PUBLISH A BOOK

TIME TO BRIGHTEN LIVES and MAKE SOME RESIDUAL INCOME!

A few years ago I became aware of an author with incredible talent who had never done anything to publicize her writing skills.  She was a natural at rhyme schemes and had written many different poems chronicling peoples lives.  She approached me in regards to my art skills 5 years ago.  I started college as an art major, working toward computer graphics, but decided it was just a hobby.  Not that I was ever that great of an artist I did enjoy drawing and even studied cartoon drawing for a time in high school.
Anyway, she informed me of a Children's Book that she had written and was looking for someone to illustrate it.  I jumped at the opportunity and started drawing.  It took about a year to complete the pictures, and then started the real work of trying to find a publisher.

Where myself and the author had no idea of how to publish a book there was a learning curve.  The author went to writing conferences in Salt Lake City to critique her skills and to learn how to publish.  She gained valuable knowledge and mentor like connections that offered her any help whenever she needed it.  Over 2 years ago she started sending out her manuscript, and through a series of learning events we have now sent the manuscript off to get copyright license and ISBN#, then we can do a self publishing and release it to the world ourselves.

Why self publishing?
Well we weren't able to get a publisher for starters.  The author researched publishing companies specific to children's books.  She then had to send a copy of the manuscript to each one.  The companies take the liberty of saying it can be up to 6 months before they will respond.  Our book was sent to over a dozen companies, and none decided take our book.

Does that mean it's no good?
No! it could mean that it doesn't fit what they are looking for at the time.  It could mean that it is no good, but I have read poorly written children's books and this is not one of them!!!  So that is why we are going to do self publishing.
The cool thing about writing a book and living when we do is that you don't need an ISBN number or copyright to write a book and sell it online.  However, if you ever want a published print edition of your book you will have to get an ISBN.  It costs money and must be done through ISBN.org.
A copyright can then be acquired.   It is not necessary but offers a higher level of security for your work.  Read more about it here at the US copyright website.  We found that LegalZoom offered the best deal for obtaining a copyright, but it still cost over $100.
We are planning on doing the promotion and selling ourselves, mostly online to begin with but then go through a printing company that will print as ordered online.  Form more information on Self Publishing check out this website from LifeHacker.

Currently we wait to get our Copyright. It has been nearly 6 months and we are getting excited to get cruising with our book!  Once we obtain that we can start advertising and selling it online and in Printed form.
It is very exciting to see this project come together!!!  We can't wait to give this to the world, I know people will love it!!!

Here is a sample pic that I drew with the book title (it will be much improved on the final copy):