Enter to win an autographed copy of The Very Hungry Duck!
Entry begins April 21, 2015 (12:00 am) and ends May 1, 2015 (11:59 pm).
Just click on the following link: a Rafflecopter giveaway and follow one or more of the instructions listed there. You can enter every day!
After you enter to win this copy, you can increase your odds of winning another book if you go to Goodreads and enter a separate giveaway there! This link will get you there ASAP: Goodreads giveaway for The Very Hungry Duck.
One of the questions people like to ask is, “How long did it take to write and publish your book?” In this episode of Beyond the Written Page, I share how long it took to write, illustrate, and publish The Very Hungry Duck.
Believe it or not, I find this a hard question to answer. In the video, I share the length of time in months. But it’s hard to “quantify” that time, because when I’m in the middle of a project, I don’t think in terms of hours and minutes. I focus in on the project, and get so caught up in it that I lose track of time (and of other responsibilities I should be taking care of).
And each project is different, so each book I work on will have a different answer. The story/rhyme for The Very Hungry Duck came together very quickly. (In fact, I tell you exactly HOW quickly in the video–be sure to watch it 🙂 )
But very few stories fall into place that way. Most of them require more time for the story line or the right wording to come together.
That’s one of the things I love about stories, and about writing them. Each one has a unique “story” behind how it comes together.
I hope you enjoy learning a little bit about the story behind The Very Hungry Duck. And if you have any questions, please post it in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.
I received the first order of books last night for the second edition of The Very Hungry Duck! I have been so involved with the final details for this book, as well as for my OTHER new book (called Do NOT Turn This Page), that I haven’t shared much about the project with you yet.
So, be sure to watch the above video, then read on to find out more about Duck’s new look!
1. Why a second edition?
I’ve wanted to make a hardcover edition of The Very Hungry Duck so that Duck can find a home in libraries, where she will be able to meet, entertain, and encourage children around the world! The biggest challenge with printing the first edition of the book was figuring out how to make the illustrations appear in printed form the way I intended them to. I redid the original illustrations twice, then made changes to the digital files another couple of times to brighten the images.
I have learned so much about digital illustration, as well as picture book layout and design, during the last year that I decided to give Duck a “page lift,” as I like to call it.
2. What has changed in this second edition?
The color scheme changed dramatically. This helps distinguish the second edition from the first one.
Very little of the text changed in the story–just a word here and there to flow with changes to the page layout.
I redid all the illustrations digitally, though I incorporated the original character drawings.
This book is 32 pages. The original edition was 24 pages.
I included a number of new, fun illustrations.
I used a new font for the text, called Quicksand. I chose it because most of the letters look similar to letters that preschoolers and Kindergartners learn to recognize and write. This will help support parents, caregivers and educators as they teach children early reading and writing skills.
3. What is the release date?
The publication date was February 20, 2015. Physical copies of the book should now be available by request through local book stores as well as on my website, and at online retailers. The e-book is available at Amazon.com.
4. Are there other books coming?
Oh, yes! I will be working on translating The Very Hungry Duck into other languages, starting with a Spanish translation. There are also at least three other stories planned for the Duck Tales series. I’m working out the final details in the story line for the second book in the series, which will feature Duck, her Auntie Duck, and a mischievous frog.
Also, in February I completed final edits to my first book for seven- to ten-year-old children, called Do NOT Turn This Page. It was published on February 19, 2015, and is available for purchase by request at local bookstores, at online retailers, or on my website.
5. What surprised me most when I saw the first printed copy?
The book looked so amazing, I almost cried. What surprised me most, though, was the color for the page backgrounds. The background colors I THOUGHT I chose were light purple, dark purple, and a tannish-brown (in addition to plain white). The actual printed colors (except for the plain white) looked off-white, purple-gray, and a mustardy yellow-brown. Although the page colors still worked fine with the story, it was a good reminder that colors can be very different in print than they look on a back-lit computer screen.
If you’d like, you can purchase an autographed copy of The Very Hungry Duck on my book page.
If you have any questions, please let me know! I hope you enjoy Duck’s new look as much as I do!
Writers do a lot of reading! More often than not, the textbooks I learn the most from are picture books.
In this edition of Beyond the Written Page, sneak behind the scenes to find out about a project I’m working on, and a few of the picture book “textbooks” I draw inspiration and direction from.
Without further ado (and in the hopeful absence of additional technical difficulties), here is the first video for Beyond the Written Page!
You may notice the presence of “ums” and “buts” and pauses and all sorts of imperfections in this video (and future ones).
When I decided to start this project, I knew that plenty of it would be NQP, or Not Quite Perfect. I’m okay with that. And I hope you are too. Because if I took myself or the project too seriously, I would never start it–nor would I ever get any writing done.
I made an error in the video that I DO want you to watch out for–I “quoted” an idiom incorrectly. The first person who catches my error and posts it (and the correct saying) in the comments below this blog post will win a free e-book from me!
In the video, I mentioned links to my website and to Facebook. I learned AFTER I recorded the video that I couldn’t embed links in the description (as far as I know). My bad. However, if you’re reading this blog post, you know how to get to my website 🙂
Have you ever wanted to write a book but didn’t know how to start it? Or how to finish it? Or how to try and publish it?
Have you ever wondered exactly WHAT happens behind the doors of an author’s office?
Beyond the Written Page: The Secret Life of a Children’s Author looks behind the scenes at the life of children’s author Bernice Seward (that’s me!). The thrills. The woes. The battle scars. The characters and stories brought to life. The things learned–or relearned–along the writing and publishing journey.
Want to know more? Stop by tomorrow for the first, introductory video!
We have just been informed that the infamous Sheldon Snail and Oscar Slug have been sighted in a video! This is THE FIRST SIGHTING EVER of the infamous friends from the forthcoming graphic novel series, Snail Trails.
Word has it that Sheldon refers to his Merriam-Webster Dictionary App to look up the meaning of the word “intrepid.” That is so like Sheldon!
Be sure to check out the video footage below. And stay tuned for further developments to this story–our photographer assures us she has been able to capture additional photos of Sheldon Snail and Oscar Slug!
And don’t forget to find out more about Stanley & Katrina, and the Word of the Week, at http://www.stanleyandkatrina.com/search/label/word%20of%20the%20week
Teachers, thank you for the innumerable, immeasurable ways you pour your lives out into the lives of the children you teach.
As a small token of thanks, I’m offering copies of my e-book Do Not Click Here free for teachers and educators during the month of November.
For a “preview” of the book, please click on the Do Not Click Here book image on the Home Page. You can also check out the Do Not Click Here Book Page to learn more about the book.
Teachers can follow this link to download the e-book, along with discussion questions and writing prompts.
Meet Lucky, a slug I discovered in my back yard this morning.
I’ve been drawing character sketches for the graphic novel series I’m working on, Snail Trails. Sheldon Snail and Oscar Slug’s character sketches are almost complete, and Lucky “agreed” to pose for a photo shoot as I finalize Oscar’s portrait and coloring.
The video above shows Lucky getting used to his new location–and figuring out how to escape from the photo area. (Maybe I didn’t provide enough snacks?) It’s amazing to see how much he uses both sets of tentacles to explore his environment.
This week I will post cool information on my blog about slugs and snails, as well as behind-the-scenes updates on the first Snail Trails graphic novel.
Happy Snail Trails to you, till we meet again.
In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite pictures from this morning’s photo shoot, along with the video in real time in case you’d like to watch Lucky’s “spectacular tentacular” moves.
My cat Maggie meets LuckyLucky mostly curled upLucky stretched out, making a “speedy” getaway
I launched a Kickstarter campaign in August to raise the funds to publish hardcover copies of my picture book, On the Bottom of My Shoe. If you want to learn more about the project, you can find the original blog post here.
I had heard about crowdfunding at a writer’s conference I attended in March. The information I learned piqued my interest, and I was excited to try crowdfunding my picture book.
I researched a lot of the projects on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites, such as Indiegogo and Pubslush. Although Kickstarter has an all or nothing crowdfunding model, I chose Kickstarter because I liked the quality and variety of picture books being funded through Kickstarter campaigns.
I spent hours, and hours, and hours researching and preparing for my Kickstarter campaign. I prepared my story and my biography and my backer rewards like a good little writer/campaign manager. Although my campaign didn’t fund in the end, I learned a lot during the process.
Here are the top five things I learned from my failed Kickstarter campaign:
Carefully evaluate (and reevaluate) the lowest funding goal for your campaign. My campaign goal was $8,140. This was the minimum viable amount to get 1,000 hardcover copies printed by offset printing, including special endpapers. It would also provide for all the backer rewards and cover the editing and layout design services, etc. My mentality was to “go big or go home.” In retrospect, I didn’t need to have 1,000 copies printed. I didn’t need to do an offset print run. Although hardcover copies were a non-negotiable choice for me, IngramSpark offers a nice variety of publishing options for a reasonable cost, and they don’t have a minimum order requirement.
Most, if not all, of your funding really WILL come from people you know. You cannot expect the Kickstarter community to magically fund your campaign. Unless you can rally enough support through people you already know, people you don’t know may not back the project. So, how many people do you know who will be able to contribute to your project? As with any venture, not everyone who may be interested in supporting your project will have the means to do so. Or they may forget to check it out before the deadline. Or the concept of crowdfunding may be new to them, and the process could be daunting. Kickstarter requires backers to sign up for a free Kickstarter account. . . . and also requires an Amazon.com login for payment processing. Do the people who would want to back your project have the “internet savvy” to make this an easy process for them?
Crowdfunding feels a lot like personal sales. I used to be an independent beauty consultant, and although I learned a lot during that time, I HATED the personal sales aspect. I love people, love to help people, but hate to ask, ask, ask for business or to constantly look for ways to promote my business in that way. Maybe I am delusional, but promoting a book or promoting myself as an author/speaker through “normal” marketing channels feels different.
Simple is good when it comes to backer rewards. Some of the funding campaigns I researched offered awesomely cool backer rewards. Things like one of a kind blankets or personalized sketches in the same style as the book’s illustrations, just to name a couple. Evaluate what the main goals of your project are, and how much time it will take to fulfill the backer rewards. Too many reward options or reward tiers are confusing. Simplify the rewards, and make it easier on yourself and the backers who want to help but aren’t yet savvy about all this crowdfunding stuff.
Whether the campaign funds or fails to fund, the experience can be worthwhile. Preparing for the crowdfunding campaign makes you work through tasks you would need to complete anyway. You develop a pitch and “back flap copy” material as you determine what would draw a backer (or a reader) to your book. You work on marketing, design and layout. You research funding and production costs. You face (and conquer) deadlines–self-made and otherwise. You force yourself to get in front of the camera to share about your project.You also continue to work on the project during the funding campaign, and provide updates to your backers.
Would I crowdfund again? Maybe. Not with the picture book On the Bottom of My Shoe (I’m pursuing different publishing options with that particular book), but maybe with another project. In fact, I’m working on a graphic novel right now . . . but that’s a story for a different post.
