Arrivals - Part 1

This doesn't need a lot of explanation! It doesn't matter how many books you've put together. Receiving that first case is always a rush! 100 copies of The Secret Cellar in my house. 30 sets of the three books are already sold. Is one or more coming to your house? Ten more days to pre-order.



The life of a writer has variables. Today I thought I was going to give myself a break. Instead, when I got home from work I learned that a man who was a good friend to the North Country Trail had died, and I was asked to write his obituary for The North Star (magazine of the North Country Trail Association). I write for them fairly often, but it's all volunteer, of course.

If you want to pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books for $24 (no discount after March 31), they will be signed by the cover artist Linda J. Sandow, as well as by me. Signed sets can be pre-ordered at Books Leaving Footprints




Formatting and more

That One Tiny Thing- Ha!

 
Remember, I said I had one tiny thing to do and The ABZ Affair would be ready to be sent off for approval. Ha!

I started by proofreading the crafts, and as I suspected, it was a good thing I didn't try to do that last night. There was a fair amount more to do on those.

This lengthened the book by a few pages, and that changed the size of the cover, so I had to fix that.

Then I remembered that I wanted to find a better font for the map. I didn't like the one I was using, but the commercial use was free. Did you know that you can't just use any font you want in a book? For a lot of them you are supposed to purchase a commercial license. But I found one I liked that has no restrictions, so I redid the text on the map. I like the results much better. I'll swap them out in the first two books before I order more copies.

Then I also remembered that I wanted to tweak the illustration with the forklift just a little bit, so I did that.

After that.... I did the one tiny thing, which actually took a couple of hours, a general floor plan of the canning factory.

Then, the cover file had to be converted to a pdf, which took forever for some reason today.

But.. ta-DA! By 4:30 I had the whole thing uploaded to CreateSpace and proofed. Clicked the button to have it approved. Hoping everything goes well, and I can order these books tomorrow.

But, I just did one tiny thing, right?

Cases of the first two, The Secret Cellar and The Hitchhiker, have already shipped!

map of the East South River Road Neighborhood for The ABZ Affair


Illustrations for The ABZ Affair

ABZ Affair - Almost There

 
So close to being done with The ABZ Affair! I got the two craft/skill sections done today, but that's about all. It takes a long time to describe things so that a ten-year-old can read and follow the directions. Hope I've succeeded! This is a coder/decoder for a simple substitution code.

the substitution coder/decoder wheel craft in The ABZ Affair

the template coder/decoder craft in The ABZ Affair

This one is a lot more complicated, but it's also a lot tougher to crack. This book was aimed at kids who like a challenging puzzle, and since there are two crafts per book, anyone who doesn't want to try this still has the other one to make.

I illustrated these two crafts with photos.

Wrote the Acknowledgements section. Now I think there is just one tiny, tiny thing to do, and I can send it off to be approved.

Interior Illustrations - The ABZ Affair

 

the friends eat lunch sitting on the playground merry-go-round


Joe-Pye weed and boneset


George drives the forklift


Cora slides the deadbolt

The interior illustrations are now complete, but I still have two secret code graphics to do for the craft/skill pages. Those will be tomorrow.

If you want to pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books for $24 (no discount after March 31), they will be signed by the cover artist Linda J. Sandow, as well as by me. Signed sets can be pre-ordered at Books Leaving Footprints



Illustrations - The Hitchhiker

The ABZ Affair - Full Cover for Paperback

My goal is to get the third Dubois Files book, The ABZ Affair, fully formatted and approved this weekend so I can order copies. That will keep me busy for sure! Today I got the cover completed.

This is not as simple as it sounds. In order to get the correct size template to design it, I had to know how many pages the book was. To get that number I had to know how many illustrations I was going to use. So that had to be decided, and temporary placeholders put in the text. I also had to write the text for the back cover.

It says, "George Harris liked writing messages in secret code. In August of 1953, he learned one that was tough to crack, and taught it to his sister Ruby, and then to his friends Jimmie Mosher and Cora Dubois.
When the four of them were offered a job picking up trash at the Cherry Pit Junction canning factory, someone listened in on their conversation and stole a coder.
The children were playing games, but what were the adults up to?"

That took a while to write. The plots of kids books are not too complex, so by telling these details, we're almost halfway through the book! Have to keep some secrets.

Meanwhile, my brain just continues to spin. I have the basic plot for Dubois Files #4 worked out. Thanks to some brainstorming with my friend Ester, she solved the problem of how to keep the kids in the ending.

I came up with the singular event that sets the plot for my potential technothriller in motion. That idea's been cooking for a long time, and it's certainly not on the front burner, but now that I have a key piece of the action... my brain won't let it rest.

So, tomorrow will be all about illustrations for The ABZ Affair. That's the last big project. Oh yeah, and headers/footers and page numbers.

The Hitchhiker - Full Cover for Paperback

Painful Expenses- Or Why I Buy ISBNs

"If you want to make an omelet you have to break some eggs." I'm sure you've heard that before.

This is a week of painful expenses. All of them are good and necessary, and are almost certain to be recouped. But right now, things are tight and it hurts to break those eggs!

I have ordered 100 copies each of The Secret Cellar and The Hitchhiker, and will do the same for The ABZ Affair as soon as the proof is approved. But the big expense is a new block of ISBNs. Those are International Standard Book Numbers. You have to have them if you want to sell your book anywhere except maybe out of the back of your car. They assign a unique number to every edition of every book.

I've previously purchased two blocks of 10. Yes, that's 20 numbers, and I've used them all. Needed two more for The ABZ Affair. When you buy a block of 10, they currently cost about $30 each. When you buy a block of $100, they currently cost about $6 each. Yes, you read that right. It's a HUGE difference if you can afford the larger block and think you will use them. I know I'll need more then ten almost instantly. If I manage to get each of my mysteries in audio format, that's 8 more right there and I'll be out again. So I did it. Bought 100.

But why not just use the free ISBNs provided by CreateSpace if you print through their service?

Here are my reasons.
1. I object on principal to Amazon ruling the world- they own CreateSpace.

Now let's be a little more practical.

2. You can only print at CreateSpace with one of their ISBNs. Right now, I'm content with their service, but they aren't the only POD printer in the universe. If I change my mind, I don't have to use another ISBN.

3. If I use a CreateSpace ISBN it will show them as the publisher. I have my own legally registered publishing company, Books Leaving Footprints, and I want that imprint to appear in my books

Back to work! That's my big accomplishment for the day. Oh, I did get Bowker (the service that lists your ISBNs and the info about each title) to add the Anastasia Raven Mysteries and Dubois Files series to my info, and I've started the formatting for The ABZ Affair. I know it's not much, but today was a full work day as well, and I'm going out this evening.

Interior Illustrations - The Hitchhiker

Jimmie calls Cora on the phone


Veli's locket


The wheelbarrow race- Beth and Laszlo


The interior illustrations for The Hitchhiker are done. In fact, the whole book has now been sent through the CreateSpace approval process. Maybe it will even make it through on the first try. I can always hope.

Did some computer graphic things for The ABZ Affair, and some flyers to hand out to people.

Writers' Group tonight!

If you want to pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books for $24 (no discount after March 31), they will now be signed by the cover artist Linda J. Sandow, as well as by me. Signed sets can be pre-ordered at Books Leaving Footprints



The Hitchhiker- full cover for paperback