Creating childhood memories Part 2. My book is coming alive!
Big steps taken!
After introducing you to my Idea last week and all those kind comments motivating me, I am here with the second part of my little project and want to share my progress with all of you.
When I remember one week ago, I had no idea how much effort I will put in this project, but I spent the last days drawing for hours and figuring out how to work with Photoshop and Illustrator.
Because I am nearly new to those programs, I thought myself so much this week and that is one big reason why I’m having so much fun doing this!
Progress:
I made huge steps forward and both the outlines of the story and the illustrations for the first pages are done!
The pictures at the bottom of my post are going to be the first pages of the book. Each picture will have a blank page with the text next to it and was created with a lot of love and effort.
Story:
Since a few weeks, all the colors were fading slowly. It is getting darker and darker and the little Islands are floating in an unearthly dimmed light. At the place where most of the crystal islands used to float, a field of boulders and stones was left. Since the Crystals were used to produce the light and were responsible for the growth of the plants, the little farmer stood in front of his field, that began to decay.
Wondering what caused the disappearing of the crystal islands, he left his home to ask the princess for help. As he arrived, the princess opened the door deeply grieved. Everything around her was dying, also her so beloved tree.
The farmer fell in love at first sight and so he decided to solve the mystery, to win the princess heart and to save his fields and the princess’ tree.
After days of flying through all sorts of landscapes, he finally perceived a weak blue glowing at the horizon. As he came closer to the light, he spotted an enormous island with a very unnatural texture far away. But suddenly he freezes with shock, realizing a gigantic dragon was lying on a pile of crystals, asleep like a rock, right in front of him. The sound he made was so terrifying, the farmer wasn’t able to move for a moment…. To be continued 😊
(The princess and the farmer)
(The farmer on his way to the princess, guided by his flying friend)
(the slowly decaying field of the farmer)
Next steps and your opinion:
I need a little help, how I go on with my project. At first, I only wanted to do this for myself, but I really like what came out so far and now I am considering if my book has the potential to be printed!
What do you think?
I also thought about kickstarting it, but I have no experience with this so far, so I would be happy if someone could tell me something about it, who has founded a project over Kickstarter before 😊
The next days I will spend drawing and coloring everything and working out the story in all details.
Do you like it so far?
Would you buy a book like that for your children?
I am happy for every suggestion and constructive criticism 😊
Thanks to everyone for reading, it means a lot to me! Have a beautiful day!
Ps: What do you think about my banner I just created? 😊
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Wow, its a nice initiative and i will surely buy for my kids and even recommend to others. Creativity is a gift that should be appreciated....good work......
Thank you very much! I hope i get it printed some day :)
I will very much buy this book for my children.
PS: i adore your drawing
Wow thanks for the comment! I think I start a kickstarter project and will post the link with the finished work,ready to be printed on steemit. So everyone who wants to support me can get a copy of the finished book :)
Have nice day :)
Not just the story is captivating but also the storyline......hope to see the completed work soon.....i might need a copy.....Good work
Thank you so much, I'll do my best that you get your copy :D
Wow I am more than impressed! I would love to have this book for my children! Amazing drawings, very creative story and it seems to be a lot of work! Can't wait to read more!
Thank you! It was! I was drawing for hours the last days :) more is soon to come :)
congratulation for a good start on steemit:)
Keep up the good work!
Enjoy @nature.art
Thank you! I'll have a look :)
Kickstarter campaigns can be tricky - usually the really successfull ones have huge marketing budgets (even the ones that look really low-budget) and most of them hire in professional people who specilize in running successfull Kickstarter campaigns. It was only in the golden phase (the first year(s) of Kickstarter) one could fund a project with very little marketing budget. Today you need a killer video, the right art / illustration and a community already supporting you. I would encourage you to look for new platforms that are perhaps specilizing in books or art.
Oh okay thanks for the good tip! I already put it behind .. :D Maybe i go for the free amazon kindle book service, but I want it printed somehow. :D
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of course you can share it! thank you very much for this honour ;)
You continue to amaze me. Seeing the illustrations all put together like this is blowing me away. To answer a few of your questions in no particular order, yes, yes I definitely think that this should be published. Kickstarter is a fine route to go but you don't actually need to raise funds in advance unless you are planning on ordering an actual print run. Way easier to just use one of the many quality print on demand services - no upfront costs and if you use lulu.com your customers can often actually get the book cheaper (using Lulu.com coupon codes) than they could have gotten if you went the print run route. And of course this eliminates all the headaches of a kickstarter. I have seen too many well-intentioned friends screw up kickstarters royally. I have personally self-published from POD and it was super easy.
That being said I don't think you would have much of a problem finding a publisher for this either if you want to go that route. My sister is signed with Harper-Collins so let me know if you want a contact there.
You are still pretty early on in this project but as you get closer to completion - and assuming you don't want to go the real publisher route - my two biggest tips are to work with someone who has experience as an editor to tighten down the text and somebody who has experience with layout for the text layout and integration into the illustrations. You will be able to make a kick-ass book yourself without assistance but for the text editing in particular your final product will really be improved if you go through the editing process with an editor.
As before I am amazed by your kindness and the time you take to comment on my work! Thank you so much for this! when it gets published some day, I'll send you a copy as a present :) !
Good to know what you said about kickstarter, I think I'll go the traditional way, but yes im pretty early on this.
I'll study in oktober and will get to know a lot of communication design students, I think they can help me on this.
This is not the final Text, but something to get the Idea of it :)
Wow harper-collins is well known! I would love to get a contact there! That would be really awesome, also to have such a goal!
I have to thank you one more time and now i have enough motivation for the rest of the book haha :D have a nice day @carlgnash