Finally progress!

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

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

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

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

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