Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part One

So things are starting to move a little bit on the old self publishing front. The book (a children’s book that I wrote and am now self-publishing, for those playing along at home) is in the hands of the amazingly talented artist, who is now more than halfway through the final illustrations.

For my part, I’m in the middle of researching printers and costs of printers and trying not to pass out from looking at the insane cost of printing a book with full color illustrations.

You’d think paper was a hot commodity, or something.

Being in publishing for a while, I certainly understand how the paper market fluctuates, and how that fluctuation effects...well, pretty much everything when it comes to making and publishing books.

That in mind, you might be asking why I—as someone who has left a traditional publisher for a job in digital media—am now so fixated on the cost of printing a physical copy of a book. You know, with paper and everything.

The answer is simple: Actual books are nice...and I like them.

I’ll be printing a very short run of books, and then offering the whole thing digitally for a fraction of the physical price, but, darn it, if I’m gonna write a book, then I want to be able to hold a physical copy of that book.

Also, it'll be nice to give out copies of the book to family and friends.

But I completely understand that digital is where the industry is, and where I want to go with things.

Going digital is also a heck of a lot cheaper than printing physical books.

But I've jumped way ahead of myself with this post. So let's stop things here, and call this entry an introduction. An overview, if you will, to get everyone up to speed on the project.

Next time, I'll go back to the beginning and talk about how the book began, how I found and hired an artist, and I'll show design sketches and page layouts and all that fun stuff.

So stay tuned, Exfanders, because these Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing are just getting started.

[Continued in Part Two.]