The Process

Rascal Publishing utilizes a wide variety of cutting-edge software to bring creativity forward to the masses – here’s a partial list :

Adobe Creative Cloud – an entire suite of creativity at our fingertips, from Photoshop and Lightroom to Adobe Acrobat Professional and everything in between…. *if* you subscribe.

ON 1 Photo Raw – a new and exciting suite of imaging software “designed by photographers for photographers”. Similar to Adobe Lightroom, but includes ON 1 “Resize” for enlarging small images to meet publication guidelines. I was blessed to collaborate on a project for the family of Buddy Holly’s late girlfriend, Echo McGuire, which entailed retouching and upsizing dozens of old photos from their high school days at Lubbock High School. ON 1 Resize allowed me to enlarge these photos to meet publication norms of 3oo dpi (dots per inch).

MS Office 365 – another suite of creative tools that allow us to collaborate, share, and organize projects “in the cloud” across multiple devices and platforms.

The process starts with a spark – an idea. I begin writing in my word processing software and incorporate Grammarly (free) to correct any spelling or grammar mistakes made along the way. Chapter by chapter, I keep the story flowing and correct typos and inserting any photos I want to use along the way. Once I feel it is complete I go over it all again.

As if that weren’t enough, you must also imagine your book’s cover and an appropriate title. Whenever possible, use a “keyword” in the title – the publishing algorithms like that and it feeds the rankings right out of the gate… plus it’s free! (You can thank me later.)