Fantasy Castle Books Website Re-Launch

For the third time in just a little over a year I've had to rebuild my primary website due to a crash. The first was my own fault, which occurred while migrating from Yahoo to Wordpress, but the last two were caused by Wordpress updates that created conflicts with the widgets I was using. This is an ongoing problem with Wordpress, due to the nature of plug-and-play design. Since widgets are created by separate and unaffiliated parties, there is a constant threat that one will not work well with another, or that an update to one will change its behavior in a way that causes an unexpected outcome. Last time it was a Wordpress update that brought the whole thing down, and I swore I'd never build a Wordpress site again.



Now, however, I have two of them. This was not at all intentional, but was simply a function of expediency. I frankly do not have the time to build a whole new site from scratch, nor the funds to pay someone else to do it for me. And even if I did I probably wouldn't, since I like to do things myself. Consequently, I've designed both the new Fantasy Castle Books website, as well as my second blog over at rscotjohns.com, both of which are in a constant state of pending development.



The new site is based on the Publisher theme, which has some handy features, but also some rather serious flaws and drawbacks, as with most generic templates. I've customized it as much as time would allow over the past week, adding product pages with links to my e-Junkie hosted files - the same ones found in the product links on this blog. So you can now visit the "publisher" page to view more information about the titles available and use a central shopping basket for your purchases.



The idea behind keeping a website presence in the form of a publisher bookstore is to allow an outlet for my work directly to my readers. This is one of the fundamental aspects of independent publishing, since it bypasses the middlemen and gate-keepers in favor of a more personal reader-writer relationship. Not only are we no longer tied to the whims of corporate marketing boards that are only interested in what will sell the most, but it is now entirely up to the readers themselves to determine what has value for them, rather than having these dictated by intermediaries who more than likely have their own interests in mind instead of mine or yours. In addition, whether you're an independent self-published author or have a traditional contract with a major trade, it is still left almost entirely to you to market your own work, and a central website is the primary means of doing that, regardless of what other methods you might use. Your website is where you send anyone who might be interested in what you do.



At the moment only the product pages are up, but I'll be adding back the Archives as I find the time. These include things like source materials and bonus content like notes and rough drafts, plus early concept art and render tests for the long-awaited Ring Saga project, which I plan to get back to with fervor now that the Kindle Comics book is done. If there's anything particular you'd like to see added to the new website feel free to let me know! Also, I plan to start updating my other blog with new content once I start producing new material for the Ring Saga. I'll continue to post updates here pertaining to industry news and ebook formatting matters, while the other blog is intended to be more about my own ongoing writing and illustration efforts. Because I've been consumed entirely with the Kindle formatting guide I haven't been able to work on anything "creative" for quite some time, so I'm very much looking forward to getting back to it.



So with that said, I'm off to do just that.