Self publishing - making the book you want to make...

Hi there, I know I've got your attention - the stats don't lie, so why is nobody talking to me...?

Well, as nobody is going to say anything, it just leaves me to ramble on a bit more...

My next project:

I've made a start on my next project, well, when I say I've made a start, I'm making a start on  the illustrations and formatting - the text is already written, and it's an exciting story, although I do say  it myself.

It could be said that this book is taking me back to my comfort zone - it's another picture book. But on the other hand it means getting my paints out again, which is always a little out of my comfort zone - words always come easier than pictures, which is odd, given my very visual imagination...

So I'm going to be sploshing around with paints for the next few weeks - I can't think of a better way to spend a summer...

But launching into a new book is always an adventure - and the problems that jump out at me, are never where I expected to find them.

My latest book Outnumbered by Cats seemed on the face of it, as if the illustrations were going to be easy, after all  they are photos. But, first I got distracted by all those lovely photos of my cats and kittens, then my cat came to join me and was sat avidly watching videos, and listening to her kittens from when they were tiny - it was a pretty special moment.

Then I couldn't decide which photos to use, and had a terrible time editing them down to a whopping 82 colour photos... at which point my usual stubborn streak kicked in and I decided that as it was my project I would have all the photos I wanted - you can never have too many kitten photos can you...?

Next I had trouble with the picture quality, after all the work editing the image sizes down, it turned out I should have left well alone and just inserted them at original size and fiddled with them from there. Anyway where there's a will there's a way and after a lot of reworking my photos are all there in colour inserts.

So if anyone tries to tell you that a self publisher can't do a book with colour photos - don't listen, be stubborn and make the book you want to make - isn't that the point of self publishing after all...?

How to stop picture edges appearing blurry when saving an adobe file to pdf

Hopefully this will help anyone else out there who is tearing their hair out, trying to get rid of the blurry edges that form around edges of pictures when saving to adobe  PDF

I've been trying to solve the problem of blurry edges around the photos on the cover of my book cover. As usual I've gone around in circles a few times before getting there, but in the end the answer was simple:

When saving my book cover as a PDF in adobe photoshop an option box came up about compression - don't let it compress at all, and the blurring will not occur. 

And there it is - my eureka moment!!

You know you've been overdoing the picture editing when...

You know you've been overdoing the picture editing when ... you see a cloudy sky and visualise yourself deleting the clouds to give a clear background...

Editing pictures becomes quite absorbing after a while, removing all those pixels to clear the background - in this case is was the backdrop of a radiator behind a cat basket that had to go, I'd better not remove the actual radiator or the cats will soon be abandoning the basket for one in a warmer location.

Anyway - my cover is nearly finished, I still have to arrange the back cover a bit more to fit the blurb around the picture, and still leave room for the bar code and price. I'm waiting for a print quote from the printers, and then I can set the price accordingly. And then...  I'll be announcing the new book!!