Self-Publishing "The Magic Paintbrush"

     Before scouting for people to work for me, I had to decide first where to have my book published. I had a few choices and then I trimmed it down to two print-on-demand printers - Lulu and Createspace. After reading some articles on the internet, I ended up choosing Createspace.

     Here's one of the articles that helped me in my decision. Next time I will provide more links for you to read and help you decide on your own.

    http://gretavanderrol.net/2014/01/27/createspace-lulu-which-should-you-choose-for-your-print-books/

     So where did I find my editor, illustrator, and Createspace formatter? odesk is the answer! This was where I hired two musicians for my poetry projects so why not search for my dream team here? 

 

      I was able to post the job, state my requirements, set my own deadlines, interview prospects, negotiate fees, hire, and request for revisions whenever necessary.

1. Hiring an editor to check typos and grammatical errors was a practical thing to do. With a minimal price, I learned where I made some mistakes. I accepted most of her revisions and did my own on some parts that I thought needed more revisions. My original story was written with no illustrations. Since I wanted to create an easy reader book with illustrations, I had to delete a few sentences.

2. After the editing (revisions didn't stop until the very day I sent it to Createspace), the illustrator and I worked closely together for the whole month of August on how I wanted each illustration to look. She executed each image better than I expected her to. I was so fortunate to have found her!

3. Final step was with the formatter. I decided to hire one to avoid headaches. There was no way I could learn in such a short time. After I submitted it to her, she worked on it for a week. Then we went back and forth a few times till we got everything right. She was also a gem! She made sure she did all the changes until I was satisfied.

     If you want to save some money and be able to select among a list of qualified freelancers, try odesk. Outsourcing is the way to go to cut down on your cost and to utilize untapped talents and skills in the job market.

Writing Projects for This Year

     Since I've already updated you with all my published works for the past two years and a half, now I'm going to share with your my writing projects for this year. From 2011, I've been more focused on short form poetry such as haiku and tanka. I'm still going to keep on writing and submitting them for publication, but this year, I'll make sure that I find time to pursue what I've already started which is writing for children.

So here were the goals that I listed down in January 2014:

1) A new improved version of The Eskalets -  In 2008, I wrote a children's story in dvd format. This was inspired by the photos and video clips that I took of the six American robins by my window's apartment in 2007. To improve this dvd, I have to 
   a. improve the quality of the photos (taken from a Canon camera with only 4 megapix) by using digital art
   b. find a way to minimize the shakes in my video clips
   c. find a musician who would do the music background

2) The Magic Paintbrush as a picture book or easy reader book
   a. find an illustrator
   b. revised it to make it appropriate for a book with illustrations
   c. find an editor to check typos, grammatical errors, etc.

3) Update this blog
4) Set up a new website to promote myself as a children's book author
5) Research on whether to self-publish or not to self-publish

I need to add this one:
6) Non-children's journal - to put up the very first haiga (haiku and art) journal that I've been dreaming about for some time. 

     Do you think I'm expecting too much of myself this year? Wait till you read my next posts and find out if I've achieved at least half of my goals. :-)