How to publish an illustrated novel

How to publish an illustrated novel — the insanely condensed version.

1. Write the manuscript, then edit. 
2. Sweat. 
3. Design the storyboard. 
4. Sweat. 
5. Research then draw the illustrations. 
6. Sweat. 
7. More story editing. 
8. Redraw things as needed. 
9. Design the page and chapter decorations. 
10. Sweat. 
11. Design the actual book. 
12. Sweat. 
13. More editing. 
14. More drawing adjustments. 
15. Panic while book is being read by Beta readers.
16. Design the book cover. 
17. Get up from the desk and walk around. 
18. Write the book blurb. 
19. More editing. 
20. Paint the book cover. 
21. Consider what’s wrong with the painting then correct it. 
22. Photograph the large illustrations and retouch photos as needed. 
23. Set the book, then create PDFs. 
24. Send it …in my case, to Amazon for review. 
25. Pass out.

 The book is now at Amazon for review. Next step is getting it properly formatted for electronic formats. Here are some screen cap previews to wet your appetite. 

It's coming!!

How I Design A Book Cover Part 1: Getting the Right Feel

The expression — “don’t judge a book by its cover” is ridiculous! Of course, you'll judge books by their covers. We all do.

But how do you get the right cover for your book? If you’re not a graphic designer you’ll hire the job out, or buy one of the online services on CreateSpace, or something similar.

I’m an illustrator and graphic designer. I produced my first book cover for a small publishing company in the early 1990’s. A lot’s changed since then. But one thing hasn’t…you still need good design. Many book covers today don’t have it, the fault of a freelance marketplace of self-published books and inexperienced cover designers. Also, diminishing resources at publishing houses.

It’s a bit of a free-for-all, really. Some books have lovely artwork with no thought given to where the title and author’s name will eventually go. Others use generic or recycled artwork or photographs which may be attractive but don’t relate to the story.

The best design is an integrated whole which inspires excitement through appropriate illustration and principles of good design. Some book covers are stunningly interesting but also badly designed. Good design is beautiful in itself, even when simplified down to a line drawing. Individual elements are balanced and lead the eye appropriately. The thoughtful artist leaves room for the masthead or title, instead of producing the art and then superimposing titles awkwardly over the painting, or squeezing them in as an after thought.

Color can hide a multitude of design sins, but when you look past the paint what once looked intriguing can look like a mismanaged mess.

I’m creating a book cover for a pulp-style novelette. It will have the feel of the old Astounding and Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine covers, but with some modern elements. 

To begin, I deconstruct old magazine and book covers by creating simple line drawings called thumbnails. These allow me to see which designs are built on solid foundations and which aren’t. 

I do many small thumbnail drawings, pages and pages of them. Each sketch takes no more than ten minutes, and most about five. Here are some examples…

Designs by pulp artists Alex Schomburg and James B. Settles and others

Book cover designs by Stanley Pitt

Various pulp magazines and books, front and back covers

Pulp covers some from the early 20th Century

Once I get a good feel for what the genre cover designers did, and what I like, I can then think about the elements I want on my book cover and where to put them.

A very delayed post – or maybe not. It is my blog after all….

I thought it was high time I recorded something here about what’s been going on in my life.

I’ve been writing. Yes, writing. As I intend all the books in my series to roll out in a timely fashion, I need to have several book in various states of completion at once.

Here's the rundown on my forthcoming novel series - 

Book I of the series is nearly done. I’m currently working on the painting for the book cover. This will be one of the very last steps before I bring it out. (I tell myself to “have faith” several times a day. *lol*)

Book II is written and has already been through several drafts.

Book III is under way and the first draft is about 3/4 completed.

Book IV (the final book) is still a twinkle in my mind’s eye.

As you can well imagine this has been a lot of work. And a challenge to my courage and fortitude every step of the way. First it was, can I actually write these books? Then it was, can I step up and do the illustrations the way I visualize them? Now it’s, am I going really going to do a painting for the cover? Can I do it? Well, sure I can. But it means pushing my skills once again.

So that’s what I'm doing right now — preparing the painting for the Book I cover. At the moment, I’m doing character sketches before starting on the color thumbnails for the whole painting. Slow and steady work.  

I feel like such a girl geek laying this all on the table out like this. It sounds like some pie-in-the sky project that will be talked about forever and never actually done. But that's not the way I work. It'll all get there, eventually. And hopefully be worth it when it does. 

I already have quite a bit planned for the book launch, including some videos and sample chapters available on my website. It should be exciting and fun! So, that's it for tonight. I’ll be back again soon. Now back to the drawing board.

I Got Rhythm

I find "The Russian Dance" from Tchaikovsky’s
Nutcracker ballet to be good music for inking. 

Whenever I take a break from inking, I forget how to do it. Well, that’s not exactly true. I don’t forget how to make marks on paper, I forget my inking rhythm. Tonight, I was inking a final piece for the Book I illustrations. A late addition that I wanted to add as a decoration for one of the title pages. I had already done the rough inks and started on the final inks for the drawing. But then I got a few commissions, and then I got a cold, and then it was Thanksgiving, etc. And so several weeks have passed since I last worked on this piece.

Now that I’m pretty much all better (coughing plays havoc with inking, as you can well imagine) I wanted to finish this drawing. So I inked up my favorite Noodler's flex pen and put on a CD of Tchaikovsky's ballet suites. But, I had forgotten how important music can be for good inking rhythm, especially when you’re a bit rusty as I am right now.

Generally classical music is good choice to ink to, but this was a new CD and I wasn’t familiar with the arrangements. The CD starts with selections from Swan Lake and this turned out to be a terrible choice for my inking tonight. I just couldn’t find my rhythm in the music, at all. When the CD entered into the Nutcracker suite all went better and I suddenly remembered what I was doing. Everything went along smoothly until the CD went into Sleeping Beauty. This last suite was a bit hit and miss for me once again.

As I look at the final piece now, nearly completed and sitting on my easel, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have just put on some Steely Dan to begin with. It’s a winner for me every time.

On Chapter Titles

The Doctor delights in reading a book in "The Angels Take Manhattan"

The Doctor: Your book. Which you haven't written yet. So we can't read!

River: I see. I don't like the cover much.

Amy: But if River's going to write that book she'd make it useful, yeah?

River: Well I'll certainly try. But we can't read ahead, it's too dangerous.

Amy: I know, but there must be something we can look at.

The Doctor: What, a page of handy hints? Previews, spoiler-free.

Amy: Chapter titles

(The Doctor scans the page of chapter titles - Chapter 9, Calling the Doctor, Chapter 10, The Roman in the Cellar, Chapter 11, Death at Winter Quay.)

The Doctor: He's in the cellar…

I had to chuckle when I heard this bit of dialog from the Doctor Who episode, “The Angels Take Manhattan.” This is exactly how I think of chapter titles - as spoiler-free book teasers.

Here are a couple of chapter titles from my new novel to wet your appetite:

A Midnight Rendezvous

Warlords at Dinner

Electrical Madness

Burglary by Night

Do they sound intriguing? Do they make you want to find out more? 

If so, then they’re doing their job well. 

I believe that a book’s table of contents should act as kind of a literary appetizer. An imaginative aperitif to wet your appetite for the main course, the story itself.