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We begin with a concept for a publication. The concept is always based on some area of research or topic that interests us. Since our primary method of marketing is online, we choose a title and search for a compatible domain. Sometimes we trademark the title name to protect it.
Our next step is to roughly outline the publication. As the designer, Susan creates comps of designs and typography with hand sketches and using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. David is the photographer. Some of our books have required travel to conduct research and do photography. Sometimes we do that research and photography locally.
Once we have the content, we create the story and organize it into a publication format. We determine the size of the publication and choose the cover style and approximate pages. We create the publication on a Mac using Adobe InDesign.
We publish our documents using CreateSpace (now KDP), an Amazon Print-On-Demand company. Amazon assigns our ISBN numbers for each publication. When the InDesign document is complete, we upload it to our CreateSpace account for proofing. CreateSpace offers digital and print proofing options. Once the publication is proofed and approved, we choose the details of the distribution and the price. Then the publication is officially released.
Once the publication is released, it appears within a few days on Amazon.com. At the same time, we make an announcement on our websites and social media. In some cases, the digital files for the books are offered as a free download. We use the Adobe PDF format to distribute our publications digitally. We have also made short promotional videos for some publications’ YouTube channels and send copies to reviewers or people we feel might be interested in the publication.
The timeframe for our publications, from start to finish, can range from a few months to a few years.