Book1: Kitten Adventure - The Final Cover!

Major blip in my self-publishing journey, as I moved to New York in May, helped set up the new office for my company here, moved house twice, did my PADI open water scuba diving certification, did a course in improv and another in stand-up comedy, and did some traveling to Boston, Washington DC, Santa Cruz, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Austin, Montreal, Las Vegas, and Cuba!

But I was already halfway through the process of getting my first book formatted and the cover designed by Damonza, so when they reminded me I still had to finish, and also when I saw a kid on the subway reading a book about cats on the subway (very rare to spot a child in Manhattan - and this one was READING!). I took it as a spooky sign from the universe, and knew the time was right to crack on.

So this is the cover we came up with:

I love the fonts, and the colors, and the mood. I had a clear vision of what I wanted, but I wonder if I should have given the designer more creative license to come up with something herself, because I don't think this looks quite as professional as others I've seen on their site. 

Now the challenge is to see if I can replicate the book formatting on my own, as it's quite expensive to get it done externally, and I want to bring out a lot more very soon!

I've also been writing other books, participating in critique groups and started the process of sending the book out to agents in a whole new country. I'm not sure I'll continue with that though - with so many things on the 'to do' list, I have to prioritize, and I think that actually throwing myself 100% into Kindle publishing is more likely to see results. 

Ciao! 

Lily xx

Commissioning book covers - Fiverr and Damonza

Here's what $5 gets you in the e-book cover design world:

Yeuch! I got this from Fiverr, and this is after three rounds of edits! Fair enough though, now I know what $5 will get me. And it was both useful and fun to practise giving a designer the information about the book. Here's what I gave the Fiverr guy:

I would like a kitten in silhouette, with the moon above. Soft purple twilight color in the background, with  clouds and flowers and grass silhouette at the bottom. The series title at the top is CHILDREN OF THE WILD CATS. The title is Book 1: Kitten Adventure. The author name for the bottom is Lily Pickles.

Onwards and upwards. So after trawling 'best e-book covers' and Pinterest, I decided to ask Damonza to help me out with a cover. It's my birthday treat to myself.

As well as giving them the series blurb and book 1 overview, here's what I asked for:

It's quite a dark children's book, with themes of religion, family betrayal, loss and grief but also the wonder of nature, fierce love and loyalty and survival.
I want it to appeal to children, but also make it clear from the cover that this cat book is not all sweetness and light, and be quite mysterious.
So I'm thinking of a dark background, either nighttime or twilight, perhaps purple. Perhaps a tree with twisting roots on one side of the page. 
Silhouette of a cat running through the night, with the moon overhead.
Or just a huge, beautiful, piercing cat's eye looking at the reader.
As this is the first in the series, it would be great if the cover could be styled so that the subsequent books are easily recognizable as belonging to the series.

I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Publishing my e-book: Week 1

Wow, what a week. I've gone crazy on Amazon, Fiverr and Craigslist, buying a million books and reading a million blog posts and emailing everyone in the whole world asking for advice. My PayPal account has taken a bashing.

I downloaded InDesign and signed up to Lynda.com to try and teach myself how to lay out my books professionally. I got one hour in to the lessons and realized it wasn't realistic.... hurrah for outsourcing! So as my birthday is coming up, I decided to treat myself to get formatting done by an expert, as well as of course a designer for the front cover. I know my limitations.

It's been over a year since I read my book, so I spent some time today copyediting, and THANK THE LORD that I did. As this is all being done on a shoestring budget, I have to decide where to spend my limited dollars, and editing is where I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut corners and do it DIY style.

I spent hours today fiddling with my chapters, trying to figure out the best way to split it. It's long for a children's book at 48,000 words, and I decided in the end to cut it up into a nice, classic trilogy. It was difficult deciding where to cut each book off, and the final book is much longer than the rest. I think the best strategy will be to also give people the option to buy the whole book as well, so that's four separate ebooks in total, all requiring formatting, front covers and separate Amazon pages.

It's going to be a lot of work... but it's fun!

Why I'm Starting This Blog

A few years ago, I went on a holiday that inspired me. We were in Positano, Italy, and amongst all the glamour and wine and prosciutto crudo, what really captured our hearts was a little family of stray cats, a mother and her four kittens. When we met them they were weak and scared, and by the end of the holiday they were still spitting and hostile, but playful and energetic after all the food we fed them (goodbye, prosciutto!)

I was trying to write a crime thriller at the time, but I couldn't get the memory of those cats out of my head. The mother was so fierce and hardworking, an angry but dedicated mother. Her kittens were all so different, with unique colorings and personalities, and so sweet despite the hissing and the spiked tails and baby fur. We never managed to get our hands anywhere near them, they were so independent.

Fast forward a year, and as I was sick of having my mind full of dark twisty crime, I decided to write a children's book instead, inspired by that family of cats. I finished the book, was pleased with it, and sent it out to a few agents. After a few months of rejections, it got placed on the longlist for Macmillan Children's Books Write Now prize where it waited for a few more months. It didn't make the shortlist, I moved from London to San Francisco, and let the book rest.... until now.

Last Friday, I made an inspiring new friend. We were sailing the bay at sunset, and he told me to start 'gifting,' and to start a blog, and make my dreams come true the San Francisco way - so I've decided to take that book and publish it on Kindle.

As the book is ready, I just need to figure out all the self-publishing admin that goes along with it, and try my best to make it pretty and readable, and I'd love to do it before my birthday (which is in three weeks!)

Wish me luck!