Great Dane Press is the self-publishing company Holly and Liz established to produce and distribute their book, Through the Woods. We welcome other authors who are also exploring parent/child issues to consider this website for their publications. We would like to envision this website as a virtual community of people interested in further pursuing these topics.
Self-publishing seemed right for Through the Woods for several reasons. First, not all books are destined for commercial publishing. Second, some of the information that it contains could be outdated by the time we battled through lengthy commercial publishing timeframes, not to mention the time it takes to locate a willing publisher, assuming there was one to be found. Third, our market is small. Finally, as with everything involved with this book, self-publishing has introduced us to many new areas, from the technology and graphics of cover production to the issues of distribution (there are many). End to end, though, it has been an excellent adventure.
There are quite a few self-publishing websites, and some do an excellent job of laying out the entire process. A simple web search was how we found BooksJustBooks, the entity that we used. Though they are very helpful with the instructions of what needs to be done, remember that in self-publishing, the author is responsible for everything but the actual printing and binding. This includes the writing, editing (endless), formatting, graphics, layout, cover design and creation (complicated!), website development (to sell the books), marketing, pricing, packaging, shipping and accounting (for tax purposes). It is quite an adventure. You have to choose such arcane things as paper weight, page size, fonts, color processes and so forth.
We pulled in help at many points along the way (graphics and design people), if only to translate the printing jargon for us. BooksJustBooks will provide assistance with every part of the process (for additional fees) if desired. The production process took us the better part of a year. As with everything, assume it will cost twice what you anticipate by the time you include all corrections and outside help.
Many have asked if we have a Great Dane (Great Dane Press). Well, we have a Dane and we think he's great. He's my second child and eldest son, seen pictured here. We cannot have dogs because Holly is allergic to them.
The Great Dane pictured in the upper left-hand corner is Bailey. His portrait was painted by Mary McGregor of Rowandene Studio, Perthshire, Scotland. Mary's work is exceptional and her site is worth a visit.
http://www.animalportraits-scotland.com