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Nate Mangion
Nate Mangion

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Milestone - the Encyclopaedia Elyden

  

Ok patrons, this is the 2nd time that I’ve hit my $100 milestone and I'm hoing to stay there :) so I think it’s time I start working on finalising a draft of the Encyclopaedia Elyden – both in print and PDF.
 

To those who don’t know, the Encyclopaedia Elyden is the name of the document that I’ve been working on for the past 12-years or so. It started out as a series of bullet-points I noted down as I slowly began expanding the world I was creating. As the entries increased in volume and scope I decided to split them into 5 volumes of an in-world encyclopaedia (think of it as Elyden’s Encyclopaedia Britannica).
 

This 5-volume encyclopaedia details, in meticulous effort, the world of Elyden. The volumes are: 

So those are the in-world volumes. This milestone concerns specifically Volume 1: the half-a-million word encyclopaedia of the world. It is largely formatted already though I need to standardise the entries so that all entries that concern rivers read in the same way, for instance. This will take a long time to do. 

The good news is that for the past year-or-so I have already been formatting new entires to match the desired uniformity. The bad news that I just need to go back and update round 400,000 words to match the newer entries, and that will take a while. 

I'm going to be updating entries starting alphabetically - working from A all the way up to Z. As I finish with a section I will post it as an atachment for all paying patrons to see and, more importantly, proof-read, to help me identify typos (there will be may), missing words (these, you will also find, or not find, as the case may be) and other inconsitencies.

Once done, I will format this into a pdf which I will make available to all $5 patrons for free, and wil lalso make available to anyone else interested for a minimal fee.

Once the PDF is done I will start the most challenging aspect of this - finding a printer to print out some copies for me. I will keep you updated on this process and, once done, will see about getting this available to anyone interested - patrons will get access to this printed version for a reduced cost, or free, depending on the monthly contributions so far.

I will keep you all updated with the progress, and thanks for helping this happen :)

Comments

That would be awesome :3 What is the name of the app for printing in the correct order? I'd like to one day bind the texts discribing my own world and am already thinking about how to organize all that.

DungeonQuill

I have seriously considered that - I have dabbled in bookbinding before, but nothing to this scale - even getting the signatures printed in order (well, technically out of order so that once they're gathered and stitched together they become ordered) is pretty time-consuming, though I have found an app that will help with that. I will get the book printed normally, though it really is something in the back of my mind to maybe one day print it up myself by hand - at least I can say that "I made the book myself" :)

Nate Mangion

How about just printing it, then binding it yourself? Binding books is really fun and actually relaxing, although I understand that you would want maximum quality for your encyclopedia and let pros handle it.

DungeonQuill

Makes sense. After posting my comment, I noticed in the patron goals that you were talking about having a leather cover and things like that--definitely not something you'd find on Createspace lol I'm from Canada, so I know all about that hassle ;) thanks IRS :P

N.A. Vreugdenhil

I had printed out a few copies of my novel for myself and local beta readers through createspace. I'd probably use it if i eventually finish the novel, though will probably go with a local publisher for something bigger and hardcover for the encyclopaedia / atlas - createspace doesnt have many options for colour printing at that size with the number of pages ill have. Also, problem with createspcae is since im not american and dont have an americal social security number i have to fill out a bunch of forms for american tax reasons. Bleh. :p

Nate Mangion

Sounds great! I'd love to have hard copies of this sort of thing. Have you heard of Createspace? I use it to print novels I write in the worlds I create. It is print-on-demand, yet the costs are fairly reasonable as technology has improved so much since the days of "minimum orders" and "print runs". Furthermore, you maintain all your rights and can stop publication at any time. I once published a book through there for a university class I was in at the time, just compiling all of our works since the small class size wanted something to remember our community by -- so it's fairly easy to do small scale or large scale projects that way. Just thought I would suggest it, though I'm sure you'll be doing your own research when the time comes for actual hard-copy printing :)

N.A. Vreugdenhil

I can't wait

Impesio

thanks :)

Nate Mangion

I know just what you mean :)

Nate Mangion

Looking forward to it!

Gavin

When you get it printed I'll be happy to pay to get hold of a copy. There is just something about a hard copy that can't be replicated in digital.

Count Thalim


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