I hate waiting...

The waiting game begins. The shipment was supposed to have been picked up last week, and to arrive the 13th of May. Since we are not using DHL or Fedex/UPS we really have no way of tracking the shipment. It's on an ocean-liner making it's way across the Pacific. I have sent the printer a request to show me the paperwork once the process begins, and if it's interesting enough I will put it in the blog once I get it.

Wailoa & Kukui continues to gather momentum. Barnes & Noble will begin to stock a few copies for online purchases. I am interested to find out how much money will be our cut once they begin to sell them. Once all of the retail outlets are stocked with the books, I will feel more confident about doing some sort of event at the local B&N here in Vegas. That would be a fun experience.
In the meantime, I am keeping the creative juices flowing by getting back into individual illustration for iStockphoto.com It's a nice source of residual income that I don't have to manage so aggressively like the books. Thanks iStock!

Barnes & Noble .com

Some exciting things happened yesterday/today. It's great that we're listed on Amazon and all, but it's not a relationship that is really good for anyone but Amazon. It's just such a big site, people don't really go there to buy just books anymore. It's nice to have the notoriety that comes with having the book up there, but that's really about it.
Barnes and Noble on the other hand is a great site to be listed on, obviously their retail stores too. It's taken a solid 2 months but AthertonCustoms is an official "Vendor of Record" with BN.com which means ALL my published titles are listed through BN. That is just too cool! I found out yesterday when I did an ISBN search on bn.com and found Wailoa and Kukui. Then I just happened to click on Aaron's name and up pops "Giovanni and Scampi" for pre-order. Then I just thought I would try "Lucky the Rubber Ducky" and sure enough it was there too! It's nice to be part of an company that is connected to the ISBN registry, everytime I update the ISBN info, it automatically flows to the BN site. I just love efficiency.
So, in closing I will include all 3 links to the 3 published titles I have done. If you have purchased or have any of the books (I'd be impressed if you had G&S...), please leave a comment on BN.com. Thanks!
Wailoa & Kukui
Giovanni & Scampi the Shrimp
Lucky the Rubber Ducky

W&K 601 books sold!

Just a quick update today. Yesterday we crossed over the 600 barrier, and have now sold a total of 601 books! In just a week over 3 months.
I can't wait until the busy season begins, and the rain and cold weather give way to the traditional Hawaiian climate, warm and sunny!

Wholesalers

So, this entry is dedicated to the work I've been doing to get the book into Barnes & Noble. In early March of this year, 2010, I sent off an inquiry to B&N about carrying our book "Wailoa & Kukui". On March 10th they sent a letter to the effect that they were on board and interested in selling our book in their online store as well as retail stores.
There were many steps that they required of us to make that happen. Lately the request is that we commit to a wholesaler, a company that provides B&N with their supply of books. B&N sells such a variety of titles, that they couldn't possibly contact each publisher individually to request more copies of certain titles, so a wholesaler becomes the contact. A wholesaler keeps stock on hand and fills the orders it receives from retailers like B&N.
Fortunately, B&N gave me a list of the wholesalers that supply their stores. I contacted each of them and so far have heard back from 2 of them, and it seems positive enough. Their is an application process very similar to that of Amazon.com. I just returned from the post office mailing off the packages containing our "sales pitch" including a copy of the book for their review.
What do I think will happen now?
Once they get the package for review, I believe that we will be required to sign up with them and begin flowing merchandise to their warehouses, B&N is closer than ever although realistically it will probably be around a month at the earliest before it will be on shelves. How cool would it be to have an author/illustrator signing event at B&N here in Vegas, when Aaron comes to town? And vice versa, when I get back to Hawaii in 2011?
Great prospects, still having fun in spite of all this kind of paper-WORK!

Book on boat!

Just a quick little note today about G&S. I received word back from the shipper and the books are slated for shipment. Estimated Departure from Hong Kong is on the 29th of April, and the arrival is estimated at May 13th to L.A. From there I really don't know how long it will take for me to get my 2 boxes, and for the rest of the shipment to get to Aaron. This is just one of those things that we have to go through and take notes so that the next time we will know a little more. Lessons learned. I fully trust the shipper though, I mean they did get us our last shipment.
I do need an interpreter to figure out all their acronyms and miscellaneous charges!

Book is DONE!

I received an e-mail last night around 10pm from my printer to the effect that the book was all done! All 2,000 copies! It has been 12 days since I actually sent him the final file. I never fail to be impressed by his ability to get these done so quickly, I am amazed. The book looks great from the photos:

Here is the new barcode size and price, which conforms to Amazon's specs as well as Barnes and Noble, both of which it will be carrying the book in time. The turtle is hidden in the curl of the wave and even from this low res photo you can see the Aloha cloud.

I think it's awesome that Jimmy chose to shoot this spread, since I would have asked to see how the bleed affected the name on the truck, perfectly! The colors look so vibrant and rich, I am really looking forward to getting my copies! As I hope you are!

Now that the book is almost on it's way, I plan to blog daily about both of the books successes. W&K sales and other related updates, G&S where it is on the big ocean making it's way back before May 1st!
Great update! Great book!

G&S printer update

That's a 1,000 word entry right there!
Not really a whole lot to update you with. I guess I can share a little about what is going on with Barnes and Noble. I heard back from Evelyn via e-mail. She was happy to report that they are ready to set me up as a vendor for their online bookstore, but that if I wanted to be in the brick and mortar stores, I would need to pick a wholesaler and a distributor as well. The good news to that is she sent a list of both that they currently work with.
The down side to all of this is the amount of $$ we will NOT make using these services. Obviously I understand and am willing to cut B&N in, they will be selling the books, but to have to pay 2 middle-men to get the books to their stores rather than me supplying the stores directly is extortion! One of those necessary evils you know? I haven't decided which route to take, but it seems inevitable that we must sign up with both a wholesaler and a distributor to take the book to the next step.
More to come as it is passed on to me!
Thanks for reading!

G&S book preview

The cover took a lot of thought and multiple rounds of changes. I started with one idea that just didn't work as a cover image. I struggled making it too complicated so much that it wasn't communicating the title of the story and book. This front cover design goes very nicely with the back cover:

This book was a lot more fun and challenging to create. As I was creating the color renditions I was constantly thinking how I could incorporate elements that would tie in well with the lesson plans. Since the lesson plans for W&K are such a big hit with the target teacher market, we actually put in the credits page inside the book, a reference to the lesson plans. Even though at this stage they are still in a skeleton form, I created the illustrations of this book with the thought that we would have lesson plans for this book.
I have the turtle silhouette hidden on every illustration in the entire book, including the cover (on the back, in the curl of the wave). I also included the "critters" from the W&K as characters kind of following the story on every illustration as well.
I researched some of the native plant life that one might find along the shoreline of a freshwater pond in Hawaii. All of these things will be more interesting for students studying certain units in elementary school to discover through the illustrations.
Now on to a preview of G&S:

That's enough of those. They are only web shots, so they may not look as fantastic as the printed final pages on your computer screen. They are going to be amazing.
The one last thing I wanted to share on this blog today was the video preview, kind of like a movie trailer but for the book.




Stay tuned, I should have some printer photos tomorrow!

Giovanni and Scampi

So, here it is. I thought I would actually start a more "main stream" blog. I already had one going with my .mac account on my website, but I never really got much traffic. We'll see how this one does.
I uploaded the final print files for our new book on the 5th of April 2010, which is one week ago from today. I really meant to keep a better blog of the whole creative process but, I didn't.

The background:
December 2009. Our first book ("Our" being Aaron T. Watene and myself), "Wailoa and Kukui" was on the boat coming from Shenzhen, China due any day. Aaron and I had discussed what our next book would be considering we sold enough books to justify the cost of an additional book. The 2nd book was going to be a collaborative book with the famous Giovanni Shrimp truck, a landmark culinary icon on the North Shore of Oahu. It also happens to be the neighbor to Aaron's prime selling location. In my research, having a collaboration book, where there are more than one invested party is a good marketing strategy. Not only are we invested in the success of the book, but the collaborating party is also concerned that it be successful. That was and is our thinking in choosing this story for our 2nd book.

Now on to the story:

January 1st; the 1st sketch
After a few days of research as to how best to give a bottom-dwelling crustacean a personality, I drafted the first sketch of Scampi. Here he is riding his first wave. Using this sketch, I of course was able to visualize how the rest of the story would unfold, through the illustrations.


January 2nd; my goal this time around was to create the entire book in sketches before committing too much time to the illustrator versions.


January 2nd: I was also keeping the book laid out in inDesign (page layout program) using the sketches as place holders.


January 4th:


January 5th: I was on fire here. Completing 1-2 sketches per day!


January 6th


January 7th: I was looking forward to "learning" how best to create the crashing waves in illustrator. Vector waves are traditionally not done very well. I'm happy to report that I did have some create vector waves, stay tuned for some of the finished "proof"


January 8th: I particularly loved the pose that Scampi was making, kind of a arms out flying motion!


January 9th: I loved how I put him in the deep jungle, kind of a Raiders of the Lost Ark thing with the Tiki statues around him. That part was shot in Kauai you know...


January 16th: Aaron and I had some financial issues we needed to work out during this dry spell. It is hard for anyone to be creative when they lose their motivation. I eventually got back on track, but never got quite back on the same pace as before.


January 17th:


January 18th:


January 20th:


January 21st: I love this sketch. All the diverse groups that come through as tourists. You gotta love Hawaii for that!


January 22nd: The final illustration.

That sums up the month of sketching. During this process, I was able to do very little else. The sketches would take 6-8 hours each day. The process of sketching and shading or rendering doesn't usually take that long, but the amount of research to come up with the unique backdrops, and putting the thought into making each page interesting and unique does take a lot of thought and planning.

If you've read this far, you deserve a medal. I will post more blog entries showing the finished pages in the near future. There is still a lot more to write about!