I decided to write two entries this weekend. Today's posting is about the last few days and hours before a submission. We're in our final hours and we've actually pushed back our deadline a couple of days. There really is no "deadline" per se. We're not trying to get it out by a certain date but we need to get it done quickly so that we can start our next project for Christmas! As we were setting up the schedule, we didn't account for the hours and hours of testing that's needed. Sometimes things work so beautifully on the simulator but when you build it to your device you notice some artwork needs tweaking, or volume controls aren't consistent. That's what we're doing now. I have a little time to write as my programmer is taking a much needed nap before the big push.

For narration, I decided to make it a "read to me" book because I wanted it to be read to someone at night and I wanted it as a complete package. The ultimate in its capability. Afterall, eventually the book will be made available as an ebook, and in print so we wanted to have each character's voice to shine. Since that was me who was narrating and I have a very deep voice, some of the character's personalities just weren't making it onto the mic. So we scrapped that idea for now and after we changed all the narration, we think it actually sounds better! This goes back to my last posting about learning to "ADAPT!" So here we are and I'm now writing down all of the places we still need narration fixes, sound FX fixes or insertions, and last-minute copy changes. Now let me speak to the copy for a minute. We went through 6 revisions in the script and we thought we finally had it until we played it all out on the iPad. And low and behold there were two places that just didn't sound right then when it was read. So we're still brainstorming some text towards the end of the book to make it sound perfect. But you know, that's what I love about this gig! Each day is different and we always expect it one way, but it always ends up something else.

I really can't wait to share this story with you. It's a cute story that is great for all ages and we hope that the story will remain timeless. So I'm heading back into the trenches. Look for me tomorrow where I will finally share some artwork with you and my plans to market the app. Oh now it gets really fun!

Okay, now that you've got some of the logistics out of the way, I have to throw some more at you.
This blog is for anyone who doesn't have the foggiest where to start, is an author or designer and pretty much anyone who wants to or has always wanted to create their own app. In essence become a software studio. That's what I did, and I'll show you how too!

I have little to no background in coding aside from HTML 3.0. But if I see something that is popular and alows me the flexibility to publish something that I've created, I'm going to do my best to figure out how to do it.

Today it's easier than ever to create your own app without the need of a programmer. But that wan't the case in 2009 and 2010 when building apps was in its infancy stage. Since I'm not a programmer, I found one on Craig's list in my area and hired him. He did a great job coding my first app, MyBasketballStats which is available on the app store. I believe it took between 3-6 months to complete. For my second app, I wanted to have more creative control, decrease the production schedule, and save money. I thought about going the route of someone else publishing it for me and their are lots of companies out there that do that, but their terms didn't seem that attractive to me. I wanted complete ownership without paying any royalties to anyone, aside from Apple of course. (By the way, Apple takes 30% off the top. More on that later).

Back in June of this year (2011), my old college roommate asked me how to start making apps. I told him about the Apple Developer program he had to buy ($99), and that he had to own a Mac ($999 -$2,000), and that he needed to learn Objective-C. Although he was a programmer, he didn't know Objective-C and asked me if I had ever heard of Corona. I checked it out and after reading what they were about, my jaw dropped. Yes I reached Nirvana that day. Thanks Mike!

Corona is from a small but quickly growing company called Ansca Mobile in Palo Alto, CA. Started by two ex-Adobe engineers who worked on Flash-lite. They started their company just this year and have a huge following. More on them later. Corona is much like X-Code, but it uses .lua instead of Objective-C as a language to write code. Lua is very easy to learn and was made for newbies and professionals too. In fact, do you know that little app called Angry Birds was built using .lua.
With .lua, you can drastically cut your coding down to minutes in what would normally take weeks! I'll cover Corona more later. So here is the nitty gritty. Corona will help you make apps not only for the iPhone, iPad, and iTouch, but also Android apps, the Nook, and other tablets in the market today. So your book/or app can be seen by twice as many people as you thought possible.

I also recommend using Kwik, which is a Photoshop extension. It's great for anyone who doesn't want to write a line of code and still produce their very own interactive book or comic book. Great tech support and new features added all the time. My first book and second app in my store was created using Kwik, Opening Rome!

If you want to do this, you can. And here's your shopping list.

Corona works on Windows too but you will need to have a Mac to compile it in X-Code before you upload it to Apple. Here's the list of items you'll need.

Apple Developer Membership  ($99)* Yearly
Apple Mac, ($699-$2,000)
Corona Subscription ($199 -$349)* Yearly
Kwik ($79)
Photoshop (check prices)
Word Processor (check prices)

Nick Nebelsky, is CEO and Creative Director at Intense Media, LLC. Intense Media focuses on products that entertain, enrich, and empower their customers. They create and publish their own line of books, ebooks, CDs, and software for the iPhone and iPad devices. You can reach them at nick@intensemedia.com or www.intensemedia.com.