My Path to Self Publishing by Angela Cater *Guest Blogger*

My artwork has had a presence on the web since 1997 and in 2004, I received an email from a Canadian writer, Giovanna Lagana, who had seen my work and asked whether I would be interested in illustrating a children’s book she had written. This had always been a dream of mine, and as she already had an E-publisher lined up, I couldn’t resist saying yes.

For 10 weeks, I worked every evening and weekend on creating the illustrations for “Rickie the Raccoon Learns about Recycling”. Eventually, it was published as an e-book and featured on two websites. Then our problems began. We kept being told there had been no sales (even though various relatives had bought it on our behalf). Then we began to notice it being offered free of charge on various websites – they must surely have bought it from somewhere! We pulled the e-book off the sites and sat on the project for a while.

But now, I had truly got the book illustrating bug, and despite maintaining my day job, I thought of myself as a children’s book illustrator first and foremost. The following year was full of tragedy and upset, so I began 2006 determined that it should be better and to achieve my dream of publishing a children’s picture book. Again, I spent almost every evening and weekend of the summer months in creating the illustrations and had great fun, using my handsome tabby, Samson as the main character ‘Sailor Sam’ and my other cats, friends and family as the supporting cast.

I first published ‘The Adventures of Sailor Sam’ through a ‘self-publishing company’ or what I now know to be ‘the vanity press’ and learnt the hard way about the potential problems of such a route.

The following March, I received a fair bit of money for my 40th birthday so decided to take the foolhardy step of republishing the book from scratch in the full sense of ‘self-publishing’. I bought myself a batch of ISBN numbers and Samson became the proud co-director of ‘Tabby Cat Press.’ Internet searches taught me how to submit a new title to the British Library, I discovered where to download free barcodes and also gained ideas for marketing. Research showed me that Lightning Source is the main print-on-demand printer. I approached them and they agreed to work with me providing I could format the documents to their specific print-ready requirements. Thus started a steep learning curve!

The book was very well received by family, friends, the girls at the school where I work and through much effort online, I also began to start receiving comments from complete strangers, and Samson attracted fan-mail. I spent the long wet summer working on a second Sailor Sam story. I learnt a great deal from my previous mistakes, and this time, I had a much smoother ride.

Since then, I have written and illustrated 3 children’s books, and illustrated 2 more. All of my books have broke even. That is all I ask for, if they make a bit of profit, I’m even happier. I love hearing from young children about what my stories mean to them, and the biggest compliment of all is that there are now two tabby kittens out there named after Samson and Sailor Sam.

I have also begun to help others to realise their dream of publishing a children’s book. I am always happy to help anyone to avoid the dreadful early experiences that I had. With the right know-how, it is possible to publish a book for under £200, but the many so-called self-publishing companies that are springing up on the web charge many times that, and do absolutely nothing to help promote or sell it once it is published.

Right now, I am busy illustrating two special projects. One is another children’s book, featuring my youngest cat, Pablo, who was abandoned on my doorstep suffering from pneumonia just over a year ago. In the story, the cat starts stealing things to thank his young owner for saving his life. It was almost like life imitating art when Pablo started to bring home various joints of meat and fillets of fish! The difference being that he chose to keep his spoils for himself.

The second is my most ambitious book to date and is sort of biography of every cat that has ever shared my life (i.e. walked in and made itself comfortable on my sofa). It is proving a challenge to illustrate some of my earliest cats as the early colour photographs were such poor quality that a lot of artistic license is required!

I get a great deal of satisfaction out of what I do but it is a labour of love and I am realistic that my books are probably never going to be best-sellers and I am never going to get rich. For the pleasure that I get and that my books give to others, it is a pay off that I am willing to accept.

Visit Angela's website: www.TabbyCatPress.com

BUY the books mentioned in this article HERE, HERE, and HERE!