Last login: 7 months agoJan is a married woman from Pennsylvania, USA.
I love writing. When I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a book I love, I remember thinking how I wished Tom Robinson, an innocent man, had not died and if I wrote a story like that it would end happily for my characters. Of course, along the way of learning the craft of writing it would be my characters who in their magical way lead me to how their stories should end.
I've had a few short stories published in a Chapbook called, Trespasses (1994) and in a literary magazine. I've had an agent, and I've had editors interested in my stories but no published books. Today, fortunately, it is becoming easier for writers to make it happen for themselves.
I'm self publishing my own children's picture books. My site has information about independent publishing as well as networking sites for writers, fun sites for kids, writer's quotes, games and sites of interest to me and other writers.
My first published children's book : Janoose the Goose
ISBN # 978-0-9818614-0-1 $10.00
On Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Janoose-Goose-J-D-Holiday/dp/0981861407/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1
Please stop by the Facebook.com's group Red River Writers to attend their online event, RRW Christmas Exchange tinyurl.com/5vkl7f[tinyurl.com/5vkl7f] .
This event going on now thru Sunday, December 21, 2008. Come view the wonderful books, illustrations, and websites that are on display for your holiday gift consideration. We have books and novels of all types: mysteries, crime and horrors, dark fantasies, if your taste goes for the sinister. The steamy romance novels you will know by their covers! There are Children's books for all ages filled with treasures hunts and other adventures, lively characters and great pictures. Non-fictions books cover survival stories, money matters and HOW TO books plus more. Checking the book trailers and photos will give you a flavor of many of the books. And PLEASE post your thoughts! A BOOK is a great way to say Happy Holidays to your family and friends.
J.D. Holiday
Please stop by the Facebook.com's group Red River Writers to attend their online event, RRW Christmas Exchange tinyurl.com/5vkl7f[tinyurl.com/5vkl7f] .
This event going on now thru Sunday, December 21, 2008. Come view the wonderful books, illustrations, and websites that are on display for your holiday gift consideration. We have books and novels of all types: mysteries, crime and horrors, dark fantasies, if your taste goes for the sinister. The steamy romance novels you will know by their covers! There are Children's books for all ages filled with treasures hunts and other adventures, lively characters and great pictures. Non-fictions books cover survival stories, money matters and HOW TO books plus more. Checking the book trailers and photos will give you a flavor of many of the books. And PLEASE post your thoughts! A BOOK is a great way to say Happy Holidays to your family and friends.
J.D. Holiday
ANOTHER WAY TO SELL YOUR BOOK:
CREATING AN E-BOOK
By J.D. Holiday
With E-book reading devices on their way to being how many of us will be reading books in the future and how environmentally friendly e-books can be using no paper, I decided to add my children's picture to Amazon's Kindle. Kindle is a device or reader that is light-weight, wireless, and specifically for the purpose of reading e-books.
If you want to make your book, whether it's a novel, non-fiction or a children's picture book available as an e-book the following information could be helpful.
For the Kindle reader Amazon recommends that HTML file format works best and at Amazon's digital Text Platform (DTP), which is a guide to help you fill in the form that you should read, there is a name of a software program to make your own E-book (or HTML file) for free!
The company is Mobipocket located in Paris, France and the software is Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition, the Do It Yourself version. You download this software to your computer. mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsCreator[mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsCreator]
IMPORTANT: If your book is in HTML, you don't need to convert your files. Just fill in the form at Amazon and upload you file for Kindle.
Once you download the Mobi Pocket Creator to you computer from their website, open the HELP content and move it to one side. Pick from it, HOW TO CREATE AN
E-BOOK STEP BY STEP. Read it and follow the step by step guide. It may take a little to understand how it works. I used the Blank Publication form which seems to be the best choice for my picture book. The software makes a folder called My Publications for you
and places it on your hard drive.
One other thing about Mobipocket.com is that you can list your e-book with them. They are a wholesale and distributing center for publishers of eBooks to this growing industry. Right now there are other E-book devices besides Amazon's Kindle which include iLiad by iRex, Sony Reader by Sony, BeBook eBook Reader by Endless Ideas and Hanlin eReader by Jinke to name a few. If you are the publisher or author of your book you pay Mobipocket around 10% of the eBook's retail price.
https://www.mobipocket.com/ebookbase/en/homepage/default.asp
Now go to Amazon. If you haven't done so already, create an account. Don't forget to fill in how to get paid. You'll need your Social Security number, what type of business you have, whether it is LLC or individual account. Adding your bank account seems to be a must to get paid. forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa[forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa]
Then click on Amazon DTP and log in. Click on Add New Item.
Digital Text Platform comes up at: dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard[dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard]
This form is in three parts.
Part one is New Title. Fill out the information on the book, title, ISBN number, description, author and publisher names and upload a cover image. Under Category, chose the best category for your book. A sub category opens and you can chose up to five categories that fit your book.
Part two is Upload & Preview Book. Browse your computer for the My Publication folder and open it. Pick the file and open it. Then Preview your book to make sure it looks right.
Part Three is set the price for your e-book. And lastly, click Publish.
You are done!
With novels and nonfiction books that have numerous pages, some variation will probably be needed in setting up your files using the Mobipocket and uploading your files on Amazon.
If you find you are having some difficulty uploading the file go back and re-read the Amazon how-to guide. Though not the most user friendly guide you will find most answers to your questions there.
FROM PICTURES TO PAGES
Is there a picture book designer in you?
by J.D. Holiday
I recently finished painting watercolor pictures for one of my children's picture books with the intent of designing the book myself. It was the goal that made me willing to conquer the challenge of learning the page layout software Indesign Creative Suite 3 or CS 3 by Adobe.
I was comfortable using Adobe's Photo Shop having made examples of pages for a previous picture book project. In fact, I designed most of the pages, which led to the realization that I could design my books if I had the right tool.
Listening to other authors and self publishers, they seem to fall into two groups. Those that hired someone to do the designing and those who do it themselves.
Indesign CS 3 cost about $750 US and came with a video workshop and once I registered the product I took the free offer for a one month trial to lynda.com[lynda.com] to access Adobe's library. I also bought Adobe Indesign CS 3 ClassRoom in a Book, with lesson files on CD that take you through the layout exercises. The internet was where I got most answers to my questions by researching on Google and elsewhere. Also, there are websites by Indesign professionals and internet groups that have a wealth of information. To get answers to hard to find questions I went to the adobe.com[adobe.com] . These are all key to understanding the Indesign CS 3 software.
Once I got the hang of it, and knew where things were, including what tools to use and how to use them, I could not believe how cool this software program was. For instance, to make a page in the book, I made a frame on a first layer, using File> Place, I added a picture, chose the text layer, made another frame and added the text. You can resize an object or picture right on the page, apply drop shadows, and ghost background images, and add gradients which is a gradual blending between colors. And there is another way to get pictures placed in a document and that is to open Adobe Bridge which is a separate tool that comes with Indesign. In Bridge you can look for files anywhere on your hard drive by opening Bridge right inside the Indesign workspace and view contents you need to bring into your document and then, just drag and drop the picture.
If you have basic knowledge of art software such as Photo Shop or Corel Painter, like to learn, and don't mind doing research you might be able to design your children's picture books yourself.
While you consider this as your option you should start by reading a few books on book design, especially picture book design. I found that looking at other children's books got my imagination going.
Before you start the design process you will need to decide where the book will be printed so you can get information from the printer on what their needs are.
You will need to know the template sizes for the interior and book cover. There are margins, bleeds and gutter sizes to know and what settings should be on or off just to name a few.
If this all sounds like it's too much then don't do it. Go another route to get your book designed and in print. There are plenty of good publishing services that have designing as part of their packages or you can hire a professional book designer.
J.D. Holiday is the author and illustrator of Janoose the Goose, children's picture book, ISBN#978-0-9818614-0-1. The book can be bought online at: at amazon.com[amazon.com] amazon.com/Janoose-Goose-J-D-Holiday/dp/0981861407/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1[amazon.com/Janoose-Goose-J-D-Holiday/dp/0981861407/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1]
for $10.00. For more information about the author visit bookgardenpublishing.com[bookgardenpublishing.com]
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Aug 16, 2008 10:05am
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