The Haiku Handbook
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 at 09:49AM Remember when Micah decided he was going to write a book? Well, I finally finished my part (typesetting and loading pictures on the computer and all) not long ago, and the box of books arrived yesterday! Micah's pretty stoked.
To document the process...
1. We did a lesson on haikus with the Cover Story curriculum. (This was back in April.) Micah was hooked. ;) Not one for moderation, he quickly decided he'd best write at least twenty.
2. Next he decided that with that many haikus, he should just write a book. He decided each haiku should be illustrated and began drawing:
(He used some of his stuffed animals as models and then started looking online for tutorials on how to draw certain things. I provided the paper and an eraser and just let him go.)
3. He finished much sooner than I'd anticipated, lol. Above is Koaly "editing" the handwritten haikus. This was mid-May.
4. I, um, procrastinated and worked on yardwork and schoolwork and vacation and hail storm damage stuff.
5. I finally finished putting everything together mid-July and sent it off to be published. ;)
6. Yesterday, this box arrived:
Per Micah's instructions, the cover is supposed to look very simple:
And we wrote up a little blurb about the author for the back:
Here's a sample page from inside the book:
7. And now the boy wants to sell them all (well, almost all of them...he has a short list of people he plans to gift a copy to...grandparents, great-grandmothers, and the author of the Cover Story curriculum). He made me order 45. :)
So. If you're in the Prosser, WA area, my mom's store, Branches & Vines (in Benton City) will be the exclusive distributor for that area. ;) Micah asked her if she'd carry ten copies in her shop and we'll be shipping those out soon. (They have to finish negotiations about cost, lol.) Get yours there!
If you're local, let me know if you want one. I'm making him do all the sales so don't really want to sell for him, kwim?, but wouldn't want you to miss out if you want one, as he's already talked it up at the dentist's office and has plans to canvas the neighborhood. ;) Let me know and I'll hold one back and have him give you his sales pitch.
If you're not local and not in the Prosser area, you can actually buy one directly from Lulu (where I had them published). Click here. Sorry. I have no idea what shipping will be but know that Micah won't want to cover that expense, himself. (We're using this also as a lesson in profit and expenses and making him cover all costs. The price at Lulu is the same as what he's asking in person, and Lulu will deposit the difference between the printing cost and the asking price into an account for Micah.) If shipping is horribly high, let me know...
Whew. Okay, that's it for now. ;) Be warned. If this goes well, he's already started researching how to write other types of books...
Reader Comments (3)
So cool! Love how he decided to illustrate each one also :)
Looks like shipping ends up being about $4. Not terrible... but maybe we can hook up for a crop and I can get the sales pitch and the product in person from Micah himself! ;-)
I was thinking his haikus might make nice sentiments/quotes for cards & layouts!
XXOO from Broomfield,
Congratulations to Micah! I can hardly wait to see it!