school time books self-publishing experience

My first adventure in self-publishing

Taking the mystery out of self-publishing

• An idea

• Reverse engineer your way from the end

– Print

– Proof

– Illustrate

– Write

Having an itch

• Always enjoyed writing, but never inspired.

• Became a father, started reading all these fun books to my son.

• Got the itch to write, but never made the time.

• Added a book to my whiteboard to keep it in front of me.

• Couldn’t seem to get past my writer’s block.

Clearing my writer’s block

• Stayed on my whiteboard until January 1, 2009• I changed my focus from “I don’t know where to start” to “what do I enjoy”

o I love watching my son interact with the world

o Started thinking about his typical day

o My creative juices instantly triggered

I started writing, and didn’t stop…6 hours later, the first version of School Time was done!

Umm…I can’t draw!?

• Uh oh…this needs to look good!

• Not very artistically inclined (I can make things look “not ugly”).

• Followed Wayne Morgan’s approach.

• Posted a status on Facebook that I was looking for an illustrator.

• I was pleasantly surprised from all the feedback.

Thank you Facebook!

Like magic, Holley appeared!

Started with a sketch

That turned into color

That turned into storyboards

That turned into sketches

That turned into art

Printing• Checked out many online options (outlined

http://www.schooltimebooks.com/blog)

• Got a print prototype from createspace.com

Revisions

• Printing a couple iterations helped flesh out the book some more.

• Something about holding the book, turning the pages, that made it more real.

• Didn’t like the createspace.com rates, so ended up using 48hrbooks.com

Done!

Thanks for watching!

Follow online:

• http://schooltimebooks.com

• http://twitter.com/schooltimebooks

• http://facebook.com/schooltimebooks

• http://youtube.com/schooltimebooks