For those who have been watching the news, this specific case has meant a stay (whether days, weeks, or months) in my job situation for now.
Irregardless, I will be heading back to (evening) school in the fall, and have told some folks but not all, particularly those from my most likely former workspace. It’s just not the time and place for reasons I can’t really get into in a public facing blog.
Due to the economic uncertainty, I just haven’t had any real desire or security around traveling. So it’s been a quiet few weeks mostly at home, trying to keep up with others. Job market looks strange and I’m not in a position to apply yet due to school scheduling that needs to take place. I’ll likely have to come up with some other work arrangement through the end of the year.
Since there’s not much I can do right now, I’m working on my books. [Backstory here]
Pictured in the feature is a revised hardcover edition of book 1. One thing I wanted to do is change the size of the book and so it’ll be upscaled slightly to a 7×10 inch size. (This goes up from 6.69×9.61 inches.) For the evaluation of the papers and cover types, I ran it with the same design cover. However, this style is really only good for an ebook and out of trend. I’m debating on what to do for that hardcover. Some mock-ups follow.
Here’s a draft for Book 2 (paperback edition). I reused art I did years ago (consistent with style of Book 1). I have a proof coming shortly and will look at everything again including the detailing of the paint.
I spent a few hours at a local book store just inspecting covers and it’s clear that the style I painted in years ago fell out of favor in the last few years. Book covers have gone towards minimalism and Fantasy (and Romantasy) all have graphic oriented covers. I kind of despaired after seeing this and am thinking through something far simpler. Some mock-ups below.
I guess at the end of the day I just want the books to blend in with “classical” things/fairytale books. Hence the move towards what I think is more minimalist art deco inspired looks.
If this ever did make money I would consider paying someone to illustrate something far more professional for the hardcover, but I know the truth of most self-pub and writing is that IT GOES NOWHERE. HAHA. So…
I think my efforts might be better off publishing the “Simpler” hardcover and DIY the book covers myself as special illustrated dustjackets? I’ll research this a bit more. [I do have one printer capable of rendering up to 13×19, or am willing to go work with a local shop to make something if I arrive at a design I love.]
Meanwhile I want to use the next two months to research and put together an outline for the books/chapters for the immediate Book 3. [I have a lot of books I bought in Iceland, Ireland, England, etc. that point to my strong interest in grounding the upcoming characters in Arthurian lore which I admit I only think of in terms of THWhite which might be bad, and thus my buying of those books.]
Other things I would do if I could figure it out
- Generate /redo art to refresh the website , also dump those assets into a sketch book , freebie pdf to be released later.
- Somewhere along the way, I also want to post the first book on Royal Road. Wattpad is in a tremendously weird state right now (as it’s quite old) and there’s a lot of readers at RR, but the major interests there are for LitRPG.
- Make stickers for this series. LOL.
This may be too much ….
WE WILL SEE
The Swann Lodge 