self-publishing

Self-Publishing for Newbies

While I wait for my illustrators (daughters, 13 and 14) to submit more art, I’ll tell you how I created my first draft of Esther, Mia and the Stars (a book about a girl who gets bullied and how her best friend and school helped her).

 

esther_grandma_pees
PPT slide with placeholder (Ava created a much better graphic).

I created the story line and broke it down by “scenes.” Each scene then got its own Powerpoint slide. I know…PPT is BORING. It’s passé. But it was for my eyes only. It helped me visualize the book and run through it quickly. I could drop kick each illustration (or placeholders) easily. This helped me “see” the book readily and troubleshoot quickly.

 

Tip: Consider  using Google Slides.  This way, you’ll have access to your project wherever you go and you won’t lose it!

Self-Publishing: Last Minute Changes

I’m still uploading illustrations and I’ve discovered I’m missing several – actually, many – illustrations. The girls (my daughters) are not going to be happy about creating more at this point.

Oh well.

I also learned that published books through Createspace.com only come in MATTE, not glossy. Traditionally, children’s books are glossy. You know what? I’m OK with that, I think it will be cool to have it matte – sounds old timey in a good way. My book is definitely NOT traditional, anyhow.

I’ve also decided to translate the English to several different languages: French, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish…this way, it will be educational in a foreign language/cultural/anti-bullying way.

With these changes, this is going to take a long time. My goal is to complete it by March 2017. That is when I first starting writing the book. Yes, that’s an awful long time to write and publish a dinky children’s book, but I work full-time and I have two daughters who are very busy with violin extracurriculars. I’m also wife to a very high-maintenance husband. Just kidding,  he’s pretty easy-going.

The DOG on the other hand…

20160713_080119

I was doing yoga and Bryan Kest said something I’ve heard a hundred times (I practice to his DVDs) which finally made an impression on me:

“Go as far as you want to go, as long as there is stability.”

Stability = family + work balance

Stability = emotional, mental, spiritual

Stability = physical (strength and flexibility)

Working consistently in an even-keeled manner, not stressing and taking it out on your loved ones…this is yoga.

 

 

 

 

 

Self-Publishing: Illustrations

I had to download all of my images (which I had scanned) from my hard drive to my Google Drive for security purposes. I would hate to lose them should my computer die! This took awhile. I then placed half of those images into my CreateSpace Dashboard. It’s been a super long day/night and that’s all I can get done for now. It seems silly to create a whole blog about it, but I am (hopefully), I’m inspiring you to do even just a little (whenever you can) toward reaching your goals.

When you’re tired and just want to veg with Netflix…

When you just want to take a bath and go to bed…

When you just want to surf the Internet reading mindless junk…

do one small thing towards your goal instead.

Good night!

 

Self-Publishing: CreateSpace.com

I completed placing the text tonight. I will complete uploading the scanned illustrations (hopefully) tomorrow night. It’s a super busy week for me both at work (school) and for my daughters (school/violin).

Alas!

Balance. Consistency. Little-by-little.

It’s still not clear to me how placing text and illustrations in a Word template will ever look good, but I have to trust the process, right?

Thank you to all who have been so kind to provide words of encouragement. I hope I am helping even one person out there.

 

 

Self-Publishing: CreateSpace/Formatting

I’m just formatting my text and illustrations. I feel a little discouraged tonight. I feel unsure of myself. It doesn’t help that one of my illustrators (a daughter), just walked up, saw her illustration and said,  “I hate those drawings! They’re terrible.”

But you know what? This is a labor of love. I plan on donating 20% of all my work to children in need. This book is far from perfect. But it comes from the heart and I’ll always cherish it as my first published book and one in which both of my daughters contributed.

 

 

crying

Formatting is a pain in the derriere.

Self-Publishing: Formatting Your Pages

It’s a Saturday night. Hubby’s watching TV, girls are on their phones and I’m at my desk again.

Tonight, I’m starting the process that stopped me before: formatting my pages! I got overwhelmed in March. I’m determined to see this through! So here goes.

interior_2

CreateSpace has a template you can use in Word! How easy is that? The first is the interior cover page and then a dedication:

dedication

…a blank page follows that and then the Table of Contents.

Note: I started this whole process with Udemy.com and I enrolled in the “Self Publish Your Children’s Book” course given by Tim Johnson. He has a very warm, enthusiastic manner and makes the process less intimidating. Check him out!  I got 62% of the way through. I will be completing that course in tandem with the CreateSpace.com website going forward.

I’m going to upload my content and update my blog tomorrow.

And to all….a good night!

Esther and Mia on a blanket
Illustrated by Josie Wipff  March 2016

 

 

 

Self-Publishing: ISBNs, Trim Size

Do you have your EIN yet?

Next step on my CreateSpace Dashboard: Establishing an ISBN.

CreateSpace will create one for you, for FREE. However, this ISBN can only be used on the CreateSpace publishing platform, which is OK by me, since I want to distribute through Amazon.com.

isbn

I’m choosing the most popular trim size and full-color (it’s a children’s book, afterall) and white pages (cream is not an option anyway).

interior

The next step (uploading book file) will have to wait until this weekend. I have not laid my book out yet. I’m preparing myself for a slow and (most likely) frustrating process as my scanner is slow.

 

Are you doing this with me? Let’s git ‘er done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self-Publishing First Steps

After locating my EIN which I secured six months ago, I am ready to complete the self-publishing process.

I log into my CreateSpace account and complete the banking information. It feels very strange to supply my banking info…I feel suspicious. And I wonder if this info. is safe and secure. I do it anyway.

I am prompted to choose:

createspace-screenshot

I choose Individual/Sole Proprietor because I am only planning to sell as myself, not with partners. C Corporations are taxed separately from its owners. S Corporations are not. Either way, Sole proprietorship is the simplest way to go and since I’m just starting out, this seems the best. I can always change it when I sell millions and make J.K. Rowling dough.

createspace2

…and I get to input my EIN!

Next, I am to review my taxpayer information. It’s good to go.

success

Going forward, I need to work on items in my Project Dashboard:

createspace-project-homepage

Until tomorrow!

 

 

Esther and Mia Owe Me

During this self-publishing quest, I logged into my CreateSpace account (the one I opened yesterday). They prompted me to provide my EIN (Employer Identification Number). Basically, if you’re going to make money publishing, then you need a Tax ID#. Mind you, I signed up for a wonderful course on Udemy last spring and got about 67% through it when I decided to take a break. It also recommended that I secure an EIN.

I applied for an EIN and I received it.

I then lost track of it.

And I just spent (no joke) TWO HOURS trying to track it down. I just found it.

I’m going to bed now.

So there you have it, that is my progress on the self-publication journey. Not stellar. Not satisfying. C’est la vie.

If you’re following along and pursuing self-publishing, go to this site:

Get yourself and EIN and call it a night.

 

 

Self-Publishing “Esther, Mia and the Stars”

 

I’m a newbie to self-publishing. I wrote about my children’s book a couple nights ago and I’m going to share my learning process with you in this blog. My hopes are two-fold:

  1. This will hold me accountable and make me DO IT; and
  2. You will follow along with me and get your book published too!

Coincidentally, (and doesn’t the universe provide when you with what you need when you express your desires out loud?), I was reading Choose Yourself by James Altucher and he has a chapter on self-publishing! He recommends using CreateSpace.com. I know there are a kajillion other sites and ways to do this. I’m going to try this first. They have a step-by-step process built in for you and you can then sell through Amazon.com.

Tonight, I signed up. Each night, I will do something to get closer to publishing and share it here. But for now, I have to make lesson plans for the week. I spent most of today cleaning and taking my daughters to the mall. One had Girls Day Out (she had a fantastic time with three friends) and the other needed to pick out a Homecoming dress. Done!

Processed with VSCO with p5 preset
My Beautiful Fresh(wo)man

I also made progress in re-typing a short story I wrote over 13 years ago (I lost the Word doc, but had a hard copy).

As long as I make consistent progress in these areas, I’m happy. As a wise woman once said:

You can have it all, just not at once.

Oprah Winfrey