One of my boys came down with a fever (such is life) so I only took my oldest to the event. We stopped at every table and talked with the authors and looked at the types of books they had. We even met one talented woman who is a blind author. I didn't ask too much about her process but mostly my son was wondering how a blind person can write. I think it was a good experience for him to be exposed to the reality that we are not all alike and some of us have challenges in different ways but that we can all still be successful and do what we love. I talked to a few of the authors about their process and one urged me to let go to be a real author and not to worry about the process of the illustrations coming out a certain way to convey the story. I'm just not ready to do that. I know that I want these books to be fabulous so I selected the illustrator to work with me whom I knew could bring about the desired effects I wanted in the quality of my book series. The author stated that for some of her books the illustrators that her publisher set her up with brought unique qualities to the story and came up with things about which she never would have thought. She recommended I take an intense picture book making class online. I looked it up and will think about it, but for now I just want to create. I looked up her website when I got home and she had a link to Jacket Flap. So I went to check that out. It is a networking source for authors, illustrators, and publishers. You can have an account and post items and look at what certain publishers are looking for, and more. So I have created an account on there. (Kimberlee Prokhorov) Talking with Helena later she stated she has had an account on there for awhile. I can link our blog to my profile and so we can maybe get some more interest in our book and whole process, then again maybe not! :) But I am appreciating the resources it appears to provide.
I also spoke with another author whom was self-published and was looking into publishing electronically for e-books. She stated specifically that for picture books the iPad graphics were phenomenal. She recommended Smashwords. So I have looked at that too and will consider submitting my books that way too! Exciting! So I continue to explore my options as an author on publishing and networking while waiting for the art to catch up to a point where I can start placing it and formatting it for publishing. I am hoping Helena has opportunity to work on it as I would love to finish this prior to Christmas or at least for spring/Easter time frame. I know that may be a very ambitious goal for both of us. But if you do not set goals, you will not achieve them. So here's to being ambitious! Cheers!
Kimberlee this is great information, I'm going to follow up on these links. Talking to writers and artists about their processes is so important. Sometimes we learn about a new source or tool, other times they offer inside observations and opinions. Best of all the variety of responses illustrates the many different ways we can come at a project, while there are basic methods there are as many approaches as writers and artists.
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