Book Printing Research

So, I've been looking at alternatives to Lulu.com.

Don't get me wrong, I think Lulu is really cool, but 60 dollars for a book? My book? A little frustrating.

It's not even that it is the publishing costs. For self publishing, there are no costs. It is the printing that cost 60 dollars. My book is going to be on high quality paper, hard cover (jacket?), in color, and in a large format. I don't really have a choice with some of these...but I didn't realize that the books were so expensive!

So I looked at some other publishing websites.

http://dogearpublishing.net/default.aspx Dog Ear Publishing seems to be a good alternative. At lulu, I sort of have to get Hardcover if I want full color and stuff. But here, the website professes to have paper back full color, which seems to be a bit more affordable. They don't have an easy calculator like Lulu, so the price is a little fuzzy...but I'd like to think it could be cheaper.

http://diggypod.com/index.html Diggy Pod Printing also seems promising. They have a calculator as well, but they don't seem to provide as many services as Lulu or the Dog Ear Publishing. I used the calculator, and being as cheap as possible, I am able to get my book to cost about $14. Awesome right? Well...wrong! In order for me to get any copy, I have to order a minimum of 24. HELL. NO. That's like over $300. Hahahah...ha.

And the largest book format they have is 8.5 x 11. Yeah...not so much.

But back to Dog Ear, the more promising one: it has a section in which it compares to other self publishing sites. http://dogearpublishing.net/whydogearcomparison_lulu.aspx The one for Lulu is informative and helpful. It says for designers, who only want to print a few copies, it is ideal.

This sounds like a promising recommendation. I have no delusions that anyone will actually buy my book. I had originally intended to possibly do about 10 copies that I could give to friends, but for $60 a book, that is not going to happen.

I admit I am cheap, but whatever.

Anyway, the writer of this comparison goes on to compare profits and such (and since I am not actually selling the book this has no relevance to me).

So, It seems to me like Lulu is still the best option as far as Self Publishing goes. Dog Ear Publishing seems to not be free publishing and more geared towards profit for the author than a single nice copy of a work.

Still have yet to compare to big Publishing Companies. Hmm... I don't even know the names of any. Next Research section decided.

Mentor Meeting 3/8/11

Had a meeting with Mrs. Spence today. It went super fabulous. We looked at my story board, while I explained the story to her. She had some suggestions about the view and angle of certain panels/pages. I'm still conflicted about using text in the story. She suggested that I use quotes. The one she had going through her head being from Alice In Wonderland. "Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Luckily...my story wont be half as scary as Alice in Wonderland. 

Actually wouldn't mind if I didn't intend this for children.

Just brilliant. :)

She likes that I will be combining digital and traditional media for the pieces. I will be inking the drawings on 8x12 pieces of watercolor paper and then scanning them to digitally color them. Experimentation is encouraged.


Mrs. Spence also suggested that I try and contact the Family Reading Partnership about getting some interviews. Apparently I can just drop her name...AND THEY WILL DO MY BIDDING. Well...I'm not sure about that, but they would be willing to help out. 


Also, she encourages me to check out Lulu.com soon so that I can get an idea of a deadline. Probably a good idea. Should do that tonight.

Clarrification

It has been brought to my attention that people may find it odd that I am working on my project during my art class. Due to this confusion, I feel the need to clarify some aspects for some people.

This year I am talking an AP Art course. This requires that you complete 24 works by the end of the year to be submitted for evaluation. Twelve of these pieces will be in the Breadth Section. A section where the artist is supposed to show their ability and diversity with works. Either with media or with the subject the works consist of. The other twelve pieces are part of the Concentration section. The concentration is where the artist takes an idea and creates a series of works that follow this idea. For this, I am it as an overlap. The theme I am using is the story for my book. The story about the over-imaginative little girl who has adventures when she walks home from school.

Twelve pages from my illustrated book will be part of my AP Portfolio. You must understand, my story is not 12 pages long. Nor is it merely 15. My story is, as of now, over 30 pages long. And I still feel their are gaps in my story board I may fill in later. So I am not double dipping. I will be working the same amount on each page and I will choose my favorite and most well composed for my portfolio. But this is an art project, and I am doing more for WISE than I am for my AP Art, which is extremely important to me.

I hope that clarifys some things.

Goals For this Week

• Decide on Size of  of pages. May just work on 12x8 1/2 water color paper (cut by self). 
• Design pages more in depth
• Decided on inking by hand and coloring digitally. Methods with digital?
• Talk to Barry Deustch (may be screwed up due to snow day)
• Talk to Anne Mazer 
• Research costs of publishing vs. self publishing
• Mentor Meeting Tuesday with Mrs. Spence
• Do....more research.

Weekly Review 2

How much time did you spend on your project?
I spent the minimum 8 hours. Mostly through the use of my Art class as work time, and writing my three blogs. 

What did you do for hands-on?
Redesigned the main character of my story. Almost done with the story board. Started on sketches of pages.

What Research did you do?
I looked at works of other successful children's book writers (Leo Lionni). Shared some videos that were animated versions of the books. 

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Mrs. Spence was sick most of the week. Will talk to her 6th period today (Friday). She has it free so well do the meeting then. 

Were you in class this week?
 Yes, we watched the documentary by previous WISE students. Barnsong. And we got packets to look over for next Monday. Related works by previous WISE students.


What do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was?
 I could have done more. I need to go look at more children's books. And I only did my journal entries in the past few days. Beginning of the week was slow.

What are your plans for next week?    
 Have other character designs completed. Share the story with some friends and get input. Talk to Barry Deutsch (Graphic Novelist) who is coming to the high school next week.  Decide what medium I am going to use for final pages: Digital or mixed media? Size?

Leo Lionni Research

For you Gwen.

So, Leo Lionni has been recommended to me, by my lovely sister. :)

And to tell the truth, I thought I had no idea who he was. But now that I have seen his books....I REMEMBER!!!

Though I don't remember the stories, his style is burned in my mind. Here, have a video!

I feel as though I am Frederick....HE is poet and he knows it. :D Though....I'm not a poet.

And this one is very good too...:)

Inspirational works are very important...:D

I'm being productive. I swear.

Sooooooooooooo.

I really need to get a move on. I finally redesigned my character.

The girl was like this first:

First Design (This is a girl. Just FYI)

I actually liked the design...but it wasn't going to work with how I wanted my story to go. :/

So here is a redesign (IN COLOR!!) that I like more. She has freckles. :D

It works a lot better. I'm not sure about the colors (I had lots of issues) it seems too bluuuuuuuue. Ah well. still I got it down. I upload designs of the father and squirrel this weekend. And perhaps of the knights in the story. I am not looking forward to drawing armor. I better get references.

Does anyone have name suggestions?

Barry Deutsch

Next week I've been informed that there is a graphic novelist (Barry Deutsch) that is coming to the Ithaca school district. I was originally informed by Mrs. Gergley. I thought I would have to go to Fall Creek Elementary to meet up with him. Turns out he's also coming to the high school, which is awesome. I can more easily talk to him this way. That is one thing to look forward to next week!

I finished the character (re)design for my story, I'll upload that later today, after I edit it on the computer.

Other wise...I need to get a start on the sketches for each page. I need to think logically from now on. Yessssssssssssss. Planning...

MOTIVATIONAL POSTER!!!

I feel better already. :)

Convinced

For the last week I've been teetering on switching to a new tangent for a story. I sort of wanted to go the more dark story thing. But my sister referred that to be like graphic novel-ish. I don't want to do a graphic novel....So I need to stay with my original story.

So what was my original story.

My original idea was to tell a story about how a girl's imagination got away from her as she walked home. It would be full of fantasy and armies of squirrels...but I couldn't find a plot for it. So I decided to abandon it.

The reason I couldn't find a plot for it...mostly has to do with how I designed the main character. She was designed based on me as a kid. I used to walk home and imagine things to entertain me, make up stories for why the white picket fence was falling apart and so on. So the reason I couldn't com up with a plot has to do with it being to closely related to my actual experiences. So I need to distance it from me. I am currently working on redesigning the character and actually giving her her own personality.

My sister Clair was here this past weekend, and we started talking about it. She was the one to convince me to stay the course and make the plot. If I were to not write a children's book, it would make a lot more of what I'm reasearching a lot less meaningful. I intend to use children for feeback. I'll tell them the story, show them some pictures, and maybe they can give me some suggestions. It will be great fun.

So the story...(I actually have something!! YES!!)

It suddenly came to me during Econ today. With much inspiration from my sister's suggestions...yeah.

Here we go:

It starts out with a little girl walking home from school. She's got her back pack full of books and is in about 3rd or 4th grade. As she walks, she starts to imagine things. Like all the houses are castles, the dogs in the yards are dragons and the cats can talk and they sit in the sun with jewelry decorating them. Things are suddenly magical. I hope to have reminders of reality every once in awhile.

Anyway, she ends up rescuing this squirrel creature (I have him designed from my previous attempt at the story, he's very cute.) She either rescues him from a trap, or awakens him from a sleep he couldn't wake from on his own. This thing is a lot bigger than her. In reality, he either doesn't exist at all or is an actual squirrel. I want it to be an actual squirrel. Suddenly they are attacked by the sky/water knights! They come down from the sky, and the girl and her squirrel friend must best them!! It might be through might or perhaps some trickery, I'm am not sure yet. Or they might just runnaway. Considering that in reality this is just rain, I would assume running to shelter would qualify as winning. Or perhaps use of an umbrella sword? I don't know.

Finally, they arrive at the goal, her (house) Castle! But as they are appoaching they go under the gate (perhaps this is where they escape the rain) and go up to the courtyard (front porch) and are ready to open the castle doors...when a ferocious monsterous BEAR appears. And there is no hope what so ever as the bear throws a bag over her...then black. It then reveals a scene of a bemused parent (father or mother? I want it to be father! Then I can make him humongous, cuddly, and adorable. As well as squinty.) who is drying off their daughter after she got caught in the rain. She is protesting. The End. :)

And perhaps there will be an extra page showing surprise at the squirrel who is either freaking out or relaxing in a rather humane way. Maybe perhaps a hint that what she imagined could be reality. Yes. I like this. Now to physically design her, her dad (yes, I have decided, and the fuzzy creature). I must remember to make her have an actual personality!

Be prepared for art dumps sometime soon.

The Plan...

By plan I mean "What I hope I will accomplish within this set amount of time."

The set amount of time being...two weeks.

So what shall I do for the next two weeks? I have a feeling, that actually deciding on a story would be helpful. If fact, in order for me to get anywhere with this, I need to write that story. Shoot. I still feel queasy just thinking about it.  I still feel I have no sense of plot! What am I going to doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....?

Well. I best get to it. There really isn't any point in waiting. I should just go and read some articles on writing stories or explore some of those websites I found when I was making my Bibliography (that thing was SIX pages long). It actually looked very helpful. Ah ha. Here it is. It is extremely crappy looking, but...I read some of the articles. They were very helpful.

So...I should write the story. "What story?" you might ask? I shall answer...."I have no idea."

Which...isn't completely true. I have a story idea. But it seems rather dark.

The general gist of it is that there is a girl who has lived underground and secluded her whole life. The place she lives is either a science facility or some cave. It depends on how badly I want there to be a clear 'bad guy'. One day, she either escapes to the surface or decides to explore. As a girl who has spent most of her time alone, she is completely unable to relate to anyone in the city. The city will either be extremely technologically advanced or they use magic in a way that it very common knowledge and basic. She will notice she has none of this "magic" (if I choose to go that root) and she'll feel that even if she were able to relate to the people in that world, she would be shunned for being different. The closing argument for her to stay away will be her discovery that in this upper plane....there is no water. No pure water. The society has discovered a way to hydrate themselves, but what can no longer be found as just H2O. This bothers her because she has a strong connection with water. Down in the cave, it was the source of her joy and wonders. I might add that she has some actual magical connection. She won't realize that she does have magic when she chooses to return to the cave. There she will continue as she always had before...perhaps in the story she can make a friend...hmm....

Anyway, I need to get the fine details put down on paper. Perhaps I'll upload it here. Actually...I like that idea, that way I can get feedback.

And now I am supposed to include that I am supposed to talk to a person about said topic. Hmmmmmm...I'm not sure who I want to talk to. I could talk to Anne Mayzer, but I don't really have any contact information on hand, so I'll need to ask my parents. I think I'll do that as soon as I have the story written. Which means I should get it done sooner....hmmm. I could also, perhaps, talk to In Shik Lee. She is a teacher at TC3. My brother had her, and I took a water coloring class with her a couple summers ago. She's a lot of fun. I think she would be interested in helping me. Though she is probably someone to consult about the actual drawings, rather than the story. It might be best to leave her for later.

But anyway, that is what I hope to have done by the time two weeks have passed.

Now see what inspired me for this story idea. I drew it last summer, I still haven't really finished it. :)

Dear Reader

To start off this project, I present to you a theory of mine. My theory is that this blog will actually be used. As a person who does enjoy writing, I do very little of it. Hopefully forcing me to use this website will help me grow out of this inane habit. That is also one of the goals of my project. See, I am in a class called WISE, if you didn't already know. WISE is an English program in which one participates in class for one semester, and then they design a project for themselves and actually DO IT the second semester. The purpose of this class is to help senior High School students to start working in the community and using and acquiring resources that will help them with their goals.

At the end of it, we students, have to make a thirty minute presentation about how we went about completing our project. Thirty. Minutes.

This scares me.

But luckily I have a project I find worth doing.

One of my most favorite things to do in life is to draw. If you find a piece of paper in my possession that does not have a doodle on it, then that piece of paper is either extremely important, or it has not sat idle in front me long enough. I pride myself in my ability, and I love finding ways to incorporate it into everyday things. I thought it would be a perfect talent to use to my advantage in this project. But I had to come up with something to challenge me as well. I then realized one thing. I have never written a story. Well...that isn't completely true. But I haven't written a story that was completely for me and without boundaries. I also realized that if I were to attempt to write a story, it quite possibly my lack a plot. Even children's books have plot.

So it is with this that I have my project. Over the course of the next couple months my project is to write, illustrate and publish a children's book.

This process will include composing the story, and than matching it up with a story board. It is quite possible that I will be telling the story completely without text. I will then use the people around me (children, librarians, piers, family, teachers) for feedback. Hopefully with many points of views I can move along a path that will make me happy as well as those whom I will force to read the book. After the story is rock solid, I will work on perfecting the illustrations. I'm still unsure of the media I intend to use, but hopefully by experimenting I will find one that I like. Since this process will take quite awhile I will be researching and looking in to how I could publish my book. I am aware of the self-publishing website, lulu.com, and think it is a definite option, but I still need to look into other options to make sure it is the right choice.

So, again, hopefully I won't hit to many rocks on my way. It's very hard to draw anything if the table isn't still.