Children's eBook Formatting: Getting familiar with KDP Bookshelf

04/08/2015:

     Hi folks!  I spent some time yesterday getting familiar with my Kindle Bookshelf.  I began entering the information for my book.  I know it is not 100% complete, but while I am waiting on my illustrations, I wanted to see how my book would look on Kindle.  The process is pretty straight forward.  I then uploaded and converted my book, which was currently in Word format.
     The formatting was a bit off and I tweaked things here and there.  I finally got things looking good.  I really like how the color illustrations look for my silly book.
     I plan on spending some time writing my book description today.  I am going to look at a bunch of other existing best seller book descriptions in the Juvenile Fiction Humor sections and see what seems to be working.  I will also be looking at their "About the Author" pages.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

04/07/2015:

     Hi folks!  I just received the B&W rough concept sketches for my first villain.  I am very pleased.  He is exactly what I was looking for.  My illustrator is great.  I gave him the okay and he is going to finalize and color them now.  I have about 3 more illustrations for him to do.  There will be about 10 illustrations in this book.  The book will be about 40 pages with illustrations.
     I need to go over all the text once again and get it finalized.  I plan on doing that over the next couple of days.  I hope to have all the illustrations in hand by the end of the week.  One step at a time.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

First Children's Book Nearly Complete:

04/06/2015:

     Hi folks!   Well, I have been away for a few days.  I spent time writing and I am pleased to say that my first book is 99% complete.  We were out of town and I spent the hours in the car writing the rest of the story in my head.  This made for quick writing when I sat down to write.  Or should I say speak.  I hate to type, so I use Dragon Naturally Speaking. I love the software.  It is very accurate.  I fire it up and just start talking and it does all the typing for me.  Then I just have to go back and do some minor corrections.  I highly recommend it.
     Anyway, the entire story line is complete.  I just have to go back through and edit and clean it up a bit.  Meanwhile, I have my illustrator working on additional illustrations.  Things are going very smoothly so far.  I find this quite fun.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Children's Book Illustrations: I found a great illustrator!

04/01/2015:

     Okay, well I have good news!  I found my illustrator!   I am very pleased with this illustrator's work.  The Lance character is just as I envisioned him.  He sent me several B&W drawings and sketches of some of my ideas.  He agreed to illustrate all of my books. And his price is very reasonable, as he is new to this.   I cannot reveal the title or the story line just yet, but I will,  So, another important step is now complete. I have my characters, my story outline and now a great illustrator.  I have already begun to write the story.  Looks like there will be 10 chapters.  Each chapter will have at least one illustration.
     Once I complete the story, I need to focus on my marketing plan.  I have already begun putting some things in place.  I will outline some of the marketing ideas in a future post.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Children's Book Marketing: Creating a social media presence for Sir Wolf the author

03/31/2015:

     As part of my overall marketing plan, I have begun to set-up a presence on the major social media websites as Sir Wolf.  I will be tying all the pieces together and cross promote each site. My blog posts will be posted on Pinterest and Facebook.  I will be starting a You Tube channel and will begin doing videos on this journey as well.  I will Tweet each new post and blog.  I will start to follow and post on various Facebook groups dedicated to Children's Books and self-publishing.  I need to build up some clout and make my pen name recognizable.  This is just the first step in my marketing program.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Children's Book Story Outline: First book outline is complete.

03/30/2015:

     I just completed outlining the first story line.  I think it is pretty good.  Very silly, but that is how it is supposed to be.  I am going to get started on writing the first part now.  I decided I am going to write maybe the first 3rd of it and send it to my sister Amy.  Her son Patrick is 6 years old.  I am going to get some feedback from someone in my target age group.  I will tell her I need an HONEST opinion.  If he likes it, laughs and thinks it's silly and wants to read more, I will move forward with the project.  If he doesn't like it, I will probably kill the project.  So, here's hoping for laughter.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Finding a Children's Book Illustrator: Fiverr???

03/30/2015

     Hi folks!  I spent the last few days searching through Fiverr, looking for a suitable illustrator for my book.  I found several that draw in the style I envision for my book.  I have sent out various inquiries to various artists. I told them a little bit about my main character and what I was looking for.  I told them I am looking for pictures, in color with backgrounds and also the rights to the images.  I was surprised to see quotes coming in from $10 a drawing up to $50 a drawing.  I want to keep my cost low, but I also want quality images and an illustrator I can work with.  I am hoping to find a good illustrator and use him/her for all my books.  I will let all the responses come in and will prioritize them.  Then I plan on asking for a sample drawing of my main character from the top 2 or 3.  I will then evaluate and make my decision,

     While I wait to hear back from the illustrators, I will finish the outline I have started for this first book.  I will also try to get started on writing.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Children's Book Plots Defined: The Villains to be defeated

03/24/2015

     Hello again. Well, things are moving along pretty fast.  I sat down and brainstormed on my character and his little town.  Keeping in mind what interests my target market, boys 6-12, I came up with a list of 10 villains and an associated story line to go with each villain.  This gives me the foundation I was looking for in order to create a small book series.

     I have a few things to work on this week. First of all, I want to get started on the first book.  I have the main character, the villain and a general story concept.  I plan on putting together a general outline for the story and write from that. Second, I need to find an illustrator for my story.  I want to keep this project as inexpensive as possible.  Based on a recommendation I am going to search on Fiverr for a suitable illustrator.  I anticipate needing 10-15 illustrations and a nice cover.  I would like to keep the cost under $250.  I figure, even if the project bombs, I would hope to sell enough to cover the illustration cost in a year's time.  Time will tell I guess.

     I am heading out of town for the weekend, so I will have to pick up again on Monday.  I work full-time, and I have a family, so I don't have a great deal of time to dedicate to this project.  But, I believe I can make it happen with the time I have.  

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Children's Book Concepts: Defining my first book

03/23/2015

     I just got done with some brainstorming and I must say I have captured a lot of ideas. I decided that I want my target market to be boys aged 6-12.  Girls will surely also be interested, but this is geared more towards boys.  I decided that I wanted to come up with a silly super hero with a strange super power. He will use this silly super power to fight the villains which seem to plague his small home town.  I came up with a pretty silly concept. My main character is a teenage boy named Lance Northrop.  He is in high school and delivers pizza as a part time job.  Due to a strange accident, he develops a silly super power. He decides to use this super power to become a super hero and help his town.   I am not going to share his superpower here just yet.  I want to protect the concept at this point. It will also allow for a build-up to the final book.  Once it is complete, I will post where you can get a free copy.

     I now plan on sitting down to brainstorm on 10 different villains and a general story line to go with each villain.  I want at least 10 so I can create a decent series.  Check back as my journey continues.

Until the next page....

Sir Wolf

Children's Books Self-publishing. Getting started: Concept research

03/22/2015

     I am going to start this children's book project by doing some research.  I am going to spend some time browsing through Amazon's children's books and see what is popular and what is selling best.  I decided I wanted to gear this first book to boys in the 6-12 age range.  It will also appeal to girls, but boys will be the target market because I know buys better.  I have 2 boys and hey, I also was one :-)
   
     Once I have done my research, I hope to come up with a book concept and go from there.  Again, I will be sharing every step of this journey, so please subscribe.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf

Once upon a time: My attempt at my first children's book.

03/13/2105

     Hi folks!  It has been a dream of mine for many years to write a children's book.  I guess maybe because I am a big kid deep down inside.  I work in the corporate world, but I truly hate.  I sit at my desk every day and inside my inner child screams: "I wanna go outside and play!"  I decided to start a blog to log what I hope to be an exciting new journey for me. I know I have much to learn, because writing is just a small part of the children's book market.

     I have always enjoyed writing.  I actually started writing my first children's book several months ago.  I would say it is about 90% finished.  It just needs some tweaking and fine tuning.  I just need to focus on finishing it.  My first book is called Doran's Doorway Adventures.  The first in what I hope to be a series.  An adventure book geared towards children aged 8-12.  

     As I recently started to work on finishing my first Doran book, I realized that instead of trying to market the book to a publishing company, that I wanted to try self-publishing the book as an ebook.  I have read that the traditional method of trying to sell a book to a publishing company can be very frustrating.  And I guess at the ripe old age of 52, I am not ready to face months of potential rejection letters.  I want this to be a positive experience.  I began reading about marketing on Amazon in the children's book category.  I read several articles and realized I have a lot to learn before I jump in and try to self-publish my Doran's Doorway Adventures series. I read an article about a guy who is making as much as $10,000 a month selling short silly kids books on Amazon.  I decided to wait on marketing Doran and get my feet wet by trying to publish a short and silly children's humor book on Amazon.  This way I can learn the ropes, what to do and not do before I publish the Doran book. And hey, if I can make a few bucks along the way, all the better.

    So, that brings us to now.  I will be sharing my self-publishing journey and hope you will follow along. I hope the journey will be both informational and enjoyable.  I welcome feedback from any and all children's book authors, as well as parents and children alike. BTW, I decided to publish my works under the pen name Sir Wolf.

Until the next page...

Sir Wolf