Sharing expertise

Three of us from our Peninsula writing group visited a woman from the larger group we are part of, yesterday.

This woman has written a number of children’s books and she was sharing her expertise.

I have already learnt one valuable lesson and would have appreciated this advice before Sarah and I published our book, and that was that there is a huge cost difference between A4 landscape and A4 portrait. For those like me, who didn’t know what portrait and landscape were, if one takes a sheet of A4 paper and holds it upright, that is portrait, while turning it sideways becomes landscape. The landscape is the more expensive option, in our case, adding an extra thousand dollars to printing costs on a 200-print run. That is a significant difference, and for further print runs, I will be looking for cheaper options, even if it means going off-shore. Sarah is currently working on our next book and will make this one square in shape.

We were given some advice about distributors, which is another area I know nothing about, but I feel confident to proceed with some enquiry down this line, following this talk. I was pleased to see that the areas she marked for our own distribution, I have already been following, such as markets, local shops, and giving talks. I know I could go further down this avenue with my children’s book; I haven’t done anything on that one, other than sell at the market and advertise on Facebook amongst my friends. I am looking forward to selling all three at the Mind, Body, Spirit event in Whangarei in May.

It is interesting seeing the different shapes, styles of writing and illustrations with children’s books and also reading to Willow when she was staying. I have quite a large selection of children’s books for the grandchildren when they are here and it is always interesting which ones they pick out. Willow’s first choice the other night was Hansel and Gretel, a story I remember from my own childhood, though a slightly different version than I grew up with. Some stories really do last through the generations. One story we had to have both nights, was one about dinosaurs called Stomp and published by Scholastic. There were few words, but beautiful illustrations and lots of sound effects, as the dinosaurs stomped through the forest.

I have found myself taking note of publishers these days, wanting to know who published a story, when and where. All of our writing group are self-publishing, though all in different ways. There is definitely a difference these days compared to the past. So many traditional publishing companies have closed down, most likely because of the upsurgence in self-publishing which is now easier than it has ever been. I guess in some ways it is good to be a writer now.

And on that note, I will return to my other writing.