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What are you writing about now?

Have to set up the Headings/Footers, page numbering, adjust font sizes along with bolding/superscripting/italicizing, Plus spacing in tables in the appendices, decide on exactly what illustrations I need and where to put them, and then do the table of contents and list of illustrations.

Then I get to print it out in draft mode and double-check what I did. I'm bound to have messed something up.
 
Had a productive day today!

Aside from deciding on which full page illustrations are needed in the text and where to put them, I made 122 .tif files for various graphic needs in this book and the next. 1/2 of them are black and white, half are stubs for their color versions.

I've arranged the b/w drawings in the files onto 4 sheets to print out. I'll color them in (hopefully with watercolor if that works out, colored pencil otherwise), then scan them in and put the images into the color stub files.

Then I'll start linking the images into the InDesign files.
 
Printing out test versions of the letters to attach to the cover of Book 4: Lorien in the War of the Ring. I've printed out a template that marks where to drill the holes for the pins on the back of the letters. I'll countersink larger holes on the back side of the cover and tap and die nuts onto the pins on the backs of the letters. (That way, I can replace or repair one if it's damaged.)
I mounted the letters of my name onto the shaft of a two-handed battle axe, partly because it's cool and partly because it's easier to mount it that way. I highlited this signature unit on the screen, if you look closely, you can see the blue pins that extend downwards. Those will go thru the cover.

I'm also experimenting with different ways to lay out the start of each chapter. I suspect it will take a few more days to puzzle out how I REALLY want to do it instead of how I intended to.
 

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Mounted the 3d-printed title and author letters on some bookboard. They look great. I need to find my tap & die set to verify the dimensions I chose for the attachment pins will work together. I'll make any necessary adjustments and then print the letters out again with a wax resin I can use to cast metal ones.
 
david_wendelken said:
Got my first cut at book layout done today.

In the process I came up with some additional layout ideas I need to test out. But it's starting to come together!
Click to expand...
Printing out a copy of A Tale of Two Tales so I can find and correct any layout mistakes. I've identified several new images I need to create and digitize.

I'll have to lay out the text again after the editors find stuff and I correct it, but that will go quickly. Most of the graphic-oriented layout issues are either independent of the text changes or fast and easy to do.

Metal casting grain is supposed to get here within a week, I hope to be ready to cast the letters for the cover. It might end up being the prettiest alpha version of a book ever.
 
Printed out the first page of the graphic icon line drawings so I could colour them. Did that, and scanned them back in. Disaster!!!

The gold and silver colors scanned in as a muddy brown or grey, respectively.

Did some futzing with my phone camera and found I can get them to look right if I use the flash. So I'll have to photograph those separately, then resize them to turn them into files I can use. Grrr...

Attached are two files, one a scan and the other a photograph. The difference is substantial.
 

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Printed out an 8 page sampler last night to test the overall look on the ivory paper.

Overall, it looks good.

I was using three different shades of grey tinting for text that was shadowboxed or in tabular format. 2 of the 3 get a pinkish cast on the ivory paper. Not quite enough to induce nausea, but not pleasant either. Not a hard fix, though.

I have two different images that are intended to frame the "full page" illustrations. I want them to be less prominent that the illustrations they frame. They ended up brownish with a pink cast. Need to find a solution for that.

Other than that, it's looking pretty good. Gonna be fight to get the coloured images back into the computer with the correct gold and silver colours, though.
 
I've printed out a copy of my book with its new layout.

A few years ago, when I decided to go for it full bore and write a set of books, I told people they might not like my writing, but the hand bound books I was going to make would be a glorious doorstop.

I'm pretty sure this volume will be promoted from glorious doorstop to exquisite coffee table book!
 


Pretty accurate. When I had beta readers read my fantasy novel some years ago, I got some helpful critiques and some non-helpful critiques. The helpful critiques included things like readers asking for more detail in the climax because it felt rushed. And probably the most non-helpful critique I got was when this one reader told me they didn't like that my novel was in first person. Like, welp, sorry you don't like that I'm intentionally focusing the story on my protagonist's perspective, which limits what the reader knows and allows them to be deceived by the villain just as my main character is. Also, I'm not gonna re-write this 180,000 word story in third person. 🙄 So in reality, I think my fantasy novel is just not that reader's cup of tea. They seemed to be wanting a more Brandon Sanderson-ish fantasy novel with its primary focus on extensive and detailed worldbuilding. Not the political-drama-with-magic that my fantasy novel is. And that's okay. But just don't try to tell me to change my story into something it was never intended to be!!!
 
Yeah, I love getting critique from somebody who really understands what I'm trying to do with my story. Like back in 2024, I had an author friend critique my prologue. She gave me incredibly detailed feedback that helped me dig into my character's emotions even more. She even understood my villain right away, even though the prologue only gives him a brief appearance! (She asked me if he's a narcissist and I'm like, uh, YES. You nailed it!) And so, even though this friend had a lot of critiques, it never felt like she was attacking my story, but rather helping me actually dig deeper and think more deeply about it.
 
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