How to Self-Publish a Coloring Book

1. IntroVideo: Hi. I'm Ronnie Walter. And welcome to how to self publish a coloring book. Thank you for being here and taking this class. I'm going to teach you step by step, how to go from Hey, Ronnie, I think I wanted to publish a coloring book to publishing a coloring boat, but you can sell and make money on which is super cool. Okay, first. So this book, this is like a small sampling of the books that I have self published. And this is one that a one of the many that I did with publisher who found me because I self published all these books. So I continue to self publish. I have over 20 books on the market that sell ever single day on Amazon, which is a beautiful thing. And I'm gonna walk you through what you need to know to do this as well. Okay, here's what we're gonna cover. We're going to talk about how to develop your concept. What is your fame? What is your idea? What are your What is your point of view? We're gonna work on some of those things. We're gonna talk about how to generate ideas because, frankly, Sometimes you get an idea, and then you're like, Oh, I have to drop that 36 different ways. So I'm gonna help you work on that. Um, I'm also gonna help you work through what's the best way to draw the pictures. How to stay on schedule, how toe make that actually happen. And then I'm gonna walk you step by step through every process there is to go from your drawings to hitting. Publish. And we're gonna talk a little bit about marketing as well. But you are going to have a complete walk through of how this is going to work. Trust me, I've done this a few times, and I can teach you how to do that. So thank you for being here. It should be fun, because these air fun and I hope to see you in the comments on the questions. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me because I'm here. I will answer them for you. And I pretty much know a lot about how to do this. So don't spin your wheels. Make sure you ask me questions if you have any. So again. Welcome. I'm so glad you're here and enjoy the class. Thanks. 2. Lesson 1: A Little About Coloring Books: So let's get started with why coloring? What's the big deal with adult coloring books? Well, many adults were not surprised when, in 2015 this adult coloring craze exploded on the scene, since many people have been closet colors for years, and finally they could now admit how much they enjoyed the past time. I was so surprised by how many people said, Oh my gosh, I've been coloring for years And everybody else is catching on. But spearheaded by popularity of Joanna Bastards book The Secret Garden, many coloring books aimed at adults were topping the best seller lists, and the national news outlets were doing primetime stories about this newest bad. I mean, unbelievable. Okay, so I saw what was happening. And since I often work in Black Line and have an attitude of, well, I could do that, I decided to join the party, and I published my first of my 20 some books in the spring of 2015. In fact, within three weeks of deciding that I could be part of it, I had published my first book. It was everywhere, and by the fall of 2015 I had three more books on the market, and I just kept publishing at about that time. That autumn, a publisher came calling and we hit the ground running. They were looking for a coloring book artist. I was looking for a publisher, and we did Ah, whole lot of books over the next couple of years with each other, and frankly, our audience couldn't get enough of the books, and we grew the color and cafe, which is my brand of coloring books. We grew that Facebook page to over 6000 followers, and then the news cameras moved on. But the people who love to color just kept going, and I am going to continue serving that audience as long as they want me to. Now, frankly, I mean, I'll be honest. It's not the craze that it waas. My sales have definitely slowed down from that peak in 2015 in 2016 but it's still a viable income for me. It's still a piece of what I do, and there are a lot of people that really still love to color, even if it's not this huge, huge market like it was for that short period of time. There are lots of people who are always looking for new books to color, and here's one of my little tips. What I love the coloring is people use them up. If they buy a coloring book, the color it, they want another one, and that is really super cool. Let's talk about the benefits of coloring. Coloring has been used in therapeutic settings and art therapy for many, many years. Coloring has brought a lot to the table, however, in a non therapeutic setting, it's also a really cool activity. It could be a stress release. Many people use it as a mindfulness practice, particularly when their coloring Montel is It could be a social connection. People get together in coffee houses, in bookstores and bars and color together. I have found that to be a very interesting concept of people getting together to color because you couldn't it's not so taxing that you can't have a conversation while you're doing it. So there's definitely social connections being made. It's also a screen free activity, and lots of people are looking for things to do that do not require sitting in front of a screen. Plus, it's relaxing It doesn't take a lot of your brain space to color, but you have a result. You have a creative outlet, and in one of the thing that people use it for, a lot is in recuperation. They had surgery. They're kind of laid up. They want to do something creative. They want to use their brain. They can't just watch television. And so coloring has become a really nice thing for people that may be confined for any number of reasons, either temporarily or in a permanent situation. So there's lots of benefits of coloring, and it's just a cool thing to Dio. And as the old starter of many, many books, I'm constantly amazed by how each person concolor the same page. And now each looks completely different based on their color choices, the materials they use and the coloring style. And frankly, I have gotten so many emails from people that have bought my books to say, Oh my gosh, it was so meaningful that I had your book while I was going through this tough time in my life or I was recovering or give it to my sister who is going through chemo, and there's a lot of positivity around the world of coloring, and to me, that's really exciting and a really fun place to be. So let's talk about what you're going to discover in this class. We're going to cover a lot in this class. I'm going to try to keep it as a sink is possible and give you just the really important parts of how you also can publish a coloring book. What we're gonna cover is discovering your why. Why do you want to publish a book? What is the point of doing this? Because it can feel like a lot of hard work. How to develop your theme or your subject for your book. How to organize your process to move from idea to finished eBook options for how you might draw your pages. How the pageant your book, including extra details that you need to know how to design an effective cover tips and tricks that I've learned along the way. And frankly, I've made a lot of mistakes. I've learned a few things I've learned about the market. I've learned about what people like about coloring, so I will include those as we go through the class, those air sort of debate out into the class. I have made a step by step video instructions to upload your book to KDP, which is Kindle Direct Publishing, which is the Amazon Print on Demand Self Publishing arm, which is called KDP. You're gonna hear that a lot in the next few lessons and how you're going to sell that on Amazon and plus other publishing options that you might explore, and we'll have some ideas for marketing your book. So we're going to go through a lot through this class. But like many classes, you're gonna wanna watch some of them multiple times, so you get the concept. Or, if you want to follow by the step by step instructions on other things, you're just gonna breeze through or things that you already know. So there's a lot packed into this class, but we're going to keep it moving quickly. So here's what you need. If you are interested in publishing a coloring book, you need decent drawing skills. I mean, you can't get around that the bar is set fairly high of what the expectations are of your user. Your end user is expecting some really nicely designed and drawn pages. There's a lot of competition out there. You are going to need access and some proficiency in using graphic programs, and you really just have to have basic abilities to be able to convert your drawings into usable files and then to pageant your book design a cover. So you're just gonna need to know how to do that. There's not a lot of sort of sideways ways to do that. You need to be able to produce your book and you really need a positive attitude. Because if I know anything from doing as many books as I had done is that sometimes you feel like it's an endless project and you will never finish it. So have a positive attitude. To be honest with you, it's taking me longer to explain some concepts in this class. Then it will take you to do them by far. So but you got to keep that positive attitude. Hey, that's just for life in general. But for this class and for this project, once you do your first book, you're gonna be on your way. You're gonna love self publishing. And so the 1st 1 is gonna be a little clunky for you, but I'm gonna walk you through that and trust. May I have taken all the clunks for you first? So I'm giving you all the good stuff. So let's move on, shall we? 3. Lesson 2: Discover Your Why: before you start your book, it's a good idea to have your Y in place, so you start out on the right foot. So why I self publish a coloring book or publish one at all? Let's go through a few of the reasons, and frankly, to me, any in all of them seemed like a good idea to me. Well, first, I can't think of too many things cooler than seeing your name on the front of a book, and that might be something that you have yearned for us. Well, it can also be a source of income if you have a book that people really like and market it correctly. And in my experience, people that buy your books want more of your books. So you should be thinking about a longer range strategy of how often you can put out a book . I mean, let's get your 1st 1 out first, but think of it in terms of if it is popular. If people like it, they're going to have an expectation that you are going to do more, so the income comes in a cumulative way because of the multiple books that you are doing unless you hit the market perfectly with the perfect book, which we know that would be awesome. But that doesn't always happen. So think of it as a longer range plan as part of the other things that you are doing. Another way to use a coloring book is to use it as a fund raiser. I have known groups of artists that have gotten together and put together an anthology type book, and then the proceeds are donated to a cause close to their hearts. And so you could do that on an individual basis. It's a way that you could bring multiple artists together in. The beautiful thing of that is that all of those people are marketing that book, and that just is a great way to raise funds for a cause. The other cool thing about doing a coloring book, which is one of these hidden benefits that I have found from doing that is generally coloring books are themed, and we're gonna talk about that a little more deeply in the next lesson. But when you have a concept in mind and you develop artwork around that theme, it's a really great growth opportunity for you to see how far you can stretch yourself, so it's a really great way to express yourself. Coloring books can also be a great brand, an audience builder. As I mentioned, we gained a really big following on Facebook, which is fantastic, and I've also just by being present in the market and being involved in this industry is that I have gotten other clients based on the activities that I have done through coloring books, both for coloring type illustration for other products as well as like, Hey, what else do you do? And so it's been a really great brand builder for me. I mentioned the group project. You could do that, not as a fund raiser. You could just a few people get together and go, Let's put a coloring book together. You split the work, you split the proceeds. That could be a really cool thing to dio another great benefit of coloring books. As you can really serve a niche audience. If you do your research, which, of course you will about coloring books, you're going to see some very niche books that are like, really, that's That's a thing and so you can really serve an audience that is underserved by giving them a coloring book about the thing that they aarggh eking out on. So that is really cool. You can really slice and Dyson audience to really serve them well when they are being underrepresented. Putting together your own coloring book is a huge accomplishment. As I said, we're going to go through a ton of details on how to do this. So getting from the point you are now to the point of having a book in your hands is a really huge accomplishment. You will have all the tools in your hands to publish more books, whether their coloring books or journals or anak actual book with words in it. I mean, you will know everything you need to know about publishing a book by taking this class and to walk through this process. And one of the coolest things about publishing your own coloring book is it's super fun. It is really cool to see your name on a book. It is really cool to give it to other people and have them respond positively. It's a really great thing and it's super fun and you get to color your pictures, too, so make sure you are clear on what your particular why is when you are starting out. If it's to serve a certain audience if it's to develop a body of artwork, if it's just because you really want to publish, keep that in mind. So when the going gets tough and you think you're never going to finish, make sure you remember your why that will really help you through this process. 4. Lesson 3: Your Publishing Options: Let's go through the various publishing options available to you there in basically three categories. Traditional publishing, print on demand or a total D i Y method. Let's start a total D I. Y. This means you are handling the entire project, including the design, the printing, the binding, the marketing and the shipping. You will self physical copies of your book, either on your website at shows, conventions or online market places like etc. This means that you are taking your group of drawings to a place like Staples or OfficeMax or other print shops and having them printed on copy paper basically, and then you'll have them coil bound or a wire bound. You know you probably have some sort of cover, which could be more of a card stock, and then you have a physical book that you are making. Let's go through these pros and cons of this method. First on the pros you convey make as many or as few copies as you want to, because you get to control that inventory so you can keep a very low inventory. Or if you're going to a show or convention, you could make a whole bunch of them and have them on hand. But you don't have to have a lot in stock, their relatively inexpensive, depending on what your print shop costs. To do each particular book, you can really budget for what profit you would make between how much it's gonna cost to make it versus how much you can sell it for. It's actually very easy to make design changes. The next time you print a book, you take out a page you put in a page, you fix something. No big deal. One of the pros to it is it has a very indie crafty look, and some people really like that. They also like that spiral binding, but it also doesn't look super professional. And that is one of the cons it is has that crafty indie look, and some people want something that looks more like a bound book. You have to be involved with shipping it to your customer or getting it to a show. It's all on you to get in front of customer, and it does have a more challenging distribution than the other two methods because it is you physically mailing that book to your customers so there are pros and constant everything and those of the pros and the cons of doing a total D i y kind of look, I want to make one little other note about the total de I wine method. This is what typically people do. They go to a print shop. They have their copies printed. They haven't bound right in the store. Done deal. That's their book. If you were so inclined, you could produce a much more professional looking book working with the higher end Commercial Printing company. But the upfront costs would probably boo prohibitive to make a bound book that looks like something that you would see in a store like Barnes and Noble or Target or someplace like that. If you think that that's what you want to do, you want to become a full fledged publisher and published really professional looking books . Make sure that you do all of your friend and tell Mark about the pricing of that. What is the price per book? How many do you have order in order to make that effective, and you have to make a very detailed plan on how you would maximize your marketing and distribution methods. That is certainly within your power to do that. If that's plan for you to launch your coloring book empire, I have no problem with that. I'm just saying that there are a lot of issues that come along with that, and you have an outlay of cash early on to print those books and figure out how you're going to distribute them. It is not impossible, but it has to be your full strategy. It is not something that I want to do because I love the print on demand method, but we'll go through that later. So let's talk about traditional publishing. In this option. You would develop your idea into a pitch, a presentation for publishers, and you'd search for a publisher who is already probably in the coloring book biz. And you would make a deal with them probably on a royalty basis, just like any kind of book deal, except with coloring book publishers. As I mentioned in the intro video, I have been self publishing my books, and through that process I was discovered by a traditional publisher and we published over 10 books together, and by the way, I've been doing my books in their books side by side for several years now. This, by far, is the best way to get full distribution, both online and into brick and mortar stores, since they already have relationship with retailers and the distribution channels that you don't have access to. But like all things, there are pros and cons of this method as well. So let's go over these now here. The pros, like I said, distribution. They have greater distribution than you can get on your own. It just is a fact. They're already in this business. They already have relationships with retailers. Generally, they can produce a higher quality book with better processes than you can with print on demand or a total D. I Y situation. They have different bindings. They're gonna have better quality paper, all of those things. They already have marketing mechanisms already in place. They know their customer. They know how to reach their customer. They know how to talk to them. You will see regular income reporting from them, which is a beautiful thing, and there's lots of potential for growth. If the book sells well, they're going to want more books from you. It's a great situation. You also are able to work with editors and creative directors that theoretically, will get you a better book in the long run. So let's talk about the cons of that. That sounds like Wow, that sounds super cool, Ronnie. That's the route I want to go with. We'll hear the con. Well, remember those editors and creative directors we talked about? Well, sometimes that could be a problem. Your vision gets diminished, maybe, or they're difficult to work with or whatever that is. When you're publishing on your own, you get to decide what's going in. I'm not saying that's always bad thing, but sometimes it's not actually what you want. It absolutely is a longer process. Were you when you say I want to be in the coloring book biz to getting a deal, that is a very long process for someone to make a decision. Now, in my situation, I'm just gonna tell you it wasn't hard because it was at the height of this market. There were publishers looking for people like me, and that is not necessarily the case right at this moment. So you're gonna take time to develop a relationship and to get your work in front of the right people. With a traditional publishing situation, there's always a longer time to market from the points that your pitches accepted. That you make a deal, that you go into production, that vagal into production, and it gets actually printed, bound, produced and into stores. That could be a lot longer than it takes you to self publish a book. And I have one more con in the traditional publishing column, And that is, if you are developing a book that you're serving a very nation market, it will probably be harder to find a traditional publisher who will buy into that concept. Most traditional publishers air looking for a very broad general kind of title or something that's super trendy, that they can get on the market quickly. But if it's a really niche market and you know that market really well, you have a much easier time of getting in front of the people that really love your work. So so, even though there are advantages to working with a traditional publisher, it may be a lot harder to get a deal with them than doing it yourself again. One of those things you have to weigh in the big picture of what direction you want to go in, so you have to weigh those pros and cons. You might get a better book with better distribution, but it's going to take you longer. And if you look at it in terms of business, how many books could you be selling on your own for the time it takes to get all that put together? I don't know the answer to that. None of us to do. And so you have to balance those decisions. You might try it on your own. See, you might be making a bunch of money and you go, I don't need a publisher. None of us knows that. Answer to that question, but I want you to understand the difference between doing it yourself and working with the traditional publisher. So let's talk about print on demand. Using a print on demand company like Amazon's KDP publishing program, you could produce your own books, and each one is made at the time of purchase. That is what print on demand means You upload your files when someone orders one it, then is printed and sent off to them. It's a really beautiful system on. I'm just going to say right now I have no affiliation to Amazon and KDP. It's just what method that I have chosen to be the easiest way for me to publish my books. It's pretty amazing, but there is no affiliation between me and them, so I'm not pushing them because I'm getting some sort of spiff on that. I just really like using them. And I think it's a method that, particularly on your first book, can be a very seamless process, as you will see as you continue watching this class. There are limitations with print on demand, of course. But I have been able to capitalize on the coloring book trend quickly and have had exposure to Amazon's powerful customer base of enthusiastic buyers. This is where we will spend the bulk of time in this class. But if you are interested in the other methods, this class is still valuable for you because we're going to talk a lot about the production of your book and how you get a really cool book, no matter which direction you are going. So let's look at the pros and cons of print on demand. Here's the pros, just like we talked about with traditional. The opposite of that is there is a shorter time between concept of product on the market. We're talking weeks, not years. Okay, maybe months, not years. The one of the prose is there is no editorial input. You get to decide you are the boss of you. You get to develop your own book. There is no inventory that you have to hold in your garage or your basement. Unless you want to do that, you could always order for shows or for events that you're going to go to. But again, we'll cover that later in the class. One of the other process you haven't item to sell at shows and conventions and online marketplaces you have are very cool book that you can order in bulk to have on hand. For that. You have a great opportunity to build your own customer fan base, not through a publisher. They are your customer fan base. They will talk to you. You can talk to them and your part of Amazon's big machine. Now, some people hate that some people love that. But as we know, Amazon has become this giant search engine, and so you can get sound on. Their people are looking for exactly what you are selling on that platform. The cons of this are you're part of Amazon's machine. You can get lost in that there are lots of people doing what you are doing. But again, all of your efforts should counterbalance that Khan of being in a sea of a lot of other people. You do have limited production option. There's a one binding. There's two different kinds of covers you can have. The paper is going to be the same, so you don't have a lot of publishing options that I have not felt is a barrier to me. Except it a couple of things, but not enough to worry about that. But you do have limited production options. And, of course, it's a do it yourself kind of a situation. So there will be a learning curve. You are going to have a learning curve, but fortunately you have me and I am going to virtually hold your hand through this whole process 5. Lesson 4: Planning Your Coloring Book: Okay, We have gone through a lot of material so far, but let's go through the stages of planning your book. It's really important to have a game plan in the beginning, so you know where you're going, how long it might take. I suggest you do not skip this step. It will make your life so much easier in the long run. First of all, let's talk about the things you need to plan. One is you're going to pick a theme or subject you're going. Teoh need to decide what size your book is, what the dimensions are and the number of pages that you would like to have in your book. You're going to plan your content and you're going to develop a timeframe to get it all done. So let's talk about themes for a minute. When you're doing your research on coloring books, you're going to see that many books are themed. Some are more loosely themed. Some are really super specific, but in general I find that the buyers really like to have some framework of a theme that they air more or less. Attracted to typical themes would be friendship, inspiration, motivation, family and home spirituality and maybe humor. And most of the books that I have done, they all have some theme going on in them. I found like my first book was Super General. But as I develop more books, I felt it was important to have them sort of loosely themed so that people could find them more easily. And I know for sure that my particular customer, when they're looking for one of the color and cafe books, my customers expect that the coloring cafe books will always be lighthearted, not too complex and will feature positive, uplifting sayings. So for me, I stay with what my customers want. That might not be your theme. That might not be your attitude or viewpoint, so that's fine. You find your audience based on your themes. Now there is another theme that I didn't mention here. It's sort of lands in the humor category and that I would for lack of a better term. They put the adult in adult coloring, so they're very naughty. They use a lot of profanity and swear words, and there sometimes hilarious and sometimes really rude. There is a huge trend for these, and I don't know if that is over yet, but they appear to me to be purchased really as a gag gift, as opposed to a book that someone is buying toe actually color, although it could be a huge stress reliever for some people if they are coloring sayings that have profanity in them. So hey, knock yourself out. But when you're looking at your theme, and as we talk about subjects to you want to choose a theme, it could be a little tricky because you want to be specific enough for your audience to discover you, but not so narrow that you will have a hard time filling the book with related images. You'll just have to keep that in mind. And that's why I think having more general themes makes it easier in the beginning unless you have a very, very specific niche that you are going after. So let's talk about subjects. Subjects are a little different than themes because they are really specific to your audience. They might be about hobbies, occupations, specific locations, activities that people enjoy, or even political viewpoints. So, hobbies, I mean, there are books, all about knitting and sayings that might be about knitting or or the ku trauma of knitting . There's quilting ones. There's books. I mean, there's any hobby, any occupation, any location probably has a coloring book that is geared for that audience, which to me is just fantastic. So if you are really into one certain thing, make a book about it, it's really it's really fun. You will find that audience. It might not be a huge audience, but it will be an enthusiastic audience again. In your research, The subject list of current coloring books is truly exhausting. If there is a hobby and interest, a trend or viewpoint, there is a coloring book to match. In fact, my friend, and in fact, my friend and fellow illustrator Marty Kittani published a book with rock n roll cartoons. Very specific kind of a retro rock n roll look very cool. And another friend of mine, Claire Marie, published a book specifically for visitors to block Island. So it's a tourist destination. It's very specific to Block Island. It will be sold in gift stores. If you love Block Island, you would go search out her block Island coloring books. So very specific is just fine And there are books about sea life horses, antique cars, wild like beaches, cocktails, coffee and tea cupcakes. Lots of cats, many, many, many cat book. There's another subject that is not necessarily pictorial are, and those are books that are very pattern oriented. So, like even on this slide, that is an example of people just want a color patterns. They don't want a point of view. They just want to do patterns from simple to complex. And don't let the fact that someone else has already published the same subjects that you're interested in. Don't let that deter you because the coloring book customer will always be looking for additional books in their favorite subjects. They may discover you and go, Hey, I like her is the best. So brainstorm a list of themes and subjects from your own interest in Hobby. Evaluate each one to see if you think you can come up with enough visuals to fill a book. I have thought of a few subjects over the years and realized I couldn't stretch that subject far enough to make a book about it, which is why you should start with a list first, which we're gonna cover soon because you don't want to find yourself saying this is exactly what I'm going to do, and you realize you can only come up with 10 ideas for it and not enough to put into a book . The other thing I want to mention to you is when you are going through this process of discovering your subject or theme is to make sure that you think about something I call the color ability off a subject. For instance, if you choose a subject like seashells, you may end up with lots of pages that end up all being the same color. Many seashells are white or beige or pale pink, and so you want to make sure that whatever you are choosing has opportunity for people to color. That's just kind of that little hidden avenue that you have to think about that well. It's all beige or it's all blue. Everything is blue if you're going to do oceans. Oh, look, it's all blue, so make sure that you address the color ability of that subject. The next thing you want to think about is you want to determine the size of your book because Eventually you're going to be drawing pictures, and you want to make sure they air the right proportion to the size of book that you want to dio. Now popular sizes are eight by 10 inches. 8.5 by 11 is very popular, and I have chosen to do mine it 8.25 by 8.25 When we go into the production part of this class, then you can see all of the different sizes, but have an idea in mind what size book you want. I mean, you can do it any size you want, but you want to also not make it to so weird that people won't buy it. Then you have a number of pages. When I first started doing my books, I was doing about 48 pages. And here's what I discovered. 48 pages is a lot, and it's not necessary to have a really good book on the market to have it before the eight pages. I have now settled on 36 colorable pages in my book, and that seems to be a sweet spot for me. Less than that, your customer might feel like they're getting a little. They're not getting a full on coloring book, so you have to be really careful to make sure that they're getting the value that they expect. So I have landed on 36 pages. But again, that is your personal decision. Here's a tip. Most pages in coloring books, particularly in the self published market on Lee, have colorable pages on the right hand page, and that is for a couple of reasons. And one of them is the Since the paper is okay, quality isn't If a person uses markers in their book, it will bleed through, and it will bleed through to the next page. So if you have a coloring page on the opposite page on the facing page, you're gonna ruin the left hand page so most people only have a right hand page. So when you think about that 36 page book 36 coloring pages, that's actually 72 pages because your left hand page is going to be blank. We'll look at that when we go into the production part of this. But just keep that in mind that it's not a 36 page book. It's actually 72 pages, plus the additional pages that you will be putting into your book because every book will have these other pages. So it just look at any book on your shelf. There's always a title page. There's a copyright page in most coloring books. I advise putting some sort of welcome letter and some tips about coloring in the book. So leave a page for that, whatever that looks like for you. And most people have a dedication that might be on the copyright page. Or it might be just a separate page after your title page, opposite the copyright and then normally in the back of the book, there is the Acknowledgments page, the people you thank and where to find you, your website, social media, things like that. And you can also often on the Acknowledgments page or on a separate page. There will be an about the author. Page will pull those together later in this process, but remember that you're 72 page book just got a whole bunch of more pages. So normally, my my books end up to be about 80 pages by the time they're finished. Because of all of this other content that is necessary to publishing a book. But don't let that scare you. I will walk you through that process. Okay? You're not drawing yet. Here's what you're going to be doing. I highly recommend sitting down with a piece of paper. This is where every one of my books start. Once I come up with my theme, I write down as many ideas as I can think of that. Meet the criteria that I have given this book. Now they get to be a total mess by the time the book is over, because I'm scratching things out in highlighting things and circling things and adding and subtracting because it's, ah, process that isn't always smooth and tidy. But getting a general idea of where you're going is really important. On the left, I have my list for my most recent book, this Christmas book. I did, and I just brainstormed all the things that had to do with Christmas and how I could enhanced the color ability of each of these subjects. So some have words. Some do not. Some are just pattern summer, you know, more pictorial images. I also want have a balance of those things I want to have a balance of. Maybe there's, you know, half of them have sayings on them. 1/3 of them are patterns, but I start to work out what that's going toe look like. That's how I started book. And here's what this process does. It immediately tells you if your theme is too narrow, if you pick something and you think, Oh well, I got up to number 11 and I'm done that's a key information that you should take to heart and think about. Maybe you need to broaden that theme or subject, or you need to do a little more deep work on on what are what are other visuals that you can do within that. And that's where some research comes in. This is a very truth telling moment whether you have enough to sustain your idea and to sustain a book all the way through at least 36 pages. Don't skip this. Okay, let's talk about your time frame, and if you have taken any other classes, you know I'm very big on planning your time. That is how things get done, particularly when you are self publishing time can get away from you easily because it turns out not to be a huge priority. Other things get in front of it. But if you have a basic understanding of when you want this thing published, you will treat it as a project. You will treat it as a potential income generating item, and so you need to pay attention to it. And as we know things that get paid attention to actually get Senate in general, you'd want to get an idea of, of say, when you want to have this book out on the market. So, for instance, if you're doing a book about summer holidays and summer travel, you want to make sure that you have that book out by spring time when people are starting to think, Oh, I need some stuff for in the car or I want to Something on the airplane. You want to make sure that it's available to them or summer travel. So he had worked backwards. What does your schedule look like? Work backwards. I want this on the market by May 1st. How many weeks do I need for each parts of this process? I am put what I would do how much time I would leave for these things, but I don't know how fast or slowly you work. I don't know what the rest of your life looks like, but if you can identify how long you think it will take you to do this, you can truly work backwards. And if you are trying to meet a deadline, that seems impossible. Then either do something else or extend it further. You know, there's there are no coloring book police that are gonna keep you to this deadline. But it's a good idea to have some sort of framework. So just to know you're going to need some time for planning and brainstorm. I leave about a week for that to succeed. Get my head around that start to do that listing of images that I can come up with for the book. Then you will be doing thumbnail sketches based on the number of pages and how maney you think you can do in a given day or a week. Some people do superfast thumbnails. Mine are very sketchy. I'm just getting the idea out and making sure that it works visually. Tighter sketches. You wanna have some time for that. Some people do very elaborate drawings. I do not. I again, I Because I've done so many, I tend to go with a much looser, bigger sketch. Or sometimes I just enlarge my thumbnails depending on how well I can understand what they are. But more than likely, in the beginning, you're gonna want some tighter sketches to size of your book. Leave yourself some time for your tighter sketches and make sure that you are meeting. If you say I want to do five a week or three a day, whatever that is, make sure that you keep track of that and don't get too far out of line on that. Give yourself a big chunk of time for your final Leinart. Whether you're doing that digitally or by hand, that's gonna be the bulk of your time frame of getting that final art finished and depending on how you're working, that may include scanning and color, correcting or cleaning up your line work in the beginning of your book, particularly when you're doing your line work. It's going to take you what seems like forever, but you will get so much faster as the book goes on, so you may find some of your schedules get tightened up because you are just getting faster at it because you're doing more and then you want to make sure you have some time for production. And that means pulling your your book together. It, whether you're using in design or another layout program, you want to make sure you have time to get all that done. And I find that once the art is done, the production time feels, you know, kind of relaxing to me because I'm not, you know, producing like crazy like to take my time on the production to make sure that ends up being a good looking book. And I have all the pieces that I need to pull that together. I can usually do that in about a week, but of your first time you might want to leave sometime in there. All I know is just with the production is go slowly and stay focused because that can get a little squirrely and then another week. Maybe to do you're uploading your final decisions on your price. Looking at your proofs, writing any sales copy that you want so put some sort of time for him together because I'm telling you, a date on the calendar is supercool toe work toward, and it's very cool to say, Oh my gosh, I'm starting today and by this day door by my birthday or by Christmas, I'm going to have a book on the market, so gets your head ready for this process. 6. Lesson 5: Drawing Your ColoringPages: Oh, hey, it's time to draw your pages. It's about time, right? Okay, let's go through some tips that I have on drawing your page. First of all, you will decide whether you're going to draw them on paper, scan them and clean up digitally, or whether you will use some sort of drawing software to draw your pages. If you draw on paper, you know you'll have to. You'll need to scan them. You'll need to clean them up digitally somehow, unless you are the kind of artists that comes out with clean black of my drawings every single time. I personally am not that artist. However, you are going to need some graphic programs later if indeed you are drawing analog okay, Many artists draw digitally, using either Adobe illustrator Adobe Photoshopped, CorelDraw and other drawing software that they have at their disposal. It all depends on your skill level software you already own and use and, of course, your personal preference. I personally use a program called Clip Studio, which is also known as Manga Studio, and it was recommended to me by a comic book artist who said, Hey, this is a great program for drawing black and white art. You can work in layers. It has been fantastic for me. It's a very inexpensive program. I believe I only paid maybe $60. It was on sale at some point, But if you just go, go clip studio, you can find it again. Not an affiliation, just a recommendation. But I have really enjoyed this program. It's really a sweet program as far as I'm concerned. Like I said, I can work in layers. I can save it as a Photoshopped file I can save it is a J peg personally. The way I work is I'd built a template for the page size that I use all the time. I do my sketches right in Clips studio, and then, since Aiken work in layers, I can go right in and do my final artwork on top of that sketch and just keep keep moving them along. Okay, let's go through some of the tips that I have discovered for drawing the best pages for your coloring book. One. Keep a nice, solid black line throughout. This is particularly important if you are drawing your pages by hand. Just make sure that you have a nice, solid black line that will be important when it comes to the printing of your book. You don't want things to kind of go in and out. Make sure that the width of your line remains consistent throughout your book. Whether you use a thick and thin approach of your lines or you use a consistent stroke throughout, make sure that it looks the same throughout your book. It just gives a nice look to your to your book to have that consistent. Also, the people that buy your book. They need to know where to stop coloring. So make sure when you're doing your drawings that you close out all your spaces. Don't let things hang so that they have to decide where to end a color and start a new one . That is really important that that's kind of one of the keys to a coloring pages to make sure that they know what's basis to color. And don't leave them hanging. If you decide that your drawings will bleed off the page, then the things can just end and go off the page. That's fine. Your user knows that they will continue to color all the way to the edge of the page. But if you choose to have bleed on your book, make sure you know that going in. So you make sure that you allow for believe when you're drawing your pictures to make sure that that is commentated for when you go to produce your book personally mind have not bled , so I don't have to worry about that. But some books do, and that's fine. It's personal preference. Also, consider a varying level of complexity throughout your book. The feedback that I have gotten from my customers is that they like the idea that when they are doing one of the coloring cafe books, depending on their mood, they can do a more complex page or something a little more simple. But other times they're like, Yeah, I really want to get into this so make sure that you have some varying level of complexity , but again, it depends on what kind of a book you are doing. Maybe you are doing a super simple book, and it's going to stay the same all through or it's very, very complex, and the kind of person advise it wants something really complex and a few more tips Save each page, no matter what program you are working in. If you are working in layers, make sure you save it as a PSD file so that you can make changes easily in photo shop if you choose. I save everything as both of PSD file and as a J peg, because I'm going to use my J pegs when I assembled my book in in design. And because you're doing so because this ends up being a rather large project with many files, you'll have a minimum of 36 files of your coloring pages and you might have some other keep your files nice and tidy for ease of production later. Trust me, you're gonna have a lot of files. It's gonna help you in the long run. It will make production so much easier a two. You start drawing your pages. You really don't know how fast you are or how slow you are. So once you start drawn, you're gonna know like Oh, this is taking me longer than I thought or wow, I'm really breezing through these, But try to stay on schedule as much as you can and one more thing. Please enjoy the drawing process. I find this to be the most fun. Each page becomes its own little masterpiece. Just enjoy it because this is the fun part. 7. Lesson 6: Design Your Cover: Okay, let's talk about your super important book cover. And yes, by the way, you can judge a book by its cover. No matter what people tell you, your book cover is your whole selling moment. That is where people will stop ago. That looks interesting and want to go deeper and look what's inside your book. Thank very clearly about what you want to say. You want to make sure people understand that it's a coloring book going to make sure your type is very readable, that the images match what's inside the book and also that the attitude of the cover matches what's inside the book. And just like everything we dio, you want to research what else is out there? Research. What's going on on the front covers of the best sellers in your category. Analyze what is compelling about them. At some point in your process, you want to start paying attention to what the cover of your book should look like and start working out some ideas for yourself and with all book covers. You have to remember that most people are looking at things on phones or even on their laptop, but you have to make sure that your cover is very effective at a very small size. So when you're designing, make sure you reduce it so that you can look at it to make sure that the type is readable, and you can really immediately know that it's a coloring book. So on the front you're going to have your title. I would suggest using an illustration at least one from the interior of your book. You might want to color it and so that people get the idea very quickly, what your style is and what the book is about. So here's the basic anatomy of a back cover. Please remember that the back cover can sell your book justus much of the front cover, if not more, because it gives you an opportunity to tell your potential customer a little bit more of what they can expect Inside. Here are things you might consider. One is. This is an opportunity to add more interior illustrations so they can get the gist of your style. You should be adding some sort of blurb on the back, which is just a little note to them, with a little copy that tells them what the book is about. It doesn't have to be deep or wordy. In fact, it should be very spare in its wording, so you can get the point across quickly. Obviously, your logo and your website should appear in the back of the book, and then you will want either your own bar code, which we will go into more detail or the free one that they will give you. But there you should always leave a space for your bar code on the back of the book, because that's where it's going to land. I always I suggest that you either go to a store or look on the Internet and see what is typical of best selling books. This is not the time to reinvent the wheel. It could be simple, straightforward, and make sure that you're including the things that people expect to see on the back of a book. Also, think about a branded look for your future books. In case you do more than one book, you want to make sure that your book format holds up to multiple applications. I have recently started to update all my covers because I feel like it's time to do that. So I'm using the same elements across the books with a top banner that shows the title has the color and cafe logo prominently positioned on there and then an example off the art. And I'm using a little black and white drawings inside so you can see how ing creating a branded look. Here's a tip that I learned which I wish I would not have done, and I suggest you do not do Don't number your books So when I published my first book, it was called Volume One, and then the second wound was called Volume two. And I think it wasn't until my fourth book that I actually gave it a name the 1st 3 books, or just volumes 12 and three. Well, guess what? People seem to think they need to buy them in order, like there's some reason that they need to get Book one first and book to book three. I don't think Book one is my best book, but it's so it's definitely my best seller because it says volume one on it, so don't number your books. Don't to what I did when we get further into production. I highly suggest that you use the template that you can download from KDP. The actual link will be in the resource section of this class. Using their template is really super helpful. As you can see, it indicates where everything is that you put in your exact size. You tell him how maney pages you're going to have, and they will build this custom template for you so that you can bring this up into photo shop and build your cover right on this template. And it makes life so much easier because you know exactly where things have to land that barcode area down at the bottom, the yellow. That's exactly where they're going to place your bar coats. You don't want any information on their like your website or your picture or anything like that, because that is exactly where the barcode will land. They show you where the bleed is the peachy color all the way around. It means don't put any critical information inside that peachy color because that is outside the life area. So you want to make sure you build it and you you know exactly how thick your spine is and most of my coloring books. Since they are only about 80 pages, they tend to be less than 1/4 of an inch thick, which means it's far too small toe. Have type on the spine, but you want to know what your spine is. If you're doing some mega book, you might have room on the spine for the title of your book. But there's your front. There's your back, but use the template. It will save you tons of time and headaches. One more reason for you to do your cover earlier in the process before all of your pages air done is that you want to make sure that you have a cover that you can start using to promote your book. So no pressure, but your cover is super important. And like I said, they will judge your book. But its cover 8. Lesson 7: Build Your Coloring Book: right. Let's get started on the interior set up of your book in this section. We're going to go over how to build a print ready book that you will then upload the KDP. Besides your coloring pages, you will also have some other pages that will flesh out your book. One is the title page, also a copyright page on optional dedication page. If you like or sometimes the dedication is also on the copyright page, you should consider putting in a letter or message to your customer that is optional, but I think it's a nice thing to do, and I will talk a little bit about that in the next section. Typically in the back of the book is where you would place an Acknowledgments page if you choose to do that. And then, of course, you will have your about the author page at the back of the book as well. Now the about the author is a really nice opportunity for you to tell your customer a little bit about you. They want to know those things. They want to know who the artist is. Behind these amazing drawings also gives them an opportunity to reach out to you, whether through social media or your website. So don't skip the about the author. Okay, This is how I've set up my book and in design. And when I set it up, if you're using in design or whatever program you were using, you'll want to use facing pages or a two page spread. However, that looks on your program, but in in design it is facing pages. Make sure you click that. So what happens here? You can see my pages over here is this is my title page. So that's the book when you open any book, the title page. Usually the first page is the title of the book and the author's name. It's always really simple and clean. The second spread this is normally on the first left hand page is going to be your copyright information. So basically I'm just saying no part of this book can be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission of the author. Also, you will want to put in the I S B and number that you will be assigned to from KDP and your basic copyright notice. So this is my inside right hand page after the title page, and that's basically a letter to the people that have bought the book to explain a little bit about the book, what coloring is about. And then I'm explaining to them what kind of materials they could use to color their book. Make sure when you put in your book. If you're using KDP, you want to make sure to tell them to slip a scrap piece of paper between the pages if they're using markers. As I've mentioned, this paper isn't fine quality paper. It's fine. It colors very well. As far as I'm concerned, I've been quite happy with it. But markers will bleed through if you don't put a sheet of paper in between. So make sure you tell your people that because you just don't want those ticked off customers that say, Ah, my markers bled through because they will ruin their book and we don't want them to do that . So make sure somewhere you give that little message, and then we go into the inside of the book. So I have Onley right hand page to color, mostly because many people like to cut them out, so you don't want to have to side pages. And also, if there is any bleed through, you haven't ruined the picture on the back. So most adult coloring books, unless it's really high quality paper, do just right side pages, which is really awesome because you end up with a 70 something page book and you want to do 36 drawing. And I have just chosen as a design element to put a little something on the left hand page . I also have chosen to put my copyright in a small A type, as is readable on each page for the very reason that people sometimes cut these out and they might want to reference like, Where did I ever get that picture while they can google me and find out where they got this or got the book? So I have gone through all of my pages and I've made sure that everything looks right. And then I put a little icon piece on each left hand page and let me just go to the end of the book to show you what I did here. So these are all cute pages. Okay, so this is my last page of the book. I like to designed my book. I like a good flow. I like to have easier ones, harder ones. I like to mix it up a little bit. And since this is a Christmas book, I thought it would be adorable to end the book with and to all a good night because that's just cute. So that's the last coloring page of the book. And then the next page I have my about the artist. I talk about the other books that I have done as well as the coloring book. And then I've put all my pertinent details in here Instagram, Facebook, our Twitter handle all of that. Put your social media it in there and then on the very, very last. I have the list of all the other books that I have done, so it's super handy for them. When they have finished the book to go, what else does she have? And then I have myself published ones up here, and then the books that I did with the publisher are here so they can search for those if they like, So that is the entire interior that I set up in in design. I then save the file and also export it as a press quality. PdF, which is what I will use to upload into KDP. 9. Lesson 8: Let's Publish! Part 1: Welcome back. Okay, this is super cool. We're actually going to start publishing this book of yours so far, you should have your final coloring pages designed and drawn and saved as high risk J pegs . You will have built your book and in design or another program. And you have a print ready, Pdf that we will upload. You have a welcome page written. If you're choosing to do that, you've written your dedication and or your acknowledgment page so you can save all the wonderful people that helped you do this project, which is very cool. Don't skip that part. And then you have your cover finished or very close to finishing. Because once you get your interior done, you really wanna get that cover done so you can really move forward and not stress about it . We're gonna have a book done really quickly and coming up. We're going to have live. Actual video will not live because I'm recording this, but I am uploading my newest coloring book, the color and Cafe coloring Christmas, and I'm gonna walk you through my exact steps. I recorded it as I was doing it, and it's super cool cause on the market now because it's no longer Christmas from handy. You're watching this next year and it is Christmas. It's so Hey, merry Christmas. When you get to the Kindle direct publishing page, you sign in and you have to have an Amazon account to sign in. But this is my Amazon account, and then you song in and then you come to your bookshelf right up here. It says Bookshelf. Now, if you have published other books and I have you can see these air my book. So this is a journal? I did, actually. I'm working on this coloring book revision. And then all my books that are published are in this list. Okay, so that is your book show. Now I'm walking you through this life. I have an actual book that I'm going to be uploading so you can see my exact that for opening up my book. Okay, so you see here there's a either kindle people or a paperback and, of course, into the coloring book. We're going to do a paperback book on paper back. So you open up to this page, OK, so we're going to start paperback details. Then we're gonna put in our content, and then we do our all of our pricing. OK, so this is just you fill in this form. So my book title, all of mine start with the Coloring Cafe called colorful Christmas. I do not have. It's entitled. It is not technically a Siri's. I didn't want it to be linked A furious And then it's not in addition, So a lot of these things and I am the primary offer on the own author. So I put in my name and I am the author, so I don't have to put anything else in there. I put my last name an author. You could if you just wanted to be an illustrator. You can decide what you are. I'm calling myself an offer. You can have both. Now, this is the description. This is going to appear on your Amazon detail page, so this is really important. This is basically your sales copy. So I have pre written this copy and I will copy and paste this into this spot you have 4000 characters to use, which is a lot to describe your coloring book. I never used anywhere close to that. But I will just copy and paste my information into this spot. So this is my I like to kind of give it in paragraphs that make sure that you don't have any misspellings. They're telling you Color Reese does is misspelled, but I'm gonna keep that in any way. Okay, So I put in my description, and I am all I own the copyright and I hold all necessary publishing rights. If you for some reason picked up our organs in the public domain and reworked it, you would put that in there, and I've never clicked on that. So I don't know what happens when that happens. Except you're saying it's public domain and they're trusting that you are telling the truth that you own the copyright and of course you would. Okay, So keywords. Just like anything we do, we have key words. So I'm going to put in a coloring book, pop it in adult coloring. Put in this most coloring. I like to spell coloring the non American Wang because I get orders from overseas in Canada . Other books I might want to put in with the Christmas holiday personal activity, and sometimes people search polar and cafe. So while putting coloring, Captain, So you will pick your keywords based on what your book is about. If it's about racecars, you're gonna put in race cars, you put in Indy 500. So you know how to do keywords based on what you're talking about, but always put in coloring book as one of them. And I do recommend the alternative spelling something within the park spelling. But call it all categories now gets a little tricky. The coloring books because they don't have category for corn books, which I find really odd. So this is obviously nonfiction crafts and hobbies, and I'm just surprised that they do not have a category for colored that I have found. It's weird crafting hobbies we're going to do general and art. We're going to be general. So say it is not large print. It does not contain adult language. In my particular case, although I mentioned that there's lots with profanity than that right now, and they want to know that because they will flag you if you if it has it and you haven't told them that so saving continue. So we're saving that information then we g o to the paper Bet content. This is where you have a choice. You can get a free I ESPN number, which is the international standard book number which every book needs to have. They will assign you one if you don't have your own eyes. Bienes Because I have been publishing in this large group, I have bought my own I spm that the whole of the subject. I feel like if it's your first book, just go ahead and get the free I ESPN The only downside of using the KDP i ESPN is that your book will always be linked to Katie P. So if a publisher would pick it up, you need to get a different I ESPN. And so you have to do some machinations of making it a new book because you're getting a new number. But that's probably not a big deal on your first book when you're sort of trying out this world. But in my case, and since I'm loading this live, I'm going to use my own ESPN. They're going to ask me what my eyes see a number is, and I'm going to get that for them. Okay, so that's my number that I got on my own. So that book is now attached to my colorful Christmas book. There's an imprint. Now, if you don't have an imprint, your book will list in Amazon as a KDP book, which is no big deal. I just felt like I wanted to have my own publishing company, which is a weird thing, because it's not a legal entity, Aaron thing. I just made one up because I felt like I really wanted to make this book was really professional because I knew I was in it for the long haul. So I gave myself a imprint, which is are day smart publishing. And so all of my books are under RJ Smart. The public patient dates. They want to know when your book is big published. So I'm going to just use your live on Amazon date. So that's just the date that it goes live on Amazon. You could pick a date. Yes, like if I wanted to. If I knew I publishing today, I would just pick today's date. So that's how you do that. Thanks. So I'm just going to say my live on Amazon date print options here, all of your options. So I am going with black and white interior with white paper, which is pretty standard for a coloring book. My trim size. This is their standard, which doesn't anything selected for that and then select different guys. All of my books are 8.25 by 8.25 So this is my choice. Lots of coloring books rate by 10 lakhs. 8.5 by 11. I've always liked this square for man, and it's kind of my signature format for the coloring cafe. If you like, you can make this any height, and would that you want any of them? This is cool, but I have always gone with the 8.25 but you're trying to five. So that's my size. This has no bleedin it. Although some books bleed, you just have to make sure you set up your files correctly so that there is bleed and I go with the glossy cover finish because that's what all my books are, and I prefer it. So we have just moved through a lot of information where the first time you go on here you think? Oh, my gosh. So many decisions. But don't worry. You can handle it in the next video. We're going to go into the details of how to upload your manuscript and your cover. You're gonna be really close to publishing your book at that point. How cool is that? 10. Lesson 9: Let's Publish! Part 2: Okay, so now we have come to uploading our paper. That manuscript. Now, you saw that I set mine up in in design. I saved it as a high rez. Pdf. So it's like the print quality. Pdf. So this is ready to upload, so I'm just going to upload it. Here it is. And I'm just going to put that in. It's going to take a few moments to upload. So they had just said they're processing my file, so everything's uploaded successfully. The next thing is, you're going to do the same thing. You're going to upload your book cover. Now, I have designed my global cover. As I showed you, you can upload everything up to the stage and then go Oh, I cover. So there are various places that you could You can hold this once, you save your information and it saved. And then you can just go back into your book or you get called away or whenever you could stop this at any time and just save where you are. So I am going to, um, upload a cover. I already have Prince ready Tedy out. So I'm gonna upload my color cover file. I'm going to go cover and this is my cover. And that's going to upload. Should pop up another box there cover uploaded successfully in their processing my piles. Now, here's what I really like about working with KDP. See this little button here? This is the launch reviewer and so I can launch this right now. Click on this. So it's saving everything right now and preparing my piles. This can take a bit. So that's about 20 minutes of them preparing my files. Download everything and prepare this reviewer for us to see. But you'll notice when that does happen. They're evaluating your cover. They're going to look at your interior. Mature from size is correct that your fonts are downloading properly, that the image quality is up to their standards. Your margins and gutters air correct. The pagination is correct. Meaning that you have, you know, a title page and everything works. And then they're making sure if they're downloading your barcode through Pinkel direct that the barcode is going onto the back of your cover. Okay, so this pops up. So this is their print preview. Er so this is gonna show me everything in the book and they're already telling me that I haven't error. Now, let's just stop here. The first few times you do this, you're going have errors. You know how many coloring books I have and I'm getting errors. So they're telling me what my errors are. And, you know, here's the beautiful part. You just sixth, um and you upload them again. Even if you published your book and you get your book of your like E. I don't really like how this looks. Just put up a new, you know, you just upload a new interior or a new cover, and the next time you get sold, it will be fine. Usually these aren't big deals. So don't panic when you see that this moment you're like, Oh, yeah, that will definitely work. OK, I can see a couple of things that I'm going to go back to. My file on one is, I look at these and they're not really centered in that space. So I'm gonna go back to my original file and fix that. It looks a little funky here. I'm a little close. I don't know what I was doing or thinking. Maybe not enough coffee, but I will go in and fix this. And then they're telling me that my margins air clunky on these pages on the interior, which you'll see, we're going to go look at those and see what they're talking about. Because I looked at my indusind file. They don't look funky to me, so Well, we'll deal with that. The other thing. I'm gonna changes. See, this is resting too close to that bar code. And with anything that you dio, we all know that a fresh eye is amazing. So you're gonna be looking at this. You're gonna be setting it up in photo shop or whatever program you're using to set up your covers, your interiors. You see it in a certain way. I didn't see the different form you like. Yeah. Yes, that part. And so no big deal. You just tweak it, you fix it and you move on. So don't freak out too badly because we offer got a little bit in the beginning. But just know that here I am on my 20 something book and I already like Oh, yeah, that needs to be picked. No biggie. I will do that. see that little bit button over here. Now we start and we look at the actual book, what it's going to look like when it's printed. And to me, this is just so cool to be able to look at it in this format because then I could really see what I want to change what I don't like. So here's those inside pages that we talked about me. But I will go through this really closely, like, really quickly. So for some reason they're telling me that I am outside the margin and I'm not exactly signal unless it's my my copy right down here. But I will. I'll go in and fix that. I don't know why that kind of odd that it's on this page, but now on every page, because I use the master for that, I don't know, but I'll go women plus around the neck and Ari, See, I want to move that a little to the left. So this is this is a great place to see it with fresh eyes, and this is to me part of the process. Is this back and forth a little bit to tweak it? Do you really like it. So we're going to go through, go through all the pages. Why I So here's the two page view. That's what we're looking at now. You can also look at a thumbnail view so you can see all the pages together. Here's what I'm going to do. So I'm going to go through the rest of the book. Let's go all the way to the end to make sure that my final pages look good. So that's where it should be. In my last page of the book is my little promo for my other books. Okay, I'm not approving this. There's a button for proof, but they're not gonna let me approve it because they're telling me I have errors. They're gonna tell you all kinds of things down here, so make sure your reviews to believe the beginning to make sure that this is the name. Your ESPN is correct that your name is spelled correctly all of these things and make sure that everything how you want it, But they're not gonna let me approve this because I have errors in here that I'll go on, figure out I'm going to exit the print preview our Okay, so I'm going back in. But when I come back also you how to upload it again and it'll all be fine, I promise. 11. Lesson 10: Let's Publish Part 3: So this is the final video in the three videos that are showing you how to upload your book to KDP. So let's finish this off shall way. I uploaded the manuscript and I fixed it, uploaded my cover, and I fixed it. And I have proved my cover and my interior. Once you approve that, up comes the summary of everything that you have said that you wanted. It's 8.5 8 and 1/4 by eight and 1/4. It's 79 pages. It's black of mine interior, No bleed. And right now it is. My printing cost is $2.15. So you will see how this works as we continue on to the next page. So just scroll back up. So we have just completed the second step, which is the paperback content. Now we're going to go to the paperback rights and pricing section, So scroll back down and saving continue, and that will pop me up to that last section. So we're 2/3 of the way there. We have a few more decisions to make, but don't worry, it won't be that scary. So on the paperback rights in pricing. This is where we do the final piece of publishing your book. So the first thing I'm going to tell KDP Amazon is that I would like my book published through all territories for worldwide rights. And then down here is where we are going to put in our price, and I am in the United States. I'll use the US dollars, and all of my coloring books in this shape and size are 9 99 So right there it pops up that I will have a 60% royalty rate on the remaining price after. So remember, on the previous screen it costs Amazon $2.15 to print my book, and so 60% of the remainder of that is $3.84. So every time I sell a book, I earn $3.84 of a royalty, which in the world of royalties is really high for a book. So that's a really good royalty for that. I haven't found that to be a big money maker to go into expanded distribution, but for some reason in this instance, there not letting me do that. I've done some research. I'm going to ignore it for now because that has never been a big money maker for me, so I don't really worry about that. I am also in six other marketplaces that I'm eligible for. So I could be in the U. K. In France, and this is how much I will make in each of those markets when I sell a book. Okay, That's just so you know what your royalties are for that terms and conditions. They're telling me it will take up to 72 hours for my book to be available for purchase by clicking Publish. I have confirmed that I am agreeing to the compliance with their terms and conditions, but they did earlier. That will come up when you originally opened up your KDP profile. The very, very beginning. You will see the terms and conditions. And of course, we always click. Yes, but of course you should read those now. Right here. It says click here to request a proof copy of this book and that you need to purchase through Amazon and that is a choice. My feeling is, if it is your first book, you should buy a proof copy. So you have an actual copy in your hands of what your book looks like and not necessarily rely on that digital launcher that we looked at in the previous class. So if it's your first book, I highly recommend getting an hard copy proof of your book. It takes a while. Unless you have Amazon prime, it will probably take less time. But I don't do it anymore because I've done so many of these books. I'm fairly sure that it's going to be fine. And if it's not fine, it would be such a insignificant problem that I could fix it fairly easily. And most of my readers probably wouldn't notice what I fixed anyway once it's published. But I don't get these anymore because I have done them so many times. But that's a personal choice. You can always roll the dice. Here's another tip. You could forgo getting a proof copy of your book. A hard copy of your book. You could publish it in the instant. Don't market it yet. The incident gets published. Go buy one, and if you have prime, it'll get to your house in two or three days, and then you can look at that, it's much. It's actually cheaper and well and you'll get a royalty for it. And then you will also, um, you'll get it faster. And that's a sort of a sideways way of getting a proof copy of your book without going through the machinations of them. And then and then as soon as you look at it and you go, Oh, this is cool, it's fine then, you know, market the heck out of it. So that's That's Ronnie's little tip. That's the little sideways way of getting a proof copy of your book. That's much faster. OK, are you ready? This is thes coolest button on the screen. This is the publisher paperback book, so I'm going to click that it is saving everything that I told them. My safe is successful, and it just popped up to say the color and cafe colorful Christmas. It's 9 99 and they're going to manually review my book. If it passes the review, it could take up to 72 hours to be to be available for purchase. In my experience, it's far less than 72 hours, but they put 72 hours in to make sure that you're not freaking out if it's not immediately up on Amazon. So I just published a book. How cool is that? Now they always give you this. Would you like to start an e book? But as we know, coloring books are E books, so I'm just going to close this and in my here I'm back on my bookshelf. Here's the color and Cafe colorful Christmas, and it says it's in review when it is actually up. That will change now. When I first published my first coloring book, I refresh this about nine million times because I was so excited and it really didn't take very long. I think it was less than 24 hours. It was up. Of course, you can also obsessively watch for your book to go live, and then as soon as it goes live, you can start marketing it, which we will talk about in the next lesson. Isn't that cool? 12. Lesson 11: Coloring Book Marketing Tips: Well, look at you. You have either published a book or you are well on your way to doing so. And congratulations. I know that seems like a 1,000,000 steps, and it kind of is, but you got here. At least you've gotten through the class and I believe that you can do this. So let's talk a little bit about marketing your book because, really, I know you want to sell your book. That is always the goal or okay, often the goal. So, marketing your book is not unlike marketing anything else that you are doing. First of all, you need to tell everyone what you're doing, and sometimes that feels like Super Sales E. But if you make the people in your life part of the process to show them that behind the scenes to let them know what it looks like to go from a sketch to your final product, people really love to see that stuff. They're going to get excited with you along the way. So sherry a process either on social media in your newsletter, if you have one left, people know what you were doing and build a little bit of anticipation so talk to your people and what I mean by this, which is different than tell everyone. Meaning If you have a certain subject or a niche market that you are going after, make sure you talk to them. If your book is not necessarily for the general population, don't tell every single person about it who has no interest in it. Make sure you are showing up for the people that do. If you are doing a book about antique cars and you belong to a car club, make sure you are sharing what you were doing with those people so they can get excited and anticipate what's going to happen. Just be involved. When you were involved with what you are doing and your subject. Make sure that your fellow enthusiasts are along the road with you. Sometimes artists we only tend to market to other artists but really market to the exact person who is interested in your topic. This might sound funny but assumes you tell someone that you have a book. Their natural question is to say, Oh, really, where can I buy one now? Of course you're going toe link right to the Amazon spot where they can buy it, but you should also keep copies on hand. When people come over, have them in your car in your bag because invariably someone's going to say, Oh, I would love to buy one for my sister, my aunt, my brother, whoever and you can just pull it out of your bag and go, Oh, I happen to have one here and you can sell it. That's just a really fun and quick way to sell a book. And even though it seems like a small gesture, if you give it to someone and other people see it, they are intrigued by it and may want to buy one as well. If you have a newsletter with your own customers, make sure you're announcing your new book. That's kind of a no brainer, But just make sure that everybody knows that you have this book. People will be excited, and I found with, particularly with my coloring books when I'd put out a new book I often do to give away on my Facebook page, and people got excited about the book and I would do very short giveaways if I did it online. Just two or three days so that people made sure that they got in on the drawing. And then I always saw a little spike in my books after the giveaway was over. The other thing you should consider, particularly in the coloring world, is that there are a lot of people that color as a past time as a pleasure as a hobby. And there are many Facebook groups that are involved with coloring. They share images that they do. They review books, they just are enthusiastic about the craft. So make sure that you become part of that conversation. You're not necessarily going on there just to sell books by becoming part of that community . It's not a huge leap to tell people about your new book. You're not going on there just to say, Hey, I have a new book and then never participate. I have found that the people that are in coloring are really super nice people, and it's a really great way to be part of that. You are now part of a community and you need to respect that and you need to have fun with it. So absolutely seek out some of the groups on social media. Also, there are local meet ups in my town. My local library has a monthly coloring session, which I tried to attend to as much as I can. For one thing, I get some coloring done on my pages, that convention or on social media. But I also meet people, and I've learned so much from the people that color about what they like to color and even though I'm not using it necessarily as a research opportunity but people telling a lot about what they like and what they don't like about books. And I see how they color and how I can improve my books, but is also nice to just be around people that like doing this, they're they're just really nice people. Another option for getting your book out in front of people that will really like it is by charitable tie ins. Again, if you have a theme or a subject that lends itself to either a donation or you could put together, I've put together packages with a book and a packet of pencils with a nice ribbon, and it could be in a silent auction. You've been donated at various events. That's another way to get your work out there without being Super Sales e. And it's just a nice thing to Dio and the beautiful thing about coloring. It's anyone can really do it. It doesn't take it high level of skill. And so it's a really nice gift for people, and it's a really nice charitable idea. You could donate it to cancer centers for, to have around at chemotherapy those kinds of things. Think about that in your own neighborhood and you never know what might happen with that. But it's just for the good of the world to put yourself out there when it's appropriate. And, of course, if you are publishing a book that is really specific to a certain audience, make sure that you show up at their events. If they have a craft show or if they have a luncheon or speaker that you Congar Oh, and talk about what you do. That's awesome. Make sure that you are meeting the people that really would love your book on a local level , and that usually has a ripple effect further out from your local area. But don't forget your local people. We tend to wanna shout it to the rooftops across the world on social media. But there are people in your own area that would be very excited that you are doing what you are doing. So I have some final thoughts for you. I know I gave you a ton of information in this class, and you may feel a little bit overwhelmed by this process. But know that in some cases in some of these lessons it took me longer to tell you how to do something. Then it will actually take you to do it. If ur systematic organized and have a really great attitude toward this process. You can do this. I know you can do this because you are amazing. So if you have any questions as you go along, please feel free to reach out through this class and ask me the questions. I will always monitor the comments and I will make sure that if I don't know the answer, I will send you to someone who does. We will figure it out. I can't wait to see what you come up with. I want to see your book and I'm very excited for you to go through this process. So let me know if you need help. And please share what you've done with the rest of us. We are all dying to see what you dio so thank you very much. I so appreciate you being here.