In response to an e-mail I sent out announcing my forthcoming book and this blog, I received lots of encouraging and helpful responses. One especially helpful piece of advice came from Mike Cox, father of my good friend, Myklin, who has self-published the course, What Every Girl Should Know. He suggested that I join the Christian Self-Publishing Yahoo Group. I joined right away and am eager to begin looking through their archives and participating in the discussion.
On top of that, after introducing myself to the group, I received a very insightful e-mail from Marc Carrier, another member of the group. He and his wife have authored and self-published several books and sell them through their website, Values Driven Family. Marc included some links in his e-mail that eventually led me to this Author Resources page that is chock-full of informative articles and helpful tools. In particular, I found this article on Creating a Children’s Book from Concept to Illustrations. I have a friend who has just started working on a children’s book series that I am thrilled about, so I sent the link on to him.
Oh, and be sure to request the Free Self-Publishing Guide from Author House as well. If their website is any indication, the guide will be a treasure trove of helpful ideas!
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Thank you for the info here. You are truly saving me lots of time! I can tell you’ve put in many hours of research–how wonderful that I don’t have to duplicate it!
The Yahoo group sounds like a good one. Have you found it to be helpful, or is it just a time-sucker? If it’s worthwhile, I think I’ll consider joining, though it looks like I’d need a recommendation.
Debbie
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
That’s great to hear, Debbie!
I haven’t kept up very well with the group in the last few months, but it is a wonderful group of people! I just have the e-mails from the group set to go directly to a designated folder in my e-mail program. Then, I can go through them as I have time and/or am able to offer input or need to ask questions. It’s probably a bit more of a time-sucker if you have to have them come directly to your inbox because not all the topics of discussion will necessarily be of interest.
If you do decide to join and need a recommendation, feel free to use my name!