My thoughts went to publishing a second book, but I wanted this second book to be different from my first book, which is poems for children. I know children love animals, and quite a few children love cats. So I wrote a story about a cat, who loves to explore on his travels.
This book is a story book for children. I wrote the book to make the story engaging and a delight for children. I contacted the publisher, Xlibris, with my completed manuscript along with my own illustrations. The publisher loved the book, but didn’t like my illustrations. I decided once again to purchase the illustration service. I knew they would be professional and ultimately they would enhance the appearance of the book.
With the production of the book, included was the editorial service. The editor gave excellent feedback on my manuscript, but said there was an absence of excitement and suspense. I re-wrote some of the sections of the book and now, hopefully, I have achieved the excitement and suspense. The first time the illustrators sent the illustrations for approval, I was shocked that they had just used my illustrations, but had improved them slightly. I had paid a lot of money for professional illustrations, so I wasn’t happy with what they had done. I had to complain about them, as I had given instructions what I had wanted, but this was ignored. They apologized, I gave precise instructions, and after a couple of months they sent me the much improved illustrations. I approved them, then they sent back the coloured in illustrations, which I approved.
I had feedback from a neighbour and also some children, who had bought my first book, about a colouring book. I thought about the idea, and thought about having a colouring book with the illustrations from Fun Poems For Your Child, and The Travels of Mr Cat, (my second book). The publisher, Xlibris loved this idea, and as they had the illustrations on their database, this was easier than having to wait for the illustrators to design new illustrations. The design for the cover of the colouring book was chosen from ideas from the marketing consultant and myself. We decided on the design from the front cover of Fun Poems For Your Child, which is colourful and has a circus design, eye catching for children.
The colouring book will be published in April or May 2022. I hope the children will enjoy colouring the lovely illustrations.
I have taken my second book to our local library, which they were more than happy to stock this in the library. I have asked if they could add my book to their database that they use, to discover new titles. The librarian said she would ask the head librarian as she did not have any influence on this matter. Hopefully my book can be added to their database, as this will give my books visability to other libraries.
I have emailed several database companies to see if they could add my books, but as I’m not a librarian or publisher, this has become a task full of pitfalls. Some of the databases cover world-wide, which would be excellent if I could go on those, but yet again, not the publisher or a librarian. I could contact Xlibris, who would do a bookstore pitch, but this service I would have to pay for, and to be honest, my savings have depleted considerably with all the marketing services I have previously purchased. Also since I have spent all this on marketing Fun Poems For Your Child, it has made my name visable now, so I hopefully shouldn’t need so many marketing services. I have purchased a service though for The Travels of Mr Cat, which is Hollywood Ticket. This consists of a professional review and adaptation for film, television or digital media. If the team is interested, I will be contacted and a plan of action will be presented with my interests. My coverage will be added to the Hollywood databases, whereby actors, producers, agents and directors gain access to the information. This will then give me access to the entertainment decision makers, so fingers crossed that they will be interested in making a short film of The Travels of Mr Cat. I have also had ideas of contacting Aardmen Animations Ltd, who produced Chicken Run and the Wallace and Gromit series. I will have to contact them myself, as this is not included in the Xlibris services. I will need to research what makes the producers interested in book stories and how I can put the book across to them something to work on. My dreams of being a successful author could be realised yet, if you have a dream, follow that dream. Believe in yourself and your books. If you believe in yourself, others will too.