Smart Publishing

I wanted to take a moment to before Dragon’s Guide to Slaying Virgins is released and break from the Elven Life story to talk about something that is important to me. I call it ‘smart publishing’ or ‘smart printing’. When Princes and Holiday released last year, I had a number of readers contact me because they thought something had happened in the formatting process on my books because my chapters don’t always begin on the right-hand side. While the first chapters of my books will always start on the right side, I chose not to start all chapters on the right, but rather let them naturally fall to the left or right depending on their length. I also chose not to use drop caps (starting a chapter with an extra-big letter) at the beginning of my chapters.

Why do I do this when it is industry standard?

I found that by allowing chapters to naturally fall in my books and removing drop caps, I cut twelves pages out of Dragon’s Guide alone. Let’s say I sell one hundred copies of the book in trade format – that means I removed twelve-hundred pages of wasted space. Maybe that doesn’t sound big, but it’s a small step I can take as an author to reduce paper consumption. I don’t believe that you have to be an activist to make a difference. We can all make small changes in the way we do things that can improve the world around us.

No, I am not the only author that has decided to do this, and I certainly hope I’m not the last.

I hope each of you that read my blog and books continue to enjoy the stories I bring you.

Until we speak again, kindest regards,

Isabelle