First School Visit

Last week I had the opportunity to bring ABC Healthy into my son's first grade class and read it to the children.  It was so great to see all of the positive reactions from the kids.  Not only where they excited that their friend's mom wrote a book, but they were all excited to tell me about the healthy choices that they make.  When I read them the book little hands were raised just to tell me that they love mushrooms or that their mom packed them apples that day.  I also brought in a little snack of quinoa salad and oranges.  While they were eating I read form the ABC Healthy glossary about all of the healthy nutrition in what they were eating.  I think they really enjoyed the visit! I look forward to my books arriving in June and being able to read aloud to more children.

Print Ninja's Samples

I was extremely excited this morning to received an email from Print Ninja! They received a production copy of ABC Healthy.  Not only did they send me pictures of the book, but they loved it so much they asked if they can put it on their website and use it for social media for Print Ninja!  They will also be mailing me a copy for a sneak peak before my large order comes in.  Here is a sneak peak for all of you!

The Waiting Game

After finding a professional editor, getting a doctor to credit my book, and all of the other t's crossed and i's dotted ABC Healthy is on its way to being available for purchase!  I have chosen Print Ninja for my printing.  They are an American company that outsources to China.  Since the books are printed in China I will have to wait until the end of May or beginning of June until they are delivered.  It has been three weeks since I sent in the book so the printing should be finished.  Now I just have to wait for the books to be shipped, literally shipped on a ship from China!  Once they hit America I will have a tracking number with a better idea of when my books will arrive.

In the mean time I am setting up an Amazon account and a website. 

My website domain is jstokesart.com

Stay posted! I will let everyone know when the books are available! 

Printing

I thought getting my book printed would have been the easy part of self-publishing.  Many self-publishers use print on demand services (POD).  I have had samples of both POD and traditional printing sent to me.

The POD service I was considering was Ingram Spark.  The quality of the print job is surprisingly very good and any amount of books I would want ship in 7 days.  Problem 1. They don't print on the spine.  That will not be good for book stores or libraries.  Problem 2. I was told to go with the premium color quality for a children's book and that jacked up the price.

For a traditional printing service I was looking at Self Publishing Inc.  The cost was much lower per book, but I needed to order at least 1,000 copies and it would take at least 4 weeks.  When the sample book came I was very disappointed.  It was over glossed and pixilated.

Today I was looking on a discussion board on the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) website and I came across a suggestion for PrintNinja.  They have the lowest price per book, but the printing and shipping take a very long time.  If I were to send out an order for 500 books soon I would not see the books until April or May.  The difference between Ingram and PrintNija for 500 books is about $1,500.  As long as the sample they are sending me is great, it will be worth the wait!

So, I am sorry to everyone looking to purchase ABC Healthy.  It is going to be a few months until it is available.  Unless there is something wrong with PrintNinja's quality, then I may go with Ingram.  In that case It won't be long.

If I do go with PrintNija at least I will have some down time to work on my next book,
Dolphins Don't Eat Donuts!

The Layout Process and Self-Publishing Decisions

ABC Healthy is near complete.  I have been using a large format scanner to scan my paintings, then I adjust the resolution to 300 dpi in Photoshop which will give them the best resolution for printing.  I then use Photoshop to cut out around the image and place onto a transparent background.  This will make sure there are not any white differences from the scanned paper and the books pages when printing.  A transparent background also allows my text to come close to the image. After my images are ready I put them in Adobe's InDesign.  InDesign is a great program.  If there is anything that I do not know how to do I watch tutorials online.  I have just about the whole book done, but I question some of my text.  I will keep rereading until I am ready to have several people edit by book and check for spelling or anything that does not flow.

My next step it to decide how I would like to go about self-publishing.  My two printing options are to order about 1,000 books or to use a POD (print on demand) service.  POD sounds great at first, because there are little to no printing costs.  When reading reviews on POD services I become concerned about the quality of a POD print job.  I definitely do not want my book to lack quality.  I am the type of artist who likes all her brushes in a row.   

X - tra Difficult Letter

      X is by far the most difficult letter to create for a healthy food.  I am planing on using xigua fruit, which is basically a watermelon.  (I believe it is pronounced zig-u-a) There are different sources that explain xigua fruit in different ways.  It seems as though it is a Chinese watermelon with a darker almost black outside and a more yellowish inside.  Other sources say that xigua is watermelon that dates back to 2000 BCE and over time people had trouble saying xigua so now Americans call it watermelon.  I don't think I will be able to get my hands on the Chinese xigua so I am going to have to paint just a small watermelon, which is another explanation for xigua  I don't feel comfortable painting and promoting a food that I have never had or my audience won't have access to.  There are over 1,200 variates of watermelon in the world.  I am going to try and tie in a little of history with this fruit.

Say Yes to Watercress

I am getting myself back on track with the creation of ABC Healthy.  I am nearing the end of the alphabet.  I have finished my W.  W is for watercress.  It is quite amazing what I am learning myself as I create this book.  I never knew watercress was considered an herb!  It is an amazing herb! It has 15 essential vitamins and minerals! Here is a quick view of my watercress work from drawing to watercolor drawing to painting. Enjoy and eat some watercress.  It is good for your brain!