About the Author

Sage Merriman is a pen name for author Ryan Petty. 

Ryan is a former small press publisher living in a ferryboat town near Seattle with his wife Melissa and memories of a big dog named Chief. He was for many years the proprietor of Austin, Texas-based Cold Mountain Press.* He writes:

-Books for children; 

-Books about personal finance for people who work for a living (THE MAGIC RIVER OF MONEY); and

-Books on the business side of authorship, including AUTHOR BUSINESS PLANS MADE EASY and 10 STEPS IN 10 DAYS TO CRAFT AN AUTHOR BUSINESS PLAN. 


Writing as Sage, Ryan has self-published a series of seven experimental books designed to support children in learning to read. They are published in a unique format, comprising the experiment. All seven can be found on his Amazon Author Page, linked below. Free samples are available on the home page of this web site. Just click on any of the book covers in the righthand column.

He has also authored a dozen unpublished children’s picturebook manuscripts for which he is seeking representation to traditional publishers. While he continues to self-publish much of his work, Ryan believes illustrated children’s books benefit enormously from the distribution, design and production values of the best of traditional publishing.

In addition to writing for children, Ryan is developing a buyer’s guide for parents, families, and librarians: THE GRANDFATHER LIST OF CHILDREN’S PICTUREBOOKS. With that project in mind, he has read more than 2,000 picture, chapter, and middle grade books in the last five years.


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Among the respected names published by Ryans Cold Mountain Press were two future National Poets Laureate: Donald Hall and Ted Kooser (who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry). Others published include Allen Ginsberg, William Stafford, Wendell Berry, Denise Levertov, Robert Bly, Joseph Bruchac, Michael Hogan, Linda Pastan, Gregory Orr, and Nancy Willard (who would later win the Newbery Medal).

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