Getting Started

I put my paw to paper and began outlining my vision for the children’s book once I returned home from the hospital.  Who shall be the star?  Me of course!  What is the storyline? That is where I got stuck. I had to solicit some help from mom (no surprise).  After some good brainstorming, we landed on a story centered around my favorite toy.  It took us about a month to put the story together.  In parallel, we were researching illustrators.  We knew we needed a professional, as I am not a very good artist. We were fortunate enough to find a very talented illustrator willing to work with a first-time author.  It was a lot of work (but fun) tweaking the story, reviewing the illustrations, deciding on the cover art, etc.  It took just over 3 months to get the final book completed.  It was an aggressive schedule, but we wanted it available for the holidays and it kept my mind off all the monthly check-ups.

Now that we had a book, we needed to publish it.  There are so many decisions that go into self-publishing a book that it can be overwhelming.  Do we want hardcover or softcover?  What kind of quality of paper, size, jacket cover, etc.?   Some of these decisions we needed to make when the book was being designed as it influenced the layout.  It took time to land on a service that worked for us.  We went with IngramSpark based on the options and cost.  After uploading the book, it took less than a week for their internal QC process.  Once you sign off on the proof, it's available for sale.  There is some work happening behind the scenes to prepare the book for distribution, including setting the prices for all the markets.  They do have a helpful guide that goes through what is needed and you can always research best practices.  I ordered a copy before releasing it just to make sure it was perfect.  It was such an incredible feeling seeing it all come together. 

I learned so much during this process about writing and publishing.  Never underestimate what you can do when you put your mind to it. 

Thanks for stopping by!
-Samantha

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