National Adoption Month

The blog has been quiet lately. I’d like to say because I’m knee deep in my new dino book but I’ve actually just been laying off the biz side in favor of focusing on my munchkin and the monumental task of turning two and taking on potty training.

I’m not completely bereft of projects though, and in honor of National Adoption Month I helped the good folks at WACAP with this little logo design.

More about WACAP:

The World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP) is celebrating National Adoption Month in November. WACAP assists families in adopting children from nine countries, including U.S. foster care, and believes that every child has the right to a permanent, loving family.

Each November, a Presidential Proclamation launches activities and celebrations to help build awareness of adoption throughout the United States. Thousands of community organizations arrange and host programs, events, and activities to share positive adoption stories, challenge the myths, and draw attention to the thousands of children in U.S. foster care who are waiting for permanent families.

WACAP takes National Adoption Month a step further, by not only advocating for children currently living in U.S. foster care, but also for children who are waiting for families in eight additional countries around the world. WACAP currently has information on children in Bulgaria, China, Ethiopia, India, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and the U.S who are in immediate need of permanent families.

Here is a clue…

I’ve also been stewing in ideas and suggestions for the next I See… Animals book about Dinosaurs. It’s still in progress so you have time to comment and enter to have the dedication written to your child (or you!) HERE

In memorium… the greatest of hounds

We were contacted recently by FLAAG – Fingerlakes Adopt A Grey, a group in New York that works with retired Greyhounds to find them forever homes after racing, and were asked if we could do anything to help support their upcoming fundraiser Grapehounds Wine Tour.

From thier site:
“The Grapehound Wine Tour^® is a multi-day celebration of greyhound adoption held in mid-May in Leesburg, Virginia, and again at the end of July in the cool, cool Finger Lakes area of New York.

The event features wine tasting, music, a custom wine glass for registrants, vendors, and beautiful scenery, while benefiting participating greyhound adoption groups throughout the country.

Registration for the Grapehound Wine Tour^® in the Finger Lakes of New York, July 28-31, 2011 is open.

Our Grapehounds-New York event will be hosted by Atwater Estate Vineyards on a beautiful property high on a hill overlooking Seneca Lake.”

As we are big supporters of animals, dogs, and specifically those of the sight-hound persuasion, we jumped at the chance to lend a hand. If you happen to be in New York and attend this neat fundraiser you will have the opportunity to bid on a few of our handmade glass pendants. Of course, if you can’t make it, all of our pendant sales support Greyhound rescue as we donate 20% of net proceeds to local rescue groups from direct and Etsy sales. Long live the Greyhound!

Now that I have successfully created and published my first picture book through both Smashwords, and PubIt!, I can share some tips I learned along the way that may help you decide which route to take and also make it a bit easier for you to publish your own picture books. These tips are assuming you have already created images with/without text rendered in them, saved down in a web optimized format suitable for eReading devices. I created my pages to be single vertical images to avoid issues with some readers and spreads.

Smashwords
Since they only allow the upload of a particularly formatted Word file (you can use some other word processors too), your layout options are rather narrow. They even admit in their style guide, a must read to get your file to work, that they specialize in narrative and picture books may be mangled. However, it CAN be done, and with their widespread distribution it may be worth your time to make it work.

Pros and Cons:
Pros – Smashwords is relatively easy to use, provided you take the time to study the style guide and create clean resource files. They grind your single file into many different ebook formats making it available to more devices without extra work on your end. If you follow their rules and make it into the Premium Catalog you can assign a free ISBN and also be sold in many major ebook stores. With their coupon generator and free marketing guide they help you drum up some buzz. It took minutes to upload, grind, and put my book on sale within the Smashwords site. They also pay out higher than going direct through PubIt!.
Cons – Limited formatting control in word processors. They do not accept epub files directly. To gain the distribution benefits of the Premium Catalog (i.e. being shipped to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, etc.) seemed to take forever. My book was pending review for 20 days. Of course compared to legacy publishing this is nothing. They do not yet ship to Amazon, but that will be coming soon. You don’t get instant sales reporting from the distributors, or have any control over how they tag your book.

Here are some tips:
Tip #1
Read the style guide! Yes, really. The whole thing. Then, go back through each step and create your Word file starting with all the “Front Matter” and “Back Matter” required, and optional, you will need. This file should be very simple, clean, and edited. Then save it as a template. You now have an easy way to start off your picture books without starting from scratch each time. Especially useful if you somehow add weird glitches or whatnot as you add the images, since you won’t need to redo any of the basics.

Tip #2
When you create your table of contents, the text portions are simple. Tagging the images themselves with bookmarks to insert into your TOC is a little trickier. I found the easiest way to do this was to insert the cursor right before the image you want to jump to. You can also click on the image once to select it, but since this is harder to see it is easy to miss the target. Smashwords will build the NCX (epub’s navigation file) based on your documents TOC so try to make some well thought out breaks in your story and name them in a way that will help someone navigate your book. Take the time to test each link in your final epub file after Smashwords creates it and fix any issues before publishing it.

PubIt! by Barnes and Noble
I decided to try my hand at going direct through Barnes and Noble rather than Smashwords as an experiment. So far, it has yeilded mixed results. You can upload either an RTF document like Smashwords, or if you are savy you can upload a custom epub file directly. NOTE: You can NOT cheat and use the Smashwords created epub. It is a breach of your agreement with them to sell thier file without going through them. However, you can use your original word file.

Pros and Cons:
Pros – You can easily upload an epub file, or just like Smashwords you can use a word document, and they will convert it. You have complete control of your categories and keywords. This allows you to place your book where people who would like it can find it, and change it up if people aren’t. You can obsessively check your daily sales. Since you can upload an epub, you can have much more control of the final look of your book if you have the skills or money to have one created. Once your account is set up and approved it takes 24-48 hours for your book to be on sale, however, I found it to be even faster. You don’t need an ISBN.
Cons – If you price your book under $2.99 or over $10.99, Barenes and Noble will only give you 40% of the sales instead of thier normal 60%. I believe this is to try to appease panicked publishers who think us little Indie guys are threatening thier sales. So far this has been the only real drawback.

If you’d like to tryit, here are a few tips:
Tip #1
Use your already cleaned up Smashwords ready file.If you’ve followed the style guide it is going to be pretty good to go, why start over. You will need to change some wording on the Title page to not be Smashwords specific, and also any links to your Smashwords pages (unless in the back as part of your “about”. Also, you will need to add the cover image into the very front of your book if you want it to be in the resulting epub. Unlike Smashwords, the “cover” you load is not linked into the epub file as it is converted, it is only used on the sales page. Your cover must be at least 750px tall.

Tip #2
Navigation can be an issue. Smashwords epub converter creates a nice NCX navigation file based on your Table of Contents. This makes it really easy to move through the book if you took the time to create one that makes sense for your images. PubIt!, on the other hand, creates it’s NCX based on the chapter starts being defined as “Heading” style, which you can’t assign to images. Although  not as pretty as in iTunes, I made due by adding a few extra links within the book. I added a ‘Title Page” link and at the end of the images added a “Back to Table of Contents”. Your TOC within the book will still work.

Hopefully this will help you decide which way to go with your own picture book. If you can’t settle for the look you end up with within these limitations you can always go the extra mile and create epubs from scratch, buy an ISBN, and distribute to each major ebook retailer on your own.

So far, I’m torn between the ease of Smashwords and the control of PubIt!. Perhaps once my books have earned enough to cover the costs I’ll try my hand at creating and distributing my own books to iTunes and Amazon. I really love the concept behind Smashwords though, so for now at least, I’m going to try sticking with them.

Click Image to Download FREE Mini-Book

You can now download this free mini-ebook (PDF only) of the latest installment of my I see… Animals series : I see… Serengeti — Your Baby, Binoculars, and MORE African Animals. Here is a short blurb:

Your Baby, Binoculars, and MORE African Animals! Join your child on safari in the African Serengeti — discover clues through your binoculars that lead to whimsical and engaging characters. Meet these animals on your journey: Leopard, Hippopotamus, Ostrich, Crocodile, and Warthog. Designed to be enjoyed by children 0-5 with/or without adult participation. Twenty-two full page color illustrations.

The full book is available for .99 cents through ebook retailers, see the BOOK page for details, enjoy!

Because a Huge Baby Belly Deserves Some Awesome

Surprise! On a whim I logged into my Cafepress account, something I haven’t done since I illustrated the Alien in Photoshop for myself to sport on my awesome baby belly in 2009, and I see my favorite maternity shirt has all of a sudden started selling. In the last 90 days 13 people in the world have bought my Spaceballs/Alien inspired maternity shirt. That is cool beans!

I made some cutesy animal swag back in 2008 after a buddy of mine brought their brochure back from Mac World for me. Since then I have made a few items for myself, including a line of fun belly shirts I dubbed “MaternaTEEs“, but haven’t put much effort into driving traffic to the site to increase sales. Except for the tiny button on the side of my site of course. I guess Cafepress added this to their Marketplace offerings and all of a sudden people are finding it. And buying it. That explains why Google Analytics showed a +600% in traffic, which I couldn’t believe. I get a tiny cut, like $2.50 a shirt out of it, but the pride of knowing some awesome baby bellies are sporting my design is priceless.

Just a quick update… My new Children’s ebook, I see… Savannah, is available now on Smashwords! I’ll be diving into self marketing next and have many more links as well as a press release soon. The book will also be distributed to Apple’s iBookstore, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

About Smashwords

Founded in 2008, Smashwords operates the world’s leading ebook publishing and distribution platform serving authors, publishers, readers and retailers.
Smashwords makes it free and easy for the world’s authors and publishers to instantly publish and distribute their books as multi-format ebooks. Smashwords puts authors and publishers in full control over the pricing, sampling and distribution of their works. Authors and publishers receive up to 85 percent of the net proceeds from sales of their works. Smashwords has distribution relationships with leading online retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony and Diesel eBooks, and leading mobile e-reading apps including Aldiko, Stanza, Kobo, FBReader and Word-Player, spanning all major mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry and iPhone. Privately held Smashwords is based in Los Gatos, California, and can be reached on the web at http://www.smashwords.com/. Visit the official Smashwords blog at http://blog.smashwords.com/

A FREE Mini-Book to enjoy with your child!

The full book is almost ready. In the meantime, enjoy this very cute and very FREE mini-book!

Join your child on a safari of discovery as you both spy animal clues through your trusty binoculars! Each animal is revealed after three clues and your child will love being engaged by the simple text and whimsical characters. Designed to encourage young readers and emphasizes early literacy development by focusing on narrative skills, the ability to describe things and events. This book is intended for children 0-3 years, using eReading devices with adult participation.

Your Baby, Binoculars, and African Animals!

This is the cover for my new children’s e-book, I see… Savannah. I’ve been toying with this dream of publishing a book for most of my life. Originally, I coveted the prospect of walking into a Powell’s and seeing my novel sharing shelf space with my favorite authors populating the Sci-Fi Fantasy realm. Although I am working on pre-writing/outlining for a novel length piece of fiction, that kind of book takes years. I’m no Stephanie Meyer. I know I don’t have the huevos to pop out a bestseller in three frakin months.

Now here comes the Ebook revolution and I think, “Gee, I should get on this book thing while the getting is like, CRAZY hot!” I start reading up on epub. I follow a bunch of great blogs about it. I really dig Joe Konrath. He mentions this book about the 10,000 hour rule. Basically, your not a pro at something until you’ve invested 10,000 hours, then the magic happens.

I started writing and developing The Nose with Toes. I thought, “Hey, children’s books would be a great start!” They are shorter so I can spend more time fussing and still get it done. I like kids. I like books too. And by golly I know how to use my Mac. I’m NOT however, a pro illustrator. Not by the traditional standards. So Nose has been a little slow in taking shape. I really love him. My sketches and initial illustration tests are super cute. The book is written, and I’ve started editing the crud out of it thanks to some helpful critiques, but I’m just not getting it where I want it to be yet.

Now I remember the 10,000 hour rule and think, “Wow, you know what? I’m wicked fast with a beziér pen, I have 10 solid years in Adobe Illustrator under my belt. I need a concept that USES my mad mac skillz!” Hence, my newest brain child:

I see… Savannah

The first in a series of super affordable, I’m going for .99¢ list price, seek and discover books geared toward young pre-readers. Your baby is on safari. Looking through the tiny binocular view they slowly discover Africa’s amazing wildlife. It’s simple. It’s sleek. It’s pretty darn NEAT!

I’ve completed two chapters and tested it on my 20 month old. She goes nutty for it. Each page reveals a new clue: I see big floppy ears! After three clues the animal is revealed: I see an Elephant! Kahlan totally picked up on the fun of it exclaiming, “Hiding Momma! Find him!” Then as the big reveal came she cried out, “YAY! Found him! Elephant!”

If I never sell a single copy, that right there made it totally worth while.

The book will be available for e-readers this summer. Don’t forget just about every e-reader — Kindle, Nook, Stanza, iBooks, etc. is available free for your desktop AND iPhone or other smart phone. I’m going to try publishing through Smashwords even though they specialize in long narrative, just to make it more available in multiple formats. If that doesn’t work out I may just start with Barnes & Noble, since they have a relatively simple self publishing site, and distribute it my self from there.

Stay tuned for release announcements!

A new series where I try to share a doodle creature I’m working on. Some may become characters in my books… some are just fun. Enjoy.