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Hi everyone, once again I apologize for the brief hiatus but I have been so busy wrapping up Skeletons that I seem to have forgotten about space, time, showering, combing my hair and brushing my teeth so just imagine what spot on my totem pole that blogging has been.
Nevertheless I finish what I set out to finish when I was just a wide-eyed twelve-year old in the sixth grade: writing and publishing my first book. It has been a long journey, but part of any journey is walking the road and let me tell you the road to becoming a self-published author is not a smooth one. I read a blog from another self-published author who said that writing the book was the easy part and that is the truth! Being that I am a creative thinker the writing part came easy, the ideas and words poured out of me like the salt poured out the the container from the Mortin salt girl. Dumb analogy, but you get my point I'm sure.
After finishing Skeletons, I had to set out on the journey of sending it to a few unbiased people to read it over just to ensure that it made sense and that it kept their attention; after all who wants to read a book that makes no sense and you lose interest after the fifth page? I also wanted to know their honest opinions on what they thought of the story. So needless to say my dad did not get a copy of the book because he is kind of partial to his little Princess. After five honest reviews of the unedited draft of Skeletons, I took some of their thoughts and opinions into consideration, revised, then off to the editor it went.
Waiting on the editor to finish editing my book was such a long process so while he worked his dreaded red pen I began the task of setting up my very own publishing company, Six Kids & A Pen Publishing. After all to be considered an actually self-publisher you kind of have to have some sort of a publishing entity in the publishing world. When people ask me if it was hard to set my company I tell them that it was easy as pie, but you had to have the right information so that you can know exactly what you need. First I obtained my ISBN numbers and bar code, then I established my LCCN number from the Library of Congress, I also had to get a tax ID number and last but not least I had to register with my state in order to do business in the state of Illinois. I wanted to make sure that I dotted all of my i's and crossed all of my t's.
While I was doing that I contacted a graphic designer to design my cover which I am proud to unveil for the first time on my blog:
After one one or two revisions we finally got it right and I have to say for my first book cover it is pretty snazzy.
Once the editor handed me my baby back I began the fun task of another round of revisions (yeah!!!!!) which took like a week because it is hard to revise accurately with a one year-old stuck to your hip. Then came the task of finding someone to handle the interior layout of my book (who knew that people actually designed book interiors?). Since I'd rather put my money elsewhere, I'm pretty computer literate and I have inDesign and Photoshop I decided to tackle this task myself. Let me tell you book design isn't for the lazy or the people who lack attention to detail. While designing the interior of my book there were times that I wanted to rip part of my afro out while running out of the room screaming. IT WAS DIFFICULT, but I stayed task and I didn't give up. I also learned a lot from www.youtube.com and www.thebookdesigner.com which is a blog that I follow religiously. I was very proud when I finally saved my book as a Pdf file.
Once I finished that I finally uploaded my baby to the outlets that I am using for printing and distribution. While I waited for those to be approved and for my proofs to be sent out to me I set up my facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/skeletons2011 (if you have facebook be sure to click the like button to follow my page).
Now it is time for me to sit back and relax, right? WRONG! No relaxing, while I wait for the proofs to get here, I have to market and promote my book! It was a sweltering 105 degrees outside while my husband an myself distributed postcards throughout our community then we went to another state to distribute to their communities. Whew! Promotion is very important because how can someone know that my book exists if they don't know that it exists? While I promote my book, school is set to begin on August 17th so I have a slew of doctor and dentist appointments as well as school shopping, school registrations and meet and greeting the teachers for this year.
I haven't forgotten about my blog, but I have just been so busy that I have no time to do anything for myself (I swear if you saw my toes, they have been begging for a pedicure for weeks). So thanks for following me through my journey, it has been a long, but exciting one and I hope that you stick around for the second part after Skeletons goes into publication on 09/18/2011. Don't forget to visit my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/skeletons2011 and click Like with the tumbs up and stop by my Twitter page at www.twitter.com/sixkids_pen or just click one of the follow buttons on the right!
TTFN!
After finishing Skeletons, I had to set out on the journey of sending it to a few unbiased people to read it over just to ensure that it made sense and that it kept their attention; after all who wants to read a book that makes no sense and you lose interest after the fifth page? I also wanted to know their honest opinions on what they thought of the story. So needless to say my dad did not get a copy of the book because he is kind of partial to his little Princess. After five honest reviews of the unedited draft of Skeletons, I took some of their thoughts and opinions into consideration, revised, then off to the editor it went.
Waiting on the editor to finish editing my book was such a long process so while he worked his dreaded red pen I began the task of setting up my very own publishing company, Six Kids & A Pen Publishing. After all to be considered an actually self-publisher you kind of have to have some sort of a publishing entity in the publishing world. When people ask me if it was hard to set my company I tell them that it was easy as pie, but you had to have the right information so that you can know exactly what you need. First I obtained my ISBN numbers and bar code, then I established my LCCN number from the Library of Congress, I also had to get a tax ID number and last but not least I had to register with my state in order to do business in the state of Illinois. I wanted to make sure that I dotted all of my i's and crossed all of my t's.
While I was doing that I contacted a graphic designer to design my cover which I am proud to unveil for the first time on my blog:
After one one or two revisions we finally got it right and I have to say for my first book cover it is pretty snazzy.
Once the editor handed me my baby back I began the fun task of another round of revisions (yeah!!!!!) which took like a week because it is hard to revise accurately with a one year-old stuck to your hip. Then came the task of finding someone to handle the interior layout of my book (who knew that people actually designed book interiors?). Since I'd rather put my money elsewhere, I'm pretty computer literate and I have inDesign and Photoshop I decided to tackle this task myself. Let me tell you book design isn't for the lazy or the people who lack attention to detail. While designing the interior of my book there were times that I wanted to rip part of my afro out while running out of the room screaming. IT WAS DIFFICULT, but I stayed task and I didn't give up. I also learned a lot from www.youtube.com and www.thebookdesigner.com which is a blog that I follow religiously. I was very proud when I finally saved my book as a Pdf file.
Once I finished that I finally uploaded my baby to the outlets that I am using for printing and distribution. While I waited for those to be approved and for my proofs to be sent out to me I set up my facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/skeletons2011 (if you have facebook be sure to click the like button to follow my page).
I haven't forgotten about my blog, but I have just been so busy that I have no time to do anything for myself (I swear if you saw my toes, they have been begging for a pedicure for weeks). So thanks for following me through my journey, it has been a long, but exciting one and I hope that you stick around for the second part after Skeletons goes into publication on 09/18/2011. Don't forget to visit my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/skeletons2011 and click Like with the tumbs up and stop by my Twitter page at www.twitter.com/sixkids_pen or just click one of the follow buttons on the right!
TTFN!
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