The Making of An Author - Part 2

Is an author ever really done with their edits?  I suppose so.  But only when the book is PUBLISHED.

If I thought I was “done”, I was sadly mistaken. (The Making of an Author - Part 1) 

After drafting the book, I inserted “illustrator notes” in my manuscript (i.e., my vision for what I thought the book would look like).  Ashleigh, however, had full reign to design it how she saw fit.  She IS the professional after all!

As each sketch arrived, I couldn’t believe my eyes! Pinch me! This is MY book!

I was surprised to find that most of my “illustrator’s notes” had seemingly been tossed out the window. But oh, what a pleasant surprise it was.

My book was still without a name.

I bounced ideas off of my friends, my family, really … anyone who would listen.  At one point, I had a half-dozen names I was playing with. But none were giving me “This is it!” vibes. Finally, Ashleigh suggested “Finley Finds Her Way”. I sat on this for a bit, before deciding it had a nice ring to it.

I had a title. My book. Had a title.

After a time away from the manuscript, I picked it up again.  Traditionally, children’s books run between 500-700 words. Mine?  Oh no! Ever the over-achiever, mine was over 1550!

I tried to cut words.  But then kept hearing a little voice in my head repeating a tip I had gotten from another author/editor: make sure every word you use is necessary to tell your story.

And honestly, I feel like they are.  All 1557 words.

Bolstered by the fact that my Grands are into books with a little more verbiage (as long as there are pictures, right?), I think I’m going to be okay.

When Ashleigh sends me a picture of all the sketches laid out, I start counting pages. It doesn’t line up perfectly with how I envisioned the pages to be laid out.

I think, “she’s the creative genius, she knows what she’s doing!” But there’s something inside of me that just won’t let it go. Perhaps my A-type personality or the control-freak within, that wants desperately to understand page layout and whether it’s divisible by four, and where the interior bar code from the printer will go (which they like to fit on the last [blank] page which is included in your page count) and … and … and … .

I’m so out of sorts, I can’t sleep. My brain will not shut down. I’m obsessing.

Ashleigh acknowledges my anxiety by saying, “This book is turning you inside out!” 

Why yes. It is.

After 48 hours of internal hysteria, I decide to leave it to the professional and trust the process.  She’s an author herself with a healthy portfolio (both written and illustrations).  And I let it go.

For now.

After the sketches were done, it was time for the real fun to begin: cutting and painting paper!

Once again, I’m blown away from the tidbits of paper I’m privileged to see. The colors. The work. The cat having fun amongst the scraps of paper left on the cutting room floor.

Ashleigh’s vision and her creativity is the real reason my book is going to look amazing!

When she tells me she feels like this is her book, I feel like she’s treating it like her baby. She’s taken such pride in making this her best book to date (just ask her very cool 16-year old son!)

She's even put in a nod to our respective homes: monkeys that are native to Zimbabwe and a taco truck which is native ... uh ... commonly seen around San Antonio.

Every so often, I start to think about the potential for my book.  The potential success. The potential failure.

Have I written a “good” book?

Will children like my story?

And will parents like it enough to buy it and read it?

In the world of authoring, this is what’s called “imposter syndrome.”

As if being my illustrator isn’t enough, Ashleigh has taken on the role of cheerleader and therapist too.

She reminds me that “(I’m) one of us (authors)”. That I’ve written a gorgeous story. That I am, in fact, the real deal.

As she is nearing the end of paper cutting, I know it’s time to start looking at font styles.

I’m an “Arial” girl at heart, having used it as my preferred default font for as long as I’ve been using a computer (and had a choice of fonts). But I know I need something that’s going to pop! 

I also know I need something that’s going to be easy to read. Afterall, this is a book for early readers too. Taking my suggestions, Ashleigh found the font available to her in ProCreate that is closest to what I’m looking for. With a little pizzazz thrown in for good measure.

Looking at the text leads me down that old familiar rabbit hole. Trying to reduce the word count.

A word here. A word there. An entire piece from the monkeys spread.

After all is said and done, and after multiple edits (and I thought I was done when I handed it off to Ashleigh! HA!), the word count totals just over 1500.  It’ll have to do.  Every word helps to tell the story (or is part of the repetitive theme within the story).

I also need to decide who to dedicate it to. This question has been at the back of my mind since I finished the initial draft.

My Grands are the first to come to mind. But I actually have three books I plan to write, inspired by each of them.

After much thought, I decide on the three people who have given me an enormous amount of support. Not only through my life, but throughout this process.  My husband, mom, and son.  All together now …

AWWWWW

When Ashleigh sent the first mockup of my book cover, it wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned.

But how to be tactful about saying “It’s not what I envisioned”?

I’m not quite sure what I said. Maybe "It's not what I envisioned." But Ashleigh understood the assignment. And returned to me, a bright, colorful, and engaging book cover that I think will draw the attention of any child (including those of the kid-at-heart variety).

Once the book cover was well and truly “done”, she says to me, “Now you can start outreaching bookstores, and schools, and … and … and …”

Wait. What?

As if writing isn’t daunting enough, there’s a LOT of work that goes into self-publishing.

Because there isn’t a traditional publishing company behind me with a big budget for advertising (I AM the publishing company), I’m going to have to market this myself. Where to start?

Well … I officially had a book cover. So why not start with a book cover reveal? I spent several days putting together a video that in the end announced my book to the world (or at least those who were willing to sit through 18 seconds of frogs croaking as the leaves slowly disappeared.)

I needed a launch team!  A “launch team”? What’s that? A group of people who will review my book ahead of its release date, then provide a (hopefully ultra positive) review on Amazon. Launch team members are also those who are willing to spread the word about my book – shout it from the rooftops, tell your friends, your family, hell – even tell your enemies – about it. Yes, I’d like to sell books, but I’d really like an “Amazon Choice” banner attached to my book.

Many authors in the various fb groups use Google Forms in order to recruit and keep track of the people who want to help out. Google What?

This is a whole lot like work. And I’ve been retired for seven years! 

There’s still time to join my launch team.  Just sayin’. (Finley Finds Her Way - Launch Team)

When Ashleigh tells me the cutting and pasting are done, I can’t help but feel a certain type of way. All bubbly inside. A smile creeping across my face. My book is coming to life.

And it's GORGEOUS!

Once done, it’s time to drop the text in. There are messages flying back and forth.

Ashleigh: Here’s the 1^st giraffe page.

Me: Can we put some more space in between lines 2 and 3?

Ashleigh: Done.

Me: OK

And so it went. Page after page. Move this. How about a different font for this word? Great font choice on the word “Thunder!” Can we flop the illustrations to better match the text? And on. And on. And on.

We were feeling pretty good about the way things were looking and were ready to send it to the formatter.

Until … we spotted was a glaring mistake on page 3! Or not-so-glaring since it took us this long to see it!

Finley’s mate, Foster’s name, was not capitalized. Oy vey!

When both Ashleigh and I have looked the file over no less than 252 times, now it’s time to hand it off to the formatter. A guy who lives in Italy (truly – my book is becoming an international effort!).

I immediately think his name must be Giovanni or some such romantically-Italian name. Ashleigh says she envisioned a Vespa-riding, scarf-wearing, hair-blowing-in-the-wind type of guy named Giuseppe.

But no. He’s a punk-rock loving Croatian, living in Italy, who speaks Arabic (among other languages) and his name is Chakib.

Henceforth, he will be known as Giovanni.

Until he had done his job (the first time), told me everything was uploaded to the different websites, but they weren’t (we still don’t know what happened – maybe he missed a button without saving it?), and told me I could “upload it myself”.

To say I took offense to this was an understatement. I was upset. I think the word “livid” might’ve even been thrown around. Because uploading everything was his job!

Henceforth, he was known as Chakib. Because we weren’t sure he was deserving of such a fine Italian name as Giovanni.

Looking back, I think he was simply trying to say, “you’re able to do it yourself – I trust you can”. But for a few minutes (or hours), I was none too happy with our imaginary Vespa-riding formatter.

Ashleigh had long tried to encourage me to have a paperback version.  Nope. Nope. And Nope. I was set that I wanted an eBook and a hardcover. That’s it.

But when Giovanni returned the files, he included files for a paperback too.  So guess what? I’ll now have a paperback version on offer as well.

There was also a glaring mistake on the back cover: my website was wrong. And so we’re back to the drawing board.

I dare say there’s a huge learning curve when self-publishing for the first time. And Ashleigh and I agree we’ve both learned so much already.

Something tells me we’re not done learning yet.