Writing: Traditional or Indie Publishing?

This is my post for Day 16 of the Author Blog Challenge.


 
 Did you publish your book as a traditionally printed book, an eBook, or both? How did you come to your decision? Which company(ies) did you use for printing and distribution? How did you select them?

I haven't published my books yet. I have some calendars for sale on Lulu.com and my children have books for sale as both ebooks and print books in the book shop there.

I am planning on using Amazon for my books which will be available as traditionally printed books and Kindle books. Amazon has the widest distribution of all of the different self-publishing firms I have checke dout so far, and the cost is minimal. However, I will only use them if I decide to go the self-publishing route. I haven't decided yet whether I want to go the traditional publishing route or not yet.

I may have to when it comes to my children's picture books, but that is because I have no skill at all when it comes to drawing and am not capable of illustrating my own books. I tried to teach myself to draw, but the best I was able to do just wasn't good enough for the way I want my picture books represented. You can see my attempts at drawing on Designing Doodles. I still have fun trying to draw though.

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Drawing - First Attempt - Fairy

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try and teach myself how to draw, so that I can illustrate the children's stories that I have written. I also said that I would be sharing my drawings here as I attempted them.

Today's attempt:


My 7 year old daughter draws better than this! I have no concept of how to shade the drawing, so I didn't even attempt that yet. I'm not sure I succeeded in making the fairy look as though she is sitting with her knees pulled up in front of her. She is much more simplified than I intended her to be (as is the tiny dragon in the picture). I made her smaller on the toadstool than I meant to, so I didn't have a lot of room to really draw her face properly. I did not get the proportions correct. The list of my failures in this attempt at drawing could go on and on, but at least you can tell my fairy is a fairy.

And I will improve.

Illustrations

Three of the stories I have written are for very young children. Those stories need illustrations. At first, I thought I would be able to get my husband to illustrate the stories for me, as he is very gifted at drawing and at creating computer graphics. However, having him illustrate the stories for me has not worked out.

Now I have two choices. I can either pay someone else to illustrate my children's stories, or I can illustrate them myself. I may, in the end, have to resort to having an artist illustrate my stories for me, but first, I am going to try and illustrate them myself.

There is one problem with this plan. I am not very good at drawing. In fact, I am so terribly awful at drawing that it would be fair to say that my drawing resembles what it's meant to be as much as a bee resembles a dog, which is to say, not at all.

So what am I to do? Should I just give up? Maybe. But not without trying first. Children's illustrations do not need to be complicated. Simple but cute drawings can sometimes be just as enchanting to a child's eyes as more complicated and elaborate artwork. I just need to do a little learning (I hope).

I am going to spend a little bit of time each week attempting to draw. And I will share those drawings here. Hopefully, each drawing will be an improvement over the last. And hopefully, those of you reading this will give me honest (but not cruel) opinions on my progress.

I recently read an article that stated that, because drawing uses a different part of our brain than writing, even if we are not very good at it, the act of drawing helps to stimulate our creativity. Maybe doing a little drawing will help inspire me to write a bit more of my novel, as well as hopefully giving me some illustrations to use for my children's stories.

It's never a bad thing to learn new skills. And, no matter what happens with these attempts, it's never a bad thing to try something new.

Ideas

Last year, I thought up a children's story for my daughter Gabby. She was five at the time, but I still have not finished the story, because I'm stuck on how to illustrate it. I have no artistic talent when it comes to drawing or painting.

Yesterday, I got a great idea for another children's story to write for my 3 year old daughter Bella. Again, I am faced with the problem of how to illustrate it.

I am going to try to get my husband to set aside some time to try and illustrate the children's stories, because, unlike me, he does have some talent in that area.

I just wish I could get these stories and illustrations finished in time for me to self-publish and buy them as Christmas gifts for my two girls.