Here is my last book cover image, in store June 13th. Always great to grace the front cover of a novel. Everytime feels like the first time!

Adios All!

]]> http://casualoptimist.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/with-children-and-youth/ Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:25:25 +0000 Dan http://casualoptimist.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/with-children-and-youth/  

Design by David Drummond.

The more I delve and read, the more delving and reading I seem to need.

The last few weeks I’ve scoured blogs and websites looking for a cover art designer, and chose 99designs. I really like the concept of (hopefully) having several artists submit their ideas for my cover. It seems to boost their careers as well. It’s very much a joint venture, isn’t it? Our books greatly rely on our artists, because if the cover is crap, no one will want to read our words. Books are very much judged by their cover. We may be readers, but we’re pretty damn visual first.

My entry into 99Designs is going to be delayed for a bit longer, though. I read over and over about having the mindset of self-publishing as a business, yet I was pretty ignorant on what that entailed. Not to complain, I’m seriously thrilled about what I’ve learned in the last two days.

I browsed through some completed book covers on 99designs, and was pretty depressed about the fact that my self-published novel won’t have an actual publisher stamp on the back. It’s like a baby without a belly button. My goddess of writing muse then shoved me into a link about really making self-publishing into a business. Literally.

There are so many lightbulbs glowing over my head right now. I’m terrified to death but shaking with excitement. This is pretty damn awesome. Instantly, I knew what my publishing company name should be, and drew a logo I’m proud of- and a second one this morning that I like even more. Before I rush off to the clerk’s office to make it official, I’m tapping into that business mentality and sitting on it to ensure it’s something I’ll always be proud of and like. This, however, delays the cover art as I want that publishing name and my logo stamped on my books.

It’s like planning a quilt and everything is chaos and confusion until it all just fits. Don’t quite like the chaos and panic part of the process, but I do absolutely love that moment where things click. Huge sun-size lightbulbs of brightness.

As for a business, I have my business plan and am likewise keeping a careful eye on budgeting. Money sucks. Well, lack of money sucks. I really want a professional edit. It is number one on my list. It’s a pretty sizable book that I’ve written largely in spurts of free time over the years. I know it more thoroughly than in and out, because I know all the parts I changed and deleted and the answers and explanations that will come in the following books to make it complete. I don’t have guinea pig people to read it through for me to tell me that it makes sense to them. Or give me some needed encouragement about the soul of the story.

However, editing will be at least $2000, which is money I do not have. Three months of unemployment is detrimental to finances and budgets, and after a month at the new job, finally got my first paycheck this week. Putting out that amount of money right now is fraying my nerves.

There’s also the publishing ‘company’ registration fees (scared to look that up), the absolutely necessary professional-grade cover design for the book ($250-400, which is cheap), and then the preferable interior design (@$200), which is now low on the totem pole. I’m currently trying the DIY method with free templates, though my eyes are on the paid templates for sale at The Book Designer (another $107 for multiple book licensing and e-book formating).

Joel Friedman also provides consultations to help authors plan the best route for their particular book. Would be so nice to have something of a mentor, even for 90 minutes. ($200).

I started reading his book about Why/If you should self publish. He asks some pretty hard questions. Can’t do the phone consult, so I’ll make this metaphorical one work. I made myself rethink this whole path, question my reasonings and wonder if maybe I should send out those queries and go traditional….while still pursuing the indie route. If agenting works, I’d get my editor, my reviewers, my marketing done by someone else.

In the end, though, it’ll really only get me an editor. The marketing will still rely on me, plus I’d give up the majority of the rights to my own book, make next to nothing on sales, and have no say-so in all the other important stuff, like what content is kept, my title, my cover, etc.

Arrived happily at the conclusion that my feet are firmly planted in self-publishing.

It’s the same feeling as knowing I can never work in private practice again. By stepping away from traditional veterinary medicine, I have become immensely more happy and have fallen in love with being a tech once again. It’s pushed me well out of my comfort zone, is throwing more certifications and different skills and requirements my way. But, I’m happier.

Thank all things holy for that, though, as it’s allowing me to draw a parallel.

This last week has been spent in the world of typesetting, formating, changing margins and measuring other books to see what size my printed one should be, making page and section breaks (completely new to me!), messing with footers, and exploring fonts on FontSquirrel.com. Plus reading tons of blogs, reference articles on CreateSpace.com, and many many of Joel Friedman’s articles. I missed the perfect online class he hosted earlier this month so signed up to his RSS feed. Also uploaded three new Self-Publishing how to books on my Kindle, thereby throwing aside the really long, dragging historical novel I’d been trying to get through.

I debated my author name and by Facebook vote, decided. Thanks, M! Also just bought my domain name on WordPress (with the privacy upgrade). Yay!

Heavily productive week! Thankfully my job-related exam got pushed into the future. Thankfully the sun decided to show up again. It’s warm(ish), and the boys have been playing outside rather than sitting on my bed giving me their sad, ‘we’re being neglected’ looks. But I’ve been able to involve them more and explain what I’m doing, which I can’t when I’m writing. Not kid-friendly.

My next installment of ‘Him’ will be delayed. He’s not happy about that but knows that Lira’s story comes first anyway.

Stay tuned!

The true stories behind famous first dates from film.

Today I am going to add one more task to the plate that you should seriously consider. The aforementioned list is not only time-consuming, it’s costly. My first book cost me $2,000 all told, and that was due to the fact that I had to learn all these things on my own and made some mistakes. Nowadays, it still costs me about $800 to put out a complete product, but I am getting smarter and the advent of ebooks is making it even cheaper for us do-it-yourselfers. The task I am referring to is what used to be called layout. Some call it blocking, but whatever you call it, it is the action of putting your book in a readable format for a paperback. Yes, even if you are creating ebooks, you have to consider that you will need a paperback at some point, such as when you hold a book signing. Are you going to hand out thumb drives with your book on them?   — hmm, now that I think of it that sounds like a good option — anyway I digress. What I want to tell you is that you can lay out your own book rather than hire someone to do it for you. I am learning to use Adobe InDesign so I can do just that. The software is expensive but you can rent it by the month from Adobe for under 30 bucks. But you still have to learn how to use it. That can be solved either by buying a book (I like the Visual Quick Start series; it’s the easiest) or you can get a monthly subscription to lynda.com (about 25 bucks) and watch a ton of videos on how to do it. I have chosen the latter this time and am really enjoying what I learn. Now, I may not create all my books myself, but I at least want to know how to do it in case I am so financially strapped that I have no other choice.

So the the moral of the story is don’t be a lazy self-publisher, get out there and learn something!

Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

Great concept, great design, great story! Short and sweet, the illustrations are simple and bold, blending perfectly with the story of this little exclamation mark who tries so hard to fit in, until he realizes his full potential. I love that this story essentially takes place on that gray/oatmeal-colored, almost-newsprintish, wide-lined paper with the little dashed line in between each that I used in elementary school to practice writing my letters. A fun story for any age, but also a great book to read when learning about punctuation!

This gets 5 Goodreads stars from me!!

READ MORE

This week the studio has seen a lot of me while I was busy putting together a book for our next university brief: typography, layout, cover design, the occasional bit of editing and production for a book of short stories by Marcus Bastel. This has actually been one of my favourite projects this year so far. Here we go:

Above: day 1, starting the cover design with the spine.

Below: finished cover. I chose to focus on one of the short stories in the book and base the front cover illustration on one of them.

Above: One of the spreads from the book, set in Minion Pro 10/12pt with standard and discretionary ligatures.

Above: at the critique, with a page-long set of marking criteria

xx Alice

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อาจารย์ขจร ผู้คร่ำหวอดโปรแกรม Indesign ใจดี ได้สร้าง Panel ที่เอาไว้ใช้ในการเลือกคำสั่งที่จำเป็นๆ ในโปรแกรม เข้ามารวมอยู่ด้วยกันใน 1 Panel ชื่อว่า “Long Document Panel” ซึ่งมีคำสั่งเกี่ยวกับการทำงานหนังสือ สิ่งพิมพ์ต่างๆ ทั้งหมด เพื่อให้ง่ายต่อการทำงาน และไม่ต้องเปิด Panel ต่างๆ ให้มากมาย

สำหรับการใช้งาน Panel นี้ อาจารย์ขจรก็ได้ทำเป็นวิดีโอเอาไว้ให้ดูอย่างละเอียด และสามารถดาวน์โหลด Panel นี้ ได้ที่นี่เลยค่ะ

http://www.indesignthai.com/?p=1051

An editorial and design for the ADMagazine vol.5 student magazine.

Design partner: Dora Godfrey, Roxanne Lim

Just a few more edits authors name logo fonts ers but nearly there