About

Parsons, Pratt, Rhode Island School of Design.

I’ve walked by all these schools of fine art. I have attended none of them. I’ve always been creative but never thought I could earn my living as an artist. I could write though, so after graduating from college I went into PR and advertising. After getting fired six or seven times, I figured I should work for myself. Besides, I hated wearing panty hose. As an author/illustrator I’ve had a stack of picture books published, a middle grade novel, The Curse of Addy McMahon and a young adult novel, Dancing With the Devil.

– being transparent

– my family

– feeding peoples’ parking meters

– video creation and marketing for writers

– time travel (It just kills me that I can’t do it. Except in books. So at least there’s that.)

– over-delivering

– supporting other writers in their efforts to be successful

– taking naps (Actually, it’s the hours after the nap I love. I keep thinking, “Wow, that nap was awesome. I loved that nap.”)

-teaching people how to improve their writing through one-on-one critiques and through Picture Book Summit, which I co-founded in 2015. (please link Picture Book Summit to picturebooksummit.com)

– Ollie, the cutest dog in the world (I’m so sorry if you were under the impression that your dog is the cutest dog in the world.)

Katie Davis is the author/illustrator of over a dozen traditionally published books for children (picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels). She self-published How to Write a Children’s Book and How to Promote Your Children’s Book, both debuting at #1 on Amazon. All told, they’ve sold over 820,400 copies worldwide.

Because Katie’s secret superpower is her ability to teach writers about writing, tech, and marketing, she created digital courses and products for writers such as How to Create Your Author Platform (and Market Your Books without Being Pushy), Video Idiot Boot Camp, and Launch Your Book Blueprint. She also co-founded Picture Book Summit, the largest and first live online conference of its kind.

Katie’s first podcast Brain Burps About Books was an interview show and began in 2010. Her second is Writing for Children, full of bite-sized, craft oriented lessons. As a regular guest on WTNH, Katie recommended children’s books for four years, and has appeared on the TEDx stage.

She has been honored to speak everywhere from a maximum security prison, to elementary schools, to university level, including UCONN and Yale, and has keynoted conferences and fundraising galas.

In 2015, using her now not so secret superpower, Katie and her husband Jerry Davis took over and ran the Institute of Children’s Literature and its sister school, the Institute for Writers. By the time they sold the school in 2020, over 470,027 people had taken college level writing courses and learned to write for both children and adults.

I was born in New York City, grew up and went to the American College of Paris and graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Boston University. I got married and had two incredibly cute and talented children.

I love to go camping but never do, love to play tennis, which I occasionally do, and love to eat Hot Tamales candy, which I quit doing because I did it too often.

The title above says it’s the fake bio but that is fake. This is the real bio. I am actually a spy and I can karate chop bad guys and make contraptions better than MacGyver that seem like they’re blowing up but they never hurt anyone yet serve to distract the bad guys so all the good guys can run away fast. I can fly and I can eat candy for breakfast and a lot of cake for lunch every day and French fries for dessert yet stay fit and fabulous plus I only need four hours of sleep per night. Heck, make it two hours per night. I’ll get more done that way.

• Graduated from Boston University after studying photo-journalism because I knew I could write and thought there would be less homework (I was wrong about the homework).
• Got 9-5 jobs in advertising and marketing. My dad gave me the entrepreneur gene––turns out 9-5 … bad fit for me.
• In my twenties, started my own business called Dirty Dishes, creating, marketing, and selling hand-painted ceramics nationwide. Macy’s Herald Square store gave me gigantic order. After filling it, I expanded too fast.
• I stopped doing Dirty Dishes. I started licensing my designs. They’re big, especially in Japan, and particularly one called Scared Guy.
• Harcourt, Inc. and Simon & Schuster published my first eight picture books.
• I published one novel each with Greenwillow, (HarperCollins) and Diversion Books, and self-published a picture book and two marketing books, one of which launched at #1 on Amazon.
• 85,000 copies of my book, Kindergarten Rocks! were given to every preschool child by the state of Georgia’s education department.
• In total, my books have sold over a million copies!
• I won a Trailee Award for best book trailer.
• Yikes! Over 20 years of experience in fewer than 10 bullets!