Wayne said the following about his ePublishing experience with Publish Green:

“As we began the hardcover republishing of Will and the Red Ball, I began to explore the possibility of publishing the book on an electronic reader. When the iPad came out and books could finally be done in color, I was sure that children’s picture books would be wanted for trips and mobile use by parents that want to take a lot of books without the weight. This will be an opportunity for increased sales as there will still be the need for hardcopy books with children. I asked Mark Pitzele if Mill City Press was going to have a way to translate books to the iBook format and he said there would be a service starting June 1^st.  Mark coached me in the process after the service opened as to what part of the service I needed and how to get the process started. After the process began we made contact with Emily Gable and her associate Kyle who were very responsive to email questions, making the whole process has been very comfortable and enjoyable. They even came to a party at our house to meet the author and illustrator. They have shown personal interest in us all. A great overall experience.”

Thanks for the positive comments, Wayne! We really appreciate your business and we’re proud to have been a part of such a wonderful children’s book. We look forward to working with you and Gloria on more eBooks in the future!

Make sure to check out Will and the Red Ball. It can be ordered as an eBook on the iBookstore, and purchased via Gloria’s website, www.willandtheredball.com, as a hardcover book!

This past weekend, two of the Publish Green team members (myself — Emily — and Kyle, our fabulous web developer)  had the lovely privilege of meeting the author of one of the cutest kids’ books around, Will and the Red Ball. Gloria Dunshee and her husband, Wayne, invited us Gloria’s surprise birthday party. And, needless to say, it was a blast.

If you don’t know what the book is about, here’s a brief overview: Will, a three-year-old boy, goes on a trip with his parents to New York City. While exploring the boring museums with Mom and Dad, Will decides to play with the red ball that he has brought with him. Well, one bounce leads to another, and, as you can imagine, poor little Will ends up chasing it around the city while Mom and Dad search frantically for him. I won’t tell you how it ends — but just know that the book is heartwarming, sweet, and will make an excellent bedtime read for any child. It also teaches children a valuable lesson about sticking close to Mom and Dad when they’re in a strange place. This is definitely one that you’ll want to purchase for your own child, grandchild, niece or nephew…it’s a guaranteed hit with families.

Oh, and the greatest part? Gloria’s grandson, Will, is the inspiration for the little boy, Will, in the book!

Will and the Red Ball, by Gloria Dunshee

We entered a beautiful home in the northeastern suburbs of the Twin Cities, complete with tall, wood paneled glass doors and quaint woods decorating the backyard. Gloria, a pleasant and cheerful woman, met us at the front door and introduced herself. Having never met her before, and corresponding primarily with her her husband, Wayne, over email, it was a nice surprise to be able to meet the author herself!

We helped ourselves to some birthday cake and mingled with Gloria and her family. We got to meet Gloria and Wayne’s daughter, Karne McGary (Will is her son), which was a good time. Karne is the illustrator for Will and the Red Ball — so the whole book is a family affair! And, we got to meet Will himself! He had just turned three and, though he doesn’t yet understand that he’s the star of his grandmother’s book, he was certainly a charmer. Like all little boys, he had developed a love for trucks and was busy playing with his new red truck. (Luckily, that’s not something that could easily bounce away if ever in a New York City museum!)

I spent some time talking with Gloria about the book and her future plans as an author of books for children. Will and the Red Ball is just one of an up-and-coming series of kids’ books, all featuring — you guessed it — Will! The next book in the series, Will and the Magic Snowman, will be released just in time for the holiday season. I won’t give away what the book is about, but it’s a definite must-have for winter.

Gloria plans on writing many more books for this series. I was really happy to hear this. She’s such a good writer, Karne is an amazing illustrator (all the images are done in watercolor), and the ideas behind the books are just so great. They’ll make an excellent collection once a few more titles have been added, and until then, readers can definitely enjoy each book on its own!

Kyle & Emily of Publish Green with author Gloria Dunshee, illustrator Karne McGary, and the inspiration himself, Will

Gloria’s website can currently be found here, but the book’s site will soon be moving. Fans can also read Gloria’s absolutely hilarious blog, which showcases not only her funny style of writing, but also regular, ordinary events  and antics such as her cat owning her life, her steering wheel catching on fire, and tacos that serve beer — just to name a few. Not only is Gloria an excellent writer of books for kids, but she also has a humorous, mature writing style that is bound to make anyone chuckle.

Thanks, Gloria (and family), for having Publish Green over to your home! It was a true pleasure to meet you and learn about what inspired your first children’s book. We really look forward to reading whatever you write next!

]]> http://www.publishgreen.com/blog/2010/07/author-meetup-gloria-dunshee-author-of-will-and-the-red-ball/feed/ 0 http://www.publishgreen.com/blog/2010/07/three-cheers-for-our-web-team-at-publish-green/ http://www.publishgreen.com/blog/2010/07/three-cheers-for-our-web-team-at-publish-green/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:43:21 +0000 emily http://www.publishgreen.com/blog/?p=21 We’ve been in the process of re-vamping our website in ways that will make it much more user-friendly. Our web development and design team has been crazy busy — they’ve been doing all the behind-the-scenes projects that make Publish Green, well, work.

Multiple features have been added to our site. It’s now possible to chat in real time with one of our Publish Green administrators. If you need help anytime from 9 AM to 5 PM Central Standard time, there will be someone available! Just take a look at the upper right-hand corner of our homepage. You’ll see a small green box that, when clicked, allows you to ask a question and start a live chat! Awesome!

The contact form has also been updated. Now it’s possible for users to include their name and what type of question they have. Rather than having to open up your own email and send us a message, you can simply fill out the “Comments” box and the request will be sent to an administrator.

There’s more than meets the eye to Publish Green — we hope that you take full advantage of all the unique features of our website, including the eBook publishing calculator, where you can get an estimate on how much your eBook will cost to publish before you submit. Of course, there might be some changes here and there, but with the unique calculator feature, you can get a ballpark estimate before beginning the publishing process!

So…three cheers for our web team. They’ve done an awesome job. Publish Green is running better than ever, and it’s all thanks to the brains and brawn that do the behind-the-scenes work. Many sleepless nights have been incurred, many long hours spent in front of multiple computer monitors, and many trial-and-error sessions with making sure that everything works correctly…and it does. Now, it’s up to you, dear reader and author, to make the choice of being green with us and helping us show the rest of the world how Publish Green works! We really look forward to helping you create the best possible eBook.

Publish Green with us — we can’t wait!

So…sit back and read, write to us, whatever. We want to hear from you, and we want you to get the most from us! At Publish Green, we’re all about the world of ePublishing and eBooks. You can visit our site to see what we’re all about. You can follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. We’re here to provide you with the latest and most up-to-date news on Publish Green, our authors and their eBooks, and a whole bunch of other neat stuff.

Thanks for reading!