Monday, January 9, 2023

Updates to the page - and a new offering!

 Hello all  - 2023 is already a flurry of activity around here. I've created affiliate links for any/all books on this site. That includes my books and books I love and/or recommend. In addition, I now offer coaching and editing services. I've been an editor for a long time, but I just didn't advertise. I'll only take jobs on a case-by-case review, and I'll have a few different tiers to offer. Look for more details coming soon. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Getting back on track

 So, I have two children's books published. I'm very grateful and love that I had that opportunity, but all was not quite rainbows and roses. I had two talented illustrators who brought Baxter and his stories to life, and I have great reviews for which I am humbled. But illustrator #1 wasn't paid (or paid so little as to seriously infuriate a very good artist) by the publisher, and I'm not sure if illustrator #2 was either. Neither came back. Then came a string of several illustrators who were wildly wrong for the project. Heck, I even bought a very low-end digital art pad and took an illustration course. Sadly, though I can draw a bit and certainly copy things, I couldn't get the hang of this.  Maybe I can keep trying since I have an iPad and pencil now. 

Then, my publisher didn't get book 3 published and eventually shut up the house. Amazon only offers my first book, Merry Christmouse, digitally, so people can't get a hard copy.  (Publisher should be working on that now.) Also, somehow my book was sold or handed off to other printers, and now they are getting printed elsewhere - I don't get paid for those. 😡

Book 3 was written, edited, and ready for the next step. I actually don't know if that will happen.  Writing books ain't for the faint of heart, y'all.

However, I started 2023 asking for the rights to my books and the digital files so that I can work on republishing the books. I'm not sure what it will take right now, but they are MY books. I'm going to get them back out, and I'm going to research to make it right. Amazon has a global reach, but I feel sick with my books out there getting sold without respecting me. 

I'm also going to open a digital store for Baxter items, so look for that.  I want Baxter on an ornament or t-shirt or something!  So does my awesome mom. If I can get the hang of drawing digitally, I want to create Baxter coloring books. I had so many big ideas way back when, and it's time to dust off.... uh, the dust.😄  I've contacted BOTH illustrators to get involved AND get some compensation from their work on my behalf.

In other news, I found a file that might contain some of my novel information from long ago, AND I found my old teaching website that contains tons of files and links that I used for to teach middle school Language Arts classes, including my creative writing elective classes. I'm going to see if I can get everything back up and accessible. I'm really excited. It's like a big New Year's present (and if you only knew what a disaster my NYE was, you'd agree that I needed this).