A Day's Work: Publishing Children's Books

What can you accomplish in a day?

Last Thursday, I had a very busy day as an author and publisher. Here’s what I did.

• The day started with helping a friend connect with a graphic designer for a project. CM had a book with a legacy publisher that had gone out of print, so she negotiated a short run to sell books at presentations. The files were now available, but what—she asked—do you do with InDesign files. She’s now connected with a graphic designer to get the files in shape for POD.

• I have an ad in the Brodart catalog this fall, so I paid that bill. They are a library (mostly) and school distributor. I had five books translated into Spanish this fall, coming out in a couple weeks. When I talked to libraries in Texas, the Austin Library replied curtly that they only deal with Brodart to purchase books. OK. I can deal with Brodart, too. Hence the ad. It’s an experiment that I hope pans out.

• My book launch for FINDING COURAGE takes place on October 17 (in three days!), so I was finalizing things for that. To sell books, my local library requires a business license in the city. Paperwork! It took a bit to get all that done!

  

• Spanish Titles. I’ve uploaded all five books to Lulu (connects to my Shopify store) to proof the titles. They were also uploaded to Ingram to be available to the general market.

  

  But it was time to upload to KDP, too. That meant I had to have all the files ready: ebook, different cover for KDP paperback. I created the necessary files, then uploaded three of the books. Remember, you can only upload three books/day on KDP now. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to check mark that they were in the Spanish language! So, it took a couple days to get all of them uploaded and approved. But they are done and ready!

• I wrote a draft of a new book! I’m looking at the Przewalski horses, an endangered species for a new book. Last month, I visited the Prague Zoo and the Denver Zoo to see the horses and discuss the recovery projects with scientists. The P-horses were declared Extinct in the Wild, and in the last 65 years, they’ve gone from 12 horses to 3030 worldwide, with at least five wild horses. They are still Endangered. This is one of only 12 species that has recovered from Extinct in the Wild. But it’s a HUGE story. It should be a large, sprawling book. Instead, I sell picture books for the elementary crowd. How can I bring this story, or a part of this story, to them?

Darcy, at the Prague Zoo.

• Snails. Coming out in February is JEREMY, THE ENGLISH GARDEN SNAIL. The art is done and the book is back from the copyeditor.

I had to request the LCCN number, request a CIP block, make the copy edit corrections, make sure all the metadata is correct for the copyright page and across Bowker, and fall in love with it again! I’ll have to create a webpage for it soon! And, it needs to go out for review this month.

It’s Book 7 of the Another Extraordinary Animal series!

• AND, I zoomed with someone asking me to teach webinars next September, and I zoomed with a podcaster who has invited me to talk about FINDING COURAGE!

I worked on everything from writing a second draft on a new project, to publicity for existing projects. I wish all my days were this productive!