At this point in the journey, I sought as much information about publishing as possible. This led me to Ingram Spark which print the POD(Print on Demand) books for publishing houses, as well as having a genuine self publishing platform as well.
Because Balboa Press would not release the source file for me to re-write Alec Meets Sheikadee to comply with industry standards, it was necessary to create a new source file. Ingram Spark personnel referred me to a number of people who could help. I chose to work with Julie-Ann Harper of Pickawoowoo Publishing. Julie-Ann is very experienced and has a knowledgeable team who are all extremely helpful.
One of the issues with Balboa Press was with the formatting of the book, so I was referred to a former University lecturer, Dr Virginia Lowe who has a mentoring and editing service called Create Kids Books. Dr. Lowe, an expert in children’s literature, has taught me how to format a book properly with the use of a storyboard. She has also helped with editing the stories.
Because Balboa Press have retained the copyright of all the pictures in the first edition of Alec Meets Sheikadee, it has been necessary to commission all new illustrations. Through Julie-Ann at Pickawoowoo, I have been referred to a well known, talented artist Laila Savolainen, who has a huge body of published work. Laila has agreed to provide all the artwork required for the book. Laila submitted the style she has chosen for illustrating the series. It is bright, vibrant and full of soul.
Having re-written the story to fill the required 32 pages, I submitted it to Dr Lowe for mentoring and editing. The feedback is:
Content has value about the unseen and unspoken aspects of how we operate as human beings, however it is not exciting enough to capture a child’s interest – especially for the first in the new series. It still needs much more excitement and action, and you need to get kids involved in the whole scenario. As it is, it’s just didactic talking on the part of Sheikadee, and not very interesting to the child reader.
Well, that put a spanner in the works! After re-writing twice and editing countless times, it was still not the best one for beginning the new series. I had submitted a stranger danger story to Dr Lowe before I found I could not get the source file to Alec Meets Skeikadee. Dr. Lowe advised me to publish the Stranger Danger story first to give the series the best possible start.
Redirection – About Face – Start Again for the third time!
Julie-Ann and Laila were all set to start working on Alec Meets Sheikadee, however both graciously joined me in the new direction, bringing to life Alec and Stranger Danger.
I am very happy and excited – feeling I am at last moving in the right direction, with more knowledge and experience to create a very enjoyable and valuable series.
