Progress of Raymund and the Fear Monster

The Publishing Journey of 'Raymund and the Fear Monster

October 2013 - December 2013

I wrote the story for children in an orphanage in the Philippines who I met in June 2013. I illustrated the book and put it all together. I printed out four copies as a Photobook through Officeworks. January 1st 2014 I gave them their copy. (They read it right up until someone decided they liked it so much they took it when they left the orphanage in 2018).

2014- January 2015

I put Raymund and the Fear Monster away on the shelf. It was done! Wasn't it?

February 2015

I talked to parents about my story. I read it to them. I entered into conversations about childhood fears and the parents expressing a desire for more books with strategies in them, but not a self help book for kids with bad pictures, but a fun book that would draw them in. I started re-working Raymund.

May 2015

Put Raymund on the backburner for awhile. Worked on other stories. I felt I needed some space and I also needed to learn the craft of writing.

October 2015

I completed a Writing Picture Book course through the Australian Writer's Centre. I wrote a different version of Raymund that fit with the current picture book format.

February 2016

I started re-working Raymund... again.

March 2016

I wanted to throw up on Raymund and never lay eyes on it again.

April 2016

I came across Jen Storer's post Right Story, Wrong Format. I also attended my writer's group meeting where we learned about dialogue. There I worked on a piece of dialogue from Raymund. Light bulb moment! I went home and re-wrote Raymund and actually started feeling excited about it again. Okay. There was a happy dance and squeeing involved.

May 2016

I had the wonderful opportunity to present the new and improved version to students at Kosciuszko Street Primary School. They loved it and wanted more. Yay!

October 2016

Ester and I feel that Raymund is ready to meet the world and we discussed self-publishing options.

November 2016

12th November: Ester and I finalise details of which company we will go with and how we will go about self-publishing Raymund and the Fear Monster.
17th November: Woohoo! The announcement on my blog.
18th November: Manuscript sent to editor for assessment.
25th November: Manuscript assessment is received back. Now to read it through, let in sink in, and let the perculation begin. Very exciting to see what the editor has noticed.
27th November: Start the rewrite.
29th November: Type up new version. I'm loving how the story is sounding.
30th November: Had a free mentoring session through Small Business Mentoring Bus for Ester and I to sort through what we separately needed to do for our individual businesses, as well as working together on this project. Yay! Such great advice and well worth the time.
30th November: Ester and I work through the manuscript to see what she would show in illustrations, as well as words that could change. It's great to be able to work so closely with an illustrator who is also a writer.
From 30th November: Ester is working on the pagination. Pagination for a 48 page illustrated story takes awhile. It's a process that cannot be rushed.

December 2016

11th December: Ester shows me some thumbs that she has done. (No! Not an appendage of your hand.) They look so good. We chat more about size of the final book, layout, and look of the final book. Pagination is going to take awhile due to the time of year (Christmas and end of school year), and Ester is also working on another prior project.
14th December: All about on-line Marketing. Another Small Business Mentoring session. This time it was just me with a mentor. Now I have some very clear ways to tweak what I am already doing, and ways to add to my overall marketing plan. So glad that I started early as there is so much to learn and to implement.
30th December: Woohoo! The thumbs are done. Paginition is done. Now to send the manuscript with pagination off to the editor.

January 2017

3rd January: I sent the manuscript off to my editor for the next stage of edits. Due to holidays, I thought it would take awhile.
9th January: Confirmation that the edit is underway.
11th January: Edited manuscript is ready for me to check. Ahhhh! What a big job ahead.
19th January: I have finally gone through the edited manuscript and tabled all the changes. Table has been emailed back to the editor. Skype call with editor next week to through it together and hash out any final points.
23rd January: Skype call with editor to go over the manuscript and iron out any last words that may need changing.
25th January: Email from editor: Final of Raymund and the Fear Monster. Phew! What a relief. It is finally done and no more rewrites. Yay. Happy dancing. Now over to Ester for the illustrations. This will take a while as Ester is working on a prior project.

May 2017

20th May: Attended KidLitVic2017 - Meet the Publishers Conference in Melbourne. While there, I attended a School Visit Workshop. I am now more prepared to deliver fun, interactive, engaging workshops and school visits.
25th: I am busy starting work on a series of workshops for adults, and a series for children. Overcome Fear. Live Courageously. I'm working with a local counsellor.

June

Ester has completed the good thumbnails to send to the publisher for approval. (If you want sneaky peaks, you have to sign up)

July 2017

Lily Fabourama Glamourama, by Emma Mactaggart and illustrated by Ester de Boer, wins Silver in the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Woohoo! I have a multi-award winning illustrator working on my book. Wow!
17th I have started outlining the workshops after taking a break to try to finish off a novel I'm working on. Getting there.

August 2017

1st Finished my first full length novel. It's a Young Adult Sci-fi/fantasy. This book has taken 13 months to get the first draft down, but now I can it's out of my system I can fully concentrate on working on these workshops.
23rd These workshops are harder than I thought they would be. I want them to be fun, engaging, and informative. I think I am finally on the right track.

September 2017

1st A book that I ordered has arrived. It deals with childhood anxieties and fear. This is all part of my research to make sure the information I deliver will be the best that it can be. Now, lots of reading and note taking.
15th The book has been wonderful. There is so much up-to-date information as well as fun games to play. I can't wait to implement them in my workshops.
27th Registered my business name: Blue Brumby Books
29th Today I worked with a primary school teacher to get ideas for the work shops and how they can best be implemented in the classroom. She had so many wonderful ideas how I could take what I know, as well as my research, and place them in a classroom situation. Now I just need to finish the outlines and start on the next phase. Putting it all together.

October 2017 - December 2017

Ester and I take Nina Rycroft's illustration Masterclass eCourse.
We also discuss what style she would use for the illustrations. We settle on one. Happy days!

January 2018

15th Ester starts on the illustrations. The style is different from what we discussed. However, I think that this is even better. How amazing does this look?!

April - August

I've been busy running writing workshops at a local primary schools and have been using the illustrations and text from Raymund and the Fear Monster in the introduction slides.

Ester is still working through the illustrations. There are so many!

October 2018

I fainted twice in a couple of weeks and ended up in Emergency. CFS crash is diagnosed.

Lots of bed time. Sorry Jen. I tried to watch videos, but I couldn't even concentrate on an audio book. I embrace my inner cat. Sleeping it is.

On my part, for the last few months I'd been writing, working on illustrating, working at bringing Street Libraries to my area, and my daughter (my carer), who had been unwell for some time, had been diagnosed with an eight centimeter tumour in her neck and going down into her chest. I had been gradually having to take over more and more around the house. And then my body said enough and I had a Chronic Fatigue/ME crash. I was fainting and bed ridden most days. (2023 Update. It wasn't a CFS crash. It was actually Orthostatic Intolerance, which is similar to POTS).

I was so pleased we were up to the stage that we were and I just let Ester take her time. However, I realised that for now, I had to let the 'Overcoming Fear' videos go and return to them in the future when I had the energy.

February 2019

Ester has worked like crazy over the past few months.

Ester de Boer working on the final illustration for 'Raymund and the Fear Monster'

This month she completed the final illustration in the book.

March 6th 2019

Now on to the cover...

March 12th 2019

final tweaks on all the illustrations..

March 19th 2019

and then some subtle touches of colour...

Then it will be scanned and off to the lovely people at Book Cover Cafe to work their magic to put our book together.

June 4th 2019

Work has begun on putting Raymund and the Fear Monster together. The cover first.

Ester has begun work on the teacher resource pack to go with our book.

June 22nd 2019

First round of cover designs. Not really capturing the feel of Raymund. Back to the drawing board.

June 27th 2019

Next round of cover designs. Getting closer.

4th July

Another round of cover designs. These look promising.

8th July.

We have a cover! Yay! We had the promo cover by the 9th July. Now on to the internals.

25th July

We get back the first round of revisions for the book typeset . Let's just say there was a lot of work to do. Yes! That was my face.

12th August

After several rounds of revisions we receive the finals. Phew. Now the back cover.

30th August

After a few revisions...

we got there.

It looks pretty cool.

So that's it...but it wasn't...

We had always planned on a 48 page book with end papers. After a few days of the graphic designer finalizing some things, and me asking IngramSpark about printing our sized book, we found out we had to make a 52 page book. No end papers. Sad face. The illustrations have been included though. However, they are available if in the future we decide to go with offset printing.

10th September

Received all the files ready to upload to IngramSpark... and then my health took a dive. Uploading will have to wait.

30th September

I received my copies of the Creative Kids Tales Story Collection Vol. 2. I have nine illustrations and two stories included in this collection. One of the stories is a version of Raymund and the Fear Monster, Freya and the Fear Monster, which I wrote in 2015 for younger children. I illustrated this story.

1st October

Today was the day. A kind friend uploaded the files and filled out all the information for me. Woohoo!

3rd October

Ordered proof copies. Celebrated by eating a piece of Haighs's chocolate which I'd been saving for this occasion. Yummmm. Coffee dark chocolate.

9th October

Received proof copies. We had to go out and celebrate. We started seriously talking about the book launch as we now have the physical copies in hand and it doesn't take long to ship once printed.
We pop around to our one of our local bookstores who has followed our journey from the beginning and show her our book. We now have a timeline and a date for the launch, and a where.
There was a misprint with the paperback and I had to report it and get it reprinted.
I hit the distribute button on IngramSpark for the hardcover so it will be distributed online over the coming weeks. This book will be available in just about every English speaking country in the world.

17th October

The paperback proof arrived and is perfect. Hit the distribute paperback button on my IngramSpark account.

Just waiting on some money to come in for preorders and then we can do our first print run.

21st October

Hit publish for our first print run. 100 in total. Just enough to cover the preorders and a few for the launches.

Ester is still working on the teacher resources. It's going to be a great package. And it will look fun too.

And I have begun to answer questions for some upcoming interviews for the book blog tour.

25th October

Today I had the opportunity to read Raymund and the Fear Monster to some young students at Morwell Central Primary School. They gasped, laughed, and giggled in all the right places. As a surprise for the students and teachers, Ester came too. We showed them the book trailer which the amazing Romi Sharp had created for our upcoming book tour. We also announced our 'Draw Your Own Fear Monster' competition. We left them filled with excitement and drawing furiously.

I actually forgot the book and had to race home to pick it up (I was dealing with some serious brain fog on the day). I had my laptop with the eBook. Luckily I didn't rely on tech. The Ebook and trailer wouldn't work and the teachers had to get the school tech in to get them working. It didn't slow us down though. And I showed the trailer later. The kids loved it.

Yes. I do get into the story. I pull faces, make noises, and do the character voices.