writing – Page 7 – Musings of a Generic Asian

Conversing with a Manga Artist Part 1

art, Books, Money, publishing, Uncategorized, women, Writing

Originally I contacted Eri-chan because I wanted some manga style portraits and was collecting quotes. I narrowed it down to a few artists and chose her because her style looked the most professional out of all the portfolios I looked at. Her art can be seen here at https://eribloodberry.blogspot.com or http://www.erikatsuona.deviantart.com .

Eri-chan is from the Philippines and she is a young independent manga artist. She currently has several projects on the go at once so she is a busy woman! She is also very brave as she is involved with cosplay activities which I often want to do, but I feel too old…

Hi Eri-Chan, thank you first of all helping me out with my project. It’s been a blast and a lot of fun. So can you tell me a bit about your background and how you became a manga artist? What inspired you to become one?

Thanks, Jean~ I had fun drawing your characters as well. You have such a very nice imagination to come up with such interesting and diverse characters. 😀

About your question, I was originally in college, taking up Hotel and Restaurant Management. I felt that it wasn’t for me, and that it’s just not what I wanted to do. I’ve been living alone since I was 12 (so that makes it 8 years ago), and been paying for my studies since then, and happiness means everything to me. So I dropped school and worked as a call center agent as I tried to rebuild my first love, which is anime and manga art. When I’ve got the beginning equipment I needed to start as an artist, I left my (really toxic) job and stayed home to draw all day for people who found my art fascinating for their projects. It was something I really liked doing, although I tend to get picky with the projects’ genre, since my style most likely suit shojo and love stories. I never really imagined myself doing this when I was a little girl, I mostly thought of myself as someone who might be a businesswoman in the future, but I guess it’s just that this was what I loved doing, and I love seeing my completed works.

My dad used to be an assistant comic book artist during his teenage years. He was my first idol when it comes to art, and he taught me the basics when it comes to drawing. My dad was a kinda boastful guy, and at first I just wanted to prove him that I can do better than him… and suddenly I just got hooked with drawing. I fell in love with seeing what I created, and that wonderful feeling of “Oh god… I made this artwork?!Wow.”, because honestly, up to now, I still can’t believe that I can draw like this. 😀 So yeah, my dad was pretty much mostly the one who inspired me.

I don’t really know how to draw, seriously, but I love anime very much. When I was in my first year in High School, there was this girl classmate of mine who draws anime really, really great and I was so amazed that I asked her to teach me how to draw. She said no in a really disrespectful way, and I got kind of pissed off and frustrated. Back then, I drew like a 5 year old! I know how to draw some forms, but it was like a kid’s drawing compared to this classmate of mine. That summer break, I locked myself in my room with a cheap book on how to draw manga that I bought, and practiced day and night while watching animes. I guess that was the time that I started to learn and improve. I was driven by frustration and the will to draw better that that girl who embarrassed me. When classes started again, she was very surprised by the improvement. I continued drawing during classes and my spare time (eventually got better than that girl, haha), until the only thing that’s driving me to draw is my love for what I’m doing itself, and my love for the characters that I draw. 🙂

Is it difficult to be a freelancer? I mean, lots of people dream about being their own boss! Although most of the time I saw my husband filling creating lots of paperwork (taxes, invoices, etc) when he was freelancing…

Yeah, it’s pretty difficult, especially when people don’t really acknowledge that you actually work. In my case, my relatives think that I’m just playing around. I’m still young, after all. The most difficult part for me, I guess, is when clients undervalue your art for something cheap and “just a drawing”. I put my heart to what I do, and it really hurts me when people don’t give enough credit to the work. It’s like being stabbed face-to-face.

Another thing is marketing yourself. There are LOADS of great artists in the Philippines, and most are being overshadowed by the popular mainstream ones. Finding a place where you can find clients who may be interested to have you illustrate their story is a bit of a problem, especially for a young, starting up artist like me.If we put up a blog or site, exposure is a bit slow. So we tend to go to freelancing sites like Fiverr, of which even though it kinda lowers the value of the artworks, the exposure to possible clients is good.

Do you usually draw manga for Asian countries? Or is there demand in other countries? Also, do the publications do well?

Most of my clients are from America, Europe and Australia. 🙂 There are just so many talented writers there, and they all want to see their works fleshed out in a Japanese-style manga. I don’t have many Asian clients at the moment, and here in the Philippines, the manga industry and publications is just starting up. Most of the few manga being published are cheesy love stories, so I guess it might take a little more time and market tests before other genres make it big here.

Continues onto Part 2…

Where to find high quality & free stock art

art, Books, Money, publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

During school, the best activities were art activities for me as I’m a very visual person. Like all nerds, I loved school projects and having the excuse to design things. Fast forward, now I find myself needing stock art to put on the blog or just designing things for fun. Some of the sites even lets you use the art for commercial use (business cards, book covers, cds, etc) but there are limitations, so read the license carefully if you are heading down that road.

The best sites I’ve found for amazing quality clipart are listed below. They are sponsored by companies who hope that you will eventually buy some stock art from them and I’ve done that before. It’s astounding what is available for use, they are truly beautiful graphics which would take me hours to do myself!

How to download & use files:

1) When you click on any site, either use the categories to find what you want or do a search.

2) Usually they want you to open a free account, which is the price of admission.

3) Pick what file format you want (jpeg or eps) and save to your folder on your computer.

4) Open in your graphics program or put into any office software program for use (eg. microsoft office)

Pixelbay – high quality photos and stock art

Stock exchange – another site for high quality photos and stock art

Free Vector art and graphics archive – gorgeous vector art for every project possible and divided into categories! I didn’t realize that you can download pre-made infographics which look really slick.

Vector Open Stock – only click in the middle area if you want free vectors. It gets confusing when top and bottom bars appear and they link to other sites.

Commissioning Art

art, Books, branding, publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

The whole idea of commissioning art for me began when I started spying on other people’s Kickstarter pages. The ones that did fairly well with supporters all had incredible artwork. The artwork was what grabbed you on the kickstarter page, and then the text. People are very visual and if the book cover/art sucks, you start wondering about the quality of the book.

I had started speaking to a number of Canadian artists I knew over the last 2 years. But scheduling was a problem as my contacts had a full time jobs and art was something they did on the side. So I started to search globally – writing to people I found with portfolios on deviantart.com and researching other websites for online freelance services such as elance.com, fiverr.com, freelancer.com, odesk.com and 99designs.com.

In the end of my long search and “testing” many people on their styles/workflow, I found some fantastic artists which I hope to maintain relationships with on a long term basis as I continue to write more books. There are links to their great portfolios at the end of this post. Over the next few weeks I’ll be putting up the artwork I’ve commissioned for The International House of Vampires series on this website along with a Q & A with each artist so you can learn more about them as they are all fabulous people!

I commissioned a pic of Mommy and Daddy! ($10 USD) Off Fiverr.com where things start at $5. You can even get a fake girl/boy friend to post on your social media pages for a week there!

The Steps to Commissioning Artwork:

1) Think about what you want to commission – it could be for a gift, book, game, etc. It’s important that you spend time developing a vision as this is something you are hiring to bring to life. If you are not clear what you want, believe me, the artist will have a hard time delivering the goods.

2) Write down specs – you know what you want, but now you have to communicate it to someone. I try to provide as many details as possible. If the artist doesn’t read this – they aren’t very good with clients then!

* Intro sentence about what the art is about, what it’s for
* Do you want to own the copyright for future reproduction or is this a one-off that will never be reproduced? Usually the artist retains all copyrights unless you ask for it to be transferred, usually for a price ($ depends on artist).
* The style you want. Western realistic? Manga? Cartoon?
* Find some references of stuff you like. The idea is to let the artist know what kind of style, color palette and “feeling” you want to invoke in the art.
* Describe each person if any. How old are they? Height? Facial features, clothing, etc as if they are real people to the artist.
* Find specific references for things such as poses, fashion style, faces, etc.
* What’s in the background? Do you want nothing or a specific environment?
* Hope that they understand and don’t freak out if the first piece isn’t what you imagined – sometimes it take a few tries before the artist can draw what you had in mind!

3) Search for an artist – Like I mentioned earlier, there are many websites for you to do your search. Look through their portfolios and see if they have done similar work to what you want for another client.

It is not fun looking for artists as you will be overwhelmed by the different styles and prices available for people. A person may be super cheap at $5/piece, but can they deliver your vision? Another person’s art looks fantastic, but they want $1200/piece. Can you afford this?

For your book you may have a picture or style in mind already, but you have to search hard for the right people to make your dreams come true. Don’t settle for something your gut tells you is not right…this is not very scientific advice, I’m afraid, but gut feel is super important!

4) Make contact – Depending on which site, you will either have to fill in a form for a third party or you can email the artist directly with specs. The artist will send you a quote based on that. If you go through a third party (website service) usually there is some sort of guarantee so you can get your money back if something goes wrong. Sometimes to get better prices you may be asked to pay direct. There is always a bit of risk with dealing with a new person, but usually if the artist has a decent website and looks legit, I would take this risk to save some money.

Keep in mind of a budget of what you can afford. Commissioned art can range from $0 (bartering for future favors) to $2000 USD in my experience, for one piece of art. Sometimes the price varies depending on how many people in each piece or if you want a nice background. Read the fine print of what the artist is willing to do!

5) Evaluate options – Each artist will quote you different prices. To help with making the decision, I go through their portfolios once again to determine if it’s worth both of our time to go through with making a deal. Sometimes you can barter, but it depends on the artist. I’ve learned that you do get what you pay for; don’t cheap out so much that you can’t hire a decent artist! Otherwise, what’s the point?!

6) Make a deal with one, send payment and send out sorries to the rest – It’s only decent to let other people know that you hired someone.

7) Finalizing the Artwork – Usually the artist will send you some drafts to look at to ask for your opinion. There should be some back and forth but this depends on the price as well. For artists that don’t earn much or if you drive them crazy, they will sometimes ask for more money per change. But usually you can ask for at least one to two changes before finalizing.

8) Copyright transfer – From the beginning I ask for this, so at the end I write up a contract for them to sign to transfer copyright to me. For personal artwork, it’s usually not done. I only started doing this based on an editor friend’s advice as she was worried about long term consequences for me. Most artists will charge you a fee for this (sometimes close to the price of the commissioned piece), it’s usually not free. However, I do think it’s fair for them to have the piece in their portfolio even if I have the copyright as they should keep a copy of the hard work they have done!

9) Show off the art! It took a lot of time and effort to bring a vision to life, so brighten someone else’s day with something fantastic!

Virtual Artist Team for The International House of Vampires series

1) Eumir Carlo P. Fernandez, illustrator (Q & A with him here)

www.theartofeumircarlofernandez.daportfolio.com

www.theartofeumircarlofernandez.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/elumier

2) Eri-chan (Elisse Mariano), manga artist

https://www.facebook.com/elissemariano

http://www.erikatsuona.deviantart.com

http://www.twitter.com/elissemariano

3) Robert Altbauer, cartographer (Q & A with him here)

www.fantasy-map.net

www.sapiento.deviantart.com

4) foosoo (An Trinh), Illustrator

http://www.antrinh.com/

Conversing with a Cartographer Part 2

art, Books, branding, publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

This is a continuation of a conversation with Robert Altbauer, a cartographer who lives in Salzburg. He was kind enough to take on a commission to draw two maps for me: a world map and an invisible fortress map. The fortress map is a place where the main character visits at one point in the story. The first part of our conversation is here.

If someone wanted to become a cartographer, what tools would they need? Do you use tablets or certain software? What tips do you give in general?

While traditional materials like a sheet of paper and pencils (and some talent) are a good way to start, I think that a tablet is a necessary tool nowadays. Combined with graphic programs like Photoshop or Illustrator, or GIMP and Inkscape – very good, free alternatives to the both aforementioned programs – tablets provide a powerful possibility to make good maps. They combine the ability to draw with your hand with modern and versatile technology.

Generally, mapping follows – like many other things – the philosophy of learning by doing. The more maps you do the better you get. If I look at the maps I do now and the ones I have made two years ago then I can see the progress I’ve made.

What is your most favorite map (that you didn’t draw)?

Well, that’s a difficult question. I can’t point to a certain map because there are so many excellent and different maps.

What is your most favorite map that you have drawn? (You don’t have to say it’s mine, it’s ok!)

I made a rather huge world map called ‘World of Maargard’, which I think is one of my best.

What is the oddest or funniest map that you have had to draw?

I sometimes make personalized maps which can be quite funny. I use the affections and aversions of a person to draw a map – mountains of chocolate, sea of cocktails, plain of spider, pit of the mother-in-law etc. with appropriate illustrations.

How should people contact you if they want commissions?

The easiest way is to write me an email to contact@fantasy-map.net. It should contain the preferred style (description, link or image attached), the size and the average level of detail – how many labels, is a lot of decoration necessary etc. If there already is a sketch this would be helpful, too. The deadline and usage rights are also important information on which I give then a cost estimate.

I have never been to Salzburg or the Alps. So lastly, tell me a little bit about your country and anything interesting I should do if I can ever afford to visit you?

Austria is in general a nice little country, but often too old-fashioned and too slow to catch up with modern developments.

Salzburg is a very beautiful place, but don’t make the mistake to reduce it to Mozart or Sound of Music. We have a very good cuisine and excellent beers and wines, so you should visit either a restaurant with Austrian food or a Heuriger or Buschenschank – Austrian taverns where you usually get wine and simple but very good dishes.

You have been a great part in bringing my book vision to life and I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you, Jean. Good luck with your book!

Once again, remember to check out these 2 links to his awesome works of art: www.fantasy-map.netand www.sapiento.deviantart.com!

Conversing with a Cartographer Part 1

art, Books, branding, publishing, Uncategorized

The book series which I’m about to launch (International House of Vampires) in 2014 is considered a dark urban fantasy genre. Many fantasy books in general have maps in the front as it helps build up a world for the readers. So I decided to seek out a cartographer to help me make two maps for my book: a world map and an invisible fortress map.

Here is the world map of places where various characters travel to in the book. Then I realized, what the heck are 3 Canadian places doing on the map? Oh right, Canada is such a big remote country, it’s easy for cults to hide in the north…

With a stroke of luck, I connected with Robert Altbauer, a cartographer who lives in Salzburg. I keep enviously envisioning him as a polite, handsome man who lives near the Alps somewhere eating bon bons and drawing maps in an ancient library somewhere. You can see some of his fantastic work at www.fantasy-map.net – Where visions become maps and www.sapiento.deviantart.com – deviantART portfolio.

Hi Robert, thank you first of all for taking on my crazy map requests. First, can I ask how long have you been doing this cartography craft and how did you start?

Hi Jean, thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about my profession.

I have been making maps since the beginning of 2010. I had an idea for an alternate history setting and wanted to do a map for it. So I bought a graphic tablet and started mapping.

At what point did you become serious and form a website, etc to make cartography an entrepreneurial business for yourself?

This was a few months after my first map, in mid 2010. I applied for a cartographer job – a novelist needed a map for her setting (sounds familiar, I guess 😉 ). I got the job and soon afterwards I decided to turn this into my second profession. One of my first clients created websites and we did a quid pro quo – he got a map and I got my new website.

Do you also have a day job as well? Or what do you hope to do? Or would your dream be to only do cartography?

I’ve studied law at the Universityof Salzburg, Austria. I quit my last job a few months ago and now I’m looking for a new job where I can use my study. While mapping is really great and I love it, I like the changes in working within another business that uses my other talents.

I found you on the Cartographers’ Guild forum – do you think having online guild website such as this one has raised the bar in cartography? I mean, before the internet age, I’m not sure where one would go to find mapmakers. Now, it’s a global competition for freelancers. Do you think it’s a double edged sword?

More or less, yes. While you get a whole world of potential clients you get a world full of competitors, too. The Cartographers’ Guild is a very friendly and helpful community. Of course, everyone applies for the same jobs and sometimes I come off second-best, but on the other hand it is a great place to learn new things and exchange your experiences. The cartographers influence each other with new ideas, so this leads to many excellent maps that are made by the guild members.

Do you see any future evolution for cartography? More 3D video game stuff? I mean, where do you think changes are happening?

3D is certainly something that has the potential to change a lot – but at the moment only for certain areas, like gaming or TV. As long as there are no 3D capable e-readers I don’t think that a lot of maps will be true 3D.

The greatest challenge for human cartographers will probably be sophisticated computer programs that can produce maps by just giving them a set of parameters. While they cannot substitute real creativity – at least not until we have some kind of artificial intelligence – these could become a competition for humans. But that’s a general problem of modern society and one that still has no satisfying solution.

Continued into Part 2…

How to apply for a copyright in Canada

art, Money, publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

Recently, I was thinking, if I’m going to blow my money travelling to one con, it would be in San Diego. So I contacted them to ask about getting a small press table. It turns out there is a “jury” that decides on who gets these tables and you have to send in one publication with copyright dates 2013-2014 in order to quality for a 2014 table. So I started looking into how to apply for copyrights in Canada.

Definition of copyright from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office:

“Copyright means the sole right to produce or reproduce a work or a substantial part of it in any form.”

This copyright registration protects your work internationally, so it doesn’t matter which country you file it in. You only do it once and you own the copyright for as long as you live, then 50 years after you die the copyright expires. When you create a piece of work, you automatically own the copyright, but registering offers more protection legally.

1) Go to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website

You will find information on how to copyright things ranging from a book, poem, painting, musical score, performer’s performance and computer program. There is a guide with basic information available which goes through the terminology and instructions.

Suprisingly, you don’t have to send in a copy of what you are copyrighting or even pictures.

This is why people keep giving me advice that before the book is published, you should print and send a copy of the manuscript to yourself via courier and then not open it. This archived manuscript will be opened in court if anyone tries to say that your work belongs to them and sues you for the copyright.

2) Call them if you have questions

Hours 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday
Phone 1-866-997-1936

My question: If I want to do a book of concept art with different pieces from my artists, do I have to copyright each piece of art in the book?

Answer: No, you do not have to copyright each piece of art. Once you assemble the compilation and you copyright the whole thing, each piece of art can be used separately and the copyright still belongs to you.

3) Register the copyright…wait, you can’t just register! Turns out you have to go to the Industry Canada website and open a free account there before you can do anything.

I was fretting about this one. As an individual can I really go onto Industry Canada and register an account? I started emailing my entrepreneurial Viking husband who told me to stop emailing him for advice as he was busy. So I took the plunge and went into the system…

And I discovered that yes, anyone can just apply for an Industry Canada account. In fact, they didn’t even ask for a business registration number or anything. In general, the books will be published under my husband’s company. To be honest, I’m too lazy to incorporate myself (registering a business, opening a business account and dreaded tax documentation)…hopefully he won’t divorce me if things go really well with the books and I’ll be ok!

4) OK, let’s register this book!

Back to Canadian Intellectual Property Office website – you click on the “forms” page and “copyright” to access the registration forms, pay fees via credit card. You can do it cheaper online or mail it in via a paper pdf form.

Fees when paid online is $50 Cdn or $65 Cdn via paperwork.

I looked at the US Copyright Office as well and their fee was only $35USD. But everything else such as getting a paper copy of the copyright was super expensive, so I suppose there is a trade off…

Forging ahead, I discovered that you can only copyright something 3 months ahead of time. Or you can copyright something unpublished, but there was no Q & A about what happens if you do publish it.

In the end I took a break here – since San Diego needs to see a copyright number in the book with a date, this is something I can’t provide until Jan 2014 or Feb 2014 at the earliest. The deadline for table registration was Oct 2013.

So I’ll copyright the book next year and try to get a table in the future when I have more books to sell.

The idea of going to San Diego scares me a bit too, considering their attendance is about 130,000 – it’s a lot of free stuff you have to give away for promotion! I worry about people coming up to the booth and then complaining they didn’t get a freebie…sigh…not selling any books would probably be just as embarressing as well.

Making a Family Crest

art, branding, family, publishing, Uncategorized

On a rainy day, this might be something you might want to do for fun. Digital art in a way has replaced scrapbooking/colleague art for me and leaves less of a mess! If you have been watching any historical stuff you may notice that European families tend to have crests. It’s usually on a shield or flag and there tends to be lots of lions involved.

I’ve decided to make a new crest as a logo, so here are the few steps it took to make it:

1) Figure out if you have a graphics art program

There are free ones available with basic to advance levels – Paint.net (free – basic) – Gimp (free – advanced). Many professional artists use Adobe Photoshop, but it’s a very powerful tool and you have to buy it.

I have Paint.net installed and will be using this program.

2) Look for stock art

There are two great sites with FREE stock art – Stock.xchng & Pixabay. There are license agreements for this royalty free art, but if it’s for personal use, it’s generally ok.

I looked for a few images which I knew I wanted: shield, lion with sword and chrysanthemum flower. I couldn’t find the flower on it’s own so I will have to manipulate and cut the flower out for use.

The lion s tands for courage and strength (tribute to Garrard name as the ancestral shield features a lion) while the chrysanthemum flower represents hope/light in darkness.

3) Open Shield graphic & manipulate

Step 1

The idea is to put all the images into the shield. Generally, I want a white logo with “transparency” so my wallpaper on the webpage could show through.

-open up graphic in paint (File tab > open)

-click “magic wand” tool from upper left “Tools” panel and adjust tolerance if needed

step 2

-press a spot on what you want to delete; for me it’s all the white stuff in the shield.

-the wand will highlight everything in blue, then you just press “delete” and a checkerboard pattern will come through meaning image in that location is transparent

4) Add Lion

There is something called “layers” in every graphic program. On the right hand side there is a box which tells you what “layer” you are on. The shield is on one layer and you will be adding more layers for every graphic.

So before opening up the lion graphic, add another layer (Layers tab > add new layer) to the shield. Then open up the lion graphic (File tab > open)and put into new layer you have opened – now you see 2 “layers” on the Layers box to the right.

The lion was a very big graphic so I had to drag the corners and shrink it.

5) Cut out flowers, leaves

The chrysanthemum flower is only a small part of its original graphic. A few steps were necessary to make the flower work for me:

-open up flower (File tab > open) in its new canvas/window and cut out the flowers by highlighting it

-open a new giant canvas (File tab > new), then paste the flowers in it so there is room to play around

-use rotate tool to move flowers around (Layers tab > Flip vertical) (Layers tab > Rotate/Zoom)

-cut out one of the flowers by highlighting it and using cut & paste function to put it on an empty part of the canvas

-cut out one of the leaves and rotate to the desired angle. (Layers tab > Rotate/Zoom)

-the leaf and flower have overlapping lines. So to erase lines, use the eraser from the “Tools” box on the left.

6) Add flowers & leaves to the shield

-add another layer to shield graphic (Layers tab > add new layer)

-go back to flower/leaf window, cut & paste flower/leaf into layer in shield graphic window

-to create mirror image leaves and flowers, I played with the (Image tab > flip horizontal) function

-the shield line in the middle was created by just highlighting the top part of the shield and then cutting & pasting

7) Add “JF Garrard”

-the canvas has to be bigger (Image tab > canvas side) for adding text, so I increased it in width

-initially the added canvaspart is white, so I had to use magic wand from “Tools” in left box to make it transparent

-using “Text” in “Tools” left box, I typed “JF Garrard” using font Goudy Old Style, size 550

8) Save file in black and white

There are places where I’ll use it in black ink and others in white. Important – to keep transparency, it has to be saved as a .gif file. Also, when saving, it will “flatten” all layers, which means everything will be merged into one layer. Keep a paint.net file (.png) in case you ever want to play with this graphic again with its layers.

-default is black, just save to .gif (File tab > save as)

-to make the logo white, we have to invert the colors (Adjustments tab > invert colors)

-of course at this point I realize that the lion graphic isn’t totally transparent, so I use the magic wand tool to “erase” the white spots. After 10 min of painfully doing this (lot of little edges/spots), I discover a flood tool, which does it in 2 seconds. (Tools, Magic Wand, Flood Mode > Global)

-now save white logo to .gif (File tab > save as)

However…

In the end I didn’t use this logo on my website as the shield graphic lines looked too thin after I put it in the header. I’ll use it on my facebook page though, you can see it here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JF-Garrard/406247922764234

The more you play with the program, the more you will know. Good luck in making some fabulous crests!

Ramping up for self publishing!

Books, Money, publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

I was a shark in my last life, as I can’t sit still on any project…Agents and publishers only take 1% of the pile of stuff they get, so I think I will have to go the self-publishing route as my multicultural vampire book query has received multiple rejection letters. Apparently there are too many vampire books on the market right now.

I was hoping for a happy ending to avoid self-publishing as it is a very expensive endeavor to undertake! You have to do everything from hiring an editor, to doing the marketing, to creating the print book and ebook.

It feels like I’ve stepped into a tornado! I know, I should think about things as I need to cross the bridge…but I’m the type to scope out the bridge ahead of time and consider the different possibilities before I cross the bridge!

(Think I’m also feeling super hyper on this Chinese medicine stuff. Can’t sleep properly because I feel too awake all the time. Will have to tell doctor when I see him next…)

Come rain or shine, The Undead Sorceress: Book 1 of the International House of Vampires will be available May 2014.

The next steps I need to do over an 8 month period I’ve scheduled for myself to make this book happen:

1) Find editors who offer consultation services, ask for quotes from different editors

2) The editor quotes determine how much money I should try to raise from Kickstarter to cover some project costs

3) Running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds – write and rewrite text for campaign page, shoot and reshoot video to explain the project and why I need the $$, look around other people’s pages/videos and decide what incentives to entice future investors in the project (aka what carrots should I offer?)

4) Learn video software properly to add close captioning, splitting scenes and not to overuse special effects as my first video made my producer friend nauseous

5) Follow up with artists I’ve hired to do artwork for Kickstarter campaign. Have 3 of them on hand, hoping one of them will give me some drawings to buy from them! Got a 4th artist name, will wait a few weeks before I overdo it with asking artists for stuff…they need time to ‘create’

6) Start looking at books on my bookshelf to determine size of paperback I want to make.

7) One editor who wrote back said that I used 2 spaces between sentences instead of 1 – which led me on a route to read about formatting stuff for printing. OMG! Have to destroy all formatting and start over…after editing is done.

8) Found out I shouldn’t think about pretty text for the first letter of each chapter or life will become more difficult. But I want pretty text, so when I reach that point I will have to decide what to do.

9) Decide if I should hire someone to format for print book, Amazon e-book and Smashwords e-books. They all have different formatting rules = pain in the butt.

10) Can’t make the cover for printing until I know how many damn pages the print book is, as this will determine the size of the spine which affects front and back covers. So I have to wait on this one. If it is too complicated to make, will have to hire someone to do it for me.

11) Upload book into print book and e-book formats, look at proofs (print book could take a few weeks to receive in mail) and make sure things look ok. If something goes wrong, start over with formatting.

12) Amazon and Smashwords have different programs you can take part in. For Amazon, to get into publishing catalogues, it’s an extra $25 USD per year and then there is some Kindle borrowing program thing.

13) Then there is the issue of different ISBN numbers. Print and e-books have to have different numbers. I can also apply for my own ISBN for more control or just get a free one from Amazon or Smashwords…decisions, decisions…

14) Look for tax forms. Eventually if I make more than $10 profit I will have to ask Amazon or Smashwords to send me a letter to vouch that I’m not American. Then I have to contact IRS and ask them for a special number to avoid paying US taxes which are automatically taken off all book sales through Amazon and Smashwords.

15) For the book launch, I have been talking to a convention I volunteer at annually in May, so this is my drop dead date to have everything done by then. Hopefully they will let me do a panel on vampires, do a book reading and throw a party there. After confirmation of permission, need to think about banners, what to give away, food to bring, etc.

16) Once Kickstarter campaign and convention confirms things are a green light, start emailing, blogging, posting a link with details to people. This is where you find out how many friends you actually have and if you have to depend on the kindness of strangers to make things happen!

17) Keep blogging, posting when I don’t have a headache!

There is a wedding in between all this in Korea, so a few weeks is a write off as I travel. Or maybe I can do research on stuff for the next book! My end goal is to break even in regards to expenses, although time is net negative! But if this all works out, maybe I can end up with a series that gives me some money to buy a few cups of coffee every year!

Setting up a kickstarter campaign

Books, Money, publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

What is kickstarter? It’s a US site that lets people put up their projects to ask for crowdsourcing funding. Say you need $1000 to publish a book (my situation) – people can chip in $15, 35, 50, or more, in exchange for a copy of the book and other bonuses. Projects can range from books to movies to a product.

I have been thinking about putting together a campaign for the past year, but was thinking of Indiegogo (a similar but less popular site), as up until now, Kickstarter did not allow Canadians to raise funds. The issue was that Kickstarter used Amazon Marketplace payment system which is only open to US residents with a US SIN Card. Now, starting in September 2013, Canadians can use Kickstarter, with funds deposited into their bank accounts directly.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Free money! When you look at some campaign pages, people have raised over $200K for some projects, which is amazing! The idea is that people will put their money into projects that they want to see appear in the market.

There is a catch – if you don’t reach the goal you specify (eg. $1000), then you get $0 and the project campaign is considered a failure. You can launch again, but all previous donations will have to be re-pledged by people.

If you have a great idea and want to set up a campaign, it’s pretty easy if you are willing to put in some blood, sweat and tears. Also, you do need a thick skin because if you are asking for money, you have to put your face onto video and sincerely tell people what you are doing with the money and why your project is important.

What you need to do:

1. Think of a project

2. Write about why you are doing it, who you are, what you need money for

3. Make a video asking for help

4. Open a kickstarter account

5. Fill in pages of information and pledge information (if people give you money, what do they get in return?)

6. Send finished campaign pages to kickstarter staff, they have to approve the project before it becomes live

7. If it is a go, think about who you are going to beg for support via email, facebook, etc.

8. Wait a month and hope it works; pray for the kindness of strangers

Each step sounds simple, but in reality it is all fairly time consuming!

Trying to figure out how to make a video with sound, editing graphics, writing the script, etc, took me a few weeks. Writing the pages for the campaign took a few days. I bought a video camera as I wanted better quality videos than webcams or phonecams (I wanted to make sure voice sounds were properly captured). For a professional book cover, I hired a graphic artist company to help me create one. Prior to kickstarter opening to Canada, I was hunting down Americans to see if I could find a silent partner with a SIN number.

Anyhow, I am in the process of putting together for my non-fiction book, “How to Make a Munchkin” and will see if I can launch a campaign in September then! Will be bugging you soon!

Becoming a Narcissistic Black Hole Writer…

publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

Since I’ve started talking to more people about writing, publishing, etc.; I have discovered that many of them give me the impression that they are a bit narcissistic and a black hole who tries to suck you into their universe.

“The only way to write is to do this…”

“You can only find agents if you do this…”

“Who’s the most famous writer you know? I guess it’s me…hahahaha!”

Well, how can you blame them? Writing is such a solidarity activity as you sit at a desk and write without any interaction or dialogue with anyone else. You may discuss your ideas generally with people, but you still have to do all the grunt work and crafting.

There is no worry that I’ll become like this as I have many forces around me keeping this from happening.

When I told my aunt that I was going to write a book, she said that I shouldn’t bother. “You’re not famous and you’re not a celebrity. Who’s going to read your shitty book?” I’ve failed before I even tried to do anything.

For my fiction writing, my husband doesn’t say much, as he claims he isn’t a creative person. But when I tell him about conversations I’ve had with friends and family on a daily basis, he counters with, “I can’t take any more anecdotal stories! Give me data and stats! What you are telling me defies logic!” So any attempt to talk becomes a bantering exercise as he grew up with many debates around the dinner table. He is also monitoring this blog to see what illogical nonsense I’m thinking about and what topics are available to challenge me with. Sometimes I wished I married a stereotypical quiet Asian man instead, but that would be too boring I suppose.

Then there is this whole slew of medical tests for this parasite/munchkin making process. There is nothing more humbling than to enter a little room on a daily basis for two weeks out of every month and having someone tell you to drop your pants/tights. You are not in control at that point and the probing of the unspoken part begins.

My grandmother before she passed told me one day, “Do not think you are the best in anything. There will always be people better than you, but there will always be people worse than you as well. Do not become over confident and think you do not have to continue to work hard.”

I guess I’ll keep on trucking and put my pedal to the metal…or fingers on the keyboard…sigh…