Sunday, November 24, 2013

Preparing to Self-Publish

My experience with my latest novel is completely different from my first book. With my first--an epic fantasy--I didn't know what the ending would be, but once I approached the end it simply came to me and I finished the book off very quickly. With my new book--a sci-fi thriller--I also don't know the full ending, but I've been close to the end for some months and I just can't come up with the perfect ending yet.

So, I've temporarily set the new novel aside in order to go back and prepare my fantasy novel for self-publishing. I have three major obstacles before I can actually do so. I've been working on two of the obstructions--editing the text one final time to put in some final improvements, and trying to prepare a good enough map to include in the book. Here is my latest attempt at the map.
click to enlarge

The final obstacle will be managing the formatting so that the book looks good in both Kindle and print editions. I want to include the map for certain, and if possible I'd like to figure out how to also include both of the paintings that I commissioned from artists. My friend Ivan Amberlake seems willing to help with some formatting issues, but he didn't have a map or artwork, so I'd be thrilled to hear any tips on how to manage those issues.

8 comments:

  1. That's great stuff, Ted. The map looks great.
    The IWSG website has a list of people who do formatting - maybe one of them could help as well?

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  2. Thanks, Alex. I haven't heard of that site, but when it comes time to deal with the harder parts of formatting, I'll remember to check it out.

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  3. Next year I hope to be self publishing my own fantasy novel, so I'll be glued to my seat to find out how your journey goes.

    I think your map looks wonderful. I have one that I hand drew for my own personal use, but I haven't worked out yet what I'm going to do for the published editions.

    But best of luck to you!

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  4. M.J., thanks for your kind words. I was hoping to find some software to make a professional-looking map, but I never succeeded. This was hand drawn except for adding the text with Photoshop.

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  5. A fantasy story usually needs a map. I'll be following what you do as well, Ted. Good luck. I hand drew for my own purposes an astronomical view of the scifi star system I'm writing about.

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  6. I expect my book won't sell very well, since I'm not so adept at social media, nor am I comfortable pushing my writing all that much. Still, it will be nice to have it out there instead of just sitting on my computer.

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  7. I think the map looks great. Please keep us updated about how you proceed with the formatting issues as I think it would be useful info for a lot of writers thinking about doing the same.

    regards,
    mood
    Moody Writing

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  8. Thanks, Mood. If I do ever get it figured out, I'll post it. Right now I think that the paintings, at least, may not make it into the book and will just have to be on the website and FB pages. I really want to include the map, though.

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