Posts Tagged ‘independent publishing’
from a first drawing to a final cover
This month I completed publication of the third book in my science fiction series. I published my books with CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and have loved the outcome. I also chose to use one of the CreateSpace templates for my covers, an efficient choice but one that let me easily download my own painting image for each cover.
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As a sort of retrospective, I think it is interesting to see the progression of the three covers, from drawing to painting to cover (all paintings are photography of J.D.R. Beaudoin):
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The next book in the series, Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill, will come out in January 2018. Seems a ways away, but time to start working on the cover. This cover may change in overall design but will feature the moons in the background with poor Odymn tumbling through the trees. This is the black and white drawing I will work from.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
A muse takes over – final edits
This week I am working towards final publication of my first sci-fi novel on CreateSpace – Meniscus: Crossing The Churn.
I have incorporated the comments of my editor ( Lee Thompson Editing + https://leethompsonediting.com/ ) into my final draft.
I have sent my beta-version to my six beta-readers and will make a few edits based on their comments.
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A glimpse of the book in final editing. The blue paper was a gift from my husband who thought he was buying white paper! The yellow tabs are just a few last minute changes. The white frame is my way of seeing how the book will look on the final page size!
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At the last minute I decided my font was too small and switched from Garamond 12 to Garamond 14. It took a while to get all those drawings back to the left hand page!
Now, I have printed out a final version to have one last view before I load the cover, text and other information into CreateSpace.
A comment about independent versus traditional publishing:
I realize how patient the publisher was with all the edits for my poetry book within easy reach (Chapel Street Editions, 2017).
I also realize that my publisher made the final call and ‘pushed the button ‘ regarding the final, final, final draft. Left to my own, I realize I am a bit nervous about this last step and find myself procrastinating, just a little.
To that end, I spent all morning, not working on Meniscus:Crossing The Churn, but on the early draft of the fifth book in the series!
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
choosing book covers and titles
I was recently at a writing workshop about independent (or self) publishing. The instructor took us through an interesting exercise … creation of a book title and book cover for a story. Each of us was asked to provide the potential name of a book and a verbal description of the book’s cover. The audience tried to guess the book genre, general plot and story.
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This exercise illustrated how important it is for writers considering independent publication of their work to chose titles and book covers carefully. This would be a great exercise for anyone trying to see if their ideas get a good initial reader response.
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I provided the title for my new fantasy tale: Meniscus
and a verbal description of the following cover sketch:
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Most people guessed correctly that this will be a Science-fiction/Fantasy (I think the alien sky helped). They also thought the book might be about an encounter between alien species.
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Only two people in the audience knew what ‘meniscus’ meant.
Google provides the following definition:
me·nis·cus
noun
Physics– the curved upper surface of a liquid in a tube.Optics– a lens that is convex on one side and concave on the otherAnatomy– a thin, fibrous cartilage between the surfaces of some joints
nichepoetryandprose 