Austin Sights Alphabet Book

Finally progress!

2008-09-07T21:00:00.002+03:00

I feel like I'm finally making progress...I decided that I am going to use Blurb to do my book, a somewhat random decision on my part. Although I do like that they have storefront where I can put the book up for sale. I started setting up the layout and putting in the words and pictures I could find. At this point I seem to be 8 photos short - one of which I have, I just don't have any idea where the digital copy is (luckily I know it exists as its the hardest to take a random shot of). It seems it may be time to start harassing my friends and family to go take pictures for me so that I can get this thing done before next summer.

Photos needed:
Yellow bikes
bluebonnets
UT tower lit up orange
Elisabet New Sculpture at the Capital
Inner Space Caverns
Hill Country flowers
Bats

Tasks accomplished

2008-08-30T10:54:00.003+03:00

I actually accomplished several of the things I was aiming to do while I was back in Texas. Several of the pictures have now been taken, of course there are also several new ones that need to be worked out (I swear sometime I'll get them all sorted out). I seem to have found the hoard of original pictures taken on my mom's computer and brought them back with me. My favorite photo task was taking pictures of the Roller Derby...my those girls can skate quite nervy.

I also, thanks to my brother-in-law have a much better idea of what couplets need some work and which are okay. We rewrote several of them completely, hence the completely new pictures needed. Unfortunately this happened towards the end of my visit so I just ran out of time to get around the city. Happily though, a location in Buda, my hometown and now a suburb of Austin, will soon feature in a rhyme.

All in all, progress was made, unfortunately my timeline seems to be extending again until I can get back to take more photos - or perhaps convince someone else to take them for me.

To Do

2008-07-18T00:57:00.002+03:00

I'm actually back in Austin for a few weeks, which is ideal to get a few tasks done. I'm hoping to take care of at least three things while I'm here.

(1) Take a few of the pictures that are summer worthy: bats, roller derby, Stevie Ray Vaughn statue, Amy's Ice Cream, Treaty Oak
(2) Convince my brother-in-law to sit down with me and discuss the rhyme scheme of my couplets...hoping more of them are okay then I had feared.
(3) Find where I stored the original files of the pictures that I used for the book the first time around. I know I have them all digitally somewhere...the question is where?

If I can get those three things done then I should be in pretty good shape to actually do some real work on the book once I'm back in Istanbul.

Another question about photos

2008-01-12T21:30:00.000+02:00

While I was at home over December a friend brought up a new issue. Am I going to have to get permission to use the pictures of businesses? Seems fairly likely to me. I'm guessing that most of the local businesses will allow me to use their photos, its sort of like free publicity for them and fits into the "Keep Austin Weird" theme which they all subscribe to. Another friend came up with a more Austin replacement for Q (no longer Dairy Queen) which would have previously been one of the more difficult permissions to get I suspect. I need to remember to send well worded letters, perhaps with a copy of the photo I plan on using, to each of the businesses before I reach a publishing stage.

More self-publishing options

2008-01-12T21:21:00.000+02:00

I've been looking around trying to find the best way to put the Turkish alphabet book into print form, and have come around several other options for self-publishing. The nice thing is that many of these sites are also providing a store front where you can allow other people to buy your book. Much easier way to at least initially see if your book might sell. Of course none of them seem to do exactly what I want, but all seem like they may work just fine if I design the book within their software rather than trying to just import a book that is already completed (and which I have a set layout in mind).

Lulu
Viovio
MyPublisher

Pictures to take

2007-12-04T00:43:00.000+02:00

As I find myself in Texas currently I've started thinking about which pictures I may be able to take to replace the ones that are not mine, or that I would just like slightly better copies of...

Bats (i don't think it's the correct time of year for this)
Elisabet Ney (or rather a picture of her portrait...would the Elisabet Ney museum have this?)
Amy's Ice Cream
Roller Derby
Treaty Oak
UT Tower, lit up orange (this will only work if they win their bowl game)
Stevie Ray Vaughn statue by the river
Bluebonnets (winter is definitely not the time of year for this)
SXSW (not festival time right now either)
Zilker Christmas Tree

And a few that I wouldn't mind getting better pictures of:
Dairy Queen
James Avery
Kirby Lane

Rhythm

2007-11-12T14:03:00.000+02:00

So how do you keep track of they rhythm of words? Or how can I write it down in such a way that I compare the two lines of my rhymes? Does it matter if other people read at a different rhythm? Can I do more than just make it flow for my manner of speaking?

As you can tell the idea of getting the rhythm of each rhyme to math is only raising more questions. Until I can get a good idea of how to even chart down the rhythm I speak in I'm not sure I can really work on this (the math teacher in me needs a type of concise, exact manner of comparing). Would dots work?

Z is for the Zilker tree * * * * ** *
Spin around 'til you can't see * ** * * * *

Does this even matter? I kind of like this rhyme, but I'm not sure I could ever get every pair to have the same rhythm. Should I drive myself crazy trying?

Words

2007-11-12T13:54:00.000+02:00

So I've been at work on the words again. The trouble with rhyming, is that sometimes it means you have to phrase things in sort of an odd way. I'm trying to avoid that if possible. I think I've fixed two of the couplets that just needed work on the number of syllables. I tried to fix two others, but am not at all sure that they flow well now. I have also completely rewrote the last couplet (for Z) which would necessitate a picture taken in Austin during December...but I guess that's an entirely different problem. Let me know if you like the new last rhyme:

Z is for the Zilker tree
Spin around 'til you can't see.

Tasks

2007-10-21T21:25:00.000+03:00

So I already know of several things that I'm going to need to do before I even get to the publishing phase of this process.

1. pictures Figure out which of the pictures I used are my own, and which aren't. Work on replacing those that I can't use in a book. I see several options for this:

wait until I'm back in Austin and take replacement pictures. I see problems with this for a couple of them as they would require certain times of the year (bluebonnets, Zilker tree) or specific events (roller derby, SXSW)
convince friends/families to take these pictures for me and allow me to use them. This is tricky too...I'd have to be happy with them, and I'm not sure my relationships need that stress. And how do I explain exactly what I want when I'm not entirely sure?
Could I use photos from flickr that are under a creative commons license? I need to do a bit more research into that. If they are only under an attribution license does that mean I can use them in a commercial endeavor as long as I give credit?
Register/buy them off of i-stock photo. Fairly cheap, definitely allowed to use these for commercial use. The question is will they have everything that I want pictures of?

2. words The book is pretty much a two line rhyme for each letter of the alphabet. Some of these I'm not entirely happy with. Some of them I just don't think sound right, or don't have the same rhyme scheme. I guess the first step is to look at syllable counts. Is that all that matters, or does the rhythm that you speak in matter as well?

3. cover This is the thing I have the hardest time with in all the books I've done. Scrapbooks, alphabet books...it doesn't matter. I'm never happy with how the cover comes out. And if I'm going to try to sell this, then the cover really matters. It's what will make people pick up the book if they look at it. Do I try to do this myself? Put up multiple options for other people to vote on? Hire someone to advise me? Hire someone to create it? Can I afford to hire someone?

steps

2007-10-20T10:35:00.000+03:00

My sister sent this my way. Another blog post about creating your own book. It just outlines the basic steps to self-publishing, and definitely give a few things to think about.

Self-publishing

2007-10-20T10:27:00.000+03:00

I've found one possibility for self-publishing (not that I'm anywhere close to this point) - blurb. One of the things I like about this option is that they do a 7 x 7 inch square book. My original version of the book was square and I'd like to keep it that way. I haven't really looked into any other options yet, and I'm sure there are plenty.

Just the beginning

2007-10-17T12:54:00.001+03:00

I seem to have somehow fallen into a recurring project that involves me creating things for my niece J. Combining my hobby of photography with my entire family's love of books and this has developed into a series of alphabet books about places we (or I) have lived. When I began I never anticipated anyone beyond my immediate family even seeing these books, but somehow it's grown a bit. My sister loved the one about Austin, Texas so much that she has given her copy away, printed another copy and is asking me to redo one more so that J still has her own copy. The good remarks its been earning from other people has gotten me thinking...and I'm thinking I might try to see if I can get it published (or self-publish as I feel like it would be a niche market). The idea is really still just floating around in my head but I'm hoping the process of blogging will help me keep things straight and keep me moving along the necessary path. There are still a lot of steps to consider in this process.