It’s always nice to be invited to elementary schools and talk to kids and teachers about writing, illustrating, and publishing. I enjoy sharing my self-published children’s books and encouraging kids to read and appreciate art.
     I advise people to publish their books and artwork themselves. Although it involves some investment of your own money, the thrill of holding a finished product in your own hands is worth the effort and expense. Waiting for a publisher could take the rest of your life…
     When people ask me how to get started in publishing, I tell them to write about something they know or have experienced. I wrote my first children’s book about Grin the dolphin after swimming with dolphins during my years as a lifeguard on the beach in Florida. My second book about a young boy and the wolves was inspired by my hikes in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. My third book was inspired by the discrimination alien girls from other planets feel when they’re not invited to participate in the Miss Universe Pageant…

The first step to getting published is to copyright your work. The last thing you want is to have Disney or some other big company borrowing your story without giving you a fair share of the pie... The best “poor mans” way to copyright your stuff is to put a copy of your finished manuscript in an envelope and mail it back to yourself. When you receive your precious package in the mail, the stamped date from the federal post office is your legitimate copyright date. Just make sure not to open the letter. It must stay sealed in case you have to appear in a court of law one day for a copyright violation. Children in the elementary schools are always thrilled to mail their stories back to themselves. Another very important way of copyrighting is to send a copy of your finished work with the appropriate form to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and wait for their nice stamped seal of approval with the date on it. I advise all serious writers to do this. Nobody can steal your story after you’ve done this…

 The next step in your publishing endeavor is to purchase an ISBN number (International Standard Book Number) for your work. It’s not expensive but necessary, and on the back of every book you will see this number and sometimes a bar code as well. Once you have done this, find a printer that binds books and get samples of their work. Get a quote for different numbers of copies and see how cheap it gets when you print a large number of books. The first printing will always be the most expensive due to the digital color scans to be made “print ready.” The text and pictures in your book will have to be put on a CD with the layout of the book for the book binding company. The more you have done during the pre-press stage, the less work the book binding company will have to do and the less $$$ you will have to pay out…

     Develop your website while waiting for your shipment of books. Once you get your truck load of packaged books delivered, store them in stacks, and sell them out of the trunk of your car, craft shows, and book fairs and to every friend and family member you have. If you choose to sell them in the chain bookstores or Amazon.com, remember their distributors will suck up at least 40% of your investment and unless you are able to sign your books in every store, they are probably going to sit on the shelf gathering dust until people discover who you are…Good luck with your quest, stay inspired, and keep writing…C.
    

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