Release Date Countdown: Nine Days to Go! Plus a Sneak Preview of Coming Attractions
I can hardly believe that in less than ten days my debut novel will hit the market.
I'm so excited to share the world of The Curious Collectibles Series with others. I'm over the moon that Misty's story will be told in a way that gives millions of people access to it. I'm looking forward to writing the next installment, and a few other surprises too.
But enough of my musing. Let's move on to some sneak peeks at all the work I've been doing!
One of the things I had to do was design a full-spread cover for the print version, which will be published through Amazon's Createspace. I took some graphic design classes at a technical school several years ago, so I felt pretty comfortable embarking on this mission.
Boy, was it difficult. The restrictions for trim edges were killing me, and on top of that, none of my images seemed to want to mesh properly. Then there was the fact that I forgot to save two separate layers—one with Misty and the other with the background image—in Photoshop, meaning that I couldn't adjust her position once I started working on the print copy.
Still, I think it turned out all right:
The empty space on the left is where the bar code will go.
Next up, I had to work on my interior. Print interiors are an entirely different animal from ePub interiors. The up side was that I got to do a lot more in the print version than I did using SIGIL (an ePub formatting program). The down side was that I had to work around some contradictory instructions, section break drama, Word's infuriating default setting of "reduce all images to potato quality," and much, much more.
For example, proper book formatting dictates that all new chapters begin on odd-numbered pages. These are the pages that occur on the right side of the book when you're reading, and it's a great way to allow your eyes to jump from one section to another. Hell, Createspace even suggests this is the way to go.
Unfortunately, following these guidelines necessitates a few blank pages to ensure that the chapters start on the odd-numbered side. But do you know what Createspace doesn't allow?
Blank pages.
This is true of the front matter, too, which is completely contradictory to how traditional publishers format books. Seriously, grab a fiction novel from your shelf and look inside. I'll wait.
Did you notice that the first page on the left is often blank? Did you notice that in between the numerous title pages, dedication pages, copyright pages, and the beginning of the novel, there are a couple of pages that are blank on one side or another? Did you notice how nice this looks when your eyes aren't constantly searching for the information?
How are self-publishers supposed to compete with traditional quality if we're not allowed to commit ourselves to the same formatting standards?
Despite the frustrations surrounding this process, I did find a suitable workaround. I took the glyph from the eBook version that didn't make it into the print copy, enlarged it, reduced its opacity to 20%, and pasted it onto every blank page as a sort of decorative watermark. This forces Createspace to regard the pages as not blank and allows me to give The Haunted Lingerie the formatting it deserves:
Despite how it shows up in Word, the splash page will be on the right side.
Here you can see the custom chapter header graphics, as well as my headers and footers. Do you know how long it took me to get them to display consistently across all pages? Trust me, you don't want to.
Given the results, it feels like it was worth it. Plus I now have a template I can work off of next time, so yay!
Now for some additional news: The Haunted Lingerie is getting a freequel!
What's a freequel, you ask? Why, a free prequel, of course!
The Magic Mirror is a short story leading up to the events of The Haunted Lingerie. It centers on Jack Snow and his return to Sanctum Harbor after six months of training at Sanctuary's police academy. He finds that not all is what it seems in the town he left behind, including a silver hand mirror which has mysteriously appeared in his mother's home.
And now, for the cover reveal:
Innit purdy?
Why yes, I did design that all myself! I bought my own stock images, purchased the license for the fonts, and even used an assortment of Photoshop brushes to custom design the glowing arcane tendrils and symbols on the mirror face. You can purchase your own set of these brushes here.
The Magic Mirror will also feature a sneak preview of the prologue and first chapter of The Haunted Lingerie in its back matter. Remember, it's also FREE, so you've got nothing to lose by downloading it as soon as it's available!
Once I get my proofs back from Createspace, I'll be making another, more formal post about formatting your books based on what I've learned through my own process of trial and error. I'll also offer a comparison—with pictures!—of the matte vs. glossy cover and cream vs. white paper, because seriously, it was next to impossible to find any examples without having to order samples.
More updates are on the way! Stick around. We'll have fun.
