By Trevor Pacelli

2023 is ending, so I figured now would be a good time to share some of my upcoming projects for 2024, as well as how working on these projects has given me multiple opportunities to be a storyteller.
In 2023 I published the first book in a series, What Movies Can Teach Us About Disabilities, which discusses the good and bad representation of disabilities in film. For example, Good Will Hunting is an example of positive representation of mental disorders because it depicts people with such disorders as fully human and needing professional help. On the contrary, The Elephant Man is an example of negative facial disfigurement representation because it depicts a man like Joseph Merrick as totally helpless without the guidance of an able-bodied person.
My approach to writing that book, however, was much different than the next book in the series, What Movies Can Teach Us About Bullying. For this one, I had to focus less on categorizing types of bullying and more on delving into how specific movies portray bullying. For example, a whole chapter is dedicated to how Mean Girls shows the toxicity of class royalty and how it can taint anyone who comes too close to the cult-like behavior of a social clique. I discuss ten movies in this upcoming book with more depth than I could do with my previous book, in turn opening up my storytelling capabilities as I help raise awareness of why some movies would be considered good and others not so good.
Another book I published in 2023 with Pacelli Publishing was The Kindergarten Adventures of Amazing Grace: What in the World is Autism? It was written by my sister and illustrated by me in 2008, and in 2023, I formatted, illustrated and published a new edition of the book. I’ve gotten great feedback on the quality of my illustrations, and it makes me feel good knowing that I can convey emotion through static images to help children understand the stories they’re reading. So now, as I enter 2024, I’ll begin writing and illustrating the next installment of this series, The Kindergarten Adventures of Amazing Grace: A Field Trip to the Zoo.
There’s one more book I plan to publish in 2024, a grade-school novel called The Fruit Virus, where the plants throughout San Diego mutate into durian trees, causing mass hysteria across the city. I wanted to write a fiction book for a while because I see this as my ultimate outlet for storytelling; being a film studies major with an emphasis on screenwriting. I have enjoyed applying what I learned in college. I want to write for this age group specifically because second through sixth grade was my peak time period for reading books I actually enjoyed, and I’ve been told I’m good at relating to kids. A deeper reason is that I don’t want the lower attention spans of children to lead to lower quality in storytelling.
Besides my books, I will continue to tell stories about myself through blog posts such as this one. I’ll be sharing my life experiences so others can get a taste of what it’s like living on the autism spectrum. Each experience will be a story that includes a beginning, middle, and end. They will speak the truth about what will best help parents and their autistic kids during holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
All around, I’m glad to say that since I started working at Pacelli Publishing over two years ago, I’ve gotten closer to realizing my potential as a storyteller. I’m now writing three different book series for three very different age groups and in three different styles. My writing skills are not perfect, but I hope for 2024 to be a year of improvement in my body of work.
In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for being such loyal followers of Pacelli Publishing in the last year and for giving us the chance to make our stories heard. Can’t wait to see what kind of stories await us all in 2024!

We are now 2 weeks into 2022 and we hope you are having a happy, healthy, productive start to your new year.

What have we been up to?

In September, we added our son, Trevor, to our team as Chief Storyteller. You may know Trevor as the author of Six-Word Lessons on Growing Up Autistic. He wrote and published it almost 10 years ago and it remains our top seller. Now, as our in-house author, he is working on a book about various disabilities and what we can learn about them from movies. He also works on social media and design and is learning all aspects of the publishing business. Trevor has a Bachelor's degree in film and media studies and has produced a movie-review blog, Trevor's View on Hollywood, since 2014. 

We are currently working with an author in Pennsylvania on a Six-Word Lessons book about how to tell your community's story, and we are in discussion with several authors about their books, including a memoir from someone born in the early 1930s.

As a family company, Lonnie, Trevor and I are here to edit, design, and publish your book--whether it's a Six-Word Lessons templated book, a  Tell Your Story book about your company or life, or any custom book you have in mind. And we can work with authors from anywhere.

We are always happy to talk by phone, on-screen or in-person to give you more information about how the publishing process works, whether it's with us or another publisher or avenue.

Thank you for your support and we hope you have a wonderful 2022. Please let us know how we can help with your book-writing and publishing goals.

​Patty, Lonnie and Trevor Pacelli

P.S. We would love it if you would follow us on Instagram and Facebook! 



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--By Patty Pacelli and Karen Lynn Maher

Whether your manuscript is self-published, traditionally published, or independently published, you need to know that it's ready for the next phase before it can be published and offered for sale. Along with our colleague, Karen Lynn Maher of LegacyOne Authors, we have defined the three phases of manuscript readiness and what you need to do to move ahead to get your book published.

Phase 1 - Content Ready
Karen works with authors as a coach to help them with much of this phase. We work with Six-Word Lessons authors to help them through this phase as well. Here are the main steps you need to have your content ready:

• Clear message - Know what you want to say and make sure it's very easy for your target readers to understand.
• Purposeful - Know your specific audience and write only to them with the purpose in mind.
• Compelling - Set your book apart by evoking interest and attention. Make your message irresistible and fascinating to your readers.
• Well-researched - Avoid mistakes and inconsistencies by doing thorough research for all aspects of your book.
• Copyright diligence - Make sure everything is your own original idea, and get necessary permissions for any outside information, including appropriate citations and attributions. 

Phase 2 - Manuscript Ready
In this phase, you will work with peers and professionals to contribute to preparing the book for publication.

• Peer/audience review - Ask 3 to 5 colleagues or experts in the field to read a PDF copy of the book. Listen to their suggestions, but make changes as you see fit. They are not looking for typos, or doing copy editing, but giving overall advice about content, based on their knowledge of the subject. Friends and family are not recommended as they will tell you what you want to hear.
• Professional editing - This can be done before or after the peer review. It may involve developmental (big picture) editing, or only copy/line editing for grammar, punctuation and clarity. 
• Title choice - This important part of your book must be finalized before going into the next phase of production.
• Front and back matter written - Don't forget the extra parts of your book, such as acknowledgements, dedication, introduction, foreword, testimonials, or anything else you would like to put before and after the main body of the book.
• Jacket copy written - This is the text that will go on the back of the book, and can be used for the book description on Amazon.
• Author certainty - Make sure the book is exactly how you want it and has no mistakes before proceeding to the next phase.

Phase 3 - Production Ready
In this final phase, your publisher will work with you to make decisions about the final physical book product and help produce it and get it up for sale. Whether you do it yourself or use various teams of publishers or vendors, the goal is to make the book look like a traditionally-published book. The Independent Book Publishers Association has an Industry Standards Checklist for a Professional Published Book that will help in this phase. 

• Trim size - Decide what size and shape you want your book, considering number of pages, cover design, number of pages and more.
• Cover design - This includes the front, back and spine and must be coordinated with the interior book design and follow specifications of your printer. 
• Interior design - Decide on typography fronts throughout book, paper color and other design features. There are templates available on createspace.com and other websites.
• ISBNs assigned - Your publisher will have access to an International Standard Book Number, which must be assigned to any published book. If you publish with createspace.com, you can have them assign one for free. 
• Professional proofreading - You should have someone outside of the author, publisher or editor proofread the final version, both cover and interior, for any last-minute errors. This is not a time to make major content changes. 
• Author approval to print - You are responsible for giving final approval that you are ready to print and publish your book.
• Key words - If publishing on Amazon or any e-book platform, you will be asked for 5 to 7 key words. Do some research to find the best key words someone would use to find your book. 
• Establish accounts - You will set up author accounts with whatever online Print-on-Demand or e-book publisher you use, such as IngramSpark, Createspace, Kindle Direct Publishing or Smashwords. Your publisher may help with this.
• Author and book marketing plan - Make a plan for how you will market and sell your book, starting with an Amazon Author Page if your book is on Amazon. 

For help or advice with any of these phases, please contact us here at Pacelli Publishing, or Karen Lynn Maher at [email protected] or 206-913-8883 and we would be happy to answer questions or discuss in more detail. Good luck with your writing and publishing! 

Patty and Karen

Paths to Becoming a Published Author
You are invited to a workshop on the basics of book publishing and will explain the various paths to getting published. Even if you have already published with Pacelli Publishing, another publisher, or on your own, you will walk away with a better understanding about the best path for you and how to prepare for the best experience possible. 

The event is sponsored by Women Business Owners and is free for members and $10 for nonmembers. You can attend for free with this code: WBOFREE. You must register in advance.

May 31, 10 a.m. - noon
Bellevue Square Microsoft Store