Writing & Publishing Books - Part 3

Return to Self-Publishing

Five more self-published books followed my experience with Interweave Press (Beaded Embellishment, see Part 2, here), with varying degrees of success.

The first of these, the only non-beading book of the 8 books I’ve written so far, was a lesson learned the hard way. Feeling cocky with the continuing success of One Bead at a Time, now in its third professional printing, and sure that traditional publishing was not for me, I collaborated with my husband on a picture book about the Washington State Ferries in the San Juan Islands. I wrote and designed the text; he took the pictures. We were certain every resident of the islands would buy several copies, one for themselves and (we hoped) some for gifts. So we scraped together all the cash we could and went big, ordering 3,000 copies.

Immediately on receipt of our payload, we noticed an alarming problem. The covers of the books, mostly black ink, as you can see, grabbed fingerprints in a way that would make a forensic scientist ecstatic. Grim!

That, right there, is one big problem of self-publishing. The printer you hire does exactly what you tell them to do. If you don’t tell them to print a coat of varnish on the covers before assembling and binding the books, they won’t. And if you don’t KNOW to tell them to varnish the covers? Well, then you get ugly fingerprints. Imagine the book on the shelf in a book store. Two customers pick it up to take a look. If neither of them buys it, the thing looks shop-worn, totally unattractive already.

Not knowing what else to do about it, we bought cans of Krylon matte spray fixative (used, for example on pastels and pencil drawings), and painstakingly sprayed each cover. Although it looks better than fingerprints, it made the covers a bit dull and some got tiny bubbles, pock marks. Some were ruined because we touched them too soon.  I guess the alternative would have been to get the covers reprinted and the book re-bound, but we’d already spent all our available cash getting the books printed.

That wasn’t the only card stacked against us with this book. The ferries had just undergone a big change, increasing their fares dramatically and cutting back the service and number of runs. Maintenance budgets were also cut, resulting in rust and dirt accumulation. Our lovely ferry service was a thing of the past, and people were grumpy about it. We had counted on a favorable attitude, reverence and nostalgia, to sell our book. Instead, we found that grumpy people weren’t very interested. We have yet to sell enough copies of the book to pay ourselves back for even half our printing expenses, and of course have earned nothing for our time.

What did we learn?

1. Print a test run; or at least keep the first printing to a minimum.

2. Hire a printing consultant to advise on things like the need for varnish on the covers.

3. Maybe for such a book, in this day and age, print on demand would be the way to go.

 

Our experience with Nautical Highways certainly made me more cautious. For the next three books, Rosie, Finishing Techniques, and Spirit Dolls, I went back to self-printing and smaller quantities. These are really booklets, having 12 to 20 pages each. As needed, I get 100 or 200 copies of each printed at Kinko’s, collating and stapling them myself. The cost per book is a little higher that professional printers would charge for quantities of 2,000 or more, but start up expense is much more manageable, and so is storage. I sell these books through my website and in my classroom when I teach. Although the total quantity sold is nothing to brag about, I’m satisfied to have made this information available. Later I’ll write a little about selling them on Amazon, something I have chosen not to do.

A word here about the process of writing books. There are many possibilities. One could write the text, but hire a book designer to do the layout and design of the book. One could take their own photographs, adjusting them in a program such as Photoshop, or hire a professional photographer. One could find a source for the ISBN book number and bar code (needed if the book is sold in stores or on Amazon), or hire a book consultant to take care of that detail. One could design their own cover, lay it out, do any needed drawings or photographs for it, or hire it out. Me? Well, I didn’t have the budget to hire anybody, so of necessity, I did it all myself. There are both pros and cons to this. For me, it was challenging and fun. I learned so much more with each book. Even now, I look back at my prototypes, printed on my trusty ink-jet printer, with great fondness because of the lessons they represent.

Beaded Treasures was my next book, released in 2006, and printed professionally. Again it was a completely do-it-yourself deal. This time, I leaned Quark, the publishing software used by most printers, which allowed me to prepare print-ready pages saved as PDF files. I printed 2,750 for the first run, because the savings per book was ridiculous going from 2,000 to 2,750. That was a good decision because I sold out in just over a year and did a second printing of 2,500. Wouldn’t it be great if one could accurately predict sales? The cost per book for 5,000 would have been much lower than I paid each time. However, I would have had to store 625 large cartons of books. I’m satisfied with this book and with the sales from it. My only minor dissatisfaction is with the color in the photographs. To get color matching services from a printer is quite expensive, so I chose not to do it.

Always, after writing One Bead at a Time, I wanted to do a sequel, a book that would present both advanced bead embroidery techniques and give inspiration for developing design skills and artistic confidence. So, in 2008, I wrote, designed and self-published an 80-page book, Heart to Hands Bead Embroidery. It’s my favorite book! I loved writing it and love sharing the techniques and process in this way.

However, I may have made a telling mistake with it, one that a traditional publisher might have avoided. I designed the cover myself; it features six beaded “paper dolls” strung across the front, back and flaps of the cover. I love how it looks! But, I think it gives a wrong impression about the book. The immediate suggestion is that the book is about making dolls. It is not. So if a customer in a bead shop sees the book on the shelf, but isn’t interested in making dolls, it’s not likely they will even consider opening the book to take a look. I think it may hurt sales. Confident that it would sell, I again scraped together all my available funds, and went for a 3,500 print run. Time will tell if that was a mistake.

OK, we’re up to date now. In Part 4 of this series, I’ll tell you about the experience of preparing my latest book, which will be released late fall or early winter, 2012, and is being published by an international publisher. How did it happen that I returned to traditional publishing? You’ll see!

Part 1 ~ Getting Started

Part 2 ~ A Dream Come True

Part 3 ~ Return to Self Publishing

Part 4 ~ Preparing a Book for Traditional Publishing

Part 5 ~ Book Writing Tips and Conclusions

Closionne Faces for Spirit Dolls

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember reading about Karen L. Cohen, a cloisonne enamel artist who has taken a shine to beading. I showed her beautiful bead embroidery here (pin/wall hanging) and here (mirror frame).

Lately Karen has started making spirit dolls.... many of them. I'm showing you two of them below, but this is my favorite of the ones she has on her website. It's worth the time to read a little about her dolls, as it's interesting how she carefully chooses each element for it's relationship to the purpose of the doll.



More often than not, I don't put a face on the dolls I make. Sometimes I suggest a face (or mask) with seed bead embroidery. Once I used a peyote stitch bezel to add a carved stone face to a doll. (See below.)

Many people have written to me over the years asking where to buy "faces" (face cabochons) for their dolls. Thus lately I've been on the lookout for sources, especially for higher quality faces.

Full circle... back to Karen's enamels. Note that she creates special one-of-a-kind enamel faces for her dolls. Now, here's the good news! She is making these enamels to sell. She said that if the demand is there, she'll put more on her website, here.

Below are two of the faces currently available.




Bead Festival

As you may know, I've been pretty busy teaching... most recently at the First Annual Bellingham Bead Festival. This event was held at the Semiahmoo Resort on Birch Bay, in the northwest corner of Washington state, just a few miles south of the Canadian border. I'm happy to report that it was very well attended by both Canadians and locals. The Resort was delightful ~ my room was really lovely and I totally enjoyed excellent meals at the two on-site restaurants. The Bead Factory in Tacoma, WA has been organizing festivals for many years. They are very good at it, and this first one at Semiahmoo was right up to par. Are you catching my drift? Look for it again next spring!

Chicago Quilt Festival

Two days from now, I'll be on my way to teach at the Chicago Quilt Festival for four days. This is always a grand experience... So many quilters ~ so many quilts ~ so many vendors! It boggles my mind. I never have time to see it all. This year I'm especially looking forward to seeing the ATCs made to sell as a fund raising project. I'll try to take pictures for you.

First Ride of Spring


We're into spring weather here! Friday my husband and I dusted off our motorcycles and had a lovely ride around the island. The best was comming home after dark, when you can't really see much more than the road. However, if you pay attention to the smells, you can know a lot about the roadside attractions. For example, one home must have had many hyacinths planted in the yard, their fragrance strong even at night. We passed a pond with that unmistakable swampy smell. And at one point I caught the whiff of animals, possibly deer. Riding in the day time, I hardly notice the smells becuase there's so much to see.

Season of New Beginnings

More time to read your blogs and more time to write mine is just around the corner. Until then, may this season of new beginnings and blossoming dreams be especially good to you and yours.

Creating Art in Series ~ Visual & Inner Benefits

The reason for this post, is because recently I’ve been enjoying the work of several bloggers who are working in series with great results. I respect and admire their work. As you follow the links below, see if you notice a trend toward excellence and feel a compelling connection to both the artist and their art.

Kudos to Liz, who recently finished the fourth in a series of bead embroideries depicting religious icons. You can see the first four here. Ganesha, pictured below is her most recent piece.


Kudos to Linda, who is working on a series of embellished, fabric ATCs. Notice how they have a unique style, and how each one develops one aspect of the same theme. Aren’t they great? My favorite of them, so far, is pictured below. You can see other cards in this series here and here and here and here.


Kudos to BeadBabe, who is in the process of making a series of 44 beaded squares on the theme of 17th Century Japanese poet, Bashō. This is not her first series. Read about the impact of working in series during her 16 years of beading here and here and here. Each of the series became a new milestone in her development as an artist. To me, this is fascinating stuff! Below is a bead-embroidered depiction of a friend’s hand, one of 13, “a beaders dozen.”


Kudos to Juju, whose work inspires me in many ways. She paints, draws, collages, sews, beads, and quilts… all of them beautifully. Recently she’s been making a series of fabric bags. With each one, she refines the technical process and develops embellishment variations. You can see some of them here and here and here. I particularly lust for the one shown below because of her fabric choices.



So, What Are Some of The Benefits of Working in Series?

For the past two months I’ve been creating a series of small bead embroideries, each an example of a different technique. So far, I’ve done 18 of them. I’m not quite ready to post pictures of them yet, because they are examples for my new book. (And, I’d like to get a little closer to the print date before I spill the beans about it.) But working on them is clearly beneficial in several ways.

One interesting thing about this process is noticing rapid improvements. If I were to graph the out-of-the-box factor for these 18 pieces, the line might have little dips, but in general I perceive a nice upward slant. Ditto for technical proficiency and design complexity factors.

Part of this phenomenon may be explained by the adage “practice makes perfect.” However, I believe working in series, making several to many pieces with some elements in common, one after another, increases the depth of expression and speeds the journey to excellence.

Let’s say, for example, that you set yourself the task of making 100 drawings of a tree.

What would that be like? Can you imagine that by the 10th drawing you might start seeing something new about that tree? By the 40th drawing, might the distinct personality of that particular tree be revealed? What about drawing number 75? Maybe by then you’d be drawing the inside of the tree, or perhaps the whole life of the tree on one page. Would your drawing eventually become the tree? Might you and the tree, through your drawing process, develop a profound inner connection?

Yes, I believe working in series promotes a deep spiritual relationship between artist and art, one that can be life changing, healing, and extremely satisfying. By creating many variations on a theme, we can get under the mundane and trite to a place where we can explore and embrace the depth of a subject, and the process of creation itself. Beyond that there is a place where we can find peace and self-acceptance.

The memory doll, pictured below, is a good example. When my Dad died last July, I was devastated and stuck in my grief. Using the fabric from his neckties, I began making a series of memory dolls, one for each member of the family. By the end of the three months it took to make the dolls, the repetitions and the process brought me through my self-pity to a serene feeling of affinity with my Dad. If you missed my post on this subject, you can look here.

What about you? Have you attempted this journey in your work? What did you notice about yourself and your art during the process?

* * * * * *

On a different note... do you know about this????

Bellingham Bead Festival - 5 stars - check it out here
When - March 30 through April 1, 2007
Where - Semiahmoo Resort on beautiful Birch Bay (north of Bellingham, Washington)
Classes - 5 stars - new event, small classes, great teachers, an Ott light provided for every student!
Vendors - open Saturday and Sunday - workshop students get free admission to show!

This is the first annual bead conference in the NW corner of Washington state, a location easily accessible to Canadians from the Vancouver area. It is sponsored by the Puget Sound Bead Festival.

Because it's a new event, classes are not filling as they do at more established events. This is your chance to take workshops from me, Tracy Stanley, Mark Lareu, Kriss Silva, Jeannette Cook and others in an intimate atmosphere, where you can receive lots of individual attention.

Even if you can't attend this year, please help me spread the word... this is a great opportunity!

Beady Valentine Wishes to You!

Happy Valentine's Day to each of you! May your day be filled with the blessings of many heart connections, and may you feel the creative spendor of all the hearts linked together within our blogging community!

I use hearts in my work so often (heart figures, heart-shaped beads, fabrics with printed hearts) that you'd think it would get boring. So far it hasn't, at least not for me. Speaking from and through our hearts is such powerful stuff. I love it!

Here are a few hearts for you. They talk from my heart about how much I appreciate you for being in my life in this special artistic way! My love to you on this day, and always... Robin

Improvisational Bead Embroidery
and Beaded Dolls
by Kathy Hinkle

Kathy Hinkle doesn't have a website and isn't known in the beading community. She's a PA (physician's assistant) in a small medical clinic in the northern outpost town of Nome, Alaska. Previously she served as the only source of medical help in remote Alaskan Native American villages.

Kathy also happens to be the sister of one of my quilting/beading "sisters" here on San Juan Island, WA. That's how I've gotten to know her. The first time we met, she was instantly curious about my bead embroidery, telling me she has a collection of beaded barrettes made by Native Alaskans, which she loves and frequently wears. She wanted to learn to sew beads on cloth. We only had time for one very brief lesson, but she bought my books, One Bead at a Time and Spirit Dolls, to serve as guides when she returned home.

A year later, visiting her sister over Christmas, Kathy brought some of her work to show me. I'm so proud of her! She made beaded Christmas presents for everyone in her family. Here are some of them:

She made the top doll for her sister, the middle one for her young niece, and the bottom one for her nephew, who favors the color orange above all others.

For her Dad, brother-in-law, and other members of the family, Kathy created a star pattern, which she stuffed and beaded in a similar way as the dolls.

During the long, dark hours of fall and early winter in Nome, Kathy began a piece of improvisational bead embroidery. She told me she started with the flower form in the lower right side of the piece. Without any clear plan for the piece, yet recognizing her emotional state which longed for summer sun and bright colors, she continued to add beads. As the piece increased in size, she was warmed by the garden-like quality she saw in it. Finishing it just before her trip south, she decided to showcase it on black velvet in a shadow box frame. This was Kathy's gift for her lucky Mom!

Be sure to click on the above image of Kathy's bead embroidery, as the details and colors are lovely in the full sized version. The same is true for the dolls.

In case you didn't already figure this out, Kathy is solidly hooked on beading. Before returning to Alaska, she bought many more beads, storage containers, zip-lock bags, needles, and even some beads for a friend. I can't wait to see what she brings to show me next Christmas!

For my next post, you can look forward to pictures of some of the barrettes made by Native Alaskans in Kathy's collection!

Update on Storm Damage

If you have followed my November and December posts, you know that we've had some unusually harsh weather, with lots of trees and branches downed by heavy snow accumulations and high winds. Two days ago we had our third huge burn pile. At 8 AM, our burn area looked like this.


Actually, this is only about a third of what we had to burn, as the piled circled the burn pit and my camera doesn't take 360s. All of it was wet - mighty wet, as we've had record rain fall. Since Robert has nearly 20 years of experience with burn piles, he had no trouble getting it started.


This is how it looked at 5 PM, after constantly adding branches all day long. Today it is snowing again, but I bet there are still glowing embers in the fire pit. Amazing how fire continues to burn once started.

Spirit Dolls and Charm Sources

In my previous post, you saw an "essence doll" by Nancy Combs. Here's another of her dolls. This one is all about the essence of her friend, Marlene. Take a look at these pictures, back and front of the same doll. Before reading further, what do you think Marlene likes to do in her spare time? What can you tell about her personality?


Here is what Nancy has to say about this one: "She's a "Chico's" gal. Her charms include a cat, dog dish, scissors, sea shell, dolphins and cards for bridge club beach retreat, a cork screw and a designer purse. On her back is a sea turtle to represent the two of us baby siting sea turtle nests."

One of my first thoughts on seeing Nancy's dolls was that she must have a wonderful source for charms. So I asked her if she'd share it with me. (I love it when people are generous with their sources!) Her favorite is eebeads, which has a fabulous variety of relatively inexpensive gold and silver plated charms. For jewelry, I wouldn't use plated charms, because the plating rubs off fairly quickly. But for charms on a doll, I think they're just the ticket! Another of Nancy's recommendations is The Charm Factory, which offers a splendid variety of sterling silver charms. My personal favorite source is Argentum Aurum, which offers a very unique line of sterling silver designer charms - high quality.

If you have any additional good source for charms, and would like to share it, please include the URL for the site in your comment. Thanks!

New Concept
For Spirit Dolls

Thanks to all who wrote comments or sent private email about the memory dolls I'm making for everyone in my family in rememberance of my Dad. Some who responded wrote about related ideas, such as Tressie, who said her Mother made memory bears from her Grandfather's shirts. How sweet is that!

One person, Nancy Combs, who is a writer for CQ Magazine Online, sent me a picture of an "essence doll" she had made for a friend. According to her explanation of the concept, she tries to capture the essential essence of the person for whom she's making the doll.

This one, made for her friend Beth, captures Beth's vibrant personality and tells her story. Here's what she wrote about the doll and Beth, "Here charms include a spoon, teapot and skillet" (representing her career as a home economics teacher), "sea shell and cards for our bridge club retreats to the beach, a black glass bead (representing Coal) and a Cardinal, both to represent WV, a cross to represent her work with her church, scissors for her prolific sewing and, a suit case for all the traveling she and her DH are doing since their retirement. Her hair is representive of her red, usually out of control, hair."

Besides the idea, I also like Nancy's use of pieced fabrics and thread embellishments. Thanks, Nancy! I see some "essence dolls" in my future as well. Actually there's only a subtle difference between the type of dolls Nancy makes and the memory dolls I am making about my Dad. Rather than trying to capture the essence of Dad, I'm trying to capture the connection or bond that exists between him and each member of our family.

Memory Dolls ~
All About Dad

You may remember that my beloved Dad passed away on July 13th this year. Everyone in the family loved and respected him, and we miss him more than we know how to say.

A few days after he died, Mom pulled out his neck ties and asked me if I thought any of my brothers would want one or more of them. Instantly it popped into my mind that I could use the fabric in his ties to make memory dolls - one each for Mom, me, my brothers and sister, and each of Dad's grandkids. Mom liked the idea too. Most of us picked out the specific tie we wanted.

Here is a picture of the dolls, constructed and with picot bead edging around the bodies, ready to embellish.

Here is one side of my first completed doll. This one is for Mom; it's the tie she picked.

Here is the other side of Mom's doll.

I did silk-ribbon roses on Mom's doll because Dad always bought her long-stem red roses for their anniversary... and often on Mother's Day or Valentine's Day or her birthday, as well.

Each of the dolls will have a locket around the neck. The lockets open, and inside there will be a picture of Dad on one side, and a picture of the person for whom I've made the doll on the other. Each of the dolls will also have a miniature book hanging from one of the arms.

The book represents a favorite family tradition - that Dad always read out loud to us before bedtime. There are five kids, with 16 years between the eldest (me) and the youngest. As my brother and I entered High School, "mature and sophisticated" as we were, we still hung out around the dining room table to hear Dad read to the younger ones. And after we left the nest, part of the attraction of a visit home was to hear Dad read. He always chose books that were good literature, well written, often challenging to the intellect... books like Wind in the Willows, which was popular with all of us.

I made miniature copies of this book by scanning pages, reducing them, printing, and binding with Nymo thread. Thery're only 1/2 by 3/4 inches, but with a strong magnifying glass, you can actually read some of the text!

Each of the dolls also has flowers and leaves (because Dad loved to garden), a jade bear (an animal considered to offer a connection between mortals and the spirit world), pearls (representing Dad's purity and honesty), a heart (representing his love which still surrounds us, and our love which surrounds him wherever he is), a star (because of his wry sense of humor and way of laughing, his eyes all a-twinkle), and a dove (representing his spiritual beliefs). Oh, yes, and each of the dolls includes the label from one of his ties.

At first, as I cut apart the ties and began to construct the dolls, I felt ragged... grief, loss and emotions all over the surface of me. I could only work on the dolls for a short time before the tears would come. But as I've continued to work on them, meditatively, holding dear thoughts and memories of Dad in my heart, I've begun to feel less raw and more connected to him in a special new way.

Note: This is my first post in Beta. If you have any difficulty leaving comments, etc., please email me at this address: robin[AT]robinatkins[DOT]com. Hope it all still runs smoothly for you.

Confessions of a Chocolate Addict ~
How a Spirit Doll is Helping!

I am a chocolate addict. You may think this statement is funny, but actually I'm pretty serious about it. For years, I lied about chocolate, I hid it, I binged on it, I was obsessed about getting my chocolate fixes twice daily (at least). After the first bite or two, I didn’t even taste it.

As I consumed more and more of it, it began to consume me. Until finally, through journaling and writing poems in a group of writers bent on healing, I finally realized it was an addiction with a solution. Abstinence. I’ve fallen off the wagon twice in the past 10 years, but since 2002 I’ve been totally abstinent. No chocolate at all. I feel better without that awful compulsion crowding my life.

However! Here comes the part about the spirit doll… Last winter I went to “Quilt Camp” (a totally fabulous 3-day retreat with local quilters), and arrived to find a big bowl of candy on every table. Almost all of it was chocolate. Little Robin (LR) within me panicked… “What about ME? What treats do I get?” A quick look through the bowls revealed a few wrapped caramels in each bowl. Quickly LR went around to each of the tables and took the caramels to stash at our work station.

That evening, suffering from fuzzy teeth from eating so many caramels, I began making a spirit doll with the prayer that she might help me and LR to eat more healthily. I wanted to make her a little purse to hold my written prayer. At first I made something that looked like a shopping bag… too big for the doll. I stacked two caramels in that little bag, and distributed the remainder of the stash back into the bowls at the other tables. Those two candies in the sack are still there!

After that I made the purse you see hanging from the doll’s arm. She has amethyst (a stone said to have healing and cleansing powers, especially beneficial to the mind) chips in her hair and fringe. The pearls represent purity. The ceramic face is her (and my) "happy tummy" - serene and contented.

At first nothing much changed. But just before Lent, a friend said she was going to give up sugar for Lent. Immediately I joined her. I’m still not eating sugar. This is a huge change in my eating habits… I AM eating more healthily. Yeah! Many, many baby steps - from chocolate to poems to quilters to spirit doll to healthier eating – and look who’s emerging!

Are you wondering about LR? I think she’s doing OK too. She and I are trying to look toward painting, time to play with art, as a treat (rather than sweets). At the risk of being overly optimistic, my Healthy Eating Spirit Doll seems to be doing her job, for which I am most greatful!