Have you ever thought to yourself, “I would love to write a book.” Well, it was a dream of mine for many years, and I finally got the push I needed when my husband and his friend decided to start their own publishing company called Retro Ranger Publishing.
Here is a synopsis of my journey to publication:
Writing the Story:
I had lots of ideas for the perfect children’s book, so I thought this was going to be easy. Not so much. Having a story in my and head and writing it down on paper was harder than I thought it would be. Every time I worked on it, I would change the story line or find errors that I had missed earlier.
“Spellcheck is OK, but having real people look at it was even better.”
Illustrating:
When I finally had the story finished and ready to go, I realized that I still needed to have illustrations. Unfortunately, I’m not an illustrator (I have problems drawing stick figures).
With services available on the internet, I thought this would be relatively easy. So, I got online and started to search for the perfect illustrator. There were so many options to look at; some were way too pricey, some didn’t have the same vision as I did, some were just too far away, and others just wanted more of a commitment than I wanted to make.
After lots of searching, I eventually found the illustrator I wanted to work with and I was “back in business.” We worked back and forth, starting with rough sketches/revisions; then final sketches/revisions; and eventually the completed colored drawings. This was all done through email, skype, and telephone calls. When I had all my drawings, and my story, I thought I was ready to go. I didn’t realize combining the drawings and the story isn’t as easy as it looks.
Getting Published:
I wanted my book to be available as an e-book and as a print book. Unfortunately, what was required and worked for one book format did not work for the other one.
Some fonts worked for one format, but not the other; some layouts worked, for one format and not the other; some page setups worked for one format and not the other; etc., etc. I also had no idea that how many legal rules and regulations needed to be followed for each format.
My dream was becoming a nightmare and my head was spinning. Fortunately, I had people “behind the scenes” doing all the dirty work, or I would have given up early on in the process.
Published and Future Books!
I can now say that I am a published author with an e-book and a print book! And I have even had sales!!
I’m almost ready to publish my second book with Retro Ranger Publishing and I’m starting a third one. If you ever dreamed of being an author, but don’t know how to get started, feel free to contact Retro Ranger Publishing to see if they can help you realize your dream – without going through the nightmares!
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