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.

I’m doing it. I’m self publishing. And I’ve decided to share the development of my first ebook from start to finish. There is a wealth of information on the Internet, a glut really, and it’s still been tough to find specifics on HOW to make e-books. Kind of like when the web went social and every TD&H wanted to publish a site, there are services that will do it for you if you can shell out some coin, pricey software that helps but requires a tech touch to finesse the files, and for the truly die hard geek SDKs to build the files from scratch.

As I learn more and weed the good info out I’ll post as much instructional tidbits as I’m able. My main focus now though is squeezing more creative time out of my day so I can bring you this:

Joe”s Nose is bored with channel surfing and longs for real adventure out of doors away from snores! Join the Nose with Toes as he follows his… Well, you know!

The Shivering Whippet by Pete Leary

Hey check out Pete Leary. Amazing illustrator! Doesn’t seem too active, his posts are few and far between however well worth the looksie — I’m a sucker for this kind of style so I’m biased, but none the less his work is executed fantastically. And how could I not love an illustrator with a piece called “The Shivering Whippet”…