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90 days planner
I found myself in a kind of technical limbo, not knowing how to move forward. Because yes, I have my goal, to publish books, sell them and make it work. But it’s a bit vague as a plan, anyway, I just didn’t know what to do. Because it’s all well and good to want to sell books, but how? How do I successfully reach my audience, and who is my audience? In short, the more I thought about moving forward, the more I found myself faced with questions piling up and the more I felt like I was throwing my arms around and wasting energy for nothing. I came across…
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Illustration, follow up
It’s been nearly two months that I’ve started working with my illustrator. I have to admit that the process is as exhilarating as it is stressing. Exhilarting because suddenly you see your words developping in front of your eyes and that’s a really strong feeling. Even more when the illustrations are beautiful. Stressing, because you’re the one in charge et you have to lead your illustrator in the direction you deem the best without crushing her creativity. I have to confess that sometimes I have found it difficult to know my place. Even more because I don’t know much, or to be completely honest, nothing about illustrations. But I do…
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wearing two caps
Being an indie means wearing many caps. I know that of course. But it isn’t as easy as it seems. A concrete example. In my training as a picture book writer, I have been told over and over not to give art notes, to let the illustrator’s creativity freedom to express itself. Except, that when as an indie you’re hiring someone. You basically become the editor, and an editor will work closely with the illustrator to reach what they think is best for the book. It’s been quite a journey to be able to differentiate the two. Here are a few tips to talk to an illustrator. In the first…
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creating a company
So I’ve started a company!!! Hippie. If it’s not clear, the above logo is the one from my little company! I built it from scratch, though I’m only the associate. But it will help me publish my books. For anyone living in France, you will know that actually overcoming the red tape in this country is an achievement in itself. So here’s what I did to create a SASU. There are numerous sites that will tell you what to do. And more often than not, they’ll tell you lies. Well, not lies exactly, but they will ommit a few things. To create a SASU you must have a capital stored…
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Choosing an illustrator
There are lots of posts about how to choose an illustrator. The only thing I’ll do here is to tell you how I did it. Tell you about my failures and my success in the hope it’ll help you make the best-informed decision for you. So I’ve written three picture books. They’ve been professionally edited. So I know my text is the best it can be. Now I don’t know how to draw to save my life. I’ve stopped my capacities at about the age of nine. I’m the queen of stick characters but not much better. When I thought about hiring an illustrator, an option opened itself to me.…
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Formating a manuscript
When writing a manuscript, I must confess I concentrated a first on the story the characters and the setting. But as the deadline to send my dissertation for my Master was coming closer I realised there was something had grossly over looked: The formatting. I’m not talking about typos, because those have a way of creeping behind your back. And so I believe that you need to have someone else read your manuscript to try and erase as much as you can because when you read a text you know, your brain does a silly thing and corrects the letters as you read, so you basically cannot spot any typos…
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A good concept
So I’ve sent my manuscript!!! Hay!! And within 24 hours the response came pouring down. No, no and no thank you. Not “Hay” anymore. But I’ve decided not to go the self-crushing route because that would be just to soul destroying and I’m not ready to be beaten down yet. Instead I’ve decided to analyse those rejections. I received an answer within 24 hours, which means that agents are on the lookout for middle grade books. And that is a definite good thing. They are however, not on the lookout for a dance book. Of course you might say, they would be if your book were any good, but that…
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When doubt hits
I’ve not written for a long time. Not that I didn’t want to, just I couldn’t. Why? You ask. Simple. I’ve been crushed. And let me tell you how, so it won’t happen to you. In September, I went, all hopeful and with stars in my eyes, to the writers conference in York. I met lovely people, with whom I’m still in touch, the workshops were great. What I was not prepared was the brutality of the one to one sessions. Not that the agents I met were purposely mean. They had ten minutes to say what they thought about your first three chapters. And they went straight to the…