Dear Abyss, letters from an author illustrator into the abyss...

October 2026
Dear Abyss,

September disappeared in the blink of an eye. There was a lovely holiday, a not so lovely car issue involving a flat battery and a car that lost its marbles when it didn’t recognise its new battery, and more technical issues to do with formatting a book.

After learning more than I ever knew there was to know about setting up bleed and printer crop marks, I managed to set up bleed and crop marks on the cover file, but the book block gave me more trouble, only to discover that I don’t have the correct software to do the task in photoshop. I found crop marks in windows where I have built the body of my book, but contrarily these only appeared on screen, and didn’t save onto the file, where they would have been useful…

Anyway I have come to realise the some of these extras were either added, or not needed by my previous printer.

And so it seems that I
learn something new with every book I write and publish, and as I sign off, my picture book is still very much brewing…

Bye for now

AMS

PS but the to do list is all ticked off!

To do list

·       Write book  ✔

·       Illustrate book ✔

·       Edit book ✔

·       Write blurb ✔

·       Rewrite… ✔

·       Make cover ✔

·       Write dedication ✔

·       Purchase ISBN ✔

·       Get print quote ✔

·       Set price ✔

·       Register book with Nielsen ✔

·       Send files to printer ✔

·       Breath (if going down the rabbit hole of finding out the shortcut for a tick counts, then…) ✔

 

 

Dear Abyss...

 September 2026

Dear Abyss,

The summer fair went very well, I even sold a Christmas book, which is always a bonus in the summer months. I have sold my Christmas book in every month of the year, so they’re always worth putting out throughout the year. I have also been invited back to the library’s Christmas fair, so that is booked in, and something to look forward to.

I am happy to see the end of the summer heat waves (at least I hope so), and now we head into autumn, the perfect time to snuggle up with a book. Or maybe the season to publish and launch a book…

Bye for now

AMS

Dear Abyss, there has been a hiccup...

 August 2026

Dear Abyss,

There has been a hiccup. The printer who has done such an excellent job printing my previous books is sadly no longer printing, leaving me looking for a new printer for my book. I want this book out in time for the Christmas markets, so hopefully I will find a printer soon.

In the meantime, I have a summer fair to attend at Clifton Library in York on Saturday 15^th August. I’ll be gathering my books together and taking them out to find new homes at a book signing. Please pop in if you are in the area!

 

Self Publishing To Do List

 July 2026

Dear Abyss, 

There has been progress! 

I made myself a to do list to try and order my thoughts and get this project over the finish line. Here is my to do list, and as you can see there are more ticked than tasks still to do:

To do list
• Write book  ✔
• Illustrate book ✔
• Edit book ✔
• Write blurb ✔
• Rewrite… ✔
• Make cover ✔
• Write dedication
• Purchase ISBN ✔
• Get print quote
• Set price
• Register book with Nielsen
• Take files to printer
• Breath

So at the moment I’m waiting for a print quote, and having a bit of downtime before the next step, because otherwise I would plod on without a break and become frazzled. And there’s plenty of time to get frazzled further down the line…

Bye for now
AMS