Arrival of the Traveler -- Soon in Paperback!

The proof for the paper back version of Arrival landed on my stoop yesterday, and there was much rejoicing! 

It does not look like the cover below.  I am doing my paperback version through CreateSpace, and despite all warnings to the contrary, I chose to order my first proof with lower resolution images than CreateSpace recommends.  As CreateSpace warned me was possible, the cover was slightly blurry and pixelated.  However, now knowing that higher res images were needed, I have now created the cover below as my second attempt.

This is a higher resolution than the previous cover, and it is not a final draft.  However, I am hoping to have a final draft and the next proof ordered by the end of the week.  Consequentially, this means that the paperback version of Arrival will be out sometime in October.  Yay!

Deception of the Magician: Waldgrave Part 2

For my sister, who graciously allowed me to use her image for this cover:

Waldgrave Part 2

Right now, I am in the process of typesetting Waldgrave Part 2.  I already have templates set up from having to do all of this for Waldgrave Part 1.  It's been easier, but certain things (like adding it italics, bold, underline, paragraph breaks, etc.) are still a pain because I have to add them manually after copying my text over from Google Docs to Sigil.  I am hopeful that I won't ever have to face the physical typesetting debacle again now that I have figured out the page numbering problem.  The spine/cover size problem will always remain (good grief).

I am still excitedly awaiting the arrival of my proof for Arrival.

Typesetting the "Real" Book

Today I took on the tedious job of typesetting for the physical book.  The ebooks, which are already available on nook and kindle, also received a lift when I went through and smoothed out a few more items that had been brought to my attention.

In short, I would like to say that typesetting and design for an ebook and typesetting and design for a physical copy are two different animals.  I reintroduced myself to math today while trying to figure out how large I needed to make my exterior cover to accommodate the number and thickness of the pages inside the book.  Hello, moving target!  I made my cover using GIMP (it's free program available online), and then slowly went through and corrected all of my text justification issues, headers and footers, copyright info, dedication, title page, and on and on and on.... I had all of image as movable layers, but it still meant I had to move the front and back cover layers to fit the fluid spine as I went on, correcting all the problems as I spotted them.

This process was literally my entire day today, from when I woke up until almost bedtime (well, okay, I shuffled laundry between the washer and dryer too, but no folding).  But at the end of it all, I can proudly say, TAHDAH!!!

My files are now in review at Createspace.  I'm hoping to move forward and have a review copy ordered by the end of the week, and hopefully the hard copy of Arrival of the Traveler will be available about the same time that the ebooks for Deception of the Magician are out in November.

I have never appreciated ebooks more in terms of cost.  After finishing up the nitty-gritty of the design stuff, I went to look at what I could reasonably list the book at.  Listing the hard copy for around ten dollars more than the ebook, I make the same royalty--about $0.40.

Admittedly, I had wonderful parents who covered my book expenses for most of my childhood, but I was once a poor college student.  (I am sure the supportive parents of avid readers will appreciate this too).  As a lifelong book junkie, I am going to try to keep my prices down.  I intend to always offer the first ebook in a series at a discount, because I know that the first book is always a gamble for the reader.  You never know if the new series is going to be your cup of tea, and the sticker price is part of the decision sometimes.

Al

Broomfield Days

Today I attended Broomfield Days in my home state of Colorado, and had a wonderful time!  I went and looked at the animals available from the Humane Society, looked at the car show, and wandered through the vendor booths.  I picked up some spicy dip mix, which I tend to do at craft fairs, because I have never found a great spicy dip mix available from grocery stores.

My picture of the day:

These hats were made by a super talented friend of mine, Ashley, who had them in a booth today.  I absolutely love the brown one in the back--it has a green stone on the other side of the hat.  Way to go, Ashley!

Al

Baby Steps

As of today, I have sold copies of my book without knowing who bought them.  A small step, but somehow, very exciting to me.

It has been suggested to me by a friend that I should sign up for some social media sites, and maybe a chat client.  I plan to look into this today.

Al

Aargh!

With the book finally out, and people reading it in the ebook form, I am now receiving comments about some of the stuff I missed in editing (mostly formatting).  It's true, what they say: you can never do enough editing.  Mind you, these books have been in editing for more than five years now, and have been edited by four different individuals.

If you find an error, please keep reading.  However, I would appreciate if you note the page number and give my a rough idea of the error you spotted and where it is on the page.  I'll go to my master copy and make the edits, and post a revised edition soon.

Thanks,
Al