ひとりゴート Ink Progress

Well this is my haul from inking this weekend. I'm just shy of finishing half of the pictures. I may tweak these here and there, but this is basically it. There are ten pictures here, but two of them are on the backs of others. I did a test scan to see how nicely that would play with my scanner and it does bleed through a little, but I fixed it with almost no effort by shuffling contrast and brightness bars. So for these black and white scans it definitely won't be a problem. I'm thinking that it won't bleed through at all after I do the crayons, but the worst case scenario would have me redrawing two pictures. A slight pain in the butt. Far from the end of the world.

Mid-ink thoughts--I expected to get tired of drawing goats while working on this book, but that hasn't been the case. It's the grass. I'm tired of drawing grass. So much of it. I like the look of it and all, but my hand is killing me.

I haven't got a strict deadline for this book, but I want to finish soon so I can work on other projects. I'm still considering my options on how to publish. Going to try traditional publishing first and if that doesn't pan out, I'll try print on-demand with crowd funding. Making it an eBook would be a last resort. Since it's drawn in landscape, I think it would look terrible on most e-readers.

Inks should be done by the end of the week. I leave for a vacation in Hawaii on Saturday and when I come back I want to be doing the crayons. There's a big touch panel expo coming up that my company is going to have a booth at though. Overtime might limit my output this week. Here's hoping it doesn't.

Cheers, ya'll!

Group shot minus the ones on the backs. Below you'll find pages 1-10 all in order.

ISBN Follow-up and Publishing Weekend

Today I finally received my international book numbers! At first I didn't see them in this booklet they sent me, but luckily I found them before I set about actually reading the whole thing. From what I've read in it, there is a lot of information I already learned in English and I expect there is far more information I just don't really need. I've had to read longer, drier manuals than this for my work, but I still don't relish the thought of wading through a hundred pages of bureaucratic Japanese.

Really dodged a bullet on this one. This looks unbearably boring.

Anyway, I thought before I get to finalizing my first book's publication, I'd do an update on the rest of the application process that came after I filled out the internet form. Actually, let me back up just a little bit. To even get the form I had to apply to apply, as strange as that sounds. They sent a URL to my email address and I had 96 hours to complete that and send it in. After I sent their form back (the one I wrote about last time) I received an email with that information in a PDF. That had to be printed, signed and a copy of the receipt for the bank transfer they requested needed to be glued to it. Then I mailed it to their office in Tokyo.

A few days later I got a phone call while I was at work. When I called them back, they said they had called the house, but that no one was home. They needed to ask something that they wouldn't ask me unless I was on my home phone and so I asked them to call the next day. Then I had my wife call them since she had plans. Again, they just need to ask a few questions and they scheduled something for the next day. Well, the next day finally comes and they forgot to call. When Haruna called them, it turned out they just wanted to verify our home phone number. Bureaucracy at its finest.

That turned out to be the last actual hurdle. I was finally waiting on them to process my request. They said it would take up to three weeks, but it only took about two. Maybe a little less than that. I don't know if I might come across some other snags this weekend, but if not then I'll post again when I have the book up for sale. My hope is to have both the English and Japanese versions out this weekend. This has been a neat first adventure and I'm glad to have been able to share it with you. I'll be looking forward to the others that will follow.

First Post: Cover Page and Moving Forward with a Beta Test

Well the first post on this blog comes along just before the final push on finishing up the book. I just sent off a pdf to some beta testers to read with their kids. Depending on the feedback I receive I may be ready to publish on time. It should be around next weekend if things go all right. I wish there were a pay-what-you-want option with Smashwords, but they don't offer one anymore. Instead I'll schedule some months when it will be free and will charge in the beginning only as a way to let people show support if they want to.

The picture heading this post is the cover image I'm going with. I tried another with fuzzy bear fur letters for the word "Bear," but my brother and I didn't like the way it looked. I also added a border which I hadn't originally wanted. Many websites (like Amazon and Smashwords) have white backgrounds and I think the thumbnail will look better this way.

Making the book was a lot of fun. Since I've been caught up in reading about publishing and taxes, I'm excited to start drawing the next one. I have a Japanese title for it, but I have to figure out the English one. I've got some rewriting to do as well, as I lost my original Japanese manuscript, but I think that's really a blessing as I already like the new direction I plan on going with it. I'll be posting about it as I make progress.