Self Publishing is all about stubborn

 Self Publishing is all about being stubborn… why?

·        As a self publisher you’ve likely already come up against some sort of barrier in traditional publishing: not securing an agent, not finding a publisher to publish your work, or simply decided not to send any more work out to squelch about in a slush pile.

·        Finding out that writing the story is not the end of the process, there are more skills to learn: editing, formatting, illustrating and making all of this stick into a memory stick to send to a printer.

·        Then there’s the promotions and marketing, and generally getting the word out there, about the amazing new book that you now have to sell.

·        There are websites, and blogs and a whole host of ways to get a book noticed online.

·        And pretty soon you realise that writing the book is just the beginning, and learning curves keep hitting you, sharper and steeper than you thought possible. The sense of achievement at rising to each new challenge is amazing, but also exhausting.

So what keeps a self publisher going? Sheer stubbornness and an unshakable belief in the book or books, that have to find their way out of the boxes and into the hands of readers…

So that’s where I’m at, feeling exhausted but stubbornly carrying on…

Self Publishing in the UK sharing the journey

 

Self publishing is all about spinning plates.

I’m currently spinning the plate of my work in progress. I’ve formatted the book, to give me a clear view of the illustrations I need, and where they will fit into the story.

I now have a lot of sketches and paintings of my characters in various poses and interactions, and just need to finalise the pictures that will make it into the finished book. Then there’ll be the usual argy bargy as words and pictures come together, working in perfect harmony to create a picture book. Some of the words may have to shuffle a bit to let the pictures in, to tell their share of the story, creating the magic of a picture book.  

 

I’m also spinning the website plate: keeping up with content for my website, and thinking of ways to bring people into my online bookshop. So if you’re reading this please pop along and browse the books, they’re all waiting to go out into the world, tell their stories and find new homes.

 

Turning minor disasters into picture books

The Puppy in the Cat Carrier

Minor disasters happen all the time, but life’s little mishaps make great scenes in picture books, the messier the better.

A rolling dog is very annoying and smelly. Even if you don’t at first notice the smell, the flies soon will… and as you continue your walk, wondering where that awful smell is coming from, and why it seems to be following you home, your first thought may not be to sit down and do a quick sketch. But this is the sort of minor disaster that makes a wonderful scene in a picture book, even if it does bring back unpleasant memories as you draw the picture.

Getting knocked over is another scenario that doesn’t instantly feel inspirational. While sitting on the ground, assessing if limbs are still all pointing the right way, and giving an excited puppy the sort of look that conveys, even to him, that he should probably stop running around with the hat that fell off with the impact of the landing. And just maybe shaking the hat until it was dead, may not be the best idea, although the flying strands of wool would suggest that it was already too late for the pompom.

But it wasn’t all disasters, there was the joy of watching a tiny puppy grow and grow, until he grew into himself…

And all this from a puppy who came into the family masquerading as a cat, you’ll just have to read the book to see how that went.

The Blurb:

“Orphaned puppies” they said. “Won’t get very big” they said…

But has he really been mistaken for a cat? 

And if he’s not a cat, then what breed of dog can he be?

He just keeps getting bigger and bigger until…

Book Dedication: (and a little insight into the story behind the book)

For Kim, who persuaded me to “come and see the puppies”, though in truth I only actually ‘met’ one. The others were being carried around in the peripheries, working their own magic.

For Finley, I’m not sure who chose who, but when the moment came to hand you back, no one was letting go, though no one quite knew why. So we took you home and loved you, not really knowing what you would turn into, or when you’d stop growing.

For Phil, for putting up fencing, and then more fencing…

For Jessica, Mitchell, Fraiser, Rosie and Willow; Finley hopes you’ll all carry on dropping food and playing, but mostly the food bit! (Except for greens… you’re on your own with them.)

For the cats, for learning to live with a dog. 

32 page full colour picture book.

IBSN 978-0-9560232-9-2

New Picture Book Brewing - the writing and illustration process

 New Picture Book Brewing

In order not to give too much away, I’m calling my characters A, B and C. They’re not your usual characters and came about by turning a story on its head and looking at it from a different angle – do I have your interest? I hope so, because I’m very excited about this story. As in many picture books it’s written to entertain the adult reader as well as the child it’s being read to, because that is the joy of a good picture book, to entertain multiple age groups.

So what is the hold up with this book? Well as the characters are quite unusual, they’re also putting up some opposition when trying to get the right look for them, and as for characters 1 and 2, they’re proving even harder to pin down into an illustration. Character 3 is a lot easier to draw, and 3 is all ready, and getting impatient with the rest of the cast of the book.

So how are they progressing? There are sketches, many, many sketches, and some of them might even go for a walk through the paint box, next they’ll have a lie down in the scanner, well they would, if the scanner was working… once scanned they can be formatted together with the text to work their magic, words and pictures in perfect harmony, creating a picture book.

So off I tootle to get on with the illustrations.

Meanwhile, there’s a book sale going on in my bookshop, so please pop along for a browse.