Janice Siew's Blog, page 5

B for Bear

I remember my son asking me after my brother read them the first e-book 'Ailing Abby' on my IPad; "Is there a B book?"

I was honestly surprised and glad. "Woah, so he is interested in B!"

I replied him, "Yes, there is B. But Mummy is still writing it."

Then my brother asked me what is B?

I answered Brian. The bear's name is Brian.

I have actually finished the manuscript for B, but have yet to start on its editing and illustration. Because I have been finding ways to promote and market my 'Ailing Abby'.

And so far, only 2 of my friends bought it on Kobo.

Promoting and marketing a book is worst than doing household chores.

I was lamenting to my brother that the fact that it was hard.

He tells me to print them 10 copies, so that he can give to his friends. So I told him that now is not possible because it is only in e-book format. He says "No one wants to buy children's books in e-book la.' So he promised to buy 10 copies!

By then, I had already harboured the thoughts of publishing my books in paperback copies. I had also thought that maybe it is difficult for children to read e-books if they do not have a tablet.

So the next day, I got my illustrator to illustrate my necessary book components for paperback copy.

Copyright page Dedication page About the author page Back cover

Well, she just illustrated quite a nice version of the pages.

I will probably published it tomorrow, after she gives me the final version.

I will still need to print copies to be sent to NLB as a proof of my new book, after getting ISBN (International Standard Book Number) from them.

Then I will print 10 copies for my brother. =D

How great is that!

Finally! My first book is published!

I'm a first time author for a children's book.

At first, I thought 'Why not write a book? It will be awesome to earn royalties!'. Then I started to write my first children's book, Ailing Abby.

Of course, writing seems to be easy. What is hard is the publishing and the marketing of the book. I googled to find the best (or one of the better ones) online publisher, and found PublishDrive. And then, I thought, let's publish my book! I will use PublishDrive to promote and market my book too~!

Great! Publishing with PublishDrive seems like an ease. I finally published my book! Yay!

Then I thought about who would buy my children's ebook. Children? Nah, it should be the parents who would buy it. How to get notice?

That is where I try to use the market tools in PublishDrive. It wasn't too hard, but to promote or campaign my book means to fork out a few bucks to do it.

Then I thought about parents. Would a parent let their children read on a tablet or a mobile phone? I am okay to have my eldest read on my IPad if it is educational. With me guiding along, of course. Then again, my friends seem to have different opinions. They would argue that a physical book is better for a kid for touch and feel. Another would say that a library book may be dirty and it may also be easy to spoil it (Well, I add on to this opinion).

How about a both format then? Both ebook and physical copy would be in my bookstores for their preferred choice. Currently, I only have ebook in my bookstore, which is why I would be publishing a paperback format soon.

And a paperback format means to get an ISBN from my government agency. Sigh. PublishDrive will only provide ISBN for ebook format, which is why I thought about publishing an ebook first.

Anyway, if you are reading this blog and is interested in my first book (YAY!), here are the links to buy them:

Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL7M6PB7?tag=publishdriv01-20...

Apple Books (iTunes) https://itunes.apple.com/book/id6469622355

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/.../1144234149;jsessionid...

Kobohttps://www.kobo.com/sg/en/ebook/ailing-abby

Scribd https://www.scribd.com/book/678178748/Ailing%20Abby

Storytel https://www.storytel.com/.../ailing-abby-a-story-about-a...

I will update the blog again after my paperback copy is published.

Thanks for your support!