Category Archives: Thoughts on Building a Book

How to Draw a Book, Chapter 4

We’ve been covering the questions I had to answer before deciding to do the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia.

Do I have the ability?

I’ve been drawing cabins since 1986, along with lots of other subjects. I’m positive that I have more than 10,000 hours of focused practice with the intention to continually improve.

Wilsonia benches

I’ve published another book on cabins, The Cabins of Mineral King (1998). That book was accomplished with a partner. Jane Coughran is a retired picture editor for Time-Life Books, and without her expertise, the Mineral King book would not have happened.

Times were different in the last century. Janey and I did the research by interviewing other local authors. We decided how to divide the info into chapters, where to have text, took the photos for drawing, borrowed the historical photos that we included, decided the views of each cabin, laid out the book, found all the people we hired*, chased down the ISBN and bar code, got into the Library of Congress Card Catalog, chose a printer, a binder and even a trucking company to deliver the books. We designed pre-order forms and sent them with invitations to a book signing, which we also planned. We hauled the books to shows, sold them, delivered to bookstores and other gift shops, stored them, and shipped them all over the country. We sold out.

This time, it’s just me. I either know how to do this stuff, or can find people to teach me, or know how to find people to do the parts that are beyond my ability.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

*a book designer, a graphic artist to make our map, a publicist

How to Draw a Book, Chapter 3

Will anyone care enough to buy this book?

Is this cabin on Cedar? Or is it on Meadow? The map says Cedar, so that is the chapter where it will appear in the book.

Last time we determined that people will indeed care about a book called The Cabins of Wilsonia. Today we will think about whether or not enough people will care to make the project worthwhile. It would be stupid to spend 3 years on a project, not earning any money while I am doing it, and not earning any money at the end. I try to not be stupid. This is a good policy, don’t you think?

There are several places I hope to find people who will want the book.

1. Cabin folks, their families and friends. In 1998, Jane Coughran and I wrote and drew a book called The Cabins of Mineral King. We printed and sold 1000. There are around 60 cabins in Mineral King, as opposed to around 200 in Wilsonia. Clearly, more than just cabin owners and their associates bought the book!

Who were those other people? Do they exist within the circles of Wilsonia?

2. The tribe who loves Wilsonia, Grant Grove, Kings Canyon. Mineral King has a tribe of folks who love the place. These are mountainy people, history buffs, hikers, campers, people from Tulare County, people from all over the world.

Wilsonia is next to Grant Grove, in Kings Canyon National Park, also visited by people from all over the world. The road is much easier than the road to Mineral King and it leads to other places too. It stands to reason that the visitation is substantially greater. I don’t know the numbers.

The comparison sort of works, although Wilsonia is off the main highway and isn’t necessarily a part of the visitors’ experience. So, although that might be a source of customers, it probably won’t be a large segment.

3. My people. I have been earning my living as a pencil artist, oil painter, teacher of drawing, and muralist since 1993. Through those years I’ve developed a small following. Makes sense that a percentage of those who like my work and bought my first book are likely to buy a second book. Certainly would help if I knew what that percentage will be, but alas, I am an artist, not a clairvoyant.

4. People who love local history, love to draw, and/or have a thing for cabins. This group is diverse, hard to find, and random. I can find the local history buffs through the Tulare County Historical Society, but the rest might depend on good old Mr. Google, who knows everyone and everything.

The cost of almost everything goes up (except the latest in technology – I remember my dad paying $90 for a calculator the size of a shoe back in the ’70s!). So, whether or not anyone will care enough to part with their hard earned dollars depends on me – DO YOUR VERY BEST WORK, TOOTS!

Oh my goodness – the pressure – bring on the dark chocolate!

How to Draw a Book, Chapter 2

(These will be very short chapters.)

I began the process of drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia by asking some questions. Today I’ll delve into #1 – Will anyone care?

This drawing of a sign on the side of a Wilsonia cabin sums it up quite nicely. How many times have you heard someone refer to “The Cabin”? Don’t all cabin owners use that terminology? And don’t they all say it with great love, longing and admiration?

Who am I fooling? “They” is “we” – I too have a cabin, although not in Wilsonia. I get it.

We who have cabins L O V E them. Our families do too. Our friends love to visit us at our cabins. Our acquaintances try to weasel in on the action. (You know what I’m talking about!)

So, yes, cabin owners care.

In addition to the cabin owners, there are former cabin owners, cabin visitors, and cabin wanna-be owners.

The answer to “Will anyone care?” is YES!!

How to Draw a Book From the Beginning

Most normal people write books. Normal doesn’t come easily to me, so I’m drawing a book. If you are fixin’ (learned to say that from my friends in Texas) to draw a book, where do you begin?

With questions, lots of questions. Before diving into a project of monumental proportions, it is good to know a little bit.

I admit it – shingle-siding is my favorite!

1. Will anyone care? Is there a market? Do I have an audience? Can I find the audience? Never mind, now we’re veering into marketing questions that will have to be addressed in another post.

2. Will anyone care enough to buy this book? Caring is one thing. Caring enough to spend hard-earned dollars is another level. Never mind, now I’m veering into accounting questions which I might just ignore for awhile.

3. Do I have the ability? Do I have the stamina? Am I able to plan, execute, problem solve, decide, find the necessary companies and people to make this happen? Never mind, now I’m veering into territory that makes me need to go lie down for a bit.

4. Do I have the right? Is this my book to create or is there someone more qualified? Will people allow me to have a peek into cabin life and learn enough about their particular community to give this book validity?

These are all questions I considered carefully before saying YES I WILL! YES I CAN!

I’ll share the answers I found for these questions in the next blog posts.

Welcome to the Cabins of Wilsonia

This blog is the go-to place for current information on the upcoming book “The Cabins of Wilsonia”.

Here I will show you drawings in progress. But I won’t show you all of the drawings, because I want you to have some surprises when the book is published.

I will keep you updated on how far along I am in the 230+ drawings for the book, I’ll share some of my photos, your stories, and the inside business of self-publishing a book while simultaneously earning a living.

It is my hope that you will enjoy this blog and share it with family members, friends and cabin neighbors.

You will be able to comment, ask me questions, and read what your fellow blog-followers think.

You can see that I’ve chosen the Finck’s cabin as the header for this blog. This is because it cropped well to fit the space well. (On the original drawing, there are taller trees.) I may change the top drawing from time to time, because sometimes I just like variety.

The Cabins of Wilsonia

A picture book about a cabin community