Developing an iPad App: Step One

I am marching forward with my plans to make my picture book, The Prisoner of Carrot Castle, into an iPad app. The team consists of developer, Nur Monson, and illustrator, Kate Jeong, writer and project coordinator, moi. We are just getting started.

Tomorrow is my first Skype video chat with Kate to get the project started. Kate lives in Toronto, Canada and Nur lives in the Bay Area 100 miles west so we will be using technology to coordinate the project. I have done a lot of research on how to put this all together so I thought there might be some readers of this blog that find following the project helpful. In this era of changing modes of publishing, an author has many options for being published.

Step One: Assemble the Team
Identify a developer for the iPad programming. You can do a Google search for iPad developers. There are many to choose from. I chose my uber talented programmer son, Nur.

Next, I needed an illustrator. At the last regional SCBWI conference I attended, I picked up a couple of business cards for illustrators I liked. After perusing each of their websites, I contacted Kate and asked if she would like to be a part of our team. Happily she agreed. We still have details to work out on the payment, which will be nailed down once we have the storyboard finalized.

Last, I completed the manuscript for The Prisoner of Carrot Castle and have begun the storyboard process. I will organize and manage the project.

I'm looking forward to moving ahead on this project and seeing our first page come to life! We have a great team for the project. Is there an iPad app you thought would be interesting to develop?