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My writer (and artist) pal Beth MacKinney asked me to be part of an exciting project this weekend. Authors with blogs are linking to other author-blogs for a huge, weekend-long Blog-Hop! Beth is linking to my blog and she sent me questions—about whatever my latest writing project is— for the occasion. Here they are.
- What is the working title of your book?
Dark Circles.
- Where did the idea come from for the book?
I thought it would be funny to spoof the Twilight Saga. Also, there ought to be a school-infested-by-vampires-and-werewolves story for kids too young to read about the exploits of Bella and Edward.
- What genre does your book fall under?
Picture Book. Unless you have a category called ‘Doomed Picture Book’.
- Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Actors who look like K-Stew and R-Patz, but younger and zippier. You know, not half- asleep.
- What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
The first day at a new school is tough, but it’s even more difficult for Ella, who has no idea her new classmates are undead!
- Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m definitely going to shop this around to publishers. If my agent (who reps illustrators not authors) likes it, she may help me promote it.
- How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Still working on it! I can’t figure out how to get the plot to the third act. Either my protagonist realizes all her classmates are vampires and werewolves and needs to deal with that, or else she remains unaware while chaos erupts around her. I haven’t thought of a way to end the chaos, or the story.
- What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Milton’s Paradise Lost—the one with Gustave Dorè’s illustrations. I know, I know, PL is over 10,000 lines long, but you haven’t seen my manuscript. I need to do a lot of cutting.
- Who or what inspired you to write this book?
‘Inspired’ may not be the best word. I’ve been a little tired of wall-to-wall Twilight and my smart-alecky brain naturally turns to spoof. I thought I’d try to turn spoof into a picture book project for my crowd, which are 5 to 8-year-olds.
- What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It’s narrated in the first person. It’s written in rhyme. Here’s a sample:
The first day at my new school
Was awkward as I feared
The kids who go there—and their dogs—
Are more than slightly weird.
Their skin is pale and pasty
They’re thin and underfed
Their eyes are dark with circles
Like they haven’t been to bed.
They hate to see the sun shine
They like the lighting dim
The window blinds are always down
Which makes it kind of grim.
As you probably noticed, it’s the same structure as The Last Time I Saw Paris— composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. If that doesn’t pique a reader’s interest, I don’t know what will!
Way back in March, I wrote a post about Pinterest. At that time, I had been contemplating using it to save images to use in my research. Given potential copyright issues, I decided it just wasn’t worth the bother.
That was then. This is now.
I still don’t use Pinterest to save images found while researching various writing projects. Instead, I use it to pick new topics. After these projects are published, I use Pinterest to attract new readers.
Research
If you aren’t familiar with
Pinterest, members visit this site to do image searches on anything that interests them. There are categories for Animals, History and Science and Nature. You can also do keyword searches.
When I am researching new topics, I click on “Popular.” Granted, this isn’t as focused as a search on Photography or Weddings, but it does tell me what people are Pinning (this is the Pinterest term for copying an image to your own page, called a Board).
One of my primary writing gigs is for
Education.com. If I click on Popular and see numerous pins that involve initials or various words or blocks of text used in craft activities, I brainstorm something along these lines for grader school students. The same goes for string art, polymer clay and food served in ice cream cones.
Pinning Down New Readers
Once Education.com publishes my activities, I Pin the images back to my own boards. I have a board for
Activities and Crafts and another for
Science Projects. Because I took the photos and link back to Education.com, with their permission, there aren’t any issues with who owns what and thus no copyright hang ups. And, if someone repins an image to their own board, that’s more traffic driven our way.
I don’t stop there. I’ve been taking a lot of nature photos to use in my blog posts about writing. A board labeled, obviously enough,
Nature Photos links back to my
personal blog. Another board,
What I’ve Been Reading, links back to either my
book review blog or my personal writing blog. On days someone repins one of my photos, I see a bump up in traffic.
What if you don’t write book reviews or crafts? Then think about what you do write. If you write fiction, where is your novel set? If it is a real place, and it is someplace that you visited and took research photos, then put up a board.
Maybe you took scads of photos of clothing and furniture so that you’d be certain to get period details right. Create a board.
Food. Animals. Health and Fitness. Geek. All of these and more are categories on Pinterest. Not that this has to limit you in any way. After all, people can find you with a keyword search.
Get out your camera. Brainstorm about your book and start promoting yourself.
–SueBE
Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at
One Writers's Journey.
I'm in the process of revamping my website (not a real re-design, mind you, just rebuilding it to give it a bit more functionality on my end) and a big part of that is rifling through all my portfolio pieces.
Isn't that the worst, though? I hate trying to decide what I want to be "out there", representing me to the rest of the world.
Along the way, I came across a simple illo I did for Illustration Friday a while back, and thought it might be fun to update it a bit: add some type, textures, etc. Then I ended up doing another companion piece to it.
Clarion Library gave me one of their children’s chairs and asked me to paint it with a storybook theme. I chose Rapunzel from Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
The auction is at 6:00 this evening at the American Legion Hall on Main Street, Clarion, Pa. Come on out if you’d like to see some beautifully painted chairs!
Click to view slideshow.
Blast me for a marlin spike—tomorrow is Talk Like A Pirate Day!
I’ll be yarning away the afternoon watch with the young scholards at Colfax Elementary School.
Never fear, you can talk like a pirate, too. Just click over here for a glossary of pirate words. You’ll also find some coloring sheets and the lyrics to that fine old buccaneer bunny sea shanty, Nibble Yer Greens!
Some excellent reading for the day: Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies, Henry and the Crazed Chicken Pirates, and Pirates Go To School.
Come join me this Saturday in Frick Park (in Pittsburgh, Pa) at the big blue slide! I’ll be the one in the bunny ears, reading Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies and painting pictures.
I'm getting ready for our local SCBWI Illustrator's Day.
I printed up some business cards that are in keeping with my Pig illustrations in my portfolio.
Instead of paying extra to round the corners, I used local child laborers (aka my kids) to cut them.
We thought leaving one corner squared was cool.
I also 'piggified' my Twitter
background.
One question that gets asked a lot among illustrators around the ol' World Wide Interwebs is where do you get your postcards printed? Those who have been at it a while seem to have their favorites, and I have mine certainly, but I thought that since I'm such a nice Viking (and I got bored one afternoon), I'd compile as definitive a list of online printer's as one probably could before falling asleep at one's keyboard.
Not only do I hope to provide this list as a resource, but I'd be anxious to know what other folks think of any of these vendors through experience.
My personal favorite is GotPrint (best quality, best price as far as I can find), but check the others out and see what you think. I only priced a standard size, but tried to get two quotes each, starting with the lowest quantity available from that vendor. All prices are for full color, both sides.
GotPrintStandard 4" x 6"
100: $27
250: $33
Standard (5.47" x 4.21")
100: $34.98
250: $62.98
Overnight Prints
Standard 4" x 6"
(premium offset, not digital)
100: $36.55
250: $69.05
Jakprints
Standard 4" x 6"
100: $60
250: $65
Print Direct for Less
Standard 4" x 6"
250: $63
500: $69
Moo
Standard 4" x 6", each card with a unique front
20: $20
80: $79
PS Print
Standard 4" x 6"
100 (digital): $23.41
250 (offset): $39.36
Modern Postcard
Standard 4.25" x 6"
250: $115
500: $155
My Postcard Printing
Standard 4" x 6"
100 (digital): $46.58
250 (offset): $93.08
Uprinting
Standard 4" x 6"
100 (digital): $46.58
250 (offset): $93.08
1-800-Postcards
Standard 4" x 6"
100 (digital): $67
100 (offset): $137
Ink Chaser
Standard 4.25" x 6"
250: $27.38
500: $31.13
If you've used any printers not listed here, please feel free to let me know in the comments.
After a long, agonizing struggle, my postcards are finally printed and starting to make their way out into the world.
My style has changed so much over the last year or so. I knew something had to change for awhile. I had that uncomfortable, exciting, aggravating feeling running in the background of my consciousness. I tried to lean into it and let it happen, knowing that change and growth are part of the creative life, but that knowledge didn't make it any easier. I played, I experimented, I caught glimpses, but the goal was always just out of reach.
I researched, I studied, I went to conferences. At my local Illustrator's Day,
John Clapp, illustration teacher at SJSU, told me that it should always be uncomfortable when I'm creating something. That means I'm growing, that I'm making something worth making. It shouldn't be easy or rote.
That mantra has been playing in my head since last fall. I am so grateful for my friend,
Tracy Bishop, for listening, pushing, and agonizing right alongside of me through this journey. Thanks also to
Kelly Light for helping put the cherry on top of this illo.
My word for this year and last has been Intention. I used that word from the beginning of this illo, starting with the color palette. I loved Peter Brown's book Children Make Terrible Pets as a reference for the color.
 |
| @Peter Brown |
The painting in progress. I create everything in layers traditionally, then assemble, collage, and enhance in Photoshop.
Man, life has been busy. Which I guess is a good thing, right? Of course that means that when the online illustration directory That's My Folio gave me a heads up that I would be one of the "Featured Artists" on their homepage, I put off writing a post for it until the last possible minute.
In the end, I wrote this. I don't know what possessed me to write it, really, but I kinda like how it turned out, so I thought I'd repost it here.
. . . . .
How long have I been doing this?
I don't mean being an illustrator or graphic designer. I mean, how long have I been
drawing?
Well, considering my current age, and the age around which I probably first put crayon to paper (or wall, as the case may be), around 35 years. That's a long time, really. For anything. My dad retired from working as an electronic engineer after something close that amount of time, and never looked back.
But me? I'm not even close to being done.I have more ideas for projects and experiments than I have time to tackle. And anytime I start to feel even the slightest bit bored, I see someone else's brilliant work, and suddenly, I fall head over heels in love with art all over again.
Granted, I haven't drawn exactly the same thing all these years. From my earliest memory through middle school, I wanted nothing more than to draw a comic strip. You know, the kind you used to read in the newspaper back when people actually read newspapers. I loved the medium, and studied everything about it. I was convinced, even at the early age, that I was destined to be a cartoonist.
Obviously, that changed over time. I continued drawing comic strips through high school and into college for my school paper, but since then, not one. Instead, I've persued all kinds of other illustrative endeavors, and even fell in love with graphic design during my university years. And I experimented with everything: acrylic paint, colored pencils, pastels, watercolor. I enjoyed all of them, but it wasn't until I took a chance and purchased some scratch board from my local art supply store on a whum that I really hit my stride.
But even now, the more I work in the computer, the more interested I become in other styles. And I've loved every minute of it. Even with the projects that crashed and burned, the stuff sitting in storage that no one will ever see—I loved it. Maybe not the result, but the process.I don't just love art, I love being an artist. I'm not concerned with whether I succeed or fail; I'm only intersted in the sublime act of creating. It makes me happier than probably any one human being has a right to be.
So, if anyone were to ask me, does it ever get old? I'd say, No. And I would imagine that, as long as I keep drawing, I won't either.
You've undoubtedly noticed these black-and-white boxes on products ranging from the weekly coupon insert in the Sunday newspaper to TV advertisements to the back of books.
What is it?
Say hello to the QR (quick response) code, a two-dimensional or matrix barcode. Each QR code is comprised of data - binary, alphanumeric or Kanji (Japanese writing systems) - that form the black pockets. The square code sits on a white background.
But what does this have to do with writing?
Consider the QR code another way to promote you and your product, whether it's a book or a link to an article or your own website.
A new study by Forrester Research shows that people are using the unique data code at a higher rate than a year ago. The study shows that five percent of adults use the codes to find additional information. That's a four percent increase from just one year ago.
Think about how many smartphone users exist in the world. Their rates of use have increased 15 percent, with Android phone owners using the codes most often. To access information, you simply scan the code with any camera smartphone and suddenly, you're experiencing printed material in a new way, whether through multimedia, text files, or websites.
Writers should be taking advantage of QR codes to land new readers. It's an easy self-promotion method.
How do you generate the codes? Free programs, like
Kaywa, can help. And potential readers can find free applications for their smartphones. Kaywa also offers a free QR reader.
While the QR code may seem like the latest craze, in today's 3D and multimedia-based world, the QR code offers one more way to connect with an audience.
by LuAnn Schindler. Read more of her work at her website.
If you ask me, there are two huge misconceptions writers make when it comes to the subject of self-promotion. The first is that self-promotion is something you either do or don’t do; the second is that self-promotion is somehow directly related to book promotion.
(Read more ...)
A couple of updates that I'm pretty stoked about regarding the ingenius eBook I illustrated recently.
1
Looks like MeeGenius is not only including "Pajama Girl" in it's own iPhone and iPad app, but gave "Pajama Girl" it's very own app!
Congratulations to MeeGenius for having especially fine taste in children's literature.
2"Pajama Girl" was also recently featured under iTunes "New & Noteworthy" section. Yeah, iTunes knows what's up...
You would already know this, of course, if you have "liked"
my Facebook page. If you haven't, well, that's fine. Just bare it mind the next time a longship piled bow to stern with rhino-sized vikings shows up at your village armed to the teeth and looking particularly moody.
3"Pajama Girl's" author, the lovely and talented
Sarah Perry, will be attending this summer's SCBWI conference in La La land, so if you're headed out there, too, be sure to say hullo and congratulate her on the eBook, as well as on having especially fine taste in children's illustrators. If you're lucky, she might even sign your iPad (no body parts, please).
(I, unfortunately, will not be attending. I will be otherwise engaged deep in the bowels of Helheim in an epic struggle against the numberless Legions of the Dead in an effort to protect the Nine Worlds, humanity at large, and to locate a debit card I lost the last time I was in the area.
Someone's been renting all of the
questionable Eddie Murphy movies from Netflix with it, and I intend to find out who.)
I did, at least, design a little hand out for her to print and take along with her:
4And last, but certainly not least, I leave you with a bit of a JK Rowling-esque teaser:
It is my understanding that the author may or may not be working on a sequel. It may or may not involve a new arch nemesis, it may or may not involve getting to bed on time, but it will most
definitely include pink footy pajamas, heart-pounding adventure, and a cat.
It will also most definitely be better than
The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
I needed to print up a new postcard, but frankly, I didn't like any of the illustrations I had on hand that I hadn't already used (I know, we artists are soooooo critical of ourselves). So I did a new one. Here's the front:
Now, on the back, I have traditionally put ALL of my contact info. But since talking with the AD from Simon & Schuster at the last SCBWI conference, I realized it was probably not necessary. He said that really, all he needs in a web address and maybe an email. Plus, after meeting a few industry people in person, I thought it might be nice to leave some room to hand-write a custom message, if applicable.
In the comments a couple of week’s ago, someone said they were still looking for a uniquely introverted approach to being an author rather than settling for Extrovert Lite, and I thought that was an interesting point. It got me to thinking, what would a uniquely introverted presence look and feel like? Is there a way to craft presence that is truly based on introvert strengths and not Extrovert Lite?
If one’s idea of an introvert presence is to have to do absolutely no engaging or connecting, the answer is probably not. One exception to this might be if you wrote such a dynamic, compelling kick @ss book that the publisher gets behind it in a BIG way and does all the heavy lifting for you. Even then, they will most likely want you to have some presence, some way of your readers to find you, a web site, a Facebook or Twitter account, or a blog. But how you use them is up to you.
So how does an introvert take these tools and use them wholly in their own way?
I think part of that answer is to use them with a different end in mind; to connect with readers rather than to draw and create new readers. It is a small thing really, a shift in perspective, but one that is based solidly in the introvert’s personality and strengths.
Introvert strengths that can be used to connect with readers are:
1. We are good at connecting deeply and meaningfully with people.
2. We like to think and talk about big, important things and ideas. Not chit chat, but deep conversations.
3. While we do like to connect with people, it needs to be in keeping with our own energy levels. This is why the internet is such a huge breakthrough for introverts.
So we build our marketing presence on those three principles. In fact, it will not so much be a marketing presence but more about creating opportunities to connect. It might seem like a matter of semantics, but it radically shifts the focus and the goal of what you’re doing—and that goes a long way to taking it out of the Extrovert Lite category and putting it solidly into the Truly Introvert category.
The thing is, if you’re a writer, I’m guessing that means you had something to say, something that compelled you to give voice to the ideas and thoughts in your head. Connecting in an introverted way is simply about extending that at the edges, just a little bit.
As an introvert:
DON’T pay attention to numbers and visitor counters.
DON’T promote your work or put a scintilla of pressure on yourself to shill your books.
DON’T feel like the focus has to be all about you.
DO pay attention to each reader that stops by—answer their comments, create a relationship.
DO have your book cover and title and appropriate links somewhere on your site or FB page, just as one additional aspect of who you are.
DO focus on and talk about things that move you, things that you care about and are passionately involved i
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By: LuAnn Schindler,
on 3/24/2011
Blog:
WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin)
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One lazy afternoon, over a bucket of beers and stale pretzels at a local watering hole, I had an epiphany. A nonfiction book idea poured into my mind, and when I shared my best-selling proposal with my husband, he asked the one question an author doesn't want to hear: "What if you can't find a publisher?"
Since that day, I've been investigating publishing options, including self-publishing. After talking with writing friends who have pursued this route, I've learned several valuable lessons about entering the publishing market:
- Investigate the competition. What sets your proposed deal apart from what's presently available in the market? How many books are already printed on this topic? How recently were they published? Once you know these answers, you can strategize the best ways to set up your book. Can you add infographics? Photographs? Sidebars? Think beyond the printed word and you will be one step ahead of your competition.
- Hire the best of the best. Once the book is written and edited, you should plan to hire a professional editor to give the script a once-over. A writer has an intimate working relationship with her script and all too often, you tend to overlook even the simplest of mistakes. Better to hire a professional than to print a book filled with glaring mistakes.
- Look professional. Your book needs to look professionally printed, and this begins with the outside package: the cover. Design a book cover that draws attention and actually fits the book. (How many times have you looked at a book cover and wondered if the author threw together a graphic?) Also don't forget that your book needs an ISBN number. Contact ISBN.org for information. You may want testimonials or positive reviews for the book jacket. Consider who you can ask for a review. What sets their opinion apart from others?
- Check on the inside. Not only does the cover need to draw attention, but the inside of the book needs to be reader-friendly. Text shouldn't run too close to the binding. Margins need to be precise so the page layout doesn't look crowded.
- Investigate publishing options. So many options exist today, so make sure you thoroughly investigate publishing options and costs. The least expensive option isn't always the best option, but don't get carried away with option overload either. Does your book need all the bells and whistles offered? Or can it it survive - and SELL - with the KISS method?
- Establish a marketing plan. Authors should be considering a market plan from the beginning. I've been working on the platform for my book at the same time I've been writing. I've remained open to options and ideas from my research subjects. Marketing must begin before the book prints. Otherwise, how will you sell books?
I'm still working on publishing options, but since I've done my homework, I feel comfortable about the possibility of heading down the self-publishing route.
Have you done your homework? What options have you considered for publishing your work?
by LuAnn Schindler. Read more of LuAnn's work at Writing on the Wall.
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I totally didn’t see this one coming! Lol.
Hey gang, please swing by Beth’s blog: http://thelastdraftwritersgroup.blogspot.com/