Creative MO
Hi. I’m Miki.
I built BookBassadors because I needed it, couldn’t find it, and decided to stop waiting for someone else to build it.
Author. Nine books published and two more on the way. Working more hours than any reasonable person should and doing everything it takes to make this career real. Not someday. Now.
I know what it costs to write a book. Not just the money. The time you steal from sleep. The pieces of yourself you pour into every page. The belief you have to keep choosing even on the days when it feels completely insane. I know all of it because I am living it right alongside you.
And I know what it feels like to finish something you are genuinely proud of and then stand there thinking now what?
I looked for a marketing company that understood authors. That charged real prices. That actually delivered. I couldn’t find one. So I did what any reasonable, slightly unhinged, deeply determined author-entrepreneur would do.
I built it myself.
“If you build it they will come. So I built it.“
1995
August 1995. I had a brand new baby, a gut feeling that I was meant for something else entirely, and a factory job that paid the bills but was absolutely not my vibe.I took an H&R Block tax course on a whim. Liked it more than I expected. Enrolled at Penn State that fall, drove to Altoona for classes with a newborn at home, and that tax season I started my own business out of my house. Tax Specialties was born.
I made my own envelopes. Printed the logo myself. A little lady with her hair in a bun and a big pencil. Cut them out. Glued them on. Took out ads in the Bedford Gazette for something like seventy dollars a month which felt like everything at the time. And people came.
My mom was my first employee. She worked third shift and would come straight to my house when she got off, watch the kids, stuff envelopes, answer the phone, and meet clients at the door while my babies crawled around under the desk. That is the kind of team you cannot hire. That is family.
Tax season meant wherever I was, work came with me. I did taxes on a mat at my daughters gymnastics meets. Found a quiet corner, opened my bag, and got it done. Because that is what you do when you are building something and life does not stop for it.
They dropped their tax documents in my mailbox on their way to third shift and picked them up on their way back home. I met people in driveways. I worked around nap schedules and feeding schedules and the particular chaos of new parenthood. And I built something real.
I offered two day refunds. I called mine Fast Cash. H&R Block called theirs Rapid Refund. H&R Block corporate sent me a cease and desist letter. Not the H&R Block down the street. Corporate.
That is where this all started. A mailbox in Pennsylvania. A homemade envelope. A newborn. And a refusal to believe that the way things were done was the only way they could be done. I built my independence out of necessity. There came a time in my life when I understood with complete clarity that I had to be able to take care of my children on my own. So I learned how. And I never stopped.
I did a lot of the wrong things for what felt like the right reasons. That is called survival. And I am not ashamed of any of it. Everything I have built since then has come from that same place.
The part where I get real with you.
I once spent $11,000 on a program that published my book under someone else’s name. And I did not even know that was happening until it was done.
When I first started out I spent $11,000 on a program because I was brand new to publishing and I did not know what I did not know. ISBNs. What they meant. Who should own them. Why it mattered. None of that was explained. And when you are new and eager and trusting, you sign things you would never sign if you understood what you were actually agreeing to.
The program gave me a foundation. Some good prompts. The basics.
But then they said, now let’s take it one step further. And I thought, great. Let’s learn how publishing actually works.
I disagreed with almost everything they said.
Don’t start your website yet. Wrong. Mine was already up and it was already working. Don’t find your illustrator until step X. Wrong. I needed to know my look and feel before anything else. Don’t get your illustrator on Fiverr. Wrong. I found mine there. She was Illustrator of the Year for 2025. We have won awards together. So.
But the kicker? At the end of all of it they published my book under their ISBN. Their company name appeared as the publisher of my book. The book I wrote. The book I paid to have illustrated. The book I poured myself into. And I did not fully understand what that meant until it was already done.
I was so pissed.
The book is still out there under their name. But the moment I understood what had happened I stopped selling it. I created a new cover, put Special Edition on the front, bought my own ISBN, added my own publishing logo, and started over. My book. My name. My way.
And then I found my printing company in China. And they actually taught me things. How to format a dust jacket. How the whole process actually works. They treated me like a partner not a customer with a credit card. I cannot wait to connect other authors with them.
I am telling you this story because I want you to know exactly who you are working with. Someone who has been in the trenches. Made the expensive mistakes so you don’t have to. And built something specifically to make sure no author ever has to feel that way again.
You won’t find any of that here. Not ever.
Before the books there was a whole other story.
I have been a marketer, a writer, and a teacher my entire professional life. BookBassadors is not a pivot. It is the full circle.
Before I was an author I spent years in the travel industry. Not just as an agent but as a writer, an educator, and a marketer at the highest level of the field.
I wrote a monthly column for Agent@Home magazine. I contributed regularly to Vacation Agent magazine. I worked alongside Mark Murphy, founder of TravelPulse, one of the most influential media platforms in the travel industry. I ran weekly webinars teaching hundreds of travel agents how to build better websites, market their businesses, and grow their brands. I loved every single minute of it.
And then I won the Travvy Award for Marketer of the Year. Which I had set my sights on years before I won it. Because that is how I work. I decide what I want, I build toward it with everything I have, and I get there.
I have always been someone who takes what she knows and gives it to other people so they can do better.
I tell you this not to brag, although honestly the Travvy still makes me smile, but because I want you to understand something important. When BookBassadors teaches you about marketing, visibility, outreach, and building an author brand, it is not coming from someone who read some books about it. It is coming from someone who has been doing it, winning at it, and teaching it for over a decade across two industries.
Your book is in excellent hands.
The proof is in the pages.
We build things that win. That has always been true.
In travel, I won the Travvy Award for Marketer of the Year. In business, I built companies that made industry leaders take notice. And in publishing, the books have spoken for themselves.
Bentley’s Fantabulous Idea has won over 40 awards across all titles including the Mom’s Choice Award, the OCA Clash of Champions Award, the American Writing Award, the Feathered Quill Award, the BookFest Award, the International Impact Award, the Firebird Book Award, Story Monsters Approved, The Wishing Shelf Award, the Purple Dragonfly Award, the Golden Wizard Award, the NYC Big Book Award, the Unleash the Dream Award, Readers Choice recognition, and a Chanticleer International Book Award shortlist for Bentley’s Fantabulous Idea.
And then Bentley Finds a Hippopotomonsterous won the Chanticleer Little Peeps 2025 Grand Prize in Children’s Fiction.
The Grand Prize. Not a category finalist. The Grand Prize.
I share this not to show off, although I will admit the award shelf is looking absolutely fantabulous, but because every single one of those wins came from the same place. Knowing the work was good. Believing it deserved to be seen. And doing whatever it took to get it there.
That is exactly what I bring to every author I work with at BookBassadors.
What I believe.
Books don’t have rules. And neither do authors
I was told my children’s book was too long. Too many pages. Too many words. Kids will get bored. Pick up one of my books. Look at the illustrations. Look at the seek and find, the hidden details, the layers of story inside the story. And tell me a kid is going to get bored.
Books can be interactive. Artistic. Scratch and sniff. Seek and find. Full of surprises on every page. They don’t have to be read in one sitting. They don’t have to follow anyone else’s formula. They just have to be good. And they have to be yours.
I believe in breaking the glass ceiling. I believe in doing things your way. I believe every serious author with a really good book deserves a real shot at getting it into the world. Not a $25,000 roadmap to three TV appearances you have to pay your own travel for. Not a publishing company that gets to put their name on your life’s work. A real shot. Real support. Real results.
That is what BookBassadors is built on.
Belief List:
- Every serious author deserves real marketing support at real prices. (Not ‘here’s a roadmap for $25,000, good luck.’)
- Books don’t need to fit in a box. (We checked. The best ones never did.)
- The next generation of the book industry deserves a real seat at the table.
- Every kid deserves a book. Full stop. (No asterisks. No fine print. Just every kid.)
- If you build it with intention and heart, they will come. (We built it. Come see.)
- Your book deserves to be seen. (That’s a fact.)
The BookBassadors crew.
Every great Tourage needs a crew. Meet ours.
Four characters. Four values. One superduperfabulisticwowiebookilicious team.
Eldric – The Elephant:
Wise. Grounded. The one who always seems to know exactly what to do. Eldric is the heart of the BookBassadors values, steady and sure and quietly brilliant. He wears purple glasses because obviously he does.
Duke – The Dog:
Loyal. Joyful. Absolutely ridiculous amounts of energy. Duke is a fluffy brown and white doodle who treats every single day like it might be the best day of his entire life. He is not Bentley. But he absolutely has that energy.
Calliope – The Cardinal:
She is the only girl and she is extra special. Calliope is named for the Greek muse of epic poetry and storytelling. She carries stories. She brings messages. She is the voice and the heart and the soul of everything BookBassadors does. She also represents someone very dear. A grandmother. A best friend. A Mammalw who is always, always here. She wears purple glasses in her honor.
For my Mammalw. Always.
Timber – The Turtle:
Steady. Strong. In it for the long game. Timber knows that the best things take time and he is absolutely fine with that. He grows slowly and beautifully and he never, ever gives up. Every author who has ever felt like the tortoise in a world full of hares needs a Timber in their corner.
10 Super Funtabulous Must Know Facts About Miki Taylor.
You asked. Okay you didn’t. But here they are anyway.
1.
Her favorite color is purple. If you hadn’t already figured that out from absolutely everything, now you know.
2.
Her Bentley is also the inspiration for the main character in her books. He looks exactly like him. He has no idea he’s famous and he doesn’t care as long as there are snacks.
3.
She once swallowed a screw. Yes a literal screw. She was with her Mammalw and had to get an x-ray. Everyone was fine. The screw was fine. It’s a whole thing.
4.
Like Bentley, she loves Tiffany and Co. She cherishes every single goody from there including all of the bags and boxes. Do not throw away the box.
6.
She loves the Red Sox. Her daughter Miranda spent her 16th birthday at Fenway Park where the Red Sox won a clutch game against the Yankees. Miranda’s name was on the big screen. It was a whole moment.
And then there’s Bentley.
Bentley is my best friend. The main character in my books is named after him and looks exactly like him and has his energy and his heart and his complete inability to walk past a treat without stopping.
I close my eyes and I see myself in Bentley. Living out the adventures I write. His story deserves to be shared. His adventures are priceless. And kids are going to fall in love with him in a way that stays with them.
He is not the BookBassadors mascot. He belongs to his own world, his own books, his own adventures. But he is woven into everything I do because he is woven into everything I am.
In the books, Bentley’s best friend is Betty. Named for my grandmother. My Mammalw. And that little red cardinal in the BookBassadors logo? That is her. She is always with me on this. She always will be.
For my Mammalw. This one’s for you.
Okay. Now you know us. Let’s get your book out there.
If any part of this page made you feel seen, you are in the right place. BookBassadors was built for exactly you. The author who is serious about their craft, their career, and their book’s place in the world.
Come wander the shelves. Join the BookTourage. Or just say hello. We don’t bite. Duke might try to lick you but that is just love.
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Every legend needs a Tourage.
The BookTourage is our crew.
Authors, readers, and book-obsessed exhausted humans who show up for each other.
Think Entourage but make it books. The camaraderie. The banter. The ride-or-die energy.
Join us and we will drop:
144 Ways to Market Your Book
straight into your inbox.
Free. No fluff. Just 144 actually useful ideas from someone living this author life right alongside you.
Plus you will be first for everything good happening in the BookBassadors world:
- New workshops.
- Playbook resources.
- Behind-the-scenes moments.
- All of it.
*We love your inbox too much to ruin it. Unsubscribe whenever you want. No hard feelings. We will still be rooting for your book.
Every legend needs a Tourage.
The BookTourage is our crew.
Authors, readers, and book-obsessed exhausted humans who show up for each other.
Think Entourage but make it books. The camaraderie. The banter. The ride-or-die energy.
Join us and we will drop:
144 Ways to Market Your Book
straight into your inbox.
Free. No fluff. Just 144 actually useful ideas from someone living this author life right alongside you.
Plus you will be first for everything good happening in the BookBassadors world:
- New workshops.
- Playbook resources.
- Behind-the-scenes moments.
- All of it.