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During every book production season, there are moments you will always remember and treasure until the end of time. Certain "Je n'est-ce pas" that make you hold your breath, like the moment before sending a cover to print, or even the day before you start designing a book you love. The excitement builds up and makes you push the project to a higher level. You are guided by so much conviction and truth that it gives you chills to work on it. Yes, I know it sounds funny, but I know people out there understand what I'm talking about.

This season, I had these sort of experiences while designing Fairieground, a series co-written by Beth and me. I've never had to design anything I've written before. This was a first, and it was definitely a challenge. It took many drafts, many hours of research, and many trials and errors. Yet, Beth and I are very proud with the outcome. It was a joint effort. Odessa Sawyer, our super talented illustrator, influenced the design and the book narratives with her gorgeous realistic illustrations.

The books come out this spring, but here is a little sneak peak of what the fairies in the Willow Forest are hiding from all of us. Enjoy!

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I heard a concept that was foreign to me last week while watching a training video. It said that opposed to what many people believe, our own traits as children stay with us forever. That each trait is something that we’ll never grow out of and is so engrained to our personality that it only gets stronger with age. The video explained that deep inside we feel the same way we did when we were kids and if anything, it makes you more passionate about what you do, about your “super powers” as I call them, or “strengths” as everybody else does.

That thought brought me back to my childhood. I was an introvert, but yet I loved to tell stories and draw them out. I wanted to be able to tell the story more accurately to help other people get it. When I grew bigger, I started talking to my friends about what I’d dreamed the night before. I would paint scenes and color with pencils for hours, softly so there wouldn’t be any lines on the paper. I didn’t wanted people to get distracted by the lines, but to take the scene fully in. Then at age 17 I started to write. I had a stack of white paper under my bed and I would turn my light on right after my parents went to bed. My pages were fully handwritten, and my friends would borrow them to read the next day so that we could decide where the story was going from there on.

That was me as a kid and now that I think of it, that’s exactly me now. This year I got an amazing opportunity. I’m an art director, so my responsibility is the look and feel of the books, but yet, one of the people I look up to when it comes to writing, asked me if I would co-write something with her. 

Beth and I came up with a super cool concept while having tea in our afternoon break. A hi-low series for girls. A story about two best friends, girls who are opposites. They fight over a boy, and one wishes the other away. We hammered out all of the details over cups of tea and coffee. And that is how Fairieground was born 9 months ago. 

Beth and I have been writing, editing, art directing and designing these books together. They have some of

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Are you interested in how copyright affects your professional life? Do you miss the fun and welcoming atmosphere of summer camp? Then join us at Copyright Camp, where we’ll provide a forum to discuss copyright and how it affects you on a daily basis. Copyright Camp will be an unconference-style event with an introductory plenary by Deborah Wythe, Director of the Brooklyn Museum’s Digital Collections and open access pioneer. After the opening plenary there will be a large board with open time slots for any attendee to add any topic they want to facilitate, or submit your suggestions in advance on our website.  An Antiques Roadshow style “Open Content Roadshow” is also planned, where you can bring an “item” (like a presentation, publication, photo or other copyrightable material) for our panel of experts to review and make recommendations for making this item open and adaptable. Copyright Camp is sponsored by the U-M Library’ MPublishing office and the Open.Michigan Initiative, and is free and open to the public.
Date: July 29th, 2011
Time: 1:00 PM ­ 5:00 PM
Location: Hatcher Graduate Library, Library Gallery (Room 100)
For more Info and to Register (no charge): http://copyrightcamp.org/

Susan Topol
OER Publication Manager
Office of Enabling Technologies

University of Michigan Medical School
[email protected]
(734) 998-0218

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On March 18th, 2010 Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with veteran author and publisher Walt Shiel about some of the most confusing topics for the self-publishing newcomer: print book design, typesetting, indexing, and even eBook production. Walt’s publishing company, Slipdown Mountain, has published three novels, two military history titles, two other nonfiction titles, and one short story collection. It’s subsidiary Five Rainbows Services for Authors and Publishers was spun off to meet the demand for assistance from self-publishers. Walt addressed some of these key points in today’s interview:

Book Design & Typesetting

• Is there any difference between designing a book and typesetting it?
• What are the key decisions a book designer must make?
• Isn’t typesetting just pouring the text into the typesetting software, adding some formatting, and letting the software work its magic?

E-Book Design

• Does design and/or typesetting matter at all in creating an e-book?
• Aren’t there software packages that can create e-books virtually automatically?
• Do readers even care if an e-book is well-designed as long as they get the content one way or another?

Indexing

• What is an index and how is it different from a concordance?
• Doesn’t the author know better than anyone else what should be indexed?
• What do you need to know to create a useful index?

Independent publisher Walt Shiel claims he is now into his fourth career, following career stints as an Air Force pilot, telecommunications engineer, and aerospace engineer on the B-2 bomber program at Northrop and the F-22, F-35, and F-16 pilot training programs at Lockheed Martin.Walt has been a freelance writer since 1992, with magazine articles published in the US, UK, and Australia. Currently, he writes the “Warbirds” column for Cessna Flyer magazine and the View From The Publishing Trenches blog. Walt has served on the Board of Directors of the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association for the past four years.Walt, his wife Kerrie, and his daughter Lisa founded Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC in 2003 in North Texas but relocated to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 2004.

Since then, they have published three novels, two military history titles, two other nonfiction titles, and one short story collection.In 2007, they formed a subsidiary, Five Rainbows Services for Authors and Publishers to meet the demand for assistance from self-publishers. Converting print books to Kindle and ePub formats has become a major part of this business over the past year.

Walt has written two military history books (Cessna Warbirds and T-41 Mescalero), a Michigan historical novel (Devil in the North Woods), and a short story collection (Pilots and Normal People). He also edited a reprint of Flying for France by James R. McConnell. His new book — Rough War: An American Fighter Pilot’s WW II Journey to Burma and Back — is due out in mid-summer 2010.

Listen to the PodCast! 0 Comments on Walt Shiel – Print Book Design, Typesetting, and eBooks as of 1/1/1900 Add a Comment More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag 6. Irene Watson - Target Marketing for NonFiction Writers: Why Some People Won’t Read Your Book 0 Comments | Previous | Top | Next By: Victor Volkman, on 8/29/2009 Blog: Authors Access - Where Authors Get Published and Published Authors Get Successful (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags:  Nonfiction, Guests, Irene Watson, Book Development, personas, Marketing, Add a tag On August 28th, 2009, Alan E. Smith, author of the award-winning “UnBreak Your Health: The Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine” spoke with book marketing guru Irene Watson on the importance of considering target reader personas in the book writing process. Irene is the owner of Reader Views, a full-service book reviewing and marketing agency in Austin, TX. Irene’s psychology background and constant study gives her the ability to understand people and how they think, live, and for today’s interview, how they read. Some of the things we considered: Importance of knowing your target market before writing your book Understanding reading preferences, temperments and personalities of potential readers Creating a profile of the potential readers/target market Fully understanding why some readers like your book and others don’t.

Irene’s career took her from career counseling, to business ownership, to working for a police force, to psychosynthesis counseling, to teaching at a college, to retreat/seminar/workshop design and facilitation to her most recent - owning/managing Reader Views and its branches. She obtained her B.S. in psychology at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX and her M. A. in psychology from Regis University in Denver, CO.After retiring in 2003 Irene authored an award winning memoir, The Sitting Swing, which was originally published in 2005. Having a hard time getting reviews for her book, she started Reader Views on a whim. Within a month it exploded to a full time business. So much for retirement! Since then she has pioneered many other innovative marketing sites including Inside Scoop Live, ReviewThe Book, BloggingAuthors, and many other services from press release writing to book videos to an international award contest now entering its 4th year.

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On August 6th, 2009 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with writing and publishing guru Patricka Vaughn about how to get started in your memoir/autobiography or biography of a loved one. Patrika Vaughn, world’s leading Author’s Advocate, is the CEO of A Cappela Publishing. She has taught memoir writing from Florida to Finland and is here to tell you how to do it. She addressed many key issues including

• Why should you write your life story?
• What do you need before you begin?
• What are the forms a life story can take?
• How do you get started?
• How do you make your story interesting to others?
• How do you turn your story into a book?

Spanning a 25-year career as a writer, editor, publisher, lecturer, author and literary agent, Patrika Vaughn understands the written word and how to market it. She is also armed with an arsenal of tools to propel the works of aspiring writers quickly through today’s prohibitive publishing arena and into the hands of readers. Her 25 years of experience include every aspect of the trade:

• Professional Writer: Columnist and feature writer. Articles published in more than 100 national journals and magazines. Author of books, audio books and ebooks. (see www.acappela.com)
• Ghostwriter: Books of both fact and fiction for industrialists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists, world travelers and international executives
• Editor: Editor for national trade and consumer publications
• Publisher: President of A Cappela Publishing
• Literary Agent: Placed writers with Prentice-Hall (Simon & Schuster), McGraw Hill Publications, Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, Cahners Publications, Conover Mast Publications, Advisory Enterprises, Inc., Larkin Publications and others.
• Public Relations & Marketing Consultant: To business, industry and non-profit corporations; former media coordinator for Habitat for Humanity in San Diego / Tijuana
• Lecturer, Seminar leader, On-line instructor: Adult education plus university and community college level presentations.

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On July 23rd, 2009 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with book coach, professional freelancer, and author Cheryl Pickett. Her first book Publishing Possibilities: 8 Steps to Understanding Your Options & Choosing the Best Path for Your Book (2009) is specifically designed to help other writers navigate the publishing industry. She educated us about the three major models in her system: traditional, independent, and fee-based/POD/pay to publish. Her approach is goal-directed in narrowing the possibilities to the solution that best fits your publishing needs. We also covered how and when to use an Agent, the importance of establishing a platform, and how your personal style is reflected in which route to publish.

Cheryl Pickett has been writing professionally for almost a decade. She got her start as a freelance writer in 1999 just before the turn of the new millennium. She has well over 120 articles to her credit which have appeared both on and offline in newspapers, ezines a trade magazine and more.A few years ago, she decided she wanted to take her writing in other directions and ultimately combined her life-long love of books with her research and reporting skills. Her personalized, step-by-step approach is unique and empowers new and would-be authors to make solid decisions throughout their publishing journey. You can find out more about Cheryl and Publishing Possibilities by visiting her site PublishingAnswers.com. or her blog publishinganswers.blogspot.com

a target=”_blank” href=”http://audio.authorsaccess.com/podcasts/CherylPickett.mp3″>Listen to the PodCast!

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