The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Try Again, Picturebooks

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
What can I say, I've tried things and failed. Tried more things and failed. But... I'm getting closer.
I'm not certain my latest failure was actually a failure. More like its on the back-burner for now.
In the meantime I want to learn a new process and see what happens.

To start I've written 6 children's books that I'm currently illustrating.

My goal is to have 5 of them published by the 15th of next month.

I'm learning from scratch how to work with fixed file formats.

HTML isn't my strong point but I've found two templates that might help.

These books are for early learners, so they are short, but will be bundled with an add-on if possible.

If not I'll build a website and link to the add-on from the book.

I realize many are writing novels and making it work, but I'm trying something different for now.

I've listed about 250 additional titles to create once the process is figured out.

For now I just want to get something published to celebrate a small victory. :)

Here are the two templates:
Template Site 1
Template Site 2
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Before paying for a template like those in the sites above I decided to search around more and came across this site which has a downloadable guide for fixed layout children's & comic books specifically for the Kindle - $7.99. He also offers 2 inexpensive templates, but the guide has a code for the templates included for free. The guide is 297 pages and appears to have a lot of great info, so now I need to do a little reading.
 

DennisD

Mini Media Mogul
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
216%
Jun 16, 2012
1,488
3,207
36
Bali, Indonesia
Coolcool I'll be following. let me know if you find anything interesting.
My gal is a professional artist by trade and is very interested in releasing her stories to kindle.
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Coolcool I'll be following. let me know if you find anything interesting.
My gal is a professional artist by trade and is very interested in releasing her stories to kindle.

I'm a little over 50 pages in and so far it walked me step by step through every part of creating a fixed layout ebook for the Kindle, including detailed info breaking down each part of the first template, meta data, screen resolutions and more. It also includes links to several free downloads that seem essential for effective picture book creation. The info up to this point has made the purchase worth it. I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to quickly create and publish this type of book after finishing the guide.

I don't know what your girl's experience is with html or computer programs, but with your knowledge the two of you can probably pick this up pretty easily.

One bright idea I hadn't considered is that it may be beneficial to actually own a Kindle device if you plan to write Kindle books! Guess I have more shopping to do today. :D
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Half way through the guide and so far it covers most if not all of the "need to know" stuff as well as a walk through of the "Simple Template". The second half of the guide focuses on the "Advanced Template" and gets into a lot of finer details for creating unique texts, layering, and other cool features.

For now I have what I need to create an image-only, fixed layout book so I'm going to get back to the illustrations and start adding them into the code. I think the Simple Template will work well enough to get the first books published, and I can work on enhancements later on.

The guide says Amazon charges a .15¢ per megabyte bandwidth surcharge to all ebooks sold on KDP with the 70% royalty option so for every 10 MB of file there will be a $1.50 charge. I'm not really sure how much space the illustrations will consume, but it definitely seems like something to keep in mind since images take up more space than text and the entire book will probably be made of images.
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
I've always enjoyed doodling, but never put much into character features (or attempted to sell drawings for that matter). I think the illustrations need to be dynamic, but maybe not quite as articulate as other books which focus on captivating children with images.

I'm not selling to children, but to parents who truly care about giving their child a headstart, so while the images need to be good they aren't the actual product. The product is an idea (or feeling) that their children will learn highly advanced concepts through simple text and pictures. In other words "my kid will be the smartest", "my kid will be smarter than yours", "this will give my kid a jump on life".

I've never taken a physical drawing and changed it into a computer graphic before so this is also all new to me. Here is my first attempt!

Makejakehead1.png

The process goes like this:
1. Sketch a picture.
2. Darken the lines.
3. Take a picture of it and save to your computer.
4. Edit the picture to increase contrast and brightness and save a copy.
5. Open the picture in Photoshop or Inkscape (I'm using Inkscape which can be downloaded for free HERE.)
6. Trace the bitmap. In Inkscape click on the photo then go to: --Path -> Trace Bitmap.
7. Play with the settings in "Trace Bitmap" to make the background white, lines darker, and to clean it up.
8. Color the image.
9. Save as a .svg file and also export as a .png file for later use.

:)

I'm pretty happy with this bit of progress considering my limited time this morning. I picked up some part-time work at a Natural Grocers so I'm off to sell some health food for now. Can't wait to jump back into this later though!
 

Paul

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
60%
Mar 17, 2011
20
12
Have you considered using a Wacom tablet? That way you'd save yourself quite a lot of time and you could draw your illustrations directly in Inkscape. The drawing experience is quite similar to drawing on paper.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Have you considered using a Wacom tablet? That way you'd save yourself quite a lot of time and you could draw your illustrations directly in Inkscape. The drawing experience is quite similar to drawing on paper.

I've never even heard of that until now. Definitely gonna check it out when I get home!
 

DennisD

Mini Media Mogul
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
216%
Jun 16, 2012
1,488
3,207
36
Bali, Indonesia
Have you considered using a Wacom tablet? That way you'd save yourself quite a lot of time and you could draw your illustrations directly in Inkscape. The drawing experience is quite similar to drawing on paper.

This is good advice. Save yourself like 6 steps.
We have 2 wacom tablets in the house that are constantly in use.
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
This is good advice. Save yourself like 6 steps.
We have 2 wacom tablets in the house that are constantly in use.

Out of curiosity, which model do you use for drawing? From what I can tell the Cintiq models are the only ones that allow drawing directly on a monitor but those are out of my budget at the moment. The Intuos models appear to be good from the reviews, but I'm wondering if it works well for drawing. Something tells me it just takes a little getting used to.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
I decided to go ahead and jump in and picked up the Wacom Intuos Creative Pen & Touch Tablet along with a Kindle Fire HD 7 this morning. I think this will streamline the process and should be the largest costs of the entire venture.

Now to see if I can figure out how to use it! :D
 

DennisD

Mini Media Mogul
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
216%
Jun 16, 2012
1,488
3,207
36
Bali, Indonesia
My girl has an Intuos, and I have her old Bamboo.
If you've never used anything like it before it takes some getting used to,
There's also some frustration getting things set up in the beginning (making sure pen pressure's working, etc)
but you'll learn fast and things will be easy from here on out.
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
It definitely feels foreign. Almost like learning to draw all over again. Maybe I'll take notes and make a picture book ha!

It came with several free software downloads: Nik Color Efex Pro 3 WE6, ArtRage 3 Studio, Autodesk Sketchbook Express, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 11. I haven't used any of those before but they may come in handy.

Just from drawing in Inkscape the lines are already more smooth with less background noise.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Starting to get the hang of drawing with this thing.

Whatever happens with this thread... the Wacom made it worth starting. This thing is incredibly fun.
 

DennisD

Mini Media Mogul
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
216%
Jun 16, 2012
1,488
3,207
36
Bali, Indonesia
I was finding some confusion about fixed format image only picture books, largely because I've seen the size of the kindle screen change once already, I wonder how many more aspect/resolution changes it will have and what dimensions to cater to.
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
I was finding some confusion about fixed format image only picture books, largely because I've seen the size of the kindle screen change once already, I wonder how many more aspect/resolution changes it will have and what dimensions to cater to.

I need to re-read the guide section on resolutions and aspect ratios, but if I remember right it suggests using the KF 7 since its the current middle man. The images can be created in KF 8.9 resolution of 1920 x 1200 though so they can be scaled down to the smaller devices without blurring. I don't think there is any way to avoid a little bit of blank area around the edges on the other size devices.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Drawing with the tablet is fun and does make for quick progress, but I haven't drawn in a long time, so I enrolled in a self-paced online "how to draw" course to brush up on some of the basics like shading, shapes, etc. Might as well begin at the beginning since I'm re-learning to draw anyway. The course is through Universal Class and includes 15 lessons.

They cost $189/yr for as many classes as you want, but if you're in the military the classes are free and cover a wide range of subjects. Might be something to keep in mind for those of you currently serving.
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
A quick note for anyone who might use Inkscape... Save often!

Some of the bestsellers in my category have very detailed, graphic, images, but others have little detail and seem to be doing fine, so I'm designing my characters and images on a more simplistic design than originally imagined. This will save a lot of time but won't take anything away from the book since even simple characters can be made enjoyable through light shading and solid storytelling. Description keywords and title will probably play a much larger role in sales than the actual pictures anyway.
 
Last edited:

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Check it out! Went from having never used a Kindle before to this:

resize1.jpg resize2.jpg

Okay, so this is just a simple cover and title page, but at least the book is showing up and the images are working correctly with good quality. Detail can be added later, but for now I'm on the right track. That's a fake name by the way.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Thanks zen*******!

I started on YouTube vids yesterday just hadn't come across the good stuff yet. This is a great idea for shading and will be soooo much easier than how I was doing it. This user's vids seem like as good a place to start as any, so I guess I'll get to watching. :D
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Decided to break from drawing for a few hours. In the meantime I wrote the first add-on guide for the first book. I think I'll make it accessible from a hyperlink on the last page and don't know yet if I'll mention it in the description. I also built a basic website (unpublished) and secured a domain name that includes several important keywords. I added a blog to get things rolling and will add other basic features as time permits over the next few days.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
After browsing through every Gimp and Inkscape shading/drawing vid I could find I came to the conclusion that nobody wants to teach and everybody wants to make a cool music video with sped up drawings that no one else can follow :mad:. What's weird is that they actually title the vid: "how to shade in Gimp" or "tutorial" and there are a lot of steps, but even slowing down the process doesn't help much because most didn't take the time to zoom in on the buttons they were pushing.

I ended up playing around with Inkscape and the Sketch program Wacom offered and came up with a 3 step solution that works MUCH faster than anything I could find last night.

1. Draw a picture in Sketchbook Express
2. Shade the picture
3. Trace the bitmap in Inkscape

I thought the 3rd step might not be necessary, but it is in order to reduce the grainy effect. Sketchbook saves images as .png, .tiff etc and isn't a vector program so that is where Inkscape steps in and takes over. Ignore the grey in the smooth image. I wasn't finished editing yet.
faces1.png
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Why not use layers in inkscape?

From top to bottom:
1. Outline & Mouth
2. Shadows
3. Fill Color

Honestly, mostly because I have no idea what I'm doing lol.

I haven't completely figured out the layers thing yet, but I'll try again because the method I posted above seems like it will make Inkscape and my computer explode if I don't change something soon. One other issue I have with Inkscape is that I can't seem to edit the way I want to. The tools for drawing seem limited unless I'm missing something. I'll YouTube some videos and see if I can get a better understanding of Layers.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Why not use layers in inkscape?

From top to bottom:
1. Outline & Mouth
2. Shadows
3. Fill Color

Okay I played around a bit and I think I get how Layers work now. The way you described doing it here makes a lot of sense and will probably save me a bazillion hours of work. This is awesome!
 

funkj25

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
198%
Dec 5, 2011
200
395
@SinisterLex I'm cheering you on. I among almost everyone else I know has said at some point "I bet I could write a children's book." I've even gone as far as even writing the story out loud (my lady and I tell stories about our cats, this albino squirrel that lives by us, etc. all the time and say we could make kids books). However, I never put ink to... computer screen? Ha. So you're way ahead of all the action fakers out there.

Mainly I just wanted to give you some encouragement and say keep up the good work. I think you're doing something really cool and its got great possibilities.

As an aside, from my work with photoshop, layers are a godsend. Especially the more detailed you get into making your books in the future. You'll be able to swap colors, backgrounds, etc. in a blink without having to re-do the whole picture.
 

DennisD

Mini Media Mogul
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
216%
Jun 16, 2012
1,488
3,207
36
Bali, Indonesia
We used to use Photoshop to draw, but now we use Paint Tool Sai: http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/
There's a free version, I'm not sure where it's limits are but I know it's very popular among Deviant Art artists.
Artwork is done directly in Sai and transfered to Photoshop after for color correction, color grading, and texturing.

Here's an example of something the lady did in Sai jumping into Fantasy art a few weeks ago:
WIP.gif


EDIT: Also look into Katie Davis' podcast: http://katiedavis.com/
She talks about kidlit, I found it enlightening
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Thanks for the links. The software will come in really handy as I get the hang of this.

For these first few books I think working with layers in Inkscape will do the trick. I want to keep things fun enough for kids to enjoy, yet simple enough that I can replicate and manipulate the artwork without spending too much time in artist mode. I want to put out multiple books each month so I need to be able to design several pages in a short time. As of now I think I can probably build one or two pages a day (on my days off) if I stick to a simple format.

Here's what I've come up with using layers.

page1img3.png

I may go back and edit more later, but for now I'm considering the first page of my book complete and am moving on to page 2! :D
 

Lex DeVille

Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
597%
Jan 14, 2013
5,351
31,935
Utah
Okay, things are starting to move much faster now. Where it took almost an entire day putting the first page together, the second was finished in a couple of hours and this morning I'm finishing up the third. I ran into a small issue with adding pages to the template last night but found a workaround so everything is still on track.

As of now there will be 24 to 26 pages total and word count is just under 2,000.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top