My last post laid out the writing and publishing tasks I need to complete this year. These were more than goals, they're things that I've committed to make happen - with the exception of finishing The Beechwood Flute, which doesn't yet have a home. With so many concrete commitments, I was going to stay away from New Year's resolutions about writing. But then I read that making resolutions gives us a warm glow - just thinking about them, even if we never carry them out. So what's the harm in that?
I have to say that 2011 was a productive year for me despite pretty lousy writing habits. I didn't succeed in setting aside undistracted time. I didn't write at a certain time every day or reach a certain word count daily. Deadlines squirmed away from me. I frittered away a lot of time looking at online news and commentary.
So it's time for some resolutions.
First, I'm going to cut back on the time I spend surfing online news. For now, I'll get it down below half an hour a day, and none after 10 pm - I'll go to bed with a good book instead.
Second, I'll really try to write a little every day. Two major projects need work right now: my father's biography and the third Lexicon book. The first is midstream, and the second is only in the dreaming it all up stage. I ought to be able to do a couple of pages of one or some scribbled notes for the other every day. And once the bio is done I'll let myself turn back to the joy of editing Beechwood Flute.
I don't think I met my goal of reading 100 new books in 2011. I'm not sure, because I didn't keep a good count. This year I'll aim for 70 and better record-keeping. Moreover, I'll try to learn something as a writer from each book.
There, those seem manageable. No doubt I'll add more later, but for now these will be enough to work on. I'll let you know how it goes.
Showing posts with label Scarletta Press; self-publishing; writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scarletta Press; self-publishing; writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tumblehome Learning Announces its Presence
Tumblehome Learning has announced its presence to the publishing world. This week, Publishers Weekly online and Children's Bookshelf (scroll down) presented articles about publisher Ian Leask leaving his beloved Scarletta Press to devote more time to our startup, Tumblehome Learning. The announcement made us scramble to get our new website up several weeks ahead of schedule.
In the bold words of our president, Barnas Monteith,
Tumblehome Learning began nine months ago with four friends talking about kids, science, books and experiments, and the idea of science playdates. Almost six months ago we incorporated. Since then we've been writing, searching for books, designing activities, editing, finding partners, working with suppliers and distributors, and generally having the time of our lives. We are operating out of Boston, Minneapolis, and Taipei, and our team has grown to ten. We plan to make a big splash in 2012 with the release of our first seven books.
Tumblehome Learning will showcase our products-in-process at our Asian launch at the Taipei International Book Exhibition in February and again at the USA Science and Engineering Festival Book Fair in Washington, DC, April 28-29. We will have our first books, including a graphic novel, plus plenty of activities for families to try. Not only that, I'm a featured author, speaking Sunday at 10 am. Come join us!
And for all you authors out there, in mid-January we will begin looking at book proposals and queries. Check under Submissions on our website.
In the bold words of our president, Barnas Monteith,
Make no mistake -- Tumblehome Learning is not a publisher. It is a science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) education revolution. THL's product suite offers a continuous learning program from elementary through high school grades. Our reading materials feature exciting adventures and leading-edge "real world" science & engineering content along with self-paced hands-on activity lessons. A wide variety of different subject materials assure that there's something of interest for everyone.
Our goal is not just to make kids more successful in school, but to offer them an alternative pathway to opportunity and fulfillment throughout life--a pathway of genuine interest in subjects they learn to love and subsequently love to learn about. THL's innovative books, kits and other products inspire kids of all backgrounds and ages to become fascinated by the pursuit of scientific truth. At Tumblehome Learning, we believe that as fun proceeds, knowledge exceeds!
Tumblehome Learning began nine months ago with four friends talking about kids, science, books and experiments, and the idea of science playdates. Almost six months ago we incorporated. Since then we've been writing, searching for books, designing activities, editing, finding partners, working with suppliers and distributors, and generally having the time of our lives. We are operating out of Boston, Minneapolis, and Taipei, and our team has grown to ten. We plan to make a big splash in 2012 with the release of our first seven books.
Tumblehome Learning will showcase our products-in-process at our Asian launch at the Taipei International Book Exhibition in February and again at the USA Science and Engineering Festival Book Fair in Washington, DC, April 28-29. We will have our first books, including a graphic novel, plus plenty of activities for families to try. Not only that, I'm a featured author, speaking Sunday at 10 am. Come join us!
And for all you authors out there, in mid-January we will begin looking at book proposals and queries. Check under Submissions on our website.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Ice Castle copy editing is finished
Today I received a copy-edited draft of The Ice Castle, an Adventure in Music, which is the sequel to Lost in Lexicon. Here's the blurb:
We have a beautiful draft cover with Ivan and Daphne in swirling blue and green cloaks and the Ice Castle in the distance, but I'm not allowed to show that yet.
To my delight, the copy editor used a light hand. I'm always happy to learn if a compound word is really one word, two words, or a hyphenated word. (The word "copy-editor," for example: I'm not really certain.) Copy editors pick up double periods or places where I've used a word twice in one sentence. Apparently we no longer put commas before "too," as in, "He insisted he was coming too." When I was in grade school, that had to be "He insisted he was coming, too." So I always learn a few things, like whether to put spaces between the dots in ellipses. But I'm happy to say the copy editor did not make many changes that affected meaning, so I won't have to fight back much. I will argue some wording.
Meantime, Joan Charles is converting sketches into fully realized drawings. She really brings out feeling, detail, and texture in her final drawings. I just sent Scarletta Press a sketch of the layout of one of the towns the cousins visit. We think we'll use an aerial view of that town as a frontispiece. The book is a fun, exciting one, and I'm thrilled to see it taking shape.
Their return to Lexicon is not all that Ivan and Daphne imagined. For one thing, Aunt Adelaide is deathly ill. For another, their musical younger cousin, Lila, has stumbled into their secret land. Instead of rejoining old friends in the Land of Morning, Ivan and Daphne find themselves tracing Lila through a wintery landscape where what matters most is how well a person sings.
Sorted by musical talent and consigned to different lives, the cousins face cold, illness, and attempted murder. Slave, servant or fine lady, each has to escape a kind of imprisonment before they can find one another, foment a revolution and restore spring to the Land of Winter.
We have a beautiful draft cover with Ivan and Daphne in swirling blue and green cloaks and the Ice Castle in the distance, but I'm not allowed to show that yet.
To my delight, the copy editor used a light hand. I'm always happy to learn if a compound word is really one word, two words, or a hyphenated word. (The word "copy-editor," for example: I'm not really certain.) Copy editors pick up double periods or places where I've used a word twice in one sentence. Apparently we no longer put commas before "too," as in, "He insisted he was coming too." When I was in grade school, that had to be "He insisted he was coming, too." So I always learn a few things, like whether to put spaces between the dots in ellipses. But I'm happy to say the copy editor did not make many changes that affected meaning, so I won't have to fight back much. I will argue some wording.
Meantime, Joan Charles is converting sketches into fully realized drawings. She really brings out feeling, detail, and texture in her final drawings. I just sent Scarletta Press a sketch of the layout of one of the towns the cousins visit. We think we'll use an aerial view of that town as a frontispiece. The book is a fun, exciting one, and I'm thrilled to see it taking shape.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Lost in Lexicon's Publishing Path. II. Starting Tumblehome Press.
Once I decided to self-publish, I looked around for help. A friend introduced me to the creative team at FableVision, a wonderful multimedia storytelling company located above the Children's Museum in the Boston. I had a vague notion that like The Number Devil, Lexicon could support accompanying activities, and perhaps an entire computer game. (Of course, the whole notion was ironic, because of the underlying theme in the book that too much screen time is robbing our children of childhood, but I set that concern momentarily aside.)
The FableVision staff were excited by the book, and we met for a half-day team brainstorming about how we could make it into something big and exciting, with games, music, art, and even perhaps a couple of chapters in graphic novel form. In the end, though, the price tag was too high, and we couldn't really come up with a marketing plan to support it.
FableVision's ideas had kindled dreams, and I knew I wasn't going to be satisfied with simply handing my manuscript over to an outfit like Lulu or CreateSpace (reputable and perfectly respectable though they are). I wanted high quality art and design and a printing job that would look like a trade publisher's. I had only the vaguest idea of what a reasonable budget might be, but I read about Brunonia Barry's $50,000 investment in producing her book The Lace Reader which subsequently sold for high dollars to Harper Collins. That seemed like a good benchmark.
My husband, the founder of a small biotech company, certainly thought so. "In biotech, that's nothing," he said. With his unflagging support, that was how I thought of the project: it was a start-up. Biotech companies don't make money until years and millions of dollars have been invested, and most of them fail, though a few make it big. But Leo was trying to discover a treatment for Lou Gehrig's disease: it was worth the expense and the risk. I was trying to create fun, intellectually stimulating fiction for kids. He urged me not to look at the much smaller expense as a barrier.
At this point, my friend Rebecca Raibley stepped in. She has a strong business background and a talent for organization, and she wanted to learn more about online and viral marketing. She signed on as my voluntary business partner, working for free on top of her regular high-power job. We consulted with my agent about what members we would need for our virtual team: a project manager/art director, an artist, a designer, a copy editor, and a printer. We sketched out a budget, including printing and publicity.
My agent introduced me to her friend and colleague, an experienced editor and art director, now working freelance, named Karen Klockner. I sent Karen the book and went to meet her at the Cornell Club the next time I had to be in New York. In the hushed and paneled dining room, where one is not supposed to do any business, Karen taught me more about the steps we would need to go through and the timeline required to produce a book. Meanwhile, I incorporated my new publishing company, the Tumblehome Press, named after my mother's boat.
The FableVision staff were excited by the book, and we met for a half-day team brainstorming about how we could make it into something big and exciting, with games, music, art, and even perhaps a couple of chapters in graphic novel form. In the end, though, the price tag was too high, and we couldn't really come up with a marketing plan to support it.
FableVision's ideas had kindled dreams, and I knew I wasn't going to be satisfied with simply handing my manuscript over to an outfit like Lulu or CreateSpace (reputable and perfectly respectable though they are). I wanted high quality art and design and a printing job that would look like a trade publisher's. I had only the vaguest idea of what a reasonable budget might be, but I read about Brunonia Barry's $50,000 investment in producing her book The Lace Reader which subsequently sold for high dollars to Harper Collins. That seemed like a good benchmark.
My husband, the founder of a small biotech company, certainly thought so. "In biotech, that's nothing," he said. With his unflagging support, that was how I thought of the project: it was a start-up. Biotech companies don't make money until years and millions of dollars have been invested, and most of them fail, though a few make it big. But Leo was trying to discover a treatment for Lou Gehrig's disease: it was worth the expense and the risk. I was trying to create fun, intellectually stimulating fiction for kids. He urged me not to look at the much smaller expense as a barrier.
At this point, my friend Rebecca Raibley stepped in. She has a strong business background and a talent for organization, and she wanted to learn more about online and viral marketing. She signed on as my voluntary business partner, working for free on top of her regular high-power job. We consulted with my agent about what members we would need for our virtual team: a project manager/art director, an artist, a designer, a copy editor, and a printer. We sketched out a budget, including printing and publicity.
My agent introduced me to her friend and colleague, an experienced editor and art director, now working freelance, named Karen Klockner. I sent Karen the book and went to meet her at the Cornell Club the next time I had to be in New York. In the hushed and paneled dining room, where one is not supposed to do any business, Karen taught me more about the steps we would need to go through and the timeline required to produce a book. Meanwhile, I incorporated my new publishing company, the Tumblehome Press, named after my mother's boat.
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