1. Self publishing
I've registered with createspace, took time to learn the ropes and now I'm eagerly awaiting the proof copy of my book in the post. I had to scale the book down to 8.5" squared from 10" squared but that's okay, it's not a huge difference and it will only make the artwork appear sharper, since sometimes it can look slightly foggy at the larger sizes, possibly because I've been working on a small laptop screen. When my proof comes and I approve it (assuming all is well) then I can give it the okay to be sold on amazon. The royalties are approximately 30% which means that sales in the UK should yield about £2 per book. Not bad at all really. In the meantime I'm working on some promotional images to share around the facebook groups for when the book is available to purchase. Finally, once this is all sorted, I intend to set up a lightning source profile. This will enable me to get hard-back copies of my book made which I could then push to stores rather than just the digital domain. I would also like a hardback copy for my show if I can get it done in time. Also, I'm going to use the first run of my book as a way of gauging the popularity of the characters. If it's well received then I intend to set up an educational website using the Takers in order to be a veganism resource to children. Once this website is complete I will pull my original book from amazon and include the website link as a resource at the back of my second edition.
2. New stories
I've got two other stories on the go with working titles "Liar" and "I wish I wasn't scary". Liar is almost complete and I've already done two images for that particular story with the intention of sending them out to publishers with the manuscript. I wish I wasn't scary is less complete but designed for a younger audience and will take less time to write. The reason I have two stories on the go right now is because I want to have something else to offer to potential clients if anybody expresses an interest at our grad show. Also because I can't help but write stories. I'm thinking of exploring different techniques for these stories too instead of my sketchy scanned pencil thing. This means I have to order some vegan ink/paint products soon but I think it'll be worth it to further my practice. Who knows what kind of new work I'll start creating!
3. Competition brief
A brief was sent out recently to illustrate a children's book and I've done a little work on that. The idea is that we send an image from the book and then the work is selected based on that, however if we land the commission we do get a lovely £1200 which I could really use.
4. Advice from Mice
I never got this finished because I got distracted by other projects and ideas, but here are some of the images I was going to use for my Advice from Mice fanzine.
5. Paid work
I also did this cover design for an e-book recently. It was easy and fun work and I'd definitely enjoy doing more stuff like it. The client went for the side-view image although personally I prefer the front-view. I've popped that one in my portfolio as it happens.
I think that went fairly well. She said that I seem to know what I'm doing and have most stuff figured out. She did suggest that I keep the text on my PDF portfolio to put images into context and to show that I'm interested in writing too. She also said that I should tweet the publishers that I follow. So tweet I shall!
Well I guess that's it! I'll be double checking everything is in order today so that I can get into uni early, hand in my stuff and chip off to get some work done. Eek! It's over! Although we still have to set up for our show so it's not ENTIRELY over. I need to buy a shelf and get some images framed but other than that, over and out! Or whatever.
