Tag Archives: SBibb

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

This status report will be for the last two months (February and March) since I got a bit caught up in other things and didn’t get the March version posted.

But, seeing as it’s April… time for another Infinitas Publishing status report! 😁

I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.

* * *

Distant Horizon: (Book 1 of the Distant Horizon series): I revisited this to start preparing a paperback version of this in Atticus, which can be used on Draft2Digital in order to release a paperback version wide across multiple retailers, rather than only on Amazon. I intend to revisit the blurb before finalizing this.

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I got a basic round of formatting done for the print edition, and I’ve started the polishing process. I still need to update the blurb, and create the wrap-around cover once I have the final page count.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on Legends of Cirena #9. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Completed posting Deceived on Wattpad. It can now be read in its entirety.

SBibb - Betrayed CoverBetrayed (Deceived #2): Cover complete!

I’m working on one more round of revisions and edits to the manuscript, and I’ve started posting the WIP version on Wattpad! I plan to post a chapter a week until it’s complete, at which point I’ll see about finalizing it for publication (it will go out to beta-readers as soon as we’ve gone through the read-aloud stage for the entire manuscript). Before each chapter is posted, Isaac and I listen to it being read aloud via a text-to-speech app, so that we can make any final changes.

Depending on how releasing on Wattpad goes, we’ll see if we also want to release Deceived #3 this way or return to only releasing it in its final, polished form.

The next step is to continue revisions on Deceived #3.

Future Goals: Add Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off/prequel novel) On hold. (Has outline).

Sky Runner: (Multiverse novel). On hold. (Has outline)

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. (Needs edits).

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs outlining and revision. On hold.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Needs the rest of Isaac’s notes input into the manuscript.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. My next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): I’ve made considerable progress here, with more revisions to specific scenes I was having problems with. Turns out there was a tone shift I hadn’t noticed in Ro’nor’s character, and an earlier plot point that needed adjusted. Additionally, I’ve added in several new scenes, and made plot adjustments to the earlier story, and started writing the poem/song I plan to have running along concurrently with the main plot.

Goals: Finish rough draft now that I have the main story back on track. Complete the book cover render setup.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel) : Joran’s short story is on hold. Still needs a couple scenes smoothed out, and I need to cross-reference the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Not sure yet if it will be a series of shorts and novellas, or a novel. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Huntress 3: On hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Future plans in game design involve: possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks, polishing the elemental game card art and testing mechanics, and looking into options for feasibly producing Phalanx.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). On hold.

Emberverse (Working Title):  Revisions on hold. Needs title. Needs outline for “Season 2.”

Isaac’s Short Stories: – School’s back in session, so these projects are on hold while he writes his dissertation.

Isaac’s Untitled Sci-Fi Story: Isaac has been writing the rough draft to a quirky, episodic sci-fi fantasy story somewhat in the vein of Doctor Who and sweetweird stories. He’s currently at 32,000 words. Lots of sense-of-wonder universe-hopping, clever puns and references (he has an entire episode that’s referencing magic girl stories), and a cute romance between the polyamorous triad crew. We’re expecting that he will the the only author listed for this, whereas I’ll be acting as editor.

Marketing: I got business taxes mailed out a week early this time. Woot! I also did the usual Amazon drip ads and a couple of BookFunnel promos this last month, but didn’t do as much promotion for them as I usually prefer. That kind of fell by the wayside due to also trying to prepare for moving. The next couple months will likely be a little sporadic at times for that same reason, and I haven’t scheduled any BookFunnel promos for this month. Newsletters have also been a tad sporadic for the same reason.

I did, however, teach a free, two-hour workshop at the Copper Country Community Arts Center at the beginning of April, a presentation on “Crafting Your Fictional World.” I had a lot of fun with this one, especially since I could have dived in a lot deeper on the subject if I’d had more time, so I’m thinking I’ll try offering this class again in the future, and maybe branch out for how to take those details and embed them into your story without info dumping.

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites.

Other future marketing goals: Update the business ledger on a regular basis. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs. Create a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. (Needs revisions and restructuring).

Other Stories: On hold. Includes a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story rough draft, YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions, and Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold. Next step is to review and adjust the first book’s outline, and then adjust book two’s outline.

Unofficial Minecraft FanFic: So… this one is largely me having fun (Though Microsoft and Mojang do have a really generous license when it comes to commercializing fanfic, so who knows?) Including notes, the rough draft is currently 15,000 words long. Long story short, I’m enjoying the concept of writing the adventures of a character who has been dropped into a Minecraft world, has no idea why they’re there, and is currently trying to figure out the rules of the world. To do that, I started up a new game in survival mode and I’m attempting to not god-mode it by making sure the character only “figures things out” as they discover them in-game. My favorite moments so far probably involve how many close run-ins they’ve had with Endermen that they just don’t realize. That, and realizing the bed is their respawn point. It’s… just a lot of fun and a nice way to unwind at the end of the day.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve completed the book cover and formatting for the small press book I’ve been working on. The Forget-Me-Knot by Richard F. McGonegal is now available

I’ve also been working on creating an updated wrap-around cover for a book that has changed hands from its independent publisher back to its author.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlintArt: No new updates. (Find our Redbubble shop here).

Daz PA: Two new releases! In the meantime, I’m close to submitting a limestone cave themed environment set. Modelling and texturing that set took most of my previous month, though it sped up considerably after I picked up RizomUV Virtual Spaces for UV mapping.

Long story short, what was taking me hours (or days) to UV map could suddenly be mapped in a matter of fifteen to thirty minutes. (Talk about a very, very happy Stephanie).

Meanwhile, the joint PA project is still on pause, though it looks like it may resume soon, the winged-themed pose set is still on hold due to clipping issues, and my morph/outfit set, the pose set Isaac helped my work on, and the Daz Crow pose set is on pause. I’ve also started a Daz Horse 3 morph set, but we’ll see how that goes.

SBibb Regal Elf Poses for Genesis 9, 8, and 8.1 Females

SBibb Regal Elf Poses

This was a quick, fantasy-themed pose set I had fun making, partially inspired by watching the original Sailor Moon anime.

 

SBibb Pride Nails for Genesis 9

SBibb Pride Nails for Genesis 9

Again inspired by watching the Sailor Moon anime for its transformation sequence involving shiny nails, but also by one of the characters on The Owl House, I wanted to put together a set of Pride-themed nail colors. While I might not like wearing nail polish myself (have you ever seen a cat with a string around its paw? I have the same reaction.) it can look pretty cool.

* * *

Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under Business Ventures, Daz 3D, Writing

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Now that we’re in February, time for another Infinitas Publishing status report! 😃

I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Paperback formatting on hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve finished the first round of revisions on the rough draft part two, for roughly 35,000 words of revisions.

Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived #2(Distant Horizon spin-off series): So far there are six chapters of Deceived on Wattpad.

The next step for Deceived #2 is to hand it to Isaac for a final round of developmental edits, then create a book cover for Deceived #2 and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

Future Goals: Add Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off/prequel novel) On hold. (Has outline).

Sky Runner: (Multiverse novel). On hold. (Has outline)

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. (Needs edits).

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs outlining and revision. On hold.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Needs the rest of Isaac’s notes input into the manuscript.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. My next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): I’ve started re-reading the chapters with light revisions and making notes about what might need adjusted in order to get the story back on track for finishing the draft.

Goals: Rough draft needs completed, and there are a couple scenes I’d like to add earlier in the story. I already have a book cover concept, which needs to be completed.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel) : Joran’s short story is on hold. Still needs a couple scenes smoothed out, and I need to cross-reference the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Not sure yet if it will be a series of shorts and novellas, or a novel. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Huntress 3: On hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Future plans in game design involve: possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks, polishing the elemental game card art and testing mechanics, and looking into options for feasibly producing Phalanx.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). On hold.

Emberverse (Working Title):  Revisions on hold. Needs title. Needs outline for “Season 2.”

Isaac’s Short Stories: – School’s back in session, so these projects are on hold while he writes his dissertation.

Marketing: I had both a Best Book Monkey newsletter promo and a Geektastic newsletter promo to help spread awareness of Distant Horizon and Magic’s Stealing being free during the month. They’re now back to full price, but I had them free from December to the end of January. I also had the usual Amazon drip ads and BookFunnel promos.

I still need to schedule this month’s weekly promo highlight, but I have them chosen, and last month they went out as planned.

Additionally, I’ve made progress on finalizing last year’s business ledger. I’ve also been doing a bit of extra non-fiction reading related to both writing craft and marketing.

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites.

Other future marketing goals: Update the business ledger. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Test Draft2Digital for wide print distribution, revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs. Create a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. (Needs revisions and restructuring).

Other Stories: On hold. Includes a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story rough draft, YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions, and Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold. Next step is to review and adjust the first book’s outline, and then adjust book two’s outline.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Made some progress on the book cover polishing and print formatting of the small press’s book.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlintArt: No new updates. (Find our Redbubble shop here).

Daz PA: Finally got a couple products submitted! 😀

The slush and snow shaders project is complete and has now been released. I also have a fantasy-themed pose set expected to release soon. Additionally, I’ve been working on a winged-themed pose set, but ran into some clipping issues that I noticed while making more promos, so I temporarily put that on hold for a completely different makeup set. That one is proceeding well, so I hope to finish and submit it soon.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting to hear back on the joint PA project, and I’ve made no new progress on my morph/outfit set. I also plan to work on finishing the pose set Isaac helped my work on (currently in polishing stages), as well as a pose set I’ve started for the Daz Crow.

SBibb Slush and Snow Shaders for Iray and Merchant Resource

SBibb Slush and Snow Shaders for Iray

This set was especially fun to make since I took all the photos using my macro lens… finally got to make use of my love of texture photography!

* * *

Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under Business Ventures, Daz 3D, Writing

Behind the Scenes – M.O.B. (Mean Old Bastard)

I based the style of this cover on the Matt Helm and Travis McGee series per the author’s request. While I still tried to modernize it, I applied several illustrative effects to the pictures using photoshop filters and layer styles. Originally I looked on Dreamstime and Shutterstock for stock photos that fit the main character of the novel, but they weren’t hitting the mark, so the author sent me a picture of his own (that he was free to use), as an example. I liked the look and asked if I could try working that photo into the design of the cover, and this is the result:

SBibb - MOB_Cover_Blog

MOB - Wraparound Book Cover

Photo of the man on the motorcycle provided by the author. Other stock images are my own.

I also formatted both the print and ebook editions of the book. For the ebook edition, I decided to use the silhouette of the man on the motorcycle as a break between section (whereas the print edition has extra line space between sections, and uses the silhouette as part of the chapter title). Since I wanted to try matching the title font to the chapters, I created all the chapter titles as images and used those in place of the typed titles in the ebook. However, the current previewer for Kindle wouldn’t render a transparent GIF properly in the iPad/iPhone option (rendered them as black, illegible boxes), so I created them as JPGs. They might look a tad bit funny if on a background color other than white (such as cream), but at least all the main devices should be able to read them. I plan testing a PNG file for transparency on a future project, but I wanted to make sure that the current file will be readable for everyone until I can test the file formats separately.

Buy M.O.B. for the Kindle or as a paperback.

Leave a comment

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration

Behind the Scenes – Red Sun Over Mexico

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover we wanted to stick with the same theme as the first book in the series, Red Sun Over Panama. I kept most of the same imagery, including quite a bit of the retouching I’d already done, and inserted an image symbolic of Mexico.

To figure out which image to use, I emailed the author about symbolism relevant in the book. Other than the Japanese Red Sun, pulled from the first cover to give this a historical touch, he mentioned the temples as a landmark. So that’s what we went with.

The publisher repurchased a licence for each of the images we used a second time, as well as picked up the new image we needed.

Keeping with the first cover, I hid part of the title behind the landmark. In this one, more of the title is hid than in the first, but I was careful to make sure that the title was still legible.

This is the end result:

SBibb - Red Sun Over Mexico - Book Cover

SBibb - Red Sun Over Mexico - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime and Dollar Photo Club.

Leave a comment

Filed under Book Covers

Thoughts on Publishing – A Video Blog Post – Reading Chapter Sixteen of Magic’s Stealing

Today I’m reading chapter sixteen of Magic’s Stealing. Enjoy. 🙂

Click here for the link if you can’t see the video.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Leave a comment

Filed under Business Ventures, Writing

Thoughts on Publishing – A Video Blog Post (Stealth Con and Battle Decks Release)

Just a quick video blog post today. Isaac and I had an awesome time at Stealth Con, and in the blog post I go into a bit of detail regarding our upcoming plans. 😀

Click here for the link if you can’t see the video.

Infinitas Publishing: http://www.infinitaspublishing.com/

Buy the game!

Deluxe Edition: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/battle-decks:-trials-of-blood-and-steel-deluxe-edition
Basic Edition: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/battle-decks:-trials-of-blood-and-steel-basic-edition

Free Trial Version: http://www.infinitaspublishing.com/battle-decks.html

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/infinitaspublishing/
Check out our Twitter: https://twitter.com/InfinitasPub

Leave a comment

Filed under Business Ventures, Gaming, Writing

Battle Decks – Release Weekend!

Hello everybody… I know I’ve been silent on this blog for the past week. But there’s a special reason. Isaac and I have finally released Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel!

We’re still working on the final touches for the online printout of the trial version, but the basic and deluxe editions are now online for sale! 😀

You can download a PDF of the rules, glossary, and printable tokens at our Infinitas Publishing web site.

There are two versions available.

The basic edition has only the cards and a two-page sheet of rules. (We suggest downloading the PDF of rules for larger text and pictures). The deluxe edition has the cards, a shiny rules booklet, two six-sided dice, counter tokens, and a mini poster (Technically, the basic edition also comes with the mini poster, at least for the time being).

Basic Edition

BD-BasicBoxFront

Buy Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel – Basic Edition!

 Deluxe Edition

BD-DeluxeBoxFront

Buy Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel – Deluxe Edition!

Last week, Isaac and I have created an Infinitas Publishing Facebook page. Feel free to like the page to keep up-to-date with various announcements. 🙂

And lastly, episode four of The Multiverse Chronicles, where Trish confronts a rampaging pterosaur, is now up.

Next week, I plan to do a video blog post about our experiences at Stealth Con, and then I’ll get back to my usual schedule of doing a reading, a post about writing/gaming/publishing, and uploading one episode of Multiverse a week. 🙂

Enjoy, and if you know of anyone who might be interested in the game or blog series, please share! 😀

Leave a comment

Filed under Business Ventures, Gaming

Behind the Scenes – The Girl Who Flew Away

This is a cover for Barking Rain Press. The author had several ideas on their art form for how the cover might look, and they listed a few options for symbolism. After reading the form, I had an idea of the style I thought might work. I found the images (including the sketchy dragonflies, both the illustration and the creature referencing the book) and put together a mock-up. My initial mock-up had a different background, which included cliffs and a waterfall but didn’t really give the right feel in regards to setting. I sent another idea for the background, just the picture, along with the mock-up, and they asked to try it. This is the end result. 🙂

SBibb - The Girl Who Flew Away - Book Cover

SBibb - The Girl Who Flew Away - Wrap-Around Book Cover

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=94726207

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=171422249

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=116280835

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=146807903

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Thoughts on Publishing – The Excerpt at the Front of a Print Book

I’m in the process of creating a paperback edition of Magic’s Stealing. I’ve got most of the formatting complete, save for a couple blank pages, and I’m currently focusing on adding an excerpt at beginning of print book. The idea is that as soon as a potential reader opens the book, the first thing they see is a teaser that makes them want to read more (and encourages them to be patient if that scene takes time to reach).

Keep in mind, when a reader is browsing a book store or examining a book at an author’s table, they will likely look at the cover, then at the back cover blurb, then at the excerpt on the first page of the book. The goal is to draw them in more and more until they choose to buy the book.

This is how I ended up buying The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross (and ultimately loving it) at a Barnes and Noble. I’ve seen other books do the same. Adding the excerpt provides a teaser so that the reader knows what to expect.

(You might see another form of this on a hardcover book, but the excerpt may be on the back cover, usually something of action or intrigue, with the blurb inside the cover flaps).

Let’s take a look at Magic’s Stealing and see how this compares.

Back Cover Blurb:

For centuries, ribbons of magic have provided the kingdom of Cirena with light, healing, and protection. Then, in a span of minutes, those ribbons fly from their masters, stolen, save for the magic of a few chosen mages. One of these mages is Toranih, a young noblewoman who would rather have a sword in her hand than use her powers to heal or throw fireballs. As a result, her magic skills are lacking. But with former mages dying from magic withdrawal, and the looming threat of an army of shadows who are impervious to mortal weapons, she must either embrace the responsibilities of a mage or watch her home perish.

Whatever excerpt I choose, the excerpt should enhance the understanding of the content inside the book.

These were the two excerpts I’m considering:

First Excerpt

Toranih cast a glance toward the distant mountain and shivered. The closer they came, the more her unease grew. It wasn’t her usual dislike of magic. As close as they were now, the magic inside the forge glowed like a star. Yet the whole place was shrouded with a thick fog, a veil that kept the magic hidden from the distance.

She frowned.

She could almost see thin filaments weaving through the fog, like the shadows of strings from a poorly played puppet theatre. The filaments lashed out in different directions, disappearing as they touched bright, sunlit sky. She tilted her head and squinted, but the strings vanished altogether.

She shivered and returned to picking at the soft innards of her roll.

There was something different about that magic. Wild. Unsteady. Like a foal that hadn’t been broken, and might never be. The magic was curious, like a dark storm cloud spewing cracks of thunder and lightning when the rest of the land was gold.

Toranih shivered.

All this magic was bound to cause strange visions.

So why was she drawn to follow?

In this excerpt, we get a glimpse at shadow magic, a sense of eeriness, and a taste of the writing style. There is a also a question at the end, which would hopefully draw a reader’s attention. However, this scene doesn’t jibe with the back cover blurb. We have a mountain forge, shadowy, string-like magic, strange visions, and some kind of call to follow that magic. While the scene should be intriguing in itself, it doesn’t mesh well with the blurb.

Second Excerpt

Toranih could actually see faint ribbons in the distance, rising from their masters. The ribbons streamed into the sky, a dazzling array of colors, then fled east, away from the city in a glaring river.

She looked at the bowl again and blinked her eyes to clear the spots. She had to know what was going on. The liquid had gone milky-white, but if she could see what was happening . . .

She ran her fingers along the strings at the top of the water. One here, one there. The tips of her fingers tingled as lavender wisps flooded the bowl. The image swirled, faint. The mountain forge reappeared. The man held his sword fixed between both hands, raised to the sky. His feet were spread strong under his shoulders. Ribbons streamed to his sword from across the kingdom. The sword glowed bright and brighter, and as the screams outside died into a disjointed murmur, the sword faded and the image darkened.

The water was clear now, devoid of life.

Everyone’s magic had fled into the stranger’s sword.

First, this excerpt shows the ribbons mentioned in the blurb. Second, we see Toranih using magic (which conflicts with her dislike of magic, but the blurb does say she must embrace the responsibilities of being a mage). Third, we see a bit about the antagonist. Fourth, we see the event that the blurb mentions, and the end of the excerpt sets the problem up further.

Ultimately, I’m thinking the second excerpt is a lot stronger as a potential hook, especially when paired with the back cover blurb.

I hope you find this post helpful. 🙂 Have you considered adding an excerpt to the front of your book?

Leave a comment

Filed under Business Ventures, Writing

Behind the Scenes – A Wolf Slayer Saga: Dragon Sword

This is a cover for Melange Books. Since we knew we had a sequel coming, we put a little more focus in setting up the basic structure of the cover… the wolf head at top, the series name on the side, and the placement of the title and author name. We also played with the mood, choosing the dark blue color for the forest and the red of the title to create a dramatic, dangerous tone. We chose a model with multiple poses, though I did a bit of photomanipulation to make him look more like how the character is described in the book. I also made both him and the wolf have a more noticeable scowl, and I played with the depth of field to put more of the emphasis on the model.

For the back cover I went with a simple leather texture to match the edge of the front cover with the series title. This is the end result:

SBibb - Dragon Sword - Book Cover

SBibb - Dragon Sword - Back Cover

Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/64831097 – leather texture
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/48895294 – wolf head
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/59929394 – swordsman
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/45294831 – snarling wolf
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/58438380 – winter forest
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/19521274 – wolf group

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration