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When I finished painting watercolor pictures for one of my children's
picture books I had 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 www.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 www.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.

~Though no one can
go back and make a
brand new start,
anyone can start from
now and make a brand
new ending~
Anonymous

~I must have my share in the conversation…~
from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

Here’s the story, it’s sad but true. After years of doing what all writers do with
their work, submitting manuscripts to the big publishers and waiting for the
rejection letter, I had enough. Don’t misunderstand, I wasn’t through with
writing, which I love, but with the writing game. Too many hoops to jump
through to attract publishers, editors and agents to your work. I’m convinced
you either have to be part of the Unknown Secret Society (wink wink-nod
nod), know someone who knows someone, or be lucky enough that the
RIGHT person picks up your manuscript and likes it.
Yes, I’ve had editors interested in my stories, I’ve had some short stories
published, some in a Chapbook, and I even had an agent, but in the end, no
books published. Then, finally, along comes POD publishing.
Print On Demand was just starting to make it possible to afford getting books
into print and I was hooked. If only I could get my stories printed, I thought,
I could easily sell them. I had joined an organization called, SPAN, Small
Publishers Association Of North America. THIS would be one of the things
that helped save my sanity. Through, SPAN, I was beginning to get an idea
that I was maybe doing some things wrong though I couldn’t nail the facts
down yet.
So we paid the money and signed the contract with a POD service. It was
ALMOST a money making deal for them and was a heartache for me. I was
told the book would be ready in eight months. We got everything in motion.
Flyers to be mailed to newspapers, bookstores, libraries, and letters to
accompany the review copies of the book were all ready to go. Then the
galleys arrived! I thought they would look great and ready to sell. But they
weren’t. They was a MESS!
Among the things wrong were that the pages where the pictures should be
covering the entire page, with the text embedded in the pictures, were on half
the page with lots of white space around them. The text ran through the
picture all right, but also out of the pictures into the trim off area! There was
no way this was a finished book!
Okay, so I cried and when I was done, I got to work.
I knew enough about Photo Shop to show this company how each page
should look. I sent the galley back with my examples.
Weeks later, coming to my book release date, the galley was back. They
failed to correct almost everything. Not even the few spelling mistakes were
corrected. A release form accompanied the galley. It said this was it,
according to this company, the book was ready to be published! They
expected me to sign the release with nothing more to be done to correct the
problems in it.
My rep was unavailable. I kept calling but no one there would talk to me. I
had no contact. For three weeks I called every day trying to find someone to
tell me what was going on. I got a recording every time to leave a message,
which no one returned.
Then one morning a short email arrives from the Philippines. A woman
named, ‘Sugar.‘ The email said, my rep was fired, the company had moved
overseas and I was to speech only to her. She was my new rep and she said to
be patient they ‘re working on my book. She would get back to me in two
weeks.
I had no patience left. I emailed back telling her that I needed to speak to
someone in charge. The reply from Sugar was, “we’ll get back to you.”
Being a quick study, I saw that there was a phone number on the email and I
called it. A woman answered the phone with a thick accent. Sure enough, she
used that company’s name and she knew Sugar. Sugar got on the line and
spoke slow English. I moved ahead with my question. “Can I speak to
someone in charge about my book?”
“No. We are sorry,” she answered and repeated it after every phrase she said
to me. “I don’t understand…(something about) business…We contact
you…Thank you…Ok?…We call you when….”
This is where I put in quickly, “What is happening to my book? And WHEN
will they get back to me?”
“In two weeks, Ok?,” she stated ‘sweetly.’ Which she was! She was nervous
and had no answer for me other than what they instructed her to say.
I felt almost as sorry for Sugar as I felt for myself. She wanted to end my call.
Trying to be optimistic I accepted the two weeks more of being put off.
Here you can guess. No call from them after two weeks! I called. Got Sugar
on the phone with the English phrase book dog-eared to the page where all
sentences start with ‘We.’
“We get back to you in two weeks,” Sugar started with.
I explained it was two weeks, but she stated, “In another two weeks we will get
back to you.“
Through the next two calls, adding four more weeks to my time in never -
never land and again in each call hearing, “We get back to you in two weeks.”
Now totally exasperated, I could barely put two words together that made
sense. I spit out, “They have to talk-to-me-the-it‘s-you-ahhh!”
Somebody recommended I call the Better Business Bureau. I decided to
contact them by email would be wise in my emotional state of mind. I was put
half out of my misery in 150 words or less, when in TWO WEEKS I got my
money back in full!

My journey continues. I have painted, (yes, I can paint) the pictures for one
if my children’s picture books, Janooose the Goose and published the book
myself with my own publishing company, Book Garden Publishing. The blow
was also softened by the things I’ve learned from what I call, my self-
publishing groups. They are a group of publishing professionals in the SPAN
online discussion group. There are other good organizations out there but
SPAN turned out to be what I needed. What I have learned from this
discussion group and its spin out group for children‘s authors, the resources
SPAN has for its members, the books I’ve read and the internet have began to
put my publishing future into focus.
What I can’t do well enough myself, I can find the right people to do it for me.
Oh, I’ll still do some things wrong, no doubt. But I have the tools to find the
solutions to my problems.

                                    JD Holiday
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J.D.'s Articles

      FROM PICTURES TO PAGES:
   Is there a picture book designer in you
               by J.D. Holiday, July of 2008

THE BIRTH OF BGP

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AMAZON POST
J.D. HOLIDAY'S article
'Another Way To Sell Your
Book -Creating An E-Book'
on their BLOG at
The Kindle Store
10/2008

JD'S WRITERS BLOG