Ready to go…

The learning curve I mentioned in a previous entry turned into a sheer cliff face over the last couple of weeks. Writers’ forums have proved to be a lifeline for help and advice over formatting and turning my files into PDF. As I’d already done my own illustrations for the book I decided to design the cover myself, then with help from my daughter coloured them on the computer and saved them as tiff. I think I’m going to let the publishers format them.
I’ve decided to buy the ISBN through the publisher too, it’s time to hand over a few of the tasks and get back to what I really set out to do – and that’s writing.

The end is in sight?

I keep thinking I've got everthing ready to publish, then something else crops up. Last week I realised I had got my formatting all wrong, and my pictures weren't at a high enough dpi. I've scanned all my illustrations again, and now need to reformat and rearrange the illustrations - then I should be ready to go...

Illustrations done

Well my illustrations are finally complete, and I’m working on the book cover and formatting. I’ve emailed for quotes from a couple of self-publishing companies, but disappointingly not had a reply yet.
Sales of my first book are still plodding along, with news of two sales from a bookshop, and a school fair do at the weekend – I just hope it stops raining.

My book is now almost ready for publication!

Now that I am looking at self-publishing again I will have to do far more myself than if I had published with a mainstream publisher, which is at the same time, both daunting and very exciting! I had my MS polished and well presented for submission to publishers, but now I need to take that to book stage myself.
It is a children’s book, for ages 5-8 with a word count of 3,500 and black and white illustrations throughout. I’ve been looking at other books aimed at the same age group and am looking towards a 48 page paperback perfect bound book. I’ve been spending the past few weeks working on illustration, so that I can start getting quotes for self-publishing, and thinking about such details as whether to apply for my own ISBN or arrange it through the publisher, and whether to do my own formatting. As a former technophobe some of these things involve a steep learning curve, but I find that if I want to do something badly enough I will find a way to overcome any obstacles. With my first book I used a package from Trafford, but for my second book I feel more confident to take on more myself.