Letting Things Age

So being as such my father is hitting a milestone today and Helena's mother,  I thought this title was fitting. Sometimes it is good to let something age, sit, fester, settle, or sink in. The rough edges become smoother. The fruit ripens. I edited about a month ago and have just been waiting a bit (mostly because I couldn't find the time) before responding to my publisher. Now my publisher has been calling, Helena and I need to tag up on the illustrations, and I owe her the revised editing version and any other thoughts.

Tonight I got the kids in bed and got to work. The timing was just right. The editing had risen sufficiently like a nice Russian kulich. :) I drafted the storyboard to the side of the stances with more certainty of the flow and what should accompany the final wording.  I've counted a total of 16 illustrations. Ten large two-page spanning illustrations and 6 small spot illustrations.  Some would be slight changes from one to the other....and I am hoping that we can still get this released this year. But time goes so so fast.

 I also recently won a free logo design. I am debating whether to use it for my series or to give/donate it to someone that could maybe use it more. I really like my logo, but maybe it could be tweaked/simplified in some magical way..... I may just use it. It came to me for a reason, right?

For me June will go really fast. I have a training class and travel to attend to for work. I am hoping that Helena with the longer daylight hours can make good progress now with my final draft and the updated story board in hand. Next for me is re-submitting and it going through the grammar and punctuation editing, or what they call the heavy lifting editing.

I just know this is going to be magnificent. I can't wait to see it all coming together and be working with the layout team. It's just a matter of time. 

Editing, editing, editing

So, I have not had much time to sit and contemplate the suggested edits lately. Spring break came up and I spent a lot of time with my kids and work has been so busy that I have preferred to read a book or enjoy some other relaxation time without being in the creative mode. Oddly enough my sinuses are killing me and I have had a very rough weekend with them, but tonight after taking a 24 hour Sudafed and my 4th or 5th neti pot intervention, my head is feeling much clearer and I spent the last hour pouring into re-writes. It is really not many lines re-written but takes a lot of thought to keep the same general intent and flow of the story. I am quite pleased with my edits but would like some others to look at them before I re-submit.  So I may call upon some friends to take a look-see. :)

The other day too when I was home with my sick daughter and trying to work from home while she got into everything in the house it seemed I received a call from my editing consultant. Of course they are going to try to sell me more editing packages than the consultant package that came with my publishing package. And maybe I will consider it, but we are a little too far off. I would love to be farther along in the game, and yet early promotion is not such a bad thing. I just have no idea how to project timing of completion at this point. I want to do this right, not spend a lot of money, and to be successful. And I would like to complete it this year. Hopefully with spring coming Helena will have many more daylight hours to create and with my editing complete we will have a final storyboard from which she can create!  The other thing I did today was to watch the launch of the next International Space Station (ISS) crew from Kazakhstan. And so if you have never seen such a thing, please do take a gander.

On interesting thing for me is the little stuffed animal toy that they always hang from a string. It is fun and tells them - if they can't feel it already - they do - that they have reached micro-gravity when it starts to float. About 9 min and 23 seconds in when they come back from a drop out in communication the little dog is floating.  I think there is another reason for it and I would have to wake up my husband for that info. So we'll just leave it at that tonight. May you dream of your new horizons!

Like Christmas! or a First Date?

Today upon reading my email when getting home I discovered that my manuscript had been returned from the editor! Yeah! It's just like Christmas, or maybe more like a first date. Did they like it? How many comments did they make? When I open it will I be utterly deflated as a writer, or will I be disappointed that maybe they didn't put their heart into it?

I opened it, after having to download a free unzip program because my WinZip trial had expired. (I'm not paying for a simple thing I can get for free.) And, I was not disappointed! I think they gave it a fair review. Good productive comments and some atta girl comments too for certain parts! Especially the ending! They love the ending! So I am so excited and motivated to really critique it with regard to their comments and well, you can see a bit for yourself my cover letter and pages one and two. Page three is hidden behind. Not all the red is bad. As I said they also included positive comments too. I am pleased with Author House so far.

Just for your reading pleasure, and because I am so excited here is an excerpt from their cover letter to me:

Dear Kimberlee Prokhorov:

It has been my pleasure to assist in the Developmental Edit of your manuscript, Beatrice and Raymond. It’s a beautiful story, and I’m confident it will reassure young readers that change is something to embrace instead of fear. 

Interior Art

Today I was working on the first 2 page spread for our book. I've already worked up a very rough sketch indicating placement and proportion, and Kimberlee shared what she was envisioning. The first sketches are always rough because there will be changes and unforeseen developments. No need to waste time and effort on tight detailed drawings at this stage. The sketch at left is on tracing paper that allows for quick erasing and placement of elements before starting the actual painting. I quickly traced over sketches in my sketchbook, placing them in the template sized 8 x 11 inches per page and adapting size and proportion. We decided to add a loose border treatment of slender vines or branches and drape the art along the lower portion of both pages. I like to keep some butterfly wings, my sketches and reference materials near by.

I work with layers and scraps of of tracing paper, making small changes then attaching them right over the rough draft. Not having to erase or redraw something speeds up production time and helps my ideas formulate without breaking the flow. At top right you can see some of my botanical references, sketch pad and multiple layers of sketched ideas.

Ever seen a beautiful caterpillar?

See below for accompanying music by The Cure - The Caterpillar. (one of my favorites) 

So, as you have seen Beatrice, she has an early version of herself to portray in the book and that is herself in caterpillar form. Have you ever seen a beautiful caterpillar face?  They can be quite scary as I am sure nature intended to ward off predators.

Alice in Wonderland - type caterpillar

Many artists have made cute little caterpillars, but they are very cartoonish.

The trick is, how will Helena convey a caterpillar face which is realistic, yet able to emote for the story? I cannot wait to see what she comes up with. (yes - I ended in a preposition.) I consider blogs more of casual spoken English which is not always the most proper. Anyway, Helena has been busy with the things that are bringing in an income for her - so you blame her? So, she requested my help in finding more caterpillar faces for her. Here is what I was able to find. Hopefully it will give her inspiration. If not, maybe the song will. :)


Watch The Cure - The Caterpillar in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Bios and Beatrice

So I am proceeding forth with my submission of material and want everything to go smoothly. Despite being under the weather lately, Helena has finished the painting we anticipate for use as the cover image! I love it, but I love all her work so I think I could never be disappointed. :)

I have sent the bios off to a friend for review. Another pair of eyes never hurts even though I did pay for professional editing. I also am going to go forth with registering the name of my book series. So please wish me success in that area. I have done brief searches and did not find any thing with the same name registered so I hope it is not rejected. I don't really want to hire a trademark lawyer, but.....maybe I will check around with some other sources first. I know someone who works at a brand marketing company. Maybe they could do a brief service for me at a minimal price.

And hopefully spring will be here soon and Helena will have more daylight to paint and I cannot wait to see more of Beatrice. This is the type of butterfly Beatrice is: Polyommatus icarus. She is so beautiful, is she not? 

Author in the House!

Helena has been taking such wonderful steps to move things forward with the project, I felt it was time for me to do something on my end to keep the momentum moving forward. I have researched trademarking and believe that I will pursue that soon. But what I really needed to dive into is the world of self publishing. I needed to educate myself more on the process, the services, the types of publishers, and figure out what is really right for me, for Helena and I, and for this project to be successful.  Success is not the only key, but to also have the outcome we want, and for us to be in control.

My vision is one I want to make come true and start on this journey having the end product most represent this vision. Not that I could even convince a top end publishing house to be interested in my stories yet, but they will hand the story over to an editor whom has their own vision based on what they read. They may not be versed in the background, and may not convey the original intent with the right style illustrations, colors, sense, feelings, or overall package. So this is part of the reason why I intended to self publish first. To, 1) have control, and 2) Because the odds are against someone who is not yet established in the market. And I have a day job, and young kids, and no time to spend sending thousands of query letters to prospective publishing houses. And 3) Because the market is rapidly changing. E-book sales beat out paperback this last year for the first time ever. More self publishing companies are offering conversions to e-books like Kindle and iPad in their publishing packages or as add-ons.

So, the first night I found a few companies. Some offered free newsletters or publishing guides and asked for some brief information. To my surprise the next day 2 companies were knocking on my door. Now I fully understand that publishers are putting their own money into the production, while self publishers want to sell you their services. But I was still shocked at the immediate response. One company really seemed like they were just trying to sell me something. Wanting me to call them back and wanting to know if I wanted more information or was ready to sign up. But I still needed to know more. The other company's publishing consultant took the time to answer my questions, send me the contract upfront for review, explain to me the packages, the options and learn from me what I was looking for without sounding like a telemarketer. They took the time to build my trust.  They offered a great discount and shared much advice with me.  I spent the last week searching and researching many more companies, but still really feeling comfortable with this one until I found some complaints about them. The complaints did seem to sound like they came from others whom may not have done their research so well or didn't fully understand the contract they entered. I questioned the company and they calmly and rationally explained the reasons for the complaints and in many cases websites set up by competing companies, and honestly just plain stupidity of some people to not comprehend that your book is not necessarily going to sell. You have to market it. And if they didn't for example take the time to get it professionally edited, that could also be a reason why it was not selling.

Some self-publishing companies are called vanity presses. This one was referred to as such, but is not that way today. This is where you publish and have to pay for a certain amount of books like 1000 to be printed and delivered to you, but they do not get distributed, and you have to sell and store them.

Others are called Print-On-Demand or POD publishers. These publishers print on demand when someone orders the book from a site like Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. However most of these companies also offer editing, distribution to wholesalers to be printed or ordered, list you in the Library of Congress, and so basically your book is out there and able to bought by many. They also offer artistic services (but Helena has that covered for me), layout, and even marketing services.  Marketing services range from free business cards and bookmarks to guide on setting up book signings, doing radio and media promotion, and more. They offer discounted prices for the author to purchase books, handle copy-writing, and supply ISBN.

Being the big engineering nerd that I am, I created a big spreadsheet to weigh and rate each company I reviewed. In the end, the services with the right price and the ability to still be in control of the final product and know that the company is one of the largest, has the best possible rating with the Better Business Bureau (despite web slander) and is not going anywhere gave me the security I needed to make the decision. I also read some articles saying you have to create your own publishing company, or don't go with a vanity press as no large publisher will ever take you seriously. I think these are mainstream elitist authors/publishers, etc. And times are changing, rapidly. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. Doing things the same for the sake of it does not allow progress or improvement.

But in reality I do think it is all about exposure, initiative, and intent. You have got to get your product out there if you want it to be useful to others. And if you can get others to believe in you then you are on your way. But believing in yourself first is the key.

Ok - so, I reviewed the following companies: Lulu.com; Blurb; Self Publishing; Outskirts Press; iUniverse; BRIO; Trafford; Instant Publisher; U Build-a-book; Create Space; Friesen Press;Heirloom; and Author House. I am sure the longer I look the more I will find. At some point though, enough is enough, and I didn't want to over think it or stress about it. This is a journey I am taking for the joy of it. I do not want it to become obsessive.  

So I signed up with Author House today! I got a spectacular discount - essentially developmental editing for free, flexible schedule, and non-exclusive contract (able to walk away and on to a larger publishing company at any time).

So I am another pea in the POD, but this author in this house is ecstatic to complete and publish a book with Author House!