Andrew Whitson approaches the Cogito project with an e- book in mind

Cogito as a book in hard copy and digital formats. ( Chapter 1 )

A couple of years ago as I was beginning to put together the roughs for Cogito I was very much aware of the changing face of the publishing industry. One of the major changes was obviously the introduction of the e- book. Apps were also being introduced at a rapid rate to the Apple Apps Store  and we decided to explore this avenue rather than the e-book one as a possible way forward for our publishing model. The Apps avenue appeared to offer a lot more possible interactive choices than the  equivalent e-book avenue, especially within the picture book format. We were very much aware of the Kindle for novels and this seemed fair enough, but what way could we present our content in a new way that was interactive and engaging without detracting from the quality of the visual and narrative content that had been (and still is) the mainstay of hard copy picture books?

Coding 

As we began to explore how to do this, it quickly became apparent that we did not have the essential skills to build this kind of product. This was mainly due to the fact that we had no knowledge of how to code. For anything to happen on the screen either through a tap or swipe or pinch for instance...there had to be a code in place to allow the specified action to take place. We began to hunt for how to do this and soon came up against terminology such as Sprite sheets, Physics actions, Lua Language, Objective C, and so on and before we knew it we were faced with a major decision:

Begin to learn these new coding languages or employ a third party company which would take the whole project on and construct it digitally as a partner. This is where things soon became expensive!

As we did not relish the thought of spending a year or so mastering the fine principles of a new coding language we were going to have to opt for the second option, or of course just not bother to make an app at all.

Employing the third party coders

We decided to employ a third party to come in and work with us on the project after we had secured funding from the Northern Ireland Arts Council. I must stress, this funding was crucial in allowing the project to go ahead at all as the costs would have otherwise been prohibitive to a small publishing house such as An tSnáthaid Mhór. We spent some time looking for partners who could offer this sort of service and opted for a Hollywood based company called Origin Partners which seemed to have the infrastructure in place to deal with this sort of project.Once we had settled on this partnership we began to have meetings for the way forward for this project and this is where the hard work began.

Andrew Whitson making i Books

Andrew Whitson discovering the reality of making and publishing iBooks

One fine morning I woke up and decided I will re-format all of my back catalogue of children's book titles for the Apple i Book Store!! Thinking about this venture is very nice to do, especially over a lovely cup of tea and a digestive biscuit. Oh the thoughts of how many books I could be selling on the Apple Store while I am in bed asleep. No posting books to distributors, no major production costs, no storing books in warehouses, no recording of sales and returns....it's just too good to ignore, especially since I will be getting immediate worldwide exposure to my amazing work which will be embraced by all who happen upon it and who will in turn rush to tap on the purchase this item button!

 However, beginning this amazing aspirational journey of generating new and possibly limitless  income streams is obviously a very different beast in reality. Over the next few weeks I will be posting my findings as I go through the processes required to convert a title from a hard copy book to a fully functional and successfully published book on the Apple iBook Store.The first title I am going to use as an example is a recent publication called Cogito.

Andrew Whitson at Young at Art.

Andrew Whitson steps aside for the real artists!

 This was a great morning and everyone was very enthusiastic, not needing much persuasion to take part.There was a bit of a buzz that started once the real artists (that's the children of course) took ownership of the event and just ran with the whole plan.Well done budding artists!

Andrew Whitson illustrator reveals new branding logo for his publishing house.

This is the new logo for my publishing house an tSnáthaid Mhór. The design was created by Sean Mitchell of Mitchell Kane Assiciates and I think you must agree it looks rather fresh.
It is made up of 12 elements that can all break apart and re assemble to form different visual landscapes.

Andrew Whitson workshop in Belfast to tie in with Young at Art Festival.

Castle Court in Belfast goes POP! with Andrew Whitson

Here are some images from a recent workshop I did in the Castle Court Shopping Mall in Belfast. We had just finished our new title  POP! and as you can see, everything looks a little pink and yellow!

Elaina Ryan from CBI in Dublin was kind enough to organise this and help me on the day.

Thanks Elaina.

Pop! Now finally released with the new iBook on the way.

Andrew Whitson remembers about that blog thingy!

All my back catalogue of books going onto the Apple Store!

I really am going to have to get going with this Blog and social networking thing. I am usually that busy I forget all about it until I sit down at the computer on an odd day and remember, oh yes that blog thingy!

Well here is a little clip of  our company intro that is going on all our now digital titles that will be up on the Apple iBook store in the next few weeks.

If you would like to check out the first of these, "Cogito" please visit the Apple i Books store and please give some feedback.

I very much look forward to your responses.