My goals

I have already written three children's books besides The Night-Night Machine. I still need to illustrate them and format them for online publishing.

Aside from those, I've written two short stories. I'm going to collaborate with an artist and turn each into a sort of visual symphony. My goal is for each story to form the basis of a book where the written word and mural-style, lush, vivid art blend together to provide a very peaceful, enjoyable and entertaining reading experience.

There's no real deadline in my mind for these two books. I want to make certain they are just what I want before publishing.

I also have a collection of poetry I plan on publishing before the end of the summer and three novels I'm slowly working on.

Lastly, I've begun work on an economics book for the average citizen that is light on the math, easy on the theory and big on practical, real-world application and perspective.

Hopefully, before I know it, the Amazon widget at the top of my blog will feature a wide selection of work that I can be satisfied with.

I truly appreciate the fact that computer and digital technology has reached a point where it makes good business sense for Amazon.com to provide opportunities for authors who do not wish to have to go through all of the stages of traditional publishing.

Formatting a Children's Book

This was actually quite an adventure.

Since I wanted to have full color, full page pictures with the text inserted in the blank space available on each page, I had to figure out a way to (a) get everything to fit and (b) get everything into a format that Kindle could read. It was a lot of trial and error.

I used Open Office Draw and inserted scanned images of the construction paper drawings and cutouts I had made for the illustrations. Once the images were inserted and sized, I placed a 'text box' in the open space where I wanted to write that page's lines.

Once I had finished the book, I needed to figure out how to transform it into one of Kindle's accepted formats.

First, I tried exporting the Draw file into HTML format within a compressed folder, so I wouldn't lose the images. I could not get this to upload correctly and I could not get Open Office to export the Draw file into MS Word's format.

I solved this problem by exporting the Draw file into a series of JPEG photos. I then inserted these photos in order within MS Word and uploaded the .docx file to Kindle. It worked perfectly.

Now, the next book will be uploaded much faster than this one was. I probably spent four hours trying to figure out how to get everything looking right and uploaded correctly.

The first time is always the most difficult, though, isn't it?

Intro

Hello, world. I've just begun publishing children's books and have grander plans for the future - including my first economics book. I've been told that it is a good idea to have a little nook on the Internet where potential readers may find and interact with me. So, here I am.

I look forward to whatever happens. I'm a pretty low-key individual, so my expectations are pretty pedestrian at the moment. :)