Coming Down the Pike: ALL THE PRINT
Added 2018-12-14 15:00:04 +0000 UTCNo, seriously, I mean that. I think I mentioned in my last business post that I bought software that would let me convert my manuscripts to ebook and print simultaneously, which means going forward I'll publish those two editions at the same time. But I had the backlist to worry about, and instead of sitting on it I decided to do it ALL AT ONCE.
So over the course of two weeks, I converted my last eight books without print editions and uploaded them, and I've been approving them one by one.
The summary project was my test, and wow, I had no idea it was so LONG. Look at the size of that spine?? I thought my synopsis of the series was going to be this thin wand of a book, but NOPE.
This was a really good test because the interior was full of weird formatting, like lists and images and subheadings. It looked good, so I KEPT GOING.
Girl on Fire was next...
Interior looks really good. Surprisingly classy for something I had very little control over. The software doesn't let you mess with the templates much, but I guess it's one of those 'you can't touch it because we've already figured out what looks best so DON'T PLAY WITH IT' things.
Honestly the interiors of these books look better than the exteriors. The covers are often muddier than I wish, or the color correction's off. Also, unlike the books of my dreams there's no embossing or gold foil and I hunger for a book that has those things. It's on my bucket list. Unfortunately, these problems are limitations of the Print on Demand process... there's not much I can do about it unless I want to start buying books and storing them in my garage to ship personally and I am not in the shipping/fulfillment business. I have too many books to write for you all to do that!
No, seriously, if I'm going to keep writing a book every other month I don't have time to mess with shipping. And you all want the books more than you want me packing envelopes. :D
Moving on (as you can see from the picture at the top there)... all the rest of the Princes' Game series!
I like... big... books and I cannot lie...
Really, though, I had no idea how big this series was until I set them side by side. My kindle makes From Ruins look about the same size as all the other Princes' Game books, but LOOK at the size of that spine! Sheesh. I guess I am at the big fat epic stage of my career. >.>
I have some OCD twitches about the PG books not looking *identical* on the inside through the entire series, but the differences are pretty minimal. I was able to use the same title page graphics and dingbats, and those give the interior most of its character. And to be honest, I can't justify the extra money/time it would take to get these done the old way. At least I switched all the cover finishes so they'd be identical, which is nice. And on the bright side, they're done.
It's really satisfying to see them all together, or it will be once the finished versions get propagated. I had to correct some nitpicks before hitting okay (including the lack of winged spiky dingbat on the spine of From Ruins), but once they finish cycling I'm going to buy copies of all the new things and do some doodled versions for those of you who've been collecting them from the Kickstarters. You can expect those on Etsy early next year.
The last three books without print editions are the books of Morgan's trilogy, and I finished those early this week. The proof copies of those are on the way: two arriving on Friday and one on Monday. Once I approve them, that'll be my entire backlist, and finally everything I've written will be in print. And I'll have saved a lot of money doing them.
I'll be going into 2019, then, with a consistent backlist, and my new target: audio for everything. That'll be MUCH harder, because much more expensive. But worth it.
All these are already up at retailers. Yes, I really did get them ALL DONE AND UP in less than two weeks...! That just leaves Morgan and the genets. I'll have more photos when those come in. *bounces*
Comments
If you re-download the summaries from Bookfunnel, the next edition will have PG6! So you can still get the complete copy for free. It's also on Amazon if you feel like buying it instead (if, for instance, you want it stored on the cloud, or if you want a service that saves your bookmarks/underlines, etc).
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-12-15 19:23:31 +0000 UTCThis is amazing and awesome work. I just checked my copy of the PG summaries and it doesn't include "From Ruins." I check Amazon, and I didn't buy it, but I can't remember if I got my copy because I did some first reading for you, or if it was a prize for something. Should I buy the complete version? I'm happy to do so.
2018-12-15 19:22:18 +0000 UTCaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa excite aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Zeta Syanthis
2018-12-15 07:14:26 +0000 UTCDown the road, you can publish the collected Hogarth and do covers like we did for the collected Zelazny volumes. One cover painting, printed on the books in such a way that you can see the painting across all the spines of the books when they are on the shelf. And by putting together the cover art budget for all the volumes, we could afford to commission Micheal Whelen to do the art. <a href="https://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html</a>
Dale Farmer
2018-12-15 02:54:48 +0000 UTCMy bank account is not looking forward to having these in print. My library is wailing 'BUT WHERE IS ANOTHER BOOKSHELF'. My book-starved heart, however, is in love.
2018-12-14 22:33:10 +0000 UTCIt helped me to be reminded (by my husband) that the job of the formatting is to get out of the way of the story: "Your readers aren't buying your work because of its gorgeous layout. They're buying it for the content. That's what they care about." And that's going to be true of 99.99% of people buying the work. Will they notice if it's horribly formatted? Of course. But as long as it's competently laid out, the difference in delight between "competently laid out" and "extravagantly laid out" is going to matter to only a few people. As in "this is not going to make the difference between them buying it or not." :,
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-12-14 18:44:27 +0000 UTCAh. Got it. I'm just thinking since one can even save as PDFs in Word...but then I realised that I've already got Word templates set up with the sizes I like and such, so maybe I've already done work this does automatically :-) And I totally get you on things being worth the time to do Just As You Like. I'm stubborn and picky...and also considering changing my one weird font thing because it's possible that bit of formatting isn't as precious/valuable as I'm acting like it is.
2018-12-14 18:42:38 +0000 UTC<3
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-12-14 18:33:39 +0000 UTCThis generates PDFs? Like you dump the word document in it, and it will create all the ebook formats, plus a print format appropriate for upload to POD services, and you don't have to make them separately. I'd been handcoding my own ebooks, but honestly, these tools do a better job, and faster. I have to give up some control over the interiors, but I have to ask myself if having that control is worth the amount of time I'd spend on it, and given the economics, the answer to that is... no. -_-
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-12-14 18:33:27 +0000 UTCI don't know how you do it, but I've enjoyed all your books!
2018-12-14 18:22:22 +0000 UTCJust because I'm always looking to talk myself out of an expense: For print on demand, one can use a PDF. I'm wondering if you'd share why you went with this instead? I was also wondering if you've used other software for converting to ebooks that didn't do as well with formatting and if you're finding this does that better. (I've got one font issue that means I'm having to mess with handcoding OR I need to change my vision of what is right.) Thanks!
2018-12-14 18:20:15 +0000 UTCOh, I see what you mean. But that's definitely an excellent expense considering the quality you're getting from it. *puts on software acquisition list* Especially anything that makes life easier. I've been on hold releasing print editions as well, because I just haven't had time to do the formatting. Thank you!
A. N. Hyatt
2018-12-14 18:13:46 +0000 UTCI broke down and bought Vellum. <a href="https://vellum.pub/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://vellum.pub/</a>
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-12-14 18:10:49 +0000 UTCGorgeous! May I ask what software you got? I covet it. :)
A. N. Hyatt
2018-12-14 18:07:34 +0000 UTCYour labors are mighty, and our rejoicing great! Please let us know when the final trilogy is up; I plan to buy All The Things in one fell swoop. Best use of Christmas cash ever! --filkferengi
filkferengi
2018-12-14 17:09:46 +0000 UTC
