Design Time

Dear Reader,

I met with my artist, Kecia, on Wednesday and I can't wait until she works some magic with my words!

We met at the Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester. The weather was beautiful and we were able to eat outside. I had a Bistro burger -- an assortment of wild and exotic mushrooms and boursin cheese. Yum! Kecia had a portabella mushroom sandwich. That was my second choice although I am not a fan of red peppers, which is problematic because they always seem to pair portabella and peppers at restaurants. Oddly, I only like yellow and orange peppers, not green or red. (My other choices were a turkey guacamole burger with pepper jack cheese and turkey with cranberry and brie on multigrain bread -- I'm making myself hungry!)

But back to the Good Manners Kids Stuff Press update:
Kecia is illustrating approximately 30 little heads for me and laying out my text into the Create Space template. The heads are used with the 30-ish captions/situations in the book. 20 are children and 10 are grownups. We laughed at my attempts to draw them. ( I wish I could draw, but I can't even print/write neatly! I'll just be sticking to words.)

I'm sending off the manuscript for a copyright from the Library of Congress so it's safely on record there. (I've sent all of my work off, regardless of whether it's been published. Not that I think I'm so wonderful -- it's just that I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it all and want it to be protected.)

In the meantime, I've assigned a Good Manners Kids Stuff Press ISBN to the book (one of a set that I purchased for the publishing company). As I was researching how to self-publish or print on demand, I decided that my best option was to own my own numbers. It was so exciting to get the official information -- each step brings it closer to becoming real.

In my next post, I'll explain how and why Good Manners Kids Stuff Press came into being. Right now, I am enjoying the weekend (even enjoying the cleaning and yard work) while the book is out of my hands. A little time away from it will help me have fresh eyes when I see it again.

Until then,

Leslie

P.S. Spell check wouldn't tell me if portobella (the way I orginally spelled it) was spelled right -- it only offered potbelly, portable, paella as suggestions! Not too helpful. Had to go onto Google and type it in to see it was "portabella."

Technorati Profile

Meeting with my artist

Dear Reader,

I'm still having issues with "Claiming my Blog" on Technorati -- so I'll probably try that again tomorrow.

I'm in the process of printing out my final draft of my book. I'm meeting with my artist on Wednesday to go over the layout and illustrations. My plan is to be launched in June -- which is closer than you would think.

Did some practical things -- had my url www.goodmannerskidsstuffpress.com redirect to a page within my Good Manners Kids Stuff website where the book will be featured once available.

Read some more articles on line about how to market books.

Started a blog on wordpress to (hopefully) work along with my other blogs and my main site to get more exposure, links and traffic. I like the appearance of that blog but I think the Google blogs are easier to work with so far (the wordpress blog is www.goodmannerskidsstuff.wordpress.com. I am confusing myself, I may need to re-think my naming strategy). The idea is that once I launch there will be many outlets in which to spread the word. Or, I'm just making much more work for myself. Either way, I'll let you know how that goes!

Last, I had an idea for another book -- I jotted it down on a yellow sticky note -- let's just hope I can find it again once this first book and publishing house launch is history!

This whole virtual reality is exhausting and busy! But it's also so very cool making my dreams come true! (A dream that started way, and I mean way, back in 6th grade.)

I'll catch up with you soon!

Leslie
President (really!!) Good Manners Kids Stuff Press

2nd Technorati claim attempt

Technorati has been a mess, going through, maintenance. I wasn't able to get this blog up and running there so I trying again.

Technorati Profile

Please check back for my next blog post about how my grand plans for Good Manners Kids Stuff Press came to be.

Leslie

Dear Reader,
Just putting a technorati code in to get this blog listed there.Technorati Profile

Good Manners Kids Stuff Press -- The start of, well, something!

Dear Reader,

Although I said "Welcome" in my first blog post, that was really just a "Welcome" to get the template started.

This is really my first "Welcome" post where I am actually going to write and publish some content.

My name is Leslie Susskind and I am getting ready to launch Good Manners Kids Stuff Press. I thought it might be fun to share my journey of starting a publishing company and selling books with you.

This blog may end up telling a cautionary tale -- or it may chronicle the start of something big. Either way, I'm going to talk about it here.

I'm launching Good Manners Kids Stuff Press so that I can self-publish books that I have written for my website business, www.goodmannerskidsstuff.com. My site sells products that helps teach children good manners. I've designed and produced the other products (placemats, water bottles, plates, thank you notes and invitations) and I wanted to tell some stories about good manners, too.

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that I am a frustrated author who has had some nibbles from agents and editors for my non-manners themed children's books -- but I'm still toiling away at my day-time job in Marketing as a Creative Director while working on my website at night (while being a full-time wife and mother, too).

So when I wanted to have some books to support my good manners brand and ideas, there was no question that I would be the one to write them. The question, instead, was how I would go about doing it.

The answer was to self-publish it/them. I started writing the stories and researching how to get the books made. In my next post I'll share in more detail what I learned, what I ultimately decided was the best option for me and how Good Manners Kids Stuff Press was born (although, with a name like that, it clearly won't need a big leap of logic to figure it out).

I hope you'll check back from time to time to see how my self-publishing journey is going. Feel free to sign up to have updates emailed to you or to become a follower. I'd love to have some company while I figure this whole thing out!

Your wannabe author and publisher,

Leslie Susskind

P.S. You may want to visit my site www.goodmannerskidsstuff.com to understand my product designs and brand message. Or, if you like reading blogs, you may want to see my other two blogs: www.goodmannersmom.blogspot.com and www.goodsportbadsport.com. Both deal differently with good and bad manners and I have a lot of fun writing them!

Welcome!

Just trying to get the template designed while we prepare for our first book launch.

Hope to have some news about our book for you very soon!