I’ve been pretty busy with the Holiday season this year, and this has led to a distinct lack of posting (and, unfortunately, promoting) on my part! I do have some things to share, but it needs to wait until after Christmas as it involves a scathing review of some Christmas gifts I ordered from Zazzle. (Grrrr!)

Another reason for my absence is that I have completely switched over to a new web host! It takes a few days for the domain to point to the correct new server all over the world, so I refrained from blogging in case my post disappeared into some terrifying abyss during the switch.

I am really happy with my new host, and as an added bonus they dole out $75 for referring new customers. Considering that pays for my hosting for the whole year, I would be delighted if anyone decides to check them out! Go compare hosts for yourself– I’m not saying mine is right for everyone’s needs, but if you’re looking for a new host feel free to see if you like Web Hosting Pad!

(Please note I am in no way “in league” Lulu… I just want to save my fellow artists some stress when it comes to picture book dummies!)

The Problem

In the children’s publishing world, it seems like one of the major stresses for an author/illustrator is putting together the sacred dummy book. The dummy book is what an editor looks through to see pacing, artistic skills, style, design– it’s no surprise that trying to make the perfect dummy could set anyone into a panic! So before I ever set my pencil to paper, I scoured the internet for ever scrap of information I could find on creating a dummy book.

I was surprised to discover that the most stressful part of dummy book creation seemed not to be the actual drawing and placement of perfect text and image, but the construction of the dummy book itself! The steps involved included gluing, cutting, sewing, folding, pagination, not to mention hours spent at places like Kinko’s trying to get everything printed properly. Making a picture book seemed to me to be a time-consuming and expensive ordeal, and when you factor in sending out multiple copies and the recent policy that some publishers don’t return any materials… I felt I would be doomed to a life of never-ending cutting and gluing.

The Solution

During a course I took on Book Illustration, we were required to print a copy of our book to turn in to class. Most of the class turned to Lulu.com, because it was a quick and inexpensive way to have a copy of a book printed.

Thus an idea formed in my head: Why not print dummy books using Lulu? I hadn’t seen this mentioned during the hours I spent scouring the internet, so I decided to ask the wonderfully helpful Blueboarders for their input. The response I received was to stay away from Lulu because publishers would then think my book was “Self-Published.” Considering Lulu’s web page title says “Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free,” I can definitely understand that response. If a publisher thought the dummy was a published book, they certainly would not want to publish it themselves!

However, I think people misunderstand Lulu. Yes, its main purpose is to help authors self-publish their books, but that is not all it does. Buying an ISBN number and putting the book on Amazon is an option, but not a requirement. It is perfectly possible to print a copy just for yourself with nobody else but the Lulu printer ever seeing it. You can make it private so that it will never go into the marketplace and absolutely nobody will be given an option to buy or even look at it. People print personal photo albums on Lulu this way. It’s the same as if you took it to Kinko’s for printing, just easier. There’s no requirement to place their logo anywhere on the book either, so there is really no way for someone to look at your book and think it was published or even know where you printed it.

Another response I got is that a book printed by Lulu would look “too professional.” This is a really valid fear that again goes back to the book looking “published,” but I don’t think it needs to be a worry:

• First of all, since it is a dummy it will be comprised of black and white sketches. You’re just showing the editor your vision of the book, so there is no need for it to contain finished work. Any finished sample you have can be attached as a tearsheet for the editor to keep.
• Secondly, you don’t need to get fancy with the binding. Yes, the “Perfect” binding does look extremely professional, but there is an option to staple bind the book like a comic, which looks good without looking “published.”

So you’ll have a nicely made black and white (with a color cover if you’d like, since this is included in Lulu’s price) staple-bound dummy with nothing but your lovely sketches in it.

The Kicker

Besides the time-consuming aspects of making your dummy by hand, one extremely good reason to go with Lulu is the price. I ordered seven 7.5″x7.5″ black and white staple bound dummies from Lulu for a total, including shipping, of around $45. That’s only $6.40 per book, (Each book was approx $5.20 before shipping) without any cutting, printing, or sewing from my end. All I had to do was set up the book as a PDF and upload to Lulu. Simple! And if (eek!) your dummy never makes it back to you, the loss is bearable. Though it would be infinitely nicer if the dummy never made it back because of a book deal…

My Dummy

Here are some pictures of my Lulu dummy books for my story “The Three Little Kittens.” They are 7.5″ square, color cover with b&w interior, staple-bound, and approx $5.20 for 32 pages.

Front Cover of Dummy

Inside Spread of Dummy

Back Cover of Dummy

Staple Binding of Dummy

Next I will go over how to make a dummy and submit it to Lulu. Stay Tuned

I’m working on some dolls to get ready to open an Etsy shop… here’s a peek at my first one! Also I think I am going to start a series of posts about the journey to become an Etsy seller… where everyone can witness either the slow rise to success or the plunge into ceaseless obscurity! :}

I’ve also been trying to think of ways for this blog to be helpful to other people, so I’d like to start posting How-To guides, maybe starting with how to make a doll (my way, at least) in case anyone was interested.

I don’t think it has fully “hit” me yet, but as of Thursday my time as a student at SCAD is officially OVER! Crazy. I have an apartment here in Savannah until August so I’m not leaving the city yet… but my time spent now will be toward self-promotion and hopefully real jobs rather than classwork. It is kind of terrifying I guess, but no moreso than a pack of wild locusts.

In other news…. wait! I don’t have any

I’ve done it! And I must say I am pretty proud. Yes, my site looks exactly the same… but guess what! It now contains NO tables. Yep, none! I spent the last few days expanding on my knowledge of CSS (One of my goals in my last post) and managed to redo my site using only styled divs, floats, and all that other CSS goodness. The code is so much nicer without all those nestled tables (especially on the portfolio page) so I am quite pleased.

I even found a great way to get rid of javascript rollovers. Check out this page if you’re interested in some clean, image-based rollovers using CSS: Image Sprite CSS Navigation.

It might look a little confusing in the start but once you change your mindset from thinking in grids to thinking about the purpose of various page elements, it’s actually much easier than dealing with tables and the like.

For anyone who isn’t sure why they would ever give up tables, read this site: Why tables for layout is stupid.

It’s about time to send out a new promotional postcard! (my last one hasn’t returned any bites, but I am hoping it is up on a few art director’s walls…) I have a lot of old work I still really like, but it’s all in colored pencil and, to save myself from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I am avoiding that medium for any professional work. Sooo, I decided to take a piece I did from long ago and convert it from colored pencil to watercolor, along with updating it to my most current style.

Step One - Planning and Sketching

The piece I chose is relating to airplanes and the crazy people you might sit by, and I chose it because I thought that it might work editorially as well as for the children’s market.

I made quite a few small changes that I hope will make the picture a bit better:

• Changed the format from square to rectangle to better fit a postcard.
• Changed the image. Nest of eggs put under the seat (Nothing is allowed in the aisles!); Added chicken drumstick to T-Rex’s tongue; changed the woman to a teenaged girl. I thought a girl would apply better to the children’s market, but by keeping her teenaged she doesn’t seem too young to appeal for editorial work. (I hope!)
• Changed colors. Girl’s hair is now orange; Plane interior is more like a real plane, made fish match T-rex. The color comp is extremely rough at this point so the colors are not exact and I’m sure changes will occur once I paint.

At this point I am slightly worried that the new picture’s color scheme looks too “4th of July,” and hopefully I will be able to use the watercolors to dispel that look.
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With this last quarter of college being so extremely busy, I’m just dying for it to all be over so I can have some time to learn new things. Once I graduate and DO have time, I will probably change my mind and want to be lazy, so I figure if I tell myself what I want to do now I might feel sufficiently guilty enough later to do it.

So here is my absurdly long list of what I would like to accomplish (professionally… yes I want to learn to pee standing up but that’s another post altogether):

1. Learn the intimate specifics of CSS and PHP - I know enough CSS to apply styles to my site, but I don’t much about positioning. And as for PHP… hahaha!
   
2. Put my newfound knowledge to work and redo my web site in validated CSS - I feel like a dinosaur as my web design is still in tables, with code from the stone age. Bleh! (Wow, nerd.)
   
3. Learn how to code in Wordpress and move my blog over (Will Google send someone after me for this statement?) - Something about Wordpress just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
4. Get people to actually look at my web site - You’re not reading this. Nobody is reading this. So it’s time for a Super Promotion Attack Plus!
5. Publish a Children’s Book - This is probably my number one goal that I would wet myself if accomplished.
6. Learn to Animate - Flash… 3D, I don’t know. I just really want to learn to animate.
7. Get a couch - Okay, this isn’t a professional goal, but we have had this apartment for 2 months now and I REALLY WANT A COUCH. (We got a couch! SUCCESS!)
   
8. Expand portfolio to new markets - I would like to have a body of work for every market, so I could send a portfolio to get work in: Stationery, Toy Design, Concept/Character work, T-Shirts, Greeting Cards, Web Design, Poster, Editorial. I’ve got a ton of children’s work, but only a few samples of other markets.
   
9. Get in an annual - Yes, please.
10. Take Part in Illustration Friday - Good way to get the juices pumpin’!
    

Well, that’s all I can think of for now but you bet your sweet bippy I will edit this post if I think of anything else!

…what is a bippy?

I posted a while back about Wendy the Moth on SCAD’s web site, and it seems her rise to fame is increasing! I just got an e-mail from Adobe with a contract to show Wendy on their web site feature of SCAD as well as a video! Exciting! I always liked Wendy in all her nudist glory (if not that particular picture of her) so I’m happy others seem to like her as well.

In other news, I’m poppin’ out these Pooch poses for Piedmont Healthcare like rabbits in the spring so I’ll attach a couple more for your viewing pleasure.

I’m also working on a BIG children’s book project (my own for class, nothing published yet, sigh) and I’ll be posting some process pics soon!

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This post has no purpose other than to say that the new Giant Chewy Nerds have to be the best candy ever made. Awesome Nerdsishness on the outside, jelly bean on the inside; it almost makes me willing to brave the streets of Savannah at 1:00 a.m just to have some. (Note: almost)

That is all.