About the book
For anyone wanting to learn a little bit more about Sicily, and all the beautiful places that make the trip so worthwhile. We start in the old town of Taormina, then travel all the way around the island to Europe’s highest active volcano, Mount Etna, stopping en route in the ruins of ancient cities, majestic temples and even an extra-special chocolate stop!
Specifications
Pages: 48
Language: English
Size: A6 (10.9 cm x 15.2 cm)
Language: English
Size: A6 (10.9 cm x 15.2 cm)
Illustrations: Elena Snezhinskaya
Text: Elena Snezhinskaya
Editor: Steven Baguley
Text: Elena Snezhinskaya
Editor: Steven Baguley
Printed in the UK, 2019
The process
Sketching on the spot was the most important step of the book-making process. And the most fun, too! I always carried my little sketchbook in my backpack, so whenever I got some spare time I made good use of it. I sketched on the street, in cafes, on the beach, and even on top of the volcanoes.
Sketching on the spot
I love to collect tickets, pieces of maps, paychecks, and other little memorable things as I travel, and stick them to my sketchbook pages. I think this helps make the story truly personal, and the Sicily sketchbook was no exception.
Memories from Palermo
After I got back home, I scanned all my sketches with Epson Perfection V550 and used Wacom tablet and Adobe Photoshop to do the final image editing. By the way, all the text in the book was hand-drawn too, not just the sketches – I had to redraw the words every time I wanted to change them. It wasn’t the most efficient way of copyediting, but it definitely helped give my book an authentic look:
Hand-drawn copy
Here’s how one of the page spreads changed after a little post-editing and working on the copy:
Before and after post-editing
I assembled the final book layout with Adobe InDesign when all the pages were ready. This was the last step before sending the book to print.
The result
And finally, here it was fresh out of the press! This was my first ever self-published book, and I loved how it turned out.
Holding this book in my hands was such a special moment, but seeing it in the hands of others was even more exciting 💛
Thank you!
If you work in a publishing agency, or if you know someone who might be interested publishing my book for a wider audience, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I'd love more people to discover how truly wonderful Sicily is.
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