self publish | THE WRITE PLACE...

Just stumbled onto an illustrator who writes YA stories. Maybe we can help each other get through the tangle of choices and decisions to get published? She’s been on the peripheral of my circle of family/friends for years, but we’ve never hung out. As soon as I know more about this serendipitous discovery, I will post it.

Meanwhile, back at the all-night research/writeathon, I’ve gotten a few things accomplished. I finally perused the children’s books similar to my WIP (work-in-progress), which I checked out of the library. This inspired me to make page breaks in my story manuscript to see what it looks like. I tried to just go with the flow and make the page breaks as natural as possible. This gave me 33 pages of text with room for illustrations on each. Yikes, that’s 33 illustrations. Maybe some pages will just have colored backgrounds? So, that’s 33 pages, plus copyright, title, dedication, and contact pages. 37 pages in all. Hmmm, this is all more than I knew yesterday.

I’m also popping in and out of websites that show layout and design information so I can learn terms and standard practices in publishing illustrated children’s books. Wikipedia gives lists of links for all the things I’m exploring. I’m still not even sure if self-publishing an illustrated children’s book is the way to go.

I know I want hard back books and ebooks. But, let’s face it, the money tree hasn’t bloomed in years. Maybe crowd sourcing is the way to go? Kickstart.com is very interesting, and people have had book projects succeed there. Hmmm.

There are several underlying challenges I’m dealing with. The birds started chirping at 4:30 this morn and that made me keep looking out the window, thinking I could go walk the beach soon. See, that’s a challenge.

The biggest (real) challenge is with computers. GGGRRRR. One laptop has issues with serious lack of speed; something is wrong, but I’ll have to pay to find out what. The other laptop has a problem with a flying curser; not great while typing. I’m juggling between the two, and can I describe how fun that is? Not fun at all. The beach idea is looking better by the second.

My minor challenge is that I cut my thumb gardening yesterday and the damn thing keeps trying to help, but I scream when it touches anything (like the space bar). Wimp.

Have any questions? Any answers? Please leave me a note by clicking on “leave a comment” at the top of the post, left of the title. If you’re too busy for that, please click the like button at the bottom of this post.

And thanks for reading!

Patti

I recently took the plunge and sent one of my children’s books out to a handful of readers. First reactions are coming in and I am even more encouraged to get it published. I will post their reactions when I have them all in.

The next step is deciding on the route of publication. I have spent many hours researching both routes–self publishing e-books and hard copies, or standard publishing–and I am still undecided. Self publishing is a daunting task, yet it can happen much quicker and I have total control over the outcome of the book. I will set my sights to writing a pro-con article and that will help me make a decision.

I do know that if I self publish I can choose my own illustrator, a choice I lose if I go the other route. I have several artist in my circle of family and friends, and may just send the book out to them and see what the interest is there.

Either way, a whole new ride begins as soon as I make this important decision.

I hope you stay for the ride.

Patti

Here is the synopsis from an earlier post:

This is a children’s tale that begins with a poem, centers on a riddle, and weaves songs throughout the narrative. It is an adventurous tale of 9-year-old Queen Velveena S. Brookings, who wants desperately to be a beautiful princess. Veena’s yearnings are set aside to save a boy who is locked in a deserted castle by a magician’s evil spell.

Our solar system’s constellations are main characters, especially “Queen” Cassiopeia. An evil king, Veena’s parents, the boy, and other humans are mere shadow characters, if present at all. We don’t even meet the boy that our girl/queen/hero sets out to save, until the very last page.

This is Veena’s story all the way. She knows her weaknesses, yet manages to overcome them to do the right thing. She also knows her strengths, but will only shine a light on them in order to solve the riddle and save the boy.