You guys know the drill by now. Instead of working, I made a vlog. What else is new? Here it is for your viewing enjoyment:
Forgive the terrible lighting. A Hollywood-level film producer, I am not.
Unrelated images of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/a/WMVRM
Source: http://imgur.com/a/WMVRM
Michelle Proulx - Author 
I also tend to picture something along the lines lf “Le Mau”…but I like the French cat idea.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I burst out laughing at that comic.
Lol, well, that’s what it was there for 😀
You and your mom are ADORABLE! Those were the best bloopers, and I think you really should try printing on a shoe. 😉 Seriously, nice job getting the cover the way you wanted it, Michelle.
I passed on your comments to my mother, and she seemed flustered but pleased by the compliment 🙂
Clever. 😉 And REALLY… nice job.
Thanks! 🙂
The music REALLY makes me think of The Forbidden Planet. xDD ❤ I love that movie. Also, congrats on getting the final cover! I know what you meant about wishing you could have gotten a more custom silhouette, but Varrin didn't look like a fat balding man, so hey, win there!
How sad is it that my only requirement for the cover is to not have a fat, balding man on it? Sigh. I need to raise my standards.
Forbidden Planet? I … don’t know that movie? Although I feel like I should …
What?! Classic Syfy movie. Has Robbie the Robot in it. x) Give it a watch sometime if you’re bored. And lol, right?? But that’s okay–it all worked out fine in the end. 🙂 Although it was kind of a hoot to see the first cover you got, since you never posted that one. It’s kind of sad, though, how shoddy a job they did just figuring you would request a re-do anyway. Must be nice to have a job where your accuracy only has to be like 40% the first time around.
Thank you! I’m not crazy! Mother keeps insisting that they gave me a shoddy first draft because it was just the rough version, blah blah blah, but if I’d said OK to that, they would have gone ahead and stuck it on the front of the book, no questions asked. That doesn’t sound like a smart business practice to me.
Nooooot really, but hey, learning experience right? Then after this one you can work on the sequel with what you know and maybe decide not to patron them anymore. *shrug* We’ve all learned something about the process for your efforts. 🙂
And what more can I hope for than to teach and inspire? 🙂
A personal jet, a yacht, your own island and millions upon millions of dollars?
Okay, I wouldn’t mind those things. What I really want is a mansion with secret doors and hidden staircases. But I’m given to understood those are fairly expensive.
Anyone worth their salt wants one of those babies. If you have a mansion WITHOUT secret doors and staircases, you’re not doing it right.
I’m sure working with iUniverse has been a learning experience for you. Are you planning on using them for another book? There’s really good professional cover artists who will work with you and not charge an arm and a leg or your first born, and there are also really good copy editors who won’t charge you same as above. And it’s fairly simple to format for Kindle and or smashwords, (or have a professional do it for you) without charging an arm and a leg, et al…..just saying. I hate to see new authors spend lots of money where they don’t have to. 🙂 I’d be happy to give you any info I can.
You know, I went with iUniverse for a few reasons. 1) They’re going to get my book into a physical brick and mortar bookstore for a lengthy period of time, which I figure can’t hurt my visibility as an author. 2) They have reps who will pitch my book at book fairs. Also, back when I signed with them, I was new to the self-publishing game and really had no idea what I was doing.
Having acquired much knowledge since then, I’m confident I could produce a book of equal quality by doing it entirely myself (well, and by hiring a cover designer, copy-editor, etc. myself). I haven’t worked out yet what I’m going to do. I’ll see how they treat me now that the book is published. If they’re good to me and help me out, I’ll consider using iUniverse again. If not, well … self-publishing has never been easier or cheaper 🙂
I’m excited for you! 😀 My mom says I owe her a beach house on an island somewhere (and after I showed her this she said a cruise was not enough, beach house or bust) >.>
Hahaha. Well, originally mom wanted a boat, but then she realized that she has no idea how to sail a boat, so she’s settling for assorted cruises instead. Parents sure are demanding!
Hi, Michelle, I just wanted to let you know I’m passing the Versatile Blogger Award on to you. Here’s the link to the post where I blogged about it: http://gwenbristol.com/2013/01/13/698/
Thanks for a really great blog!
Thanks so much!!!
Absolutely love the blooper reel! You two are a very dynamic team. 🙂
Haha you should hear the way she complains about being on the vlog. Well, actually, you saw some of that in the blooper reel, lol.
She seems like quite the character. 😉
Admittedly, since my wife and I printed through Lulu we had a lot more ‘Do It Yourself’ behind our project – there are services, such as copy editing and cover design, etc. available through the community. A range of prices, most of them hefty considering our tight budget. So we didn’t use any of them. We’ve actually found, after release, that some of our family members are very good at finding typos and mistakes. Which we’re correcting in the manuscripts as they are reported to us.
But as far as the cover design went, that was 100% us.
And because you self-published, you can just upload a new version of the manuscript to whatever site you self-published through, right? That’s one thing I dislike about iUniverse — once it’s in print, it’s in print, and you can’t make any changes unless you want to pay them more money.
There is a yes and a no to this: Yes, we can update our Lulu.com print and ePub manuscripts as many times as necessary, whether its for cover art or interior files. However – we also have a distribution print, which is sent to Amazon.com and Ingram. That manuscript may cost money to have updated, depending on the circumstances.
($75 is what global distribution costs, plus the cost of an ISBN number if you wanted your own. We used the free Lulu-provided ISBN.)
Ah, very interesting. So there can be costs involved when changes are necessary. I get that — Amazon.com and Ingram don’t want authors just changing files out on them willy nilly without some sort of monetary recompense. Good to know!
Wonderful.
I nominated you for the Liebster Award you can find the rules here
https://mariwells.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/liebster-award/
Thanks!!! 🙂
You’re Welcome! ((hugs)) 😀
Has anyone ever told you you have the same name as Mary Wells?
Yes, If I’m correct she was a singer.
Yes ma’am, an early Motown diva. Thanks for seeing past my intentionally silly wording to recognize that I was asking a real question!
I was leaning towards blues or jazz but I wasn’t sure.
I knew what you were asking, at first I you were joking, but I understood.
Re the pregnant man versuion: I never gave permission for anyone to use my silhouette!
Er, “version”
Ha. Wait, you’re pregnant? You should probably contact the media — you’d make a fortune!
I don’t want my wife to find out!
I just got your video to work. I think there were too many people watching the other day, or my internet was being dumb.
Anyways, I loved the vlog, your mother is hilarious!
So glad they got everything working correctly for you and your on your way. 😀
It took a while, and a lot of hair pulling on my part, but yes, everything got straightened out in end. So excited to get the physical copies of the book in my hands!!!
I bet you are, it like the beginning of a dream. 😀