New book coming soon: ELLO MONKEY

ELLO MONKEY: Reanimating Social Media.

The book will be launched this Sunday night/Monday. Here's the cover:


This is exciting. We've got permission from the Ello founders to use their logo, and some wonderful people will be providing blurbs.

There is a hitch with Amazon - those fuckers won't distribute a book for free *pouts* ...so I'm setting the book up on Gumroad for a 0+ (free) download of PDF and MOBI. It'll also be on Amazon though (for the lowest price possible) because we want the book to be found in search and theirs has range.

But the main link we're pushing will be the free one. And we're going to push it with a vengeance; honest reviews, ratings and shares on every channel will be most welcome.

I hope you're with me on this. Picture-books for grownups: it's a thing.

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Interactive Book! PickleWeasel Picture Riddles on Kindle.

You know when you get a print book and you can hold it in your hands and turn the pages and really feel the paper between your fingertips? It's sooo lovely. I love books.

Of course, you can get the Kindle version of a book that pretends to be a paper book but it's just not the same. And why should it be? It should be different! It should be ...EXTRA.

Call to action! Buy it now on Amazon.

You guys. I'm leaking books.

PickleWeasel Picture Riddles on Kindle is EXTRA - it's got extra clues, extra surprize jokes (also known as 'easter eggs') and extra interactive "pop-ups". It has more stuff in it and it's a little more fun for older readers too.

Screencap time:

Punny hints.

Double-tap the key for the answer.

There are ten hidden pop-ups from PW in the book.

Picture-riddles are word-games: most of the hints are in the drawing, but if you need a clue, simply double-tap the lens and one will appear. The clues come in several forms - jumbled letters, number of letters, first letters, rhyming words, and punny hints (those are my faves). You can check your answer by double-tapping on the key. There are also ten hidden pop-ups from PW, so have fun finding them all.

Bonus: As you flip through the pages, PickleWeasel cavorts along the top of the screen. It's fun to make him animate.

See? It's a different reading experience than the paperback. Buy it here.
Now here's the deal - PickleWeasel Picture Riddles is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program - which means that if you purchase the paperback from Amazon, you'll be able to own the Kindle version for one third the price - $1.99.

PS. We've got a PickleWeasel drawing app (for ages 9+), so if you want some of that, just go here.

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NEW BOOK! PickleWeasel Picture Riddles

Here it is folks. PickleWeasel Picture Riddles.

101 of them, to be precise: this full colour book is a fun little brainteaser for kids and it has PW in it. But more than that YOU NEED THIS BOOK TO SURVIVE THE HOLIDAYS. Think about it. This is waaaaaay more than just a book.

My third book. Hurrah!

"What's that playful PickleWeasel up to? There are 101 tricky PickleWeasel picture riddles to have fun figuring out. Some of the words are easy and some are more of a challenge, with clues in every picture. You can "hide" and "reveal" the answers with your very own thumbs, and the words are inverted, for those who pride themselves on their upside-down reading skills. 

Story artist JCLittle has created a wacky, zany, super-fabulous and slightly educational collection of PickleWeasels for kids aged 8 - 12. 

Bonus: Flip the corners of the book to see a little animation, just for laffs. PickleWeasel is a jaunty fellow!"

Awesome thumb action! Upside-down answers!

You guys. Buy the paperback now, on Amazon or CreateSpace. Christmas is coming and stuff. If you want it, click on these:

The Kindle version is a boosted experience - it's interactive, for starters, and it has extra word-play clues and hints. It'll be available in a day or so.

And this is just Book 1 in a series of four. Wacky, zany, super-fabulous and slightly educational.

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Book giveaways comin' atcha.

The official book launch for PickleWeasel Picture Riddles is set for this Monday, December 1st (you should have digested your turkey dinners by then). I've heard that some folks have gone ahead and bought it already though. Sneaky... and very pickleweasely.

Here's my daughter showcasing it.

A video posted by JC Little (@theanimatedwoman) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:49pm PST

To celebrate, there's a giveaway on Goodreads. Five books to win.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

PickleWeasel Picture Riddles

by J.C. Little

Giveaway ends December 03, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Also, we now have some gorgeous special edition hardcovers of The LAST Snowman. These are lovely quality books. The 14 year old girl (now 17) shows you the book here.

A video posted by JC Little (@theanimatedwoman) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:55pm PST

You can only get them from me directly and they are now at the seasons greetings price of $16 plus shipping. I would be thrilled and humbled to sign them for you. There is a giveaway for this one too - one book only.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The LAST Snowman

by J.C. Little

Giveaway ends December 03, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I hope you like my books. They're mostly pictures.

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Book cover design for PickleWeasel.

I crowd-sourced feedback the new PickleWeasel book series, specifically about the title and book cover design. I had awesome responses from both Facebook and Ello, so it was a nice slice of different people-types.

The numbers came in at 36 votes for "A" and 34 votes for "B" - too close to call. It eventually came down to whether or not to keep the "101" in the title. Lots of people liked it because it follows an existing paradigm for story titles, and I admit that I was one of those people. But PickleWeasel's personality won in the end; it became a question of quality appeal over quantity appeal.

Here's the final version: PickleWeasel Picture Riddles.

Click here to embiggen.

There are 101 tricky PickleWeasel Picture Riddles in every book. And this is just Book 1; three more books are coming, each with 101 tricky picture riddles. That makes a total of 404.

Think about that for a moment.

Thanks to everyone for all your feedback; especially the kids!

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PickleWeasel books are coming soon!

I've been frightfully busy getting my next four books lined up. Yup, you heard right: FOUR books. For kids. Because I somehow ended up with several hundred drawings of PickleWeasel.

101 PickleWeasels! (working title) are comin' atcha in the first book in just a few short weeks. Print and Kindle versions. In time for Christmas and gifts and stuff. The rest of the series will follow over the next year, so you can collect the whole set, just like a proper book series. I am smart.

Here is a sample layout:

As usual, PickleWeasel is acting out, and you have to guess what he, she, they are up to. Some of the words are easy and some are a little more challenging (even I learned a few new words making this book) with the option to "hide" and "reveal" the answers with your very own thumbs. Plus the answers are upside down, since I know that some of your kids pride themselves on upside down reading skills.

And just because I can, I put this flippable animation in the corner. Swaaag!

Please stay tooned.

xojc

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The things I do for money!

What have I been up to?

Welp. I've been illustrating someone else's book, if you must know. It's a pop-up book and it's 100% #nsfw ...in fact, some might consider it to be the antithesis of a children's picture book. Although it does have a certain semi-educational aspect.

OK that's a stretch. But it definitely is playful and funny. This book is a firecracker!

Anyways, it's nearly done. A good thing too, because I'm running out of ways to explain it to my kids' friends when they stop by my studio to leer. The little buggers.

I'm one of two contributing illustrators - the drawings are not in my signature style, though they are quite cartoonie. The nom de plume that I'm going by is Ynk O'Rigibble. You may have to rely on your superior search skillz to find it, because I may or may not post the link to it. But I will let you know when it's out.

I am nice!

What's the craziest thing you ever did for money?

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Book cover sneak-peek! (and Goodreads Giveaway)

Where was I? Oh right, so my next book, Motherhood, is set to launch on April 28th. JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHERS DAY.

"This is the universal story of motherhood, from the gentle moment of birth to the inevitable letting go. In the playful and poignant simplicity that is her signature style, JC Little has captured the tender bond between mother and child. A timeless and wordless picture-book for mothers, sons and daughters of all ages."

Some of you might remember the bare bones of the story as blogpost. I want to bring it to a wider audience, so I fleshed it out into a book with completely new drawings.

1. This book is wordless. Pictures only. And if you get the Kindle version, the page flips animate. So it's like watching a little film. Feel free to hum a little soundtrack to yourself as you read.


2. It's for all ages. It's the kind of book that might be given by anyone experiencing mother-appreciation sentiments. Sons and daughters can give it to their moms. Moms can give it to their sons and daughters to help foster an understanding of the experience of motherhood. I'd want to give it to a new or expectant mom, a teen or young adult leaving home for the first time...and children who like to make up the words to the story themselves. I loved doing that when I was small.

NB: some teenagers react to this book by sobbing on the sofa and needing cuddles.


3. Did I mention that this book will make a perfect Mothers Day present? It'll be available as a paperback. Think of it as a really, really special card. I even included a clear page at the beginning for you to write or draw a little note (I am nice).


4. This is happening:
   
   
   

   
   

   Goodreads Book Giveaway

   

   Motherhood

   by JC Little

   Giveaway ends May 01, 2014.
   See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

   Enter to win


5. If you'd like to review the book ahead of Mothers Day or soon after, please reach out to me for a review copy. I would be honoured...and humbled.
   

As always, I love you all very much.

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Print-on-demand: Joy or Despair?

So just to recap, I made a book called The LAST Snowman. I launched the first version as an ebook two weeks ago and you can pick it up for all things Kindle on Amazon. That version is already getting some really sweet reviews on Amazon and around the Internet, so I am happy.

But there's something about holding a book in your hands that's just so nice. A few people, including moi, wanted to experience this. So I went ahead and made a "print on demand" version. That means that I don't have to outlay tons of cash to have thousands of copies of the book printed (where most of them can then sit in my closet undisturbed for a billion years). And it also means that I can offer YOU a cute print version of The LAST Snowman for a decent price.

I was just worried about the colours; would they be nice? How would the paper feel? Is this the right size?

Joy or Despair? Let's find out:

Nice shiny cover; I ordered two proofs so I could compare them (ignore my yucky table cloth!)

This is what 50 pages looks like -perfect bound (no staples).

Looking inside, full bleed (colour goes right to the edge).

There's very little transparency in the paper, the colours are nice and deep and decently close to my screen shots.

And as a "real book" experience? This is where it really wins:

Definitely JOY.

You can now buy your very own copy of The LAST Snowman here on Createspace. It will be up on Amazon in about a week.

Don't hesitate to leave me a review on Amazon; it will make us both feel good.

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Self-publishing a picture book is really fun!

Well that was a gigantic lie.

I've been busy. Making a book. To self-publish. In other words, I am in HELL.

I thought I'd start making some of my stories into books. I've got some BIG BOOKS planned baby! But instead of starting with one of the biggies, I thought maybe I'd better test the waters with a story that's already proved its mettle, so to speak, on my blog. I selected a story, a well loved family story, with a universal theme - the junction between childhood and adolescence - The LAST Snowman.

This story is fully baked. Should work fine as a book, right?

Wrong.

Oh so wrong.

I have never been so wrong...(unless you count that time with that guy).

I noticed things in the drawings that bothered me and I had to finesse them. The pacing suddenly didn't work when I imagined another parent reading the story to their child. Establishing context became more important to build the tension. More drawings were needed.

And the text - where did all these repeated words come from?

What did I mean when I wrote this?

Do I really need to write that something happens in the story if I
show it happening in the illustration?

I reached out to those with more knowledge than I, and received valuable editing suggestions and advice. I honed, crafted, massaged, second-guessed and streamlined the story, and tried to stay true to the feel of the original blog post. I don't know if I've succeeded. A blog post is one thing; a book is another.

And then came formatting the bugger. With digital publishing, there's different types of files that you can make for a book. Oh wait....you're making a picture book? And it's landscape...as in "horizontal"? Sorry, but NONE of the eBook sellers out there (Amazon Kindle, iBook, Nook, Google Play) seem to be there yet. Here's the skinny (as far as I grasp it, which is not nearly as far as I like to throw this book):

You're supposed to start with InDesign and bring your pretty pictures in there. I hate InDesign with the burning intensity of a thousand suns. Then you export them to the different file formats: PDF, ePUB and MOBI. You really have to install plugins and screw around with the settings. My goal was to achieve a "two-page spread" - that is, one image spread over two pages, in the horizontal aspect of the device.

The PDF looked beautiful in iBooks on my iPad.

iKnowright?

But it failed at displaying
horizontally in the Kindle app on my friend Stephie's Android tablet. The bottom was cut off.

Stephie screencapped this for me while she was in a bubble bath; that was nice of her don't you think?

The ePUB file supposedly works well for text heavy books with a vertical (portrait) aspect ratio. Horizontal picture books? Not so much. Also, the colours were a bit washed out.

Some kinda weird artifact glommed onto this page and it won't shake loose.

MOBI (for Kindle or a device that has a Kindle app on it) - same dealio.

Two different sized frames on the vertical. WHY???

Remember, I'm looking for something that delivers a single image on each page change. I want to control all the things!

And then...I discovered the Kindle Comic Creator. KC2 is made by Amazon just for creating comics and picture books for Kindle, it's easy to use and it's free. I downloaded that baby, and threw my images into it hoping for the elusive two-page spread. Ten minutes later I had this:

Success!

Ideal preview results on all the Kindle Fires. No messing around with InDesign and all those crazy export settings.

Just for fun, here's the Kindle Paperwhite:

Woof.

But I still had to check out how it would appear in the Kindle apps on actual tablets. The Android passed with flying colours.

My friend Brandie screencapped this on her new Samsung tablet. 

And then I tested the KC2 MOBI (KF8) file on my iPad. It was a fail.

I blame Steve Jobs.

The KC2 Guide says it will work on the iPad Kindle app, but from what I can see, it did not deliver my "two-page spread".

AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A TEST BOOK.

I hear you laughing.

For all you Apple-cores, I'll be checking out the iBooks Author at some point. Or I'll just go with Blurb. We'll see.

Now the next big question is, "should I hire a publicist?" 

The LAST Snowman will launch during the first week of December 2013, Kindle version on Amazon. Holy crap, that's next week.

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