Boardrooms To Bedtime Stories: How A Bay Area Businessman Became A Children’s Author

SAN MATEO, CA — A Bay Area investment banker first came up with his ideas for illustrated children’s books over 30 years ago, and he published his third book May 6.

When Scott Sollers, 76, of San Mateo Park, is asked what he does for a living nowadays, he semi-jokingly says he is a professional golfer. But really he has established himself as a children’s author after releasing his third book, “Ellie’s Dancing Shoes,” in what he calls the “Stephanie’s Stories,” series. But it was not a profession he came by naturally.

"I was an investment banker. I worked with math my whole life,” Sollers told Patch. “I had no aptitude for [creative pursuits]. The fact that I stumbled into this category is fascinating."

After serving in the U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corp and working with NASA research on the East Coast, Sollers wanted to move back to the West Coast and had family living in the Bay Area.

His wife was working at a brokerage firm and her company’s managing partner wanted help in municipal finances, specifically doing bond issues for public agencies. He had no formal finance or accounting training but learned on the job.

“For the next five years, I learned about municipal finance, and I met a lot of clients in California, cities and counties,” Sollers told Patch.

He eventually became chairman of the firm and completed around 1,000 transactions. He also served as chairman of a federal regulatory agency in a similar field.

While Sollers was toiling away with numbers at work, he received a new assignment at home.

He was putting his daughter Stephanie to bed one night, when she was six years old, and she asked him to tell her a story. He came up with one on the spot and she enjoyed it. But a few nights later she asked him to tell the story again and, well, he forgot it.

Going forward, every time he told her a story he wrote an outline of it on a piece of paper. He kept this up for about a year and all of a sudden he had 18 story outlines.

He bought a blank book, chose the 13 most developed stories and hand wrote them on the pages. He even illustrated them with colored pencils.

"When I would read these stories, my imagination just flourished. I could visualize what was going on. I was drawn into the book,” Sollers told Patch. “I have no idea where these stories came from. They just materialized."

Years later, when Stephanie was much older and moved on from her bedtime stories, he typed them out and created PDFs that he would give out to friends to read to their children.

It wasn’t until he started having grandchildren that he thought about getting them published.

He spent three years searching for a publisher and learned that the best route for him would be one where he shared about a quarter of the publishing costs. Then began the process of actually publishing.

"It takes about a year from the time the publisher decides to start editing our manuscript,” Sollers told Patch. “Publishing a book is an arduous process."

The publishers connected him with marketers and he was able to choose from 25 illustrators. He chose, in his opinion, the best two from the list and, after a while, his first book was ready to publish.

His first book “A Tall Tale: How the Ostriches Got Their Long Necks and Long Legs,” was illustrated by Alejandro Echavez and is about how a barren community tries to take from another, leading to a tug-of-war that stretches the animals into ostriches. The story resolves with the communities agreeing to live together. Sollers told Patch this conflict and resolution theme is consistent in his children's books and that the core of this story remains unchanged from when he first told it to his daughter 30 years ago.

Sollers’ second book, “Adventures at Lake Omigosh,” illustrated by Bryan Janky, is about best friends Felix and Harry who are excited for summer at Camp Horizon in New Hampshire, where they plan to bike, hike and canoe on Lake Omigosh. A local legend tells of a mysterious creature in the lake. During a canoeing trip, a storm puts the boys in danger when their canoe flips, leaving them stranded. But, who will rescue them?

Sollers’ third book “Ellie’s Dancing Shoes,” also illustrated by Janky, is about a young girl who dreams of being a ballerina but lacks talent and is disheartened. Her mother gives her ballet shoes, claiming they were hers, which instantly boosts Ellie’s confidence. Years later, after losing and then finding similar shoes, the girl becomes the lead dancer for the New York ballet. Her parents reveal they were never her mother's, which emphasized her confidence and success. This story is also family-focused and centers on a challenge overcome through self-belief.

"These books will be a legacy for my grandkids and their kids. I just am so happy this got formalized, so there's some traction for these being around for the next number of years," Sollers told Patch.

He has also received great feedback from what he considers to be the most important source.

"What matters to me is that kids like the stories. I've been told by a number of parents that their child has just devoured my books," Sollers told Patch.

His daughter Stephanie is now 36 years old and doesn’t need the stories anymore. But Sollers is happy to keep producing them for kids looking for a tale before bed. He currently has two more in production and thinks he could produce an additional 10. He recently started receiving some royalties but said that’s not why he publishes them.

"I am profoundly grateful to the life I've had, the people I've met and the opportunities that have presented to me over time. The books are a way for me to give back and to bring joy to others," Sollers told Patch.

Check out his website to purchase the books and learn more about him and his work.