Course Books Second Ed
I think we are pretty well set on CreateSpace as my new "publisher"; good prices, prime eligible, and easy ebook distribution. Plus a ton of control over the interior. I want to start migrating over, she thinks I should wait.
Like many random pages on this wiki, this is a place to put my personal thoughts. On the Internet. For anyone to read.
This page is a notepad for the process I am beginning of creating a "second edition" of the existing Course Books, making some changes, tweaking a few things, and generally fixing stories I haven't been happy with. This is accompanying a project to migrate to a new PoD distributor where I can fully control the layouts and interiors, as well as migrating to distributing my own e-books.
Another step in this process will be migrating away from AuthorHouse. Which will make me sad, but the time has come.
Contents
Interiors
Books
The books, and what parts of them need to be fixed:
PTA
Surprisingly not that bad.
Wildfire Emerges
FINAL: this story is getting shitcanned. Sorry. It sucked anyway.
Reunion
After discussion, its agreed: changes to this story will be as follows
- Re-title to simply "Reunion"
- cut out part about what everyone did
- oh god fix some of the dialogue
I think the story could stand to take a complete pass on editing.
The Dark Lord Nimi
- The Dark Lord Nimi is getting a from-the-ground re-write.
- Re-Write is called A New Darkness and, if I do say so myself... freakin' nailed it.
Completed a from-the-ground re-write, will need editing, but very happy with the re-write.
The Truth Finally Revealed
Being re-titled as "Truth in Ashes", did some very minor re-writing and am now really happy with the story.
Virus
The Saratoga crashes a lot...
success! the edits to virus went well and am much happier with the story. Didn't actually take much.
RTW
I'm not gonna lie, I killed it with this book. It's worth running through for corrections, but there's nothing that really needs work.
One minor thought is to replace Dragoon Lancers: Wrath of the Lancer's Light with a different short story about the same characters. There's nothing wrong with that story per-se, but it is something of a non sequitur. I will speak to the 3 people that actually read the book and find out.
CTV
If I'm perfectly honest with myself, this is just good as-it-is.
It's worth taking another spin through Forbidden JUST because of how vital to the series it is. NOTE: a good idea would be to mention the Circle of Seven in this story as a minor throw-away line, even though it is referenced in other stories.
ITD
Again, really nailed it here. The main issue with this book was the way Authorhouse screwed up the cover. There are stories I could stand to re-read for my own purposes, but over all it was great.
BTF
Can I just name this one The Way to Freedom? Is that cool?
The famous (haha) unreleased work, the final volume, the one basically put on hold because unknown reasons. While the wiki was never updated, the writing is finished and probably top-tier.
Oh, this one hasn't been proofread.
Yes, after reading the final story list, it does need A LOT of work, but it's just more on the lines of "it's a book I didn't finish", so there's that.
Cover design: this one is going to be white. I am insanely tempted to just... make it white with black text. I dunno. I'll see if my cover designer wants to come out of retirement for one last job....
Over All
O.K., upon review, my giant intensive project is more like a couple of afternoons. The biggest challenge is just going to be re-learning all of the ebook stuff and settling on a new PoD publisher.
Stand Alone E-Books
- I could string together a few of the Furthest Star series into an ebook-only release.
- Retrospectus would be a good candidate.
- Wrath of the Lancer's Light, might do this one anyway even if it stays in RTW.
- Not written yet but there was a good start on a novelization of The Tiger's Eye
Potential PoD sources
Pros: CHEAP! Does e-books, has store for what its worth, books might cost as little as $16 each + shipping, bulk books.
Cons: No hardcovers
Pros: Also cheap, ebooks, offers hardcover
Cons: appears to max out at 440 pages? wuh?
Notes: This would be a good site to come back to for 1-off childrens books.
Pros: ...not sure this place just does PoD. Does seem like it. Also offers hardback with dust jacket/etc
Cons: price calculator not easy to find.
Pros: have experience with them before and liked what I saw. Really enjoyed the copy of ITD I printed through there. Over all I like Createspace, they seem to have improved a lot. Createspace also makes it easy to publish on Kindle, which, if I'm being honest, is more important than the other e-book services.
Cons: poor distribution and bad pricing model, though this may have improved... currently the site is showing me about $8. O.K.: its also a flat $14.99 on Amazon. No hardcovers.
