Meet Cassie. All she wants in life is to get her feet wet, and perhaps a fish or two. Yes, she would really like fish. Do you have some?
Making progress…
This month has been quite the adventure!
I apologize for not answering any comments. I have not been visiting my webpage at all. In fact, as I write this it is August 30th, and I haven’t done anything at all to get this post ready! Well, the post itself anyway. I’ve been hard at work behind the scenes, and you know the thing they call Murphy’s Law?
Let’s just say about half of my month simply disappeared. I couldn’t draw, couldn’t take care of the kids, couldn’t milk the cow…I was hit with a fierce bug that left me unable to do anything but nap and listen to podcasts (while napping). It’s not that I didn’t feel like drawing or reading. I physically couldn’t do anything but sleep for a while. Luckily my husband is amazing, and stayed home to take care of all the littles while my body did what it needed to do to fight off the crazy bug.
For the remainder of the month I was catching up on the two weeks I missed! I never came here on the website to start my monthly post early like I usually do, but I made excellent progress on the short story collection!
Most of that progress was the technical nitty gritty of checking typos, formatting stuff, and basically getting the files ready for printing. But that’s pretty boring to look at and- let’s be frank- doesn’t look like much as far as visual progress goes anyway. I do have a pretty cover to share though!
I have a question for you. Should I choose the cover with the little girl wearing the red dress or the yellow dress? I like the yellow dress, but I think the red stands out better and doesn’t blend in with the green grass so much.
The next step is to purchase an ISBN number and barcode, then finalizing the spine and back cover, because Ingram Spark (the company printing the book) will only give me a template for my cover once I have an ISBN number.
What is an ISBN number? It’s basically an ID number for your book, and goes on the same corner as the barcode. It is absolutely essential for publishing a book, and it’s very important that it is officially registered. Each form your book takes, like print book, eBook, or audiobook, has a different ISBN number, so it’s often recommended to buy 10 ISBNs at a time. The only problem is how expensive a simple ID number can be! One ISBN number is typically $125! I found a site that offers two ISBNs and barcodes for $95, but I’m researching to see if it’s real before I take the plunge. Some sites offer cheaper ISBNs, but they’re basically just scams, which is a big reason it’s so important to find officially registered ISBNs. It’s frustrating, exciting, awesome, and unbelievable all at the same time to be so close, and yet come across so many unexpected expenses and technical details I need to think about.
So hopefully next month I’ll have the announcement that the book is officially available! If all goes well, then it’ll happen before the next Critter of the Month. Until then, don’t expect to hear much from me.
I’m putting everything on hold until this book is out.
Coming Oct. 1st…
A real sweetie who’ll tolerate just about anything, even dress up. Just be careful not to spook her. 🙂
Share your guess in the comments! She’ll be one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂
Pete's Paleo Petshop 
This is so exciting!! Sorry I’ve been terrible about commenting lately, but rest assured I’ve still been reading each of your posts, and you have no idea how cool it’s been to see all the progress! 😀 You’ve even squeezed in the time to make all of these super cute mini-comics, YouTube videos, chibi dinos, sketches…even though two weeks of your life were basically put on hold due to, erm, the wonderful forces of nature. After all that, think about it–you’re this close to publishing your first book! The fact that you’ve reached the point where you have to worry about buying an ISBN alone is exciting!
Can’t wait to see Steggy–the dino that started it all! 😉
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Thank you so much for stopping by Brownie! I miss you! Haha, no worries about not commenting, I know how busy life can get. 😀
It turns out I can get an ISBN for free through the company I’m publishing with. Thank goodness for forums right? I should’ve just gone to Holly’s writing forum from the start! Now I’m just trying to get the files finalized and ready for printing this morning before I head into town. Squee! As soon as I get my account with Ingram Spark set up, then I can set up my title, get my ISBN, and get the template for the cover so that I can finish that. I hope to be finished with this before the end of the month!
Oh, and Cassie did actually get an update, even if it’s a day late lol. I wanted so bad to have her update ready for the 1st, but with everything that was going on I couldn’t manage it. I may give Cassie her proper due in a week or two here with a Sketchbook Sneak Peak post. 🙂 I have a few other illustrations to share along with her too. At the moment it’s full steam ahead for getting this book on my shelf! As soon as that’s done I’ll start Sketchbook Sneak Peaks and Fossil Fridays again. 🙂
Keep an eye on the front page for any calendars I may post there!
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As a person who self-published my first book back in 2013, I know full-well how frustrating the publishing process can be at times.
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Hello Mr. Abdale, thank you so much for stopping by. That’s so cool! I had no idea you published a book. What was it about? 🙂
And thank you very much for your feed back. 🙂 I am definitely leaning towards the red dress, and it’s good to get a second opinion confirming that choice.
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Glad I could help.
My book was a history book about ancient Germany and the Roman Empire. I self-published it in 2013, but I wasn’t happy with it – too many spelling mistakes and there were some parts of it that even I found confusing. I completely overhauled the whole thing paragraph-by-paragraph, and it was re-published by a mainstream publisher as an updated 2nd Edition three years later in 2016.
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Wow, a traditional publishing deal is hard to get these days, that’s awesome! Revision can definitely be tough, but it’s so worth the effort. 🙂
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I prefer the image with the red dress.
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Stegy is next
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Yes!
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