thing about butt jokes or potty humor. Yet, here you are with your second meta manuscript being published, which includes a ton of butt jokes! How did you sell this one? Can you talk about marketing it a little bit?

Megan: Ha. I never really pay much attention to trends or what I am supposed to write or not write. I write what I love, what I find funny, and what I think kids will find funny. And I found this one HILARIOUS. It cracked me up while I was writing it. It made my agent LOL when I queried her with it. And then my editor Josh Gregory and his team at Albert Whitman were supposedly in stitches when it went to acquisitions. (And hopefully kids will find it funny too). I think you can break all those supposed rules if the manuscript is good/ funny enough. Trends don’t really matter if a manuscript happens to land in the right person’s lap at the right time. Marketing? I’m terrible at that. I mean I’m definitely doing all the usual promotional stuff— blogs, social media, some in person events, a podcast interview… but really hoping word of mouth will help this one. So spread the word for my butts, please!

Me: HA! What is one thing that surprised you in writing this story?

Megan: Surprising? Not much really. I had a vision for this story from the start. And that’s pretty much what I put on “paper.” So maybe the surprising part was how easily it just flowed once I started. Also, I don’t know where the Taco character came from. That sort of just popped into my head at the spur of the moment— and it just made perfect nonsensical sense to include a taco in a book about butts.

Me: The illustrations by Janelle Wahren are pitch perfect. I love the creativity all throughout the story. Did you have any art notes for this one? Were there any illustration surprises for you? Any favorites?

Megan: Because so many of the jokes relied on the visuals vs text, I did have a LOT of art notes. I also got to have some input on Warren’s illustrations— a lot of which was just making sure that the jokes were landing visually— which really depended on the proper placement of words and illustrations on the page. But Janelle added her own amazing little surprising details I loved like the buff rams and the parrot on the pirate’s shoulder.  My favorite illustrations are of Taco, though. Maybe that’s because Taco was always my favorite character to begin with— but Janelle definitely did her justice.

Me: Now that you have published a couple of picture books at this point in your career, I have to ask: what habits have you found helpful to maintain your creativity? What do you do to set yourself up for success with your writing?

Megan: I don’t really have any trouble maintaining my creativity. In fact, the opposite is kind of true. I come up with new ideas for PBs constantly. It’s almost overwhelming. So the harder part is deciding which ones to focus on. But I have an amazing agent and fantastic critique partners who help a lot with that. I also want to focus more on Middle Grade, so I do force myself to dedicate at least one or two days a week to writing pages in one of the MG stories I’m working on. As I’m getting closer to my book release, I am spending more and more time on promotion and planning for that, so it’s harder to get writing done, but I’m still doing SOME writing every week. And I’ve already written about 6-7 new picture books this year. So I guess my habit is— just don’t stop writing.

Well, that is still great to hear! Thanks for stopping by my blog again Megan.

Dear readers, this book publishes next week. If you’re looking to see what funny books are getting published these days, you won’t want to miss this one.