In my long quest to find full-time work, there may finally have been some slight movement! I had a telephone interview today for a job I applied for before the holidays. I’m hoping that I will get called in for an interview next week…
Good Luck!
Think good thoughts. Think Good Thoughts. Fingers crossed! 
Luck to you!
Knock 'em dead with your awesomeness!
Fingers, toes and other crossable appendages crossed.
Thanks! Between this, and creating ebooks, and putting in a proposal to write a comic book, and my part-time job, there’s a lot going on this week!
And the company is located two towns over from where I grew up!
Woohoo! Sending out luck thoughts!
Wow !
Good for you mate, hope it all goes very, very well.
Sending good thoughts your way !
Good luck
Any news OP?
I’m sorry. I forgot to update the thread. No, I did not get called in for an interview. I guess there’s not much call for tech writers any more.
Instead, I’m trying to socially connect more and let people know what fields I’m looking towards (tech writing, ebook publishing, comics, and screenwriting are all of interest to me these days).
At least I’m actually doing this comic book…
Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the comic book. I love comics. Good edumacational resources them comix.
How do you do a “proposal” for a comic book? Who’s the publisher? And more importantly, when do we get to see pages-in-progress so we can give advice?
(or draw background details…)
A proposal? Someone came to me and wanted to do a comic book based on a workbook he had already done. I came up with a description of the steps needed to make the book, based on my experience creating books as a technical writer, combined with knowledge acquired in art school and animation school. He already had a protagonist character in mind.
We came to an agreement. I worked out a script, he approved it. I built a mockup of the book incorporating the text from the script, establishing the layout of the pages. He approved this, suggesting a few changes.
I am now in the drawing phase. Drawings will be done in pencil and then inked, then scanned and assembled in the computer. Once everything is arranged and approved, I can colour it, also on the computer. Final text and other elements such as logos and the ISBN barcode will be applied at this time.
Once the final design of the book is approved, I prepare the files for print, following the specifications set forth by the printer. We are using a print-on-demand printer, who requires individual files for each page, set up as RGB. If we were planning for a longer print run, over 1000 to 5000 or so, we would use offset printing, which would require the files to be set up as CMYK. The files are given ‘preflight’ checks to make sure that everything is consistent and nothing is missing.
Once the files have been sent to the printer, we request a proof, and wait. When the proof arrives, we check it over. If there are no errors, we approve it and go into production.
And that’s how I create a comic book.
Sounds like the perfect project! Words ‘n’ Pics, working’ together!
I am surprised that the pre-press RIP does RGB… isn’t the book printed CMYK, even if it’s digital short-run?
Apparently a lot of smaller and home printer equipment only accept RGB. I was surprised that this online printer wanted RGB as well.
And I went back and checked our email conversation, and it was CMYK. All is well.
But this is a good example of why you save email and other documentation. Their spec sheet for the saddle-stitched book doesn’t mention CMYK explicitly at all. Unless that’s something a preflight check for “press quality” would flag… but my preflight options are way more detailed that that. It’s usually better to spell out all these kinds of things explicitly though, even if you think it’s duplication of information.
My experience is that printers (the people, not the machine itself) are used to fixing things: pulling bleeds out 1/8"; finding or substituting fonts; relinking files; and converting RGB images to CMYK.
I just found out that a printer went through and changed all the levels on dozens of photos I’d placed in a brochure, and replacing them, just so they’d print better on their equipment. At no charge.