First, the Write by the Lake workshop/retreat was AMAZING. But it’s good to be back and I will be blogging about my lessons learned in future posts.
Today, I want to share the story of publishing my son’s book.
Last fall, Dark Omen (age 12) started a new novel, encouraged by his 6th grade teacher’s Exquisite Corpse project (where kids jointly wrote stories by passing notebooks around and each adding a section). He had started several other novels, but this one he decided he was going to finish.
Did he ever.
Thirty thousand words and six months later, he had finished the first draft.
The Editing
He asked me to critique it, (Great Writer Lesson #1: Ask for Critiques) and I was very glad that I gave him the respect of critiquing it as I would any other author (as nerve wracking as that was for me). He took it like a pro (Great Writer Lesson #2: Learn How to Take a Critique). I promised him that if he finished editing the second draft, we would print it up, so he and his teacher could have a copy.
Now, Dark Omen is his mother’s son, so soon he was asking where he could find more people to critique his book. He had signed up for my Writing While Teen workshop this summer (GWL #3: Invest in Your Craft) (he’s 12 1/2 now, nearly a teenager, he tells me), so I told him he could start building his critique partner list for the sequel at the workshop (GWL #4: Seek Out New Crit Partners). I wanted him to finish up Book 1 before the end of the school year, so he could give it to his teacher (GWL #5: Know When to Move On to the Next Book).
We did a couple more rounds of edits (mostly copyedits at this point), and decided it was time to print.
The Publishing
I figured we would just print up a couple copies at the local Staples, like I had for drafts of my novels when I needed a paper copy for beta readers (kids or adults). I knew it would cost $10-20 per copy depending on whether I had it bound/double-sided/etc. And I had a vague notion that we might upload an e-book version, so that he could share it with his friends, if he wanted to.
But once I looked into it, I quickly discovered that we could get (nice-looking) print-on-demand copies of his book for CHEAPER than it would be to print an (ugly MS type) copy at the Staples (about 1/4th the cost). It would just require, yanno, figuring out how exactly to self-publish a print-on-demand book!
Fortunately, I have author friends who were happy to share their expertise. (Thank you, author friends!)
We started at Smashwords, on the advice of a self-pubbed friend who said that following their format guidelines would work in other places. Plus, Smashwords lets you set your e-book price to FREE (unlike AmazonDirect), and has every conceivable format, so he could share his story with his grandma and cousins who have Nooks as well as his friends with iPads and Kindles. The formating was a bit tricky, but Smashwords has great step-by-step instructions. It required several hours and a bit of swearing on Mom’s part.
The Cover
While I was busy on Smashwords, Dark Omen set about creating the cover from a program called CoreFx (it’s like Photoshop for kids). Just like the book, it shows his character and sense of humor (and also represents the book fairly well):
Once I had wrangled the e-book formatting into submission, we attached the cover jpg and uploaded to Smashwords. It goes live instantly, which enables you to check all the different formats. Another round of edits ensued as we found errors in formatting and typos (Mighty Mite and Worm Burner couldn’t wait to read it on the Nook!). But several revisions later, it was looking pretty good.
The Print Version
Then I set about formatting the book for the print version at Createspace (Amazon’s Print-on-Demand company). This was a bit more complicated, but my friend was right – having already formatted it for Smashwords, I was proficient enough with interior design to make it work. Only now I needed a back cover as well, so I borrowed Adam’s artwork and created this:
Once the interior formatting was finished and the front and back covers were ready to go, I uploaded everything to Createspace and prepared to wait (it takes 48 hours for your novel to clear with the Createspace Gods-in-the-Sky).
The next day, I checked back on Adventures at and Around the Galaxy at Smashwords.
In the first 24 hours, it had 51 downloads, 3 “likes” on Facebook, and 5 people who had added it to their libraries.
I was stunned.
We hadn’t told anyone about it yet – not his teacher, not his friends, not even Grandma knew.
Just being on the “New Releases” list for his category on Smashwords (Fiction/Children’s Books/Fiction) had netted him 51 downloads. Yes, it was FREE. But still.
The look on Dark Omen’s face after school when I told him? Priceless.
We printed up some cards for him to take to school to share with his friends:
You never know where a leap of faith will take you.
That is way cool!!!!
This is so utterly awesome. And to think we can say we "knew" Dark Omen in the early days of his career; some of his first fans. Thanks so much for sharing this process and huge congrats from me. Love the smile!
That's so amazing that you did this for him. He must be so excited. Thanks for sharing all this great information, too.
How incredibly cool!!!
Very, very awesome. And very envious… I did not finish my first book until I was in my early 20s… a 400k behemoth (after scrapping a 150k behemoth midway through when I was 15)…. Wish my mum had known the ins and outs of the pub world. Would have saved me a lot of trouble :).
I just ordered my copy. Can't wait to read it. I'm so proud of mom and son. What a duo!
Hello Anonymous Grandma! 🙂
Awesome! Absolutely awesome. Congrats to Dark Omen. He has a novel before I do! I foresee great things.
That is fantastic! You must be beaming. 🙂
You are an awesome mom! Congratulations to Dark Omen- your hard work is paying off in a great way!
That's amazing! You must be very proud of him! Maybe he'll end up being, like, a super successful writer! I know I never wrote a 30k book when I was twelve.
@Rick I thought you might appreciate it! 🙂
@Joanna Sometimes it stuns me what kids do these days – I certainly didn't write a novel when I was a kid! 🙂
@Kelly I had been curious about self-publishing anyway and learned a lot through the process.
@Catherine Thanks!
@Bane He certainly has a leg up, having a built in editor in the house. Where can I get one of those??
@Bryan I can only imagine where this kid will go. 🙂
@Tara I am a bit proud, it's true. 🙂
@MaryNotMartha Thank you for that! 🙂
@TayLee I know, right? It's amazing what kids these days can do, if they set their minds to it.
Oh, wow, this is one of my favorite blog posts I've read since I started blogging. What an amazing journey your son is on. What a talented kid, writing a novel and designing his own cover! That's so cool that he's following in your footsteps, in his own unique way. You're a super mom. This is not only inspiring, but very informative reading about the process you went through. Thanks!
This is amazing! I'm so impressed that he wrote an entire book in the first place. The final product looks great! 🙂
@Lyn I'm so glad you liked it! I love to share the journey (mine and Dark Omen's) because I think it helps others (at least I hope!).
@Ghenet Thank you!! 🙂
Adam, and Sue, I am VERY impressed! I'm sure my kids will want to read it!
Oh what a neat experience and great information, too! I can only imagine the thrill for your son and you, as well as satisfaction with the result of the process. I'm so glad you shared this; I may keep it in mind for certain projects!
@Jackie Hey you! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
@Margo Self-publishing definitely has its place, although where that is exactly seems to keep shifting around! 🙂
My first publishing attempt got me a bloody thumb (twice). And I only made one copy. Whoever says the digital revolution sucks is a total jerk, because this is freaking awesome.
@Adam LOL! I can't believe you stapled your thumb TWICE! But, then again, that's totally something I would do. I mean, it couldn't really happen AGAIN could it? 🙂
That is absolutely wonderful, Sue! I love that you did this for your kiddo! I'll bet Adam is beside himself….and I bet his teacher is totally knocked out!
This is SO cool! I'm going to download a copy for my son to read AND order a hard copy!
Awesome. Congratultions Dark Omen, on a job well done.
And congrats to you also Sue, for helping him along, believing in the process, and taking the greater risk. The two of you together make an awesome team 🙂
……dhole
Thank you so much for posting this. I hadn't considered doing anything like this with Robyn's, but now . . . we'll see. She's still revising hers. I love that people are reading your son's novel. :o)
@Sharon His teacher is amazing, and has always encouraged him to go above and beyond. We're so lucky to have her! 🙂
@Sherrie Yay!! I hope your son enjoys it – Dark Omen will be so excited!
@Donna Thank you – one of the greatest rewards is seeing your kids grow. And I love that he still lets me play on his team! 🙂
@Myrna The support and well wishes have been amazing – for me and Dark Omen! You'll have to decide what's right for Robyn, but it could be a great incentive for her to finish revisions. I think much of the value of all this has been for Dark Omen to "complete" his book, with the sense of final accomplishment that comes with that. A great life lesson!
That is beyond cool. Congrats to Dark Omen!!!!
Awesome! Talent in the family genes. 🙂
OMG!!! That's unbelievably exciting!! It pays to have a mom who's a writer! How cool. And what a great lesson in "how to". I might just share this post with my own son, who keeps threatening to write a book.
What an excellent idea! Congrats to Adam on his first book, and may there be many more. He may even become a role model for all those other young writers.
You're a smart mom, Susan.
@Leisha Thanks so much!
@Natasha I'm pretty well convince he has more talent than I do. 🙂
@LisaGG I hope he can inspire other kids to write!
@DG I will make sure he reads your comment! I would love for him to be a role model. 🙂
Sweet! I'm so glad my kids are still at the "Mom, can you stable this for me, please" stage still. 😀
What an exciting turn of events. BTW, he's adorable! I am going to share this story with my class when we start up again in August. What a great way to find diamonds in the rough. Thank you for sharing.