vrijdag 16 december 2011

Dreams with Marlon

The latest editon of Brabants Strip magazine contains an article about Marlon Teunissen, the artist who made the illustrations for "The Daemon of Cormagan". The book is also mentioned in this article.

vrijdag 25 november 2011

Finished NaNoWriMo 2011

The sequel to the Dæmon of Cormagan has finished the writing phase. Next is the editing phase, which will take a lot longer. Basically this is book two in the Mar Enmig series. The book can be read on its own, there are a few minor characters shared between the novels, but apart from that it is separate, and even has a different style.

zaterdag 22 oktober 2011

Now available in both Kindle and soft cover versions on Amazon

You can now buy this book on Amazon. The kindle version was already available for some time (and already sold some copies and got a review), but today the soft cover version became available as well. I get slightly more money if the book is bought directly from createspace, but I would already be quite happy if you decided to buy my book at all.

woensdag 19 oktober 2011

Preview

I decided to use the createspace website to add a preview of my novel. It includes the first chapter, which is also available on the kindle page of amazon.com, and my own website.

dinsdag 18 oktober 2011

Launched

Whether it is the 17th of October, or the 18th, the book is now available on amazon.com (kindle only at the moment, but the soft cover should be available soon as well) and on create space. More information can be found on my landing page, which also links to the places where the novel can be purchased. It also includes the first chapter, so you can get a feel of the writing.

zaterdag 15 oktober 2011

Getting ready for launch

So far I've set up my ad campaign in Ad Words (mostly image ads, obviously), the kindle version is uploaded and ready to be published and the proof is underway. Hopefully I can make everything active at the same time. It's kind of exciting, actually.

donderdag 13 oktober 2011

New proof, landing page

Today I ordered a new proof, which hopefully has all the (tiny) problems fixed that were wrong with the first one. I also created a landing page for the advertising campaign that will start as soon as I confirm that the proof is fine. The landing page contains the first chapter of the novel, so if you go there you can already read part of what I wrote. I also acquired the ISBN number for the eBook version, which will be 978-0-9847425-0-9. I currently have the publish date at 31st of October 2011, but it probably will be sooner. Finally I created a Facebook page for the novel, which you can like, if you want to. It is accessible from the landing page as well.

zaterdag 8 oktober 2011

Proof arrived!


The proof of my novel arrived. It looks great. There are a few minor issues with chapters that don't start at the right spot on the page, ISBN numbers that are mixed up, dashes that are missing and some paragraph breaks that could be better, but I could publish now. I think I'll go through one set of improvements, though. I added a picture here so you can see what it looks like. I think the boundary between the back and front page are pretty neat too, although there is a small line visible.

woensdag 5 oktober 2011

Progress

The PDF is done, the cover is done, and the self-publishing company is reviewing the files for any errors. They already decided that everything was fine, but after changing a minor issue with the description they wanted to check everything again. I bought into their "pro plan", which allowed me to reduce the sale price to $8.99/copy. This is slightly expensive, but not overly so. Depending on where you buy the book, I get a larger portion of the money. Their own eStore is the best place to buy it, but I can imagine people would prefer to buy it on Amazon instead, as they already have their credit card on file, there.

zondag 2 oktober 2011

Pictures done, working on layout

All the illustrations for the novel are complete, thanks to Marlon Teunissen. I'm currently working on the layout. Initially I thought Google Docs would be able to handle it, but it only supports 8.5x5.5, and even though this is a valid size, it also has issues with even and odd pages, starting page numbering on a later page, and other formatting related issues. I therefore switched to Microsoft Word Starter Edition 2010, and even though I had to get used to it, I was able to make three different versions with three different font sizes (12, 11 and 10). I think the 10 point works the best, and it still ends up to be over 200 pages long. I'm currently struggling with the cover, but hopefully this will work out too. Marlon has been kind enough to place some initial text on it to show how it could look.

maandag 19 september 2011

ISBN number and editing

The editing phase is now complete, and the final two illustrations are in progress. The only thing that is left to be done is the layout: I'm still looking for the right software to accomplish this. I also requested and got an ISBN number for my book, it is: 1466352299. You can't look it up yet, as I'll need to upload more information first, but I did write a short description:

In a mediterranean steampunk world the Master of Cormagan is rudely awakened from his siesta by the abduction of his fiancee. Upon closer investigation, it seems there is something not quite human involved, and he sets off on a journey to free his love.

If you feel this needs improvement, let me know.

dinsdag 9 augustus 2011

Back to editing

A week ago I got a lot of feedback about my novel. I am still working on adding it all in, and feel that it is making certain parts a lot stronger (there is no more tension in places, and a bit more background story, but the speed of the story is not threatened). I also read a website written by a jaded editor, which was quite interesting. According to it "The Lord of the Rings" wouldn't cut it anymore, nowadays. This weekend I decided I wanted my quotes to curl the right way, so I made the mistake to switch to the new version of Google docs, which promised "smart quotes". Sadly, it also slowed down Google docs to the point where it became unusable: for each 10 characters I typed I had to wait a minute before they appeared. I know my computer is a bit behind the times, but I did better using WordPerfect 5.1 on a 8088 processor.

You can't go back to the previous version, but fortunately my Dell XPS 9100 arrived. It has plenty of power to handle the new version of Google docs, although the whole idea of needing a beast like that for editing a novel still strikes me as odd. Maybe I should switch back to Microsoft Word. It would probably handle the quotes better too.

maandag 20 juni 2011

Some progress

This weekend I did a little bit more work on the novel, mostly towards the end. I also went through and fixed some issues around the years that pass in the middle, and tied up the storyline of one of the minor characters. I probably should check more of the little stories, and make sure they all are tied up nicely.

donderdag 9 juni 2011

More back cover details

There are more back cover details on Marlon's blog. It's still not finished, but it looks more and more interesting.

dinsdag 7 juni 2011

Detail of the romans on the back cover

There is now a detail on the Romans on the back cover of the book. Despite the cute look, the Romans are a formidable opponent, with a long history. I'm planning to devote more attention to them in later books (or by expanding the current book), for example regarding their battle with the Cathar, and the reason why the Masters of Cormagan normally don't talk to them.

maandag 6 juni 2011

Back cover in progress

On Marlon's blog is now the back side of the cover of the novel, already with some color. Most of the detail so far seems to have gone into Alejandra, the dog.

dinsdag 17 mei 2011

Update on the front cover

There is another sample of the front cover available on Marlon Teunissen's blog. It looks quite colorful, but I like purple and yellow. The orange might be a little bit disturbing, but it works well for the sunset.

maandag 16 mei 2011

Mar Enmig might be better

After my previous post I realized that "Mar Enmig" probably sounds better than Enmig Mar, so I replaced it in my novel. Thank you, Gustavo.

donderdag 12 mei 2011

Enmig Mar chronicles, perhaps?

I know it is a bit silly to already think of a series of novels when you haven't yet published your first one, but it's also good to be prepared. I was wondering if "The Enmig Mar Chronicles" is a good way to introduce the concept. The nice thing about the Enmig Mar is that it is in the middle, however, the name is obviously different in different countries, so it might not match well if the novel is set in the north east or south, for instance. The name seems a little bit jarring too, perhaps I need to find something better.

maandag 9 mei 2011

Some editing done

This weekend I made a few minor changes, adding a few descriptions and making the passing of time more clear, and added a little bit about the ancient civilization that exists in the novel. For some reason there is no gunpowder, but I didn't want to leave that unreferenced. I also indicated that some of the boats are steam powered.

zaterdag 7 mei 2011

Colored version of cover

On Marlon's blog now a colored version of the cover of my novel. I especially like the way the sun and the castle are looking, the daemon is a little bit different than my own interpretation (I made a small version at the bottom of this blog).

vrijdag 6 mei 2011

More illustrations

On Marlon's blog there are more sketches, this time of the cover of the novel. This is not at all done yet, but it's always nice to see.

donderdag 5 mei 2011

Illustrations

Marlon Teunissen is doing the illustrations for the Daemon of Cormagan, and she recently started putting some sketches on her blog. The first one was a sketch of the fight with the bear. She's very good at drawing action sequences like this, and it forces me to think more about the way the characters look.

woensdag 4 mei 2011

Talker

I wrote a post about the talker used in my novel, the Daemon of Cormagan. When I designed it I wasn't entirely sure if it was feasible, but according to a recent Jameco puzzle it is at least possible to build the transmitter. After reading that, the receiver seems to be less far fetched as well, although powering the whole thing with phosphor instead of sunlight might still be a stretch.

dinsdag 3 mei 2011

Welcome to the Daemon of Cormagan

The Daemon of Cormagan is my first novel, which hopefully will be published this year (it's basically finished, just needs a fifth cycle of editing).