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