Cover art

[philipstephen]

i may need to read the details of your post more carefully, but unless you are self-publishing, usually the publishers will choose the cover artist and pay for that, not the author.

how are you going about getting your books printed?

and congrats on finishing your project! that is quite the feat.

I am just starting my novels... and working on the world map has taken longer than i thought it would...

phil

[Gandwarf]

Well, I haven't given up on a regular publisher. I haven't even sent in a manuscript yet
Philipstephen: you are right that in the case I would land a publisher they would want to pick out the cover.

Right now I am looking at a small print run for some friends and family (a private project through Lulu.com, so no one can order the novel from their site, only me - I have done this for book 1 already). I designed the cover myself and I suck at it. I want something better and am willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars on it. This is a hobby for me and I would love to have some professional looking books on my shelf, just so I can pick them up and say: "I wrote them". I never started writing these books because I wanted to reach a large audience, but I will try.

I will start thinking about what kind of cover I want first, before I blunder about
Thanks for the pointers Torst-San!

Oh, and for everyone working on their maps: I started writing first and had book 1 finished by the time I started on the first map. A map is great to have but you can spend ages tweaking it and you will get delayed/side-tracked. Watch out for that pitfall
(I made the later mistake of mapping lots of the cities in my world )

[ravells]

Why don't you make it a competition here? Might be fun to see what comes up!

[Gidde]

Oh, and for everyone working on their maps: I started writing first and had book 1 finished by the time I started on the first map. A map is great to have but you can spend ages tweaking it and you will get delayed/side-tracked. Watch out for that pitfall

Haha, MUCH too late for that, I'm afraid

[Karro]

Why don't you make it a competition here? Might be fun to see what comes up!

A competition to see what sorts of maps folks come up with for Gandwarf's world?

Hmm. Interesting; though as a writer I'd find it curious, especially since in my own case I have a fairly specific idea of what the world is supposed to look like, I'd be concerned that something like that wouldn't produce something that fit that vision - though of course I don't know how Gandwarf feels. Though obviously your experience of doing a map for another writer's world was pretty much an unmitigated success, and GP's use of Oten-Jo for a monthly challenges seems to have worked out, so it could be an interesting experiment, and I'd follow that with interest (though obviously with my glacial workpace, could not participate). Anyone want to volunteer?

[Steel General]

Depending on the parameters of the competition it might just work.

[Gandwarf]

Actually, I once thought about sponsoring a map competition for my book on the guild... and giving away a cash prize to the winner. I still might, because the map I am using now is still very bland.

However, at the moment I don't need a map, but some cover art.

[Gandwarf]

I have been looking at Lulu.com and it looks like their service has gone down the drain. Lots of people complaining... I also find it a bit scary you can't delete content once at least one order has been made (even if the order was made by yourself! so you can't delete a private project from their server, which kinda makes me think of them as the evil empire).

So now I am looking for a new way to publish my second book as a private project. Any tips?

[zenram]

Mmm, i heared about some one else, but i can't remember the name just now, wait...


yeha, Lightning Source...

[zenram]

RPG now has a POD service as well.