Kherishdar's Rebranding, and KH4 Pre-Order

It is almost time to return to Kherishdar! Book 4 is hitting retail in 23 days, which meant it was time for me to finalize the draft and the formatting, plus the rebranding for the whole series.

My plan for the look this time around was "obviously calligraphy", and unlike last time I did the books, this time I can actually write, grammatically, in the language. So I went for watercolor backgrounds with floated calligraphy, and simplified the fronts to keep from distracting from the visual elements. I wanted them to pop a little better than the last set, which went for 'understated' and mostly achieved invisibility, so more color, which meant I could code each book more clearly.

So the elements go:

• The Aphorisms: blue (peaceful), with an aphorism  ("Love is the foundation of society.")
• The Admonishments: red (aggressive) with a different aphorism ("To err is only another chance to know the grace of Correction.")
• Black Blossom: purple (for the color of the alien flower, and to combine the red and blue of the previous volumes as symbol of the meeting of the two characters from the first two volumes), and Thirukedi's favorite broken pot parable, written in the style of a philosophy floor.
• Kherishdar's Exception: green (the color of aliens/literal definition of aunera), and Haraa's favorite theme poem by Ereseya ("Forever").

I got the proofs of the first three late last week:

And decided Black Blossom needed to be bluer. (Also, I wanted the titles up from the bottom of the edge on the first two books--Amazon's new process for this is a lot worse than Createspace's used to be, in terms of accurate previewing of what you get). Otherwise, I really like the effect. I made those adjustments and ordered new proofs, but here are the ebooks all together now:

I think Black Blossom works much better now, and I like how they look as a set. 

All that left was formatting Kherishdar's Exception, which was a nightmare, because the tool I bought to do e-book and print formatting works fine for 95% of what I do, but this was one of the edge cases. These books have too many interior formatting flourishes, and if I wanted Book 4 to match, in any fashion, Books 1-3, I had to hand-code the entire thing. Which also involved buying the font used for the interior in Books 1 and 3.

I actually enjoy hand-coding, so it wasn't a burden. It's not something I can afford to do for every book, because it takes too long and I need to use that time on more productive tasks... but for the occasional project that just won't work right without it, I don't mind.

So the e-book is great, I'm totally happy with it. The print edition caused me two days of teeth gnashing, though. Vellum is not a layout program: it's an e-book and print edition file generator. If you're not willing to use its templates, it breaks down quickly as a useful tool. I don't blame it for that because it's not intended to allow the kind of customization I wanted, but I did rip out a lot of hair over it.

(As you can see, to use my own font for the chapter headers, I had to remove all headers completely--including the spacing that starts the chapter partway down the page--and simulate all the spacing with blank graphics of various sizes. I had to make compromises like this all over the book, and it doesn't really make me feel better to realize that most people aren't going to order the print edition, or notice any of the nitpicks I do. I notice them, and as one knows, artists are perfectionists in that regard.)

Anyway, I've finally got it to a point I am willing to live with and have sent off for the proof of that so that it'll be ready for launch on July 19th with the ebook. And while the audiobook edition won't be ready at launch, it won't be far behind... probably at most a couple of months out. (And the audio editions of this series are so worth it. I looooove them.)

That's the situation, then! Fantastic!

BUT WAIT! You say. You haven't told us where to pre-order!

My bad! I fix!

PRE-ORDER THE EBOOK NOW! HERE! Clicky! 

BUT WAIT! You say. I haven't read this series! Do I want to?

I don't know! I will say that I love it. It's one of my most immersive series, and asks you to sink deep into a very alien culture (and teaches you some of its language). It is contemplative rather than urgent, and deals almost entirely with relationships and society, rather than explosions and adventure (I like those things too! But this series is not that series).

I think the thing I'm most proud of with Kherishdar is that by the time you get to the end, you have learned so much about the culture of the Ai-Naidar that you will perceive Book 4 as powerfully and emotionally significant even though if you stand back from it and read it as a human, it's really not momentous-sounding. It won't matter, because you'll have become invested in what the Ai-Naidar care about, so much so that you'll care deeply, seeing the protagonist of Book 4 achieve, lose, and achieve all the things she does.

Or at least, that's the reader experience that's been reported to me. 💖 If this description has piqued your interest, start with Book 1 here.  💖 

So! Kherishdar 4! July 19! I am excite! I hope you are too!  *boings*