Searching for a Publisher

In writing a children’s book, one of my goals in that process is to be published.  I plan on having a physical book available, as well as having e-books, and an Ipad version for sale.  In order to reach this goal, I’ve had to search for a publisher – and see what is out there, and how it works.

I found a self-publisher, who seems very good.  Their name is Trafford Publishing.  They seem pretty great, and here’s some of the highlights of the process, as I know it:

1. I can come to them at any stage in my process, early on, mid way, book finished, and they have different packages available to suit my needs for where I’m at in the process.  Bonus.
2. They do marketing for you; on websites where books are sold, physical advertising in bookstores around the country, and can target local markets of your choosing.  All completely customizable.
3. They can do all formats of books; ebooks, regular books, and Ipad versions.  Just like I was hoping.
4. I retain 100% of the copy rights, and they help me to copyright my material.  I can walk with my book at any time, and can even bring it to a larger publisher should one have interest.  Complete control.
5. I get royalties on each sale.  20% on physical copies sold, 50% on e-versions sold under the Trafford label.

All of these are good to know.  Even better to know is the timeline:  If I want my book to be on the shelves for this time next year, they need 3-4 months of front end time before publishing.  That means I need to have it substantially completed by July, 2013.

Let the fun begin.

A peek at Fred the Bunny

This is Fred the Bunny from one of my early story boards.  His form may develop further yet, and I’m still having internal strife over how his movements will work out, but I thought I’d share.

 

Beginning to flesh out an idea for my book…

I’ve been thinking for a long time that I need to write a children’s book.  I love to write, I love to read to children, I love to draw, and with all of those things said I think it’s prime time for me to start.  Here’s my idea (all rights reserved, jerks).

Fred the Bunny, DreamNaut.  Fred is a young bunny who loves his bed time.  His mom reads him a story before bed every night, and he goes to sleep with the ideas swirling.  Once asleep, he’s Fred the Knight, or Fred the undersea adventurer, or Fred the space bunny, or whatever.  This is the framework I’m thinking of to begin building a story around.  I plan on doing a mixed media approach to the book, some backgrounds will be painted in Sketchbook Pro, some will be actual paintings and scanned in.  The characters will be layered on top.  some pages might be comic book style, some might be whole page illustrations.  It’s up in the air right now.

Next step: storyboard creation.