Wednesday, March 21, 2012

SHIPPED!!!!!

First of all I want to thank all of you who pre-ordered. You really made me feel special and helped to keep my costs down. I'm so excited for you to receive your books and look forward to any comments you may have. The process seems long but so so worth it! I'm already starting my next book and hope to have it out before the end of the summer. I learned that presentation is a big part of shipping so I hope you will enjoy the experience I have provided for you when you open the box.


I will begin my marketing plan now that I have the books in hand. I will issue my first press release and will let you know where you can read up on me.  I am planning on meeting with Cracker Barrel soon and will keep you informed on what they have to tell me. I also will be approaching any Mom and Pop shops that cater to children, visiting libraries, schools and day cares. The next couple of months will be very busy! My book will be available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble within the next two weeks but I will still have it available through my website. Wish me luck and before you know it maybe I'll be the next Eric Carle!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Soon, very soon!

Well I expected to be talking about all the shipping I was doing by now. Unfortunately due to delays in printing I haven’t received my books yet. I have been frustrated with the learning aspect of printing but seem to be getting a better handle on it now. If you decide that you are planning on doing your own publishing please take the time to read up on the correct formatting your printing company requires. Seems they are not very eager to hold your hand through the process. I’m one of those girls that doesn’t let up so I’m staying on top of my printer. If you’re not an aggressive person you may be looking at long delays and feeling a little defeated by the entire process. Don’t give up! Once you receive that proof in the mail, your heart races and your smile can’t be erased. It’s so wonderful to see an idea you have to actually be on the pages of a book that others will be enjoying. 

I will be including in all the pre-orders a free bookplate that Stephanie created just for the book. A wonderful addition if you're planning on giving the book as a gift.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Creation | Book Publishing for Self-Publishers

The creation of a book comes from so many different avenues. My first book "My Animal Alphabet" was inspired by a poster that my niece Stephanie Creekmur created. It was so adorable that one day I decided it needed a poem to go along with the animals. Once the poem had been written we (my niece and I) decided that we should make it a book. We began to contact different book publishers and found that without an agent you really couldn't get to the publishers but you could self-publish. We had a very promising phone call from the self-publishing division of Thomas Nelson. They were VERY interested in the book and even felt that it was worthy to be mentioned to the publishers at Thomas Nelson. However, once I started "reading" the fine print, I felt that we would be giving most of our profits to them. So we decided to test the book. We created a sample book through Shutterfly. It was a beautifully colorful and creative book. So much so I decided to find a reasonable printer to just print the book and I would take care of the distribution and marketing of the book.

Lots of decisions must be made when you decide to do this on your own. Do you want it listed with online book vendors? Do you want it available in the retail market? Are you planning on distributing from your home or do you want it available directly from the printer to the wholesaler?

If you decide that you want it available through retailers online and in stores you must:

1) Copyright.
Copyrighting your work will insure when you wrote it and will save you any legal battles down the road. While looking into registering for your copyright I found out that with literary work you actually have a implied copyright simply because of your work. However this can be disputed and lead to a lengthy legal battle if anyone ever decides to challenge your work. So registering is the way to go and only costs $35. Well worth it for any unforeseen headaches down the road.  See the U.S. Copyright Office for instructions on how to copyright.

2) Acquire an ISBN.
If you decide that you want to sell your book through AmazonBarnes and Noble, or any bookstore online or in-store or you want it to be available in the library, you must have an ISBN, International Standard Book Number. You will need an ISBN for each format of your book. Paperback, Hardback, Audio, etc. You can find all the information you need about ISBN here.

3) Apply for LCCN.
By including your book with the Library of Congress you are insuring that your book will always be available to future generations. Libraries and even some retailers require that you have a Library of Congress Control Number.

Once you have acquired all of these numbers you are ready to submit to a printer and/or self-publisher. Some self-publishers will acquire all these numbers for you. I chose to do it on my own. Seemed less costly. This is the process I am at right now. I will be printing a minimum of 100 books to start. I decided to go with Lightning Source. They are a part of the Ingram Content Group. I will make my book available through Stephanie Creekmur's shopAmazonBarnes and Noble and any other online bookstore I can find. I will also have a press release that will help me in marketing my book. My next step will be marketing it to all my local vendors and contacting bigger retailers and getting it into their store. Because my book is a children's book I will be concentrating more on speciality stores.

So stay tuned for more news in my exciting journey. I will keep you informed on my progress and hope that you too will be able to get your book out there.

Christie