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A Quote I Love:
“Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.” –Unknown
(Source: tinybuddha)
By coincidence, this quote actually ties into the updates below, as I’m largely in the “unknown frontiers” part of the adventure.
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My learning curve on writing and publishing children’s books is soaring and I’m loving every minute of it. I’m in the process of selecting an illustrator for “Clyde and I” the book and the song’s CD cover. I hope to be able to share the cover illustration with you by this weekend.
I’ve added a pre-press specialist to the team. She’ll put together the text and illustrations and layout the book so it’s ready for the publisher, then work with the publisher until the book is printed. I’m leaning in the direction of working through Lulu.com to have it published and they will get it listed on their own site as well as Amazon.com and perhaps others.
I plan to have completed two more children’s stories by the end of the month. One is titled “The Treasure” and the other may be either a derivative of “My Old Friend” or “Chain Reaction/Greater Than Gold.”
I also plan to have an illustrator do the CD cover for “Chain Reaction” and the logo for my new company Rusty Bear Productions which will have divisions called Rusty Bear Music and Rusty Bear Publishing. (These are more in the planning stages than full-blown reality, but that is the vision at this time.) The logo is likely to have a similar look and feel to the photo of the carved redwood bear I use as my avatar but be substantially different so that I can use it as a trademarked logo. I like the friendly, goofy, “aww shucks” expression on the carved bear.
Love,
Russ
Russ Towne's A Grateful Man 
you have that entrepreneurial spirit!
Yes, I’ve been self-employed nearly my entire adult life starting with my first company when I was 17 and have built a bunch of companies along the way. I love working for myself. I haven’t always enjoyed running the companies I’ve created, and not all of them have been successful, but I love my investment management biz and what I’m working to create with music and publishing.
congrats, Russ! sounds like you’re really moving along. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. 🙂 bears rock. 🙂
Thank you, my friend.
Russ
This sounds fantastic! Congrats! 🙂
Thank you, Elana. There are several hurdles to get over, but it’s good to be in motion.
Russ
Gooooood luck! 🙂
Ela
Thank you, Ela!
Russ
Good luck for your business future… but you do sound well organised…
Thank you, bulldog. I’m organized enough to realize that if I don’t sell a heckuva lot of books I’ll have wasted thousands of dollars. I’m in the process now of determining how many thousands of dollars, and how many hundreds of books must sell to break even. They’re daunting numbers from a businessperson’s perspective. If the first one is successful, it’ll be a LOT easier to rationalize publishing additional books. Right now, I’m still in the “Do I pull the trigger or not?” stage. The songs are still full speed ahead.
Russ
Wow, how great Russ! 🙂 Good luck with all your visions. Looking forward to learn more about the books. Have a great weekend!
Thank you, Kristi! I hope you have a great weekend too!
Russ