CHILDREN'S EBOOKS history
Anne Garton has been writing text and story books for both primary and secondary students since 1993 and selling her work through various publishing companies. It was a friend who suggested that Anne should set up her own company and sell her books online. So CHILDREN'S EBOOKS was started in 2008.
Anne's own children loved playing on their computer, however Anne believed they were not reading as much as she did when she was young because of this. So Anne decided that instead of publishing her books in paperback format she would develop her stories as eBooks. In this way her children could still have all the enjoyment of using their computer, but at the same time improve their literacy levels and hopefully develop their own joy of reading in a way that they loved.
Anne first had to develop an eBook template. One of her daughters struggled to read, so Anne wanted her eBooks to be designed in such a way that beginning readers could get a sense of achievement by being able to read her eBooks without an adult helping them. She had tried this in the past by purchasing books with CDs for her daughter to use. She soon realised that the CDs were a waste of time. Her daughter could not follow along with the reading pace of the CD and she lost her place frequently. So Anne decided that her eBooks must have a way for words to be highlighted and be read at a much slower pace. She timed how long it took her daughter to recognise and read a word for the slow audio. It took over a year for a successful template to be developed.
Anne had plenty of stories that she wanted to publish and so she illustrated her own work to get started. She then decided to use the talents of people around her such as her father Derek who had trained as a graphic artist when he was a young man. Good friends of Anne had a very talented daughter--Cailin Carrier. She had just completed Year 12 Art. So Anne asked Cailin to illustrate some stories for her. Anne has approached other illustrators for future eBooks too.
Anne needed to incorporate sound into her eBooks and so she sought help from people she knew or worked with to get ideas for a way to produce the best sound quality possible. Special thanks must go to John Gurn for his wonderful assistance and ideas with recording eBooks, and equally Ian Gall and Dave Neil whose knowledge of sound mixing has been invaluable.
Anne would also like to thank Jennifer Voss for her brilliant suggestions and editing. Jennifer has a way of making a good story so much better.
Last, but not least, Anne would like to thank her wonderful husband Greg, who never failed to believe in this project from the beginning and her children--who loved every story and thought every illustration was great, even if they were just rough stick figures on paper!
The website was launched with six eBooks in August 2008 and has grown to 16 books in November 2009. There are a further 14 eBooks in various stages of development which will be released as they become available.
Anne has developed this site with the hope of displaying the work of other authors and illustrators who would like the opportunity to sell their own work online. This also includes holding design competitions for secondary school students in 2010.
About the eBooks
To help parents when selecting eBooks for their children, each eBook has a recommended reading level.
