Stupendous Stitching Book — Coming Soon!

For the past several months, I’ve been working on my Stupendous Stitching book.  Because I spent my first career in “publishing” it wasn’t hard to figure out what I needed to do and how much $ I would need invest to get my book in print.  My first thought was to publish with an established publisher but their contract was so onerous, I decided to go it alone.  I had self-published many books before (but not on fiber art!) so I knew what I was giving up in distribution and fulfillment, I would make back in profits!

After writing my first draft and making l sure I had high-quality photos of all my work and any other photos that needed to be included, I set about finding a free-lance developmental editor.  This type of editor helps you think about your book, make sure it’s organized correctly, that you have included all the necessary information and that your writing is clear and easy to read and understand.  I found a wonderful person, thanks to a recommendation from another fiber artist. My editor is Janice Brewster and she has been invaluable.  She doesn’t have a website yet but if you want to contact her, email me and I’ll give you her contact information.

Janice found a graphic designer to create the interior of the book as well as the cover, according to my printers specs, and I am seeing final proofs now.  It’s going to be gorgeous!

Once the final PDF’s are ready to print, I will print 200 copies for my immediate use (2 week delivery) using a print on demand system and 3,000 copies for an estimated 2-3 year inventory (4 week delivery) on an offset printer.

After the book is finalized, Janice and I will be talking about how to change the format of the book to accommodate the E-readers out in the market as well as looking at other electronic distribution avenues.  It’s an exciting and changing world in electronic publishing and I look forward to learning more every day.

All in all, this will be a major investment in my time and money but I think in the end, it will be well worth it.  After all, my ultimate personal goal is to encourage the creative spirit of sewers and quilters and be an inspiration to them.  Teaching gives me lots of pleasure and now that I’m teaching online at www.craftsy.com, I’m able to reach thousands of students worldwide.  But having a book is part of that experience as well.  Some people (like me!) just love to read.

I’ll keep you posted a this adventure continues….