Co-Designing e-books Literacy Mystery Quest
Read about a project from Hazel
Edwards, author and Jane
Connory, graphic designer to
set
up a store for ebooks and merchandise to match.
A Guest Blog for Read Plus by Hazel Edwards and Jane Connory
Hazel's Viewpoint:
Our e-quest began in a local park. School holidays. My 10 year
old grandson and his mate were to cook 'hippo footprint pancakes' on
camera at Channel 31's 'Kids in the Kitchen' while I read my picture
book to screen.
Serendipitously, I met graphic designer Jane Connory and her children,
playing in the park. Innovative Jane lectures in e-skills amongst other
graphic subjects, and wanted to illustrate children's books and
followed up with her portfolio.
I'm a formatting tragic, but have a backlist of intellectual property
rights. My author website
was undergoing a major overhaul as my daughter Kim became my e-business
manager and I learnt how to upload my own material. I was aware I
needed help in re-formatting selected past titles so they would be
accessible on all e-readers, not just Kindle, plus they would need new
covers and ISBN and updating of some content.
Initially I wasn't aiming to become an e-publisher, just to rescue some
'orphaned' titles which have been good stories, but take-overs,
mergers or poor distribution had lost opportunities to get them to
appropriate readers. As an educator I had always supplied teacher
resources with my books, and wanted to consolidate these on my own
web-site. Often readers of my picture books had no idea that I wrote
adult non-fiction or mysteries.
1. My long term goal was to sell my own e-books internationally
to save time and learn the new electronic medium.
2. The choice of junior literacy mysteries in two proven print series
for the test was deliberate. Literacy is an area I am passionate
about. Hero Art, the sleuth in Project Spy Kids is an ace
problem-solver but is challenged by reading. The Frequent Flyer Twins
are international Asian-Australian ten year old sleuths.
3. Creating a series name and using the same cover but with a different
colour, linked the titles. Thus 'Project Spy Kids' was created. The
Frequent Flyer Twins had always been a sub title on the second series,
but this was reversed on the e-book listings.
4. Aware that the cover, title and one line descriptor were the only
clues, the covers had to be enticing for the age group.
5. Jane
would create the e-formatted books and new covers and would
merchandise the illustrations on Red Balloon or elsewhere in t-shirts,
mugs and logos.
6. Jane also formatted my rough 'How to Design Your Own Mystery'
resources. This has become the MOST valuable download for teachers and
librarians giving a follow-up activity involving writing and
problem-solving skills..
7. We added valid curriculum dot points to reassure teachers of our
reading relevance.
8. The shopping cart took considerable planning to put into place and
make simple for a potential customer to buy. The variables were that I
have some print titles where publishers sell those books, some where I
hold the e-rights, others where I hold both print copies or others
where I will be offering only the e-version like in Project Spy Kids
and The Frequent Flyer Twins. Later we may offer POD (print on
demand) but at the moment, we are testing with electronic versions,
only, from my site.
9. Jane experimented with a FaceBook page for the titles and explained:
'The world is still trying to find ways of utilising social networking.
Asking your existing database to 'Like' your Facebook page, allows them
to see all the updates, photos and links you post to the page.
The pages are free to create, Google add them to searches .'
While aware some schools do not permit use of Facebook, we're still
experimenting with ways of encouraging reading.
Own Face Book Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Spy-Kids-Series/181162638598927?sk=wall
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frequent-Flyer-Series/162505443811158
10. Security of e-book versions to prevent piracy also meant complex
structuring on my website. Unfamiliar with e-books, the web designer
thought we were talking Visa and credit card security at first. This
has been a significant and almost a year-long process for all of us.
11. I had to buy a collection of ISBNs to add new ones to any
e-book versions of older print titles. You can buy these singly or in
groups from DW Thorpe.
12. Publisher name. We haven't got one. Using the author as
brand.
13. American bank accounts and tax file numbers. The
paperwork involved in publishing on Amazon is very American centric,
and so I decided to stay very local, and just from my own website at
present.
14. Had to get a PayPal business account in order for clients to have
safe payments On Kim's advice we priced the individual mysteries at
$2.95, rather than Amazon's 99 cents. Already getting bulk orders of
sets.
Winning a Giraffe Called Geoffrey ISBN 978-0-9871078-6-2.
Mindspaces ISBN 978-0-9871078-7-9
Birds on the Brain ISBN 978-0-9871078-8-6.
Zoo Poo Clues ISBN 978-0-9871078-9-3
15. In future, the dilemma for me is to sub-contract e-book formatting,
learn how to do it myself (which detracts from my core business of
actually writing the books) or just put up pdfs for creations like
classroom playscripts.
I've always offered some free resources, but the decision is which
ones?
16. Choice of e-text titles is vital e.g. I think the junior literacy
mysteries are viable for the next year. After that, students will
expect more hypertext links and games style whizz bang options.
17. My 'Writing a Non Boring Family History' title is a viable e-book
because there are linked workshops and talks and a niche market of
international genealogists. The Mormon lady author in the
USA, who is a fan of my book, tells me the family history market is
eternal for her but I'm an atheist. She sells her book at 99
cents on Amazon.
18. Picture books are more complex, and on hold especially since I'm
not the illustrator. Currently my website has links to the e-books for
sale by my publishers and also to their print books.
19. I'm featuring a monthly print book from my site. Longterm I'd
prefer to offer only e-books, and to link with future web chats or
mentoring. 'Authorpreneurship' is my planned 'original' e-book
only, to be created in the next year and linked to workshops.
20. 'read the t-shirt' for Project Spy Kid may be a future literacy
project.
That park meeting with Jane has been a year-long apprenticeship to put
up our trial e-books, but long term, these titles will have to be
self-sufficient financially. Now, some literacy skills will be
shared via the website.
And we hope, new readers (of the human variety) will be created.
Jane's Viewpoint:
Being able to learn new technology as it appears has become part of my
job as a graphic designer, and collaborating with Hazel on this project
was no different.
Hazel is a strong ideas woman and envisaged these two series of books
as eBooks without either of us really fully comprehending what this
would entail. It was a great opportunity for me to illustrated the
covers in Adobe illustrator and format the documents into books in
InDesign. I then had to teach myself how to produce these files as ePub
documents and navigate the process of marketing the books.
A steep learning curve but the idea that we are forging our own path is
exciting.
I have two young kids who are as much at home on the iPad as they are
at home. They are always grabbing for my mobile devices and I am
happier when they sit and read the eBooks I have created rather than
watch the movies I have downloaded.
Combining reading with new technology makes it interesting and fun for
all the young digital natives out there!
I now also have the opportunity to teach this new concept of publishing
to my graphic design students at Holmesglen Institute. Maybe they'll be
teaching their employers a thing or two in the years to come.
Hazel has an online store
and these e-books are available.
Illustrated and merchandise designed by Jane Connory