Check Out Scott Emmons’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Emmons.

Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always loved words, language, and writing. After majoring in Classics (Greek and Latin studies) in college, I went on to earn a Ph.D. and taught briefly at a small liberal arts college. But as much as I loved the languages and the literature, I wasn’t very happy in my academic career. When I asked myself what I really wanted to do, the only honest answer was that I wanted to write humor. That was a daunting prospect, because my wife and I had a toddler at a time. But I decided to give it a shot.

I started my career at the lowest possible level, writing gags for freelance cartoonists. That gig probably doesn’t even exist anymore. I’d write up a batch of cartoon concepts and send them to a cartoonist. They’d keep what they were interested in drawing up, then return the rest to me. Then they’d try to sell the finished cartoon to a newspaper or magazine. If it sold, I’d get 25% of the proceeds. It didn’t make any money, of course, but it was a way to build up a portfolio of published work.

Once I had some work to show, I applied for a job on the humor writing staff at Hallmark. Much to my delight, they hired me. During my 16 years there, I wrote all kinds of humor, from edgy Shoebox jokes to cute messages with Peanuts characters. I discovered early on that I had a knack for writing humorous rhymed verse, which the editors often needed. That became my specialty. I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to explore what I could do with versified humor outside of greeting cards. I started a blog called The Daily Rhyme, where I’d post my quirky observations in verse.

That blog led to the next phase in my career. One of my posts came to the attention of Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, the founders and directors of JibJab. I’d been a longtime admirer of their work. By 2010, they’d built a successful business selling ecards and were starting to branch out into children’s content. They contacted me, and after we talked a few times, they offered me a job on their creative staff. I could work remotely, so I got to stay in the Kansas City area and didn’t have to relocate to Los Angeles.

During my time at JibJab, the Spiridellis brothers developed the StoryBots children’s show, which was picked up by Netflix. I wrote for all seasons of StoryBots, primarily as a lyricist for educational songs. I also got to use my rhyming skills to write a series of short episodes called Super Silly Stories with Bo in collaboration with Henry Dalton, who produced and directed that series. On top of all that, I had the privilege of writing all the StoryBots books for Penguin Random House.

I’ve been a free agent since the last StoryBots series wrapped in 2022. I partnered with some of my artist friends and self-published a collection of combination story and coloring books under the Brainytops Press imprint. Those books are available on Amazon. I recently collaborated with illustrator Stacey Lamb on “Hope and the Winds of Grief,” a picture book aimed at helping children through the grieving process after the loss of a loved one to suicide. I’m currently working with another artist friend on a middle-grade graphic novel about space travel. Most recently, I’ve gone back to my academic roots and launched a historical podcast, Epic Greek History. Outside of freelance work and creative projects, I enjoy traveling and just hanging with my wife Erika, my son Oscar, and our two black cats, Hector and Alex.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
On the whole, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had steady jobs for most of my career. About seven years ago, JibJab had to reorganize and I was laid off along with many of my colleagues. I had a rough few months when I was out of work. Today’s job market is brutal to begin with, and it didn’t help that I was in my late 50s. The Covid year was another tough time for me and a lot of other people. But I always ended up finding things to keep me going. I’m lucky that I can now be semi-retired. My heart goes out to some of my younger colleagues, really talented people who are struggling to find work.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
With my background in greeting cards and children’s content, I’ve had to tailor my writing to different audiences and work in different styles. If you asked my former Hallmark colleagues, they’d probably say I was the rhyming verse guy. At StoryBots I was the song guy and also the book guy. In verse and song writing, I’ve worked to develop a style that feels natural, with rhymes that are fresh and fun without being forced. There are two things I take great pride in. The first is that my songs have helped entertain and educate millions of kids all over the world. That’s an incredibly rewarding feeling. The other is that I’ve gotten to work collaboratively with some of the most talented people I’ve ever known. “StoryBots Answer Time” won an Emmy for writing in 2023. My Emmy statue sits proudly on top of a bookcase in my study.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
This is an uncertain time for people in creative fields, because AI is advancing so rapidly. I haven’t yet seen a chatbot that can write a good piece of humorous verse, but that may be coming fast. We may soon have AI that can produce a mystery novel as compelling as anything a bestselling author can write. That has serious implications, because publishing AI books will be more cost effective for publishers than paying human authors. I’m not a complete pessimist about this. I think artists and writers will keep creating and finding ways to get paid for their work. But we may be moving into an era where we’ll be competing with machines as much as with other people.

Contact Info:

• Website: scottemmonscreative.com and https://www.epicgreekhistory.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicgreekhistory
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577980362449
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5798020/?ref_=fn_nme_nme_1