I have just read the slightly disturbing fact that I should be writing a blog at least a couple of times a week! There I was feeling bad that my good intentions of writing a new blog at the start of each week have failed miserably…and now I find that I’m doing even worse than I suspected! So, for anyone who is following me and has been missing the next instalment, I do apologise. Life has been rather busy and somewhat got in the way, but also I have been working hard on the early stages of some new ventures, so I thought I might start to share some of those with you, little by little as they progress.
I know many of you will have heard a few exciting rumours about an up-coming book project. Before Christmas last year, I realised that I have so many Christmas beading projects that perhaps it was time to put at least some of them into a book. Actually, the idea was suggested to me by a very good friend and at first I wasn’t sure that I am sufficiently well-known to be able to make the project work, but after a few conversations, it seemed that there is a demand out there, so I couldn’t possible disappoint all the lovely people who have supported me so well! Plus, I was rather getting into the Christmas spirit and soon found myself not only re-making and writing up projects that I had done in the past, but also full of ideas for new projects. As ever, my mind went into over-drive and before I knew it, I had themes and ideas a-plenty. I think it was back in March or April that the book took on a definite shape when Vivienne Wells from Vivebooks (those of you who already have my Beaded Wedding Bouquets and also the Miniature Beaded Cakes books will know all about Vivebooks) very kindly agreed to publish my Christmas project.
The whole process of working with a publisher is really interesting and, in my experience, has been a lot of fun. In fact, I think that subject may be worth a blog all on its own, so that settles next week’s blog! Getting back to the Christmas book, it soon became apparent that I actually had enough projects to fill two volumes! I love Vivebooks because, unlike a lot of ebooks, they all include videos, so whatever the subject (and there are a lot of different crafts covered in their catalogue), the reader gets to watch, pause and rewind the author demonstrating and explaining the techniques for that craft – brilliant! The only slight problem is that video can take up a lot of space and, in the interests of download times, there does need to be some kind of restriction on the file size of the ebook. So, splitting my long list of projects into two sections, each with a sensible theme, proved to be interesting. Happily, it all worked out very well and we have come up with an overall title of ‘A Beaded Christmas’. Volume 1 will cover projects for decorating your home. Volume 2 will cover projects for decorating your Christmas tree, making personalised cards and gifts. You may remember an earlier blog in which I talked about the photo shoot we did for the Beaded Christmas (back in June just as the summer was starting!), well, a couple of days ago, I had the great excitement of seeing how some of those photos have been turned into the two book covers. You get to see a sneak peek of a part of the cover for Volume 1 above.
With most books, the publisher and author start by agreeing a publication date so that we all have a sensible deadline towards which to work. However, in my experience, life usually gets in the way and deadlines tend to move a little, accordingly. Most of the time, it’s not that crucial – a beading book is good whatever time of year it appears, right? Not so with a Christmas themed book – it needs to come out at just the right time. Too close to Christmas and nobody has time to make any of the projects, but too early in the year and nobody wants to think about Christmas! If you go by the ‘retail calendar’ then these days Christmas preparations start at the beginning of September, but as I sit outside in the sun, enjoying another mini heat-wave, thoughts of Christmas are not uppermost in my mind. I have also heard the usual screams of horror at the first appearance of Christmas decorations in some shops – we’re just not quite ready for Christmas yet! That’s just as well because it means that I can leave you all hanging a few days longer before I formally announce the publication date and, even more exciting, a whole lot of ideas for getting readers involved and getting your work into the gallery pages of the actual book, so stay tuned…! (And I promise you won’t have to wait another two weeks for the next instalment!
