(Im)measurable Progress
Boring. Very boring indeed.
I did not work on any of my book projects while at the much-stressed-about retreat. Instead, I worked on Geography Kid stuff. Please insert audible and overly-dramatic sigh, here. Geography Kid continues to look very much the same from the outside, regardless of how many hours I put into it.
I mean, there is a bit of visible progress. Discover Africa has its new title font and is actually purchase-able, though the Teacher's Guide is still getting formatted, so I haven't made an announcement or done any marketing.
The biggest headache has been with the plan to offer consumable workbooks on the Amazon and in bookstores. The physical copies have been painstakingly designed with perforated pages in mind. This meant instead of organizing the pages so that a country's worksheet + their blank map was visible in an open-book spread like so...
... the country-specific pages would be front-to-back. It's hard to explain and even harder to show in graphic form.
LOL, that's super clear, right?
Anyway, I'll try to describe it. In the consumable workbook, the above worksheet for Burundi with the flag to color would be on the front, then its blank map would be on its back... so a student could tear out the sheet and hand in the whole country without breaking up other countries.
The digital/downloadable version is still designed to show the whole country (worksheet & map page) at once, though parents/educators could print it however they wanted.
The two different formats were such a headache to sort out. Last week, I finally received the final file for the consumable workbook and thought I could upload it, order a proof, and be on my way!
BUT JUST KIDDING.
Okay, so Amazon author services has print-on-demand options for indie authors. This allows us to sell paperbacks and even hardcovers (currently in beta) of our novels without needing to fork over a bunch of money to a vanity press or an overseas printer. However! They don't offer printing services for other book-ish things like notebooks, calendars, or workbooks. For that, I was planning on using Ingram Spark.
Ingram Spark is the company who fulfills print-on-demand novels for Amazon anyway, but if you go directly to them (instead of via your author account on Amazon), there are a lot more printing options. Including, a perforated 8.5x11" workbook.
I've used their design guide to format the workbooks and the finished product for Africa (not counting the separate teacher's guide) is 148 pages. But guess what? They won't actually print a perforated workbook and allow me to sell it on Amazon or in bookstores or anywhere. They won't offer it for wholesale at all.
Which, to be fair, is pretty clearly stated. I just thought that they would still allow me to sell them retail as long as I was listing the book in US markets.
There are other places that will print a perforated page workbook for me, but they all require ordering in bulk and processing orders myself---something I really don't want to do. The whole reason I decided to work on Geography Kid first was because I hoped it would be a fairly passive income source. Obviously I am planning on providing customer service and will help people find and unzip their downloads like I did before, but that's a different beast than running a whole ass fulfillment center for what I hope will be a whole array of educational products.
So, even though I am crying and eating chocolate chip ice cream straight from the container with a fork (somehow a fork is better for emotional meltdowns), it's not the actual end of the world or anything. There are (obviously) far worse and far more terrible things going on at any given second. I know this. My white lady tears know this. You guys know this.
The consumable workbook has to be completely redesigned so the bleedlines and margins and other headachy printing requirements work/fit for a workbook without perforated pages. Without being able to offer the tear-out feature, I'm not entirely sure it's important for the entire country to be on one single front & back page, or if I should go back to the regular spread.
Grumble, grumble, pout, and sulk, etc.
It's taking so long. I had hoped to revise and release all the previous books (Africa, Europe, and Asia) by December 2022, quickly moving on to other continents. And here I am, eight months after starting and I'm still slogging away at the first book. 🫠🫠🫠 Meanwhile, my nest egg continues to shrink and the financial stress, you guys. Sometimes I can't breathe, the size of the elephant sitting on my chest is so large.
It me. Look at my stress. She's so comfy crushing my windpipe and snapping all my rib bones. (I don't have a link for that graphic, but I'm pretty sure it's a Gemma Correll drawing. I'd recognize her style anywhere.)
SO ANYWAY. This is my update and it is probably very dull and hard to understand (which side of the page was what again?) but these are things I would tell my husband, and he would offer many a sympathetic grunt and probably more ice cream. He is not here, so you get it all instead. Congratulations! Love that for you! What enjoyment and good time and fun for all of us. Here, have some more melting emojis. They feel appropriate. 🫠🫠🫠