Proud to announce:

Meet Lucy - she's bouncy and full and energy, but she's definitely not sleepy! She's the main character of my forthcoming book 'But I'm Not Sleepy' due to be published in August.
I've registered the book with Nielsen and am currently waiting for the proof copy from the printers.

A landmark day

Friday was a landmark day. I copied my book onto CD, as the file was too large to email because of the colour pictures, and I took it to the printers. It's great having a printer so local that I can just call in at the office. It was a heady feeling to finally finish and hand it over to be printed and bound into a book, ready for the shops.

I've still got a lot of work to do on marketing, but I like to pause and enjoy moments of achievement along the way.

Ready to go to the printers...

I've been a bit bogged down in the technical stuff this week - scanning pictures and formatting, but I think everything is up to standard now and ready to go to the printers. I'll be using YPS (York Publishing Services) again http://www.yps-publishing.co.uk/ as they did such an excellent job on my last book.

Nearly ready to print

I visited the printers on Tuesday to talk about book size and binding. Size of book is a big consideration as some sizes are not economical due to paper sizes, so yesterday I did a bit of resizing and formatting, and came up with final size and number of colour and black and white pages, ready for a quote...

Market research?

Today I was in a book shop doing a bit of market research on book prices, ahead of going to talk to a printer and getting a quote for printing my book. Then I came across 'Diary of a Wombat', a lovely picture book, which made me laugh so much I had to buy it. As I don't have anyone of the target age group to buy it for, I'll just have to admit that I bought it for myself. I think I'm just a lost cause when it comes to children's books, especially if they make me laugh!

Scanning and formatting.

I've started the scanning of art work and formatting for my book. If i did this a bit more often I'm sure it would be easier, but I learn something new every time - so in a few decades I'll be an expert...