My Self Publishing Adventure -Part 2

Picking up from my first post I will continue with the creation of my book. The next step, once I had a clear idea of the story and the page layout was to begin refining the details.

I had to develop my characters  and be able to paint them consistently throughout the book.

 Millicent was a no brainer since I have painted over 100 cows, but Mouse was a new creation and so I had to play around with him a little bit and create him  in various moods and positions throughout the book.

And then there was the Farmers wife...

 I had to make a lot of decisions. One idea I had in an effort to shorten the length of the book was to have a  split illustration but I felt it was too distracting to one part of the story or the other.

  My work began with these line drawings and others that I would eventually turn into paintings. Stay tuned for those next time....

Don't Let Anyone Hold you Back from Your Dreams!

Do you have a story brewing inside of you? Have you always dreamed of writing your story and seeing it in print? Is it there, alive, in your mind, with no place to go? If you are walking around , dreaming of the day that you will write it, or if you have it written and are dreaming of that day when a publisher is magically going to show up at your door and make you the next J.K. Rowling, we need to talk. Not to be negative, but someone online said something like, "It's so hard to get published. Like less than 5%. And it seems like you need to be published first to get published -- it's catch-22." It's not impossible, but very difficult, and requires persistence,perseverance and most of all-patience. That's something I ran out of a couple of years ago when I decided to take matters into my own hands and self publish, "Millicent and the Faraway Moon." Granted, I didn't shop my manuscript around too much, as I am a rather impatient person and when I have an idea for something, I want to see it happen.

So I began looking into self publishing. I looked through many self publishing company sites and at that time the one that appealed to me the most, was Lulu.com because I could create my book without a big giant upfront investment and since I had the needed skills to create my picture book, I took matters into my own hands.

I have to say that it as a labor of love, as it does take a good investment of time to go this route, but once it was done, I had the satisfaction of holding something that I created from start to finish and in my hands and had had compete control over it. What resulted, was a 40 page softcover picture book for kids, ages 4-9 and something that I was very proud of.

I took my book and sold it mostly at art shows where I was already selling my paintings, but I have also done book signings, school visits, and book fairs. By the time I had sold about 300 copies, I decided that the book had enough of a track record to invest in a hard cover printing which I did last year. My sales continue to flourish and I am proud to share the uplifting story of my blue cow Millicent as she tackles her self esteem issues.

I also look forward to sharing what I have learned on my self publishing journey in 2 workshops that I am offering at the Newark Arts Alliance in Newark De. on Oct. 3 from 6:30 - 8:30 and on Dec. 5 from 6:30-8:30. If interested, you should register for one or the other at the Newark Arts Alliance website . This is a link to the program pdf.

If you are someone like me who likes to take control over their own creative life and destiny- I hope to meet you at one of my workshops. If you live too far away or can't join me for any reason, please feel free to comment or contact me if I can help you with specific questions :0)