Opening the Store

For a while, I've been thinking about ways to not only market the books, but the additional materials I could sell along with them. I originally considered printing bookmarks, which I could then distribute with the books themselves. The problem, however, is that it was incredibly difficult to find a service that did everything I wanted: printing in bulk for myself and printing one at a time for individual customers. I shelved the idea after a few weeks. But recently, the addition of the new artwork encouraged me to find another method of selling merchandise. While I have played around with Canva and Teespring, I preferred to use a company that did everything.

After several hours of work, I added a store page (https://www.epicofold.com/shop) that uses the services of Order a Print. This way, most of the art I use to show various places and events in the story can also be used to decorate one's home, be it through posters, mounted canvas, metal prints, mugs, phone cases, tote bags, shirts, pillows, etc. The only issue is that the resolution is too small for large portrayals of the artwork, such as anything above 16x16. It's also important to know that you can edit images for items like the mug and phone case so that they are at the correct size and orientation.

I'm adding new art on a weekly basis and currently have 156 images that can be used in various ways. The only thing I do not plan to do is sell the usage rights for the images. I am technically a joint owner of the artwork myself, and while I'm allowed to use it for marketing and merchandising purposes, extending those rights to another party is another thing entirely.

The New Launch

 As of last month, the relaunching of my first book was complete. After rewriting nearly all of the content and tripling its length, I can state that I'm finally happy with the start of this grand adventure. The first book will now be roughly as long as the second, with the Part II now currently receiving similar treatment. The editing process for the next book will be considerably faster, given I only need to make small changes to the timeline and alter a few specific scenes. That being said, I'm still going through chapter by chapter, making minor adjustments to things like place descriptions and dialogue tags (small details I learned to improve upon with practice). I believe these adjustments should be complete by the end of this year, if not the end of the fall season. Updates will follow once that is complete.

One may also notice that the book cover for the first book has been entirely changed. After constantly editing the front and back cover in Photoshop, I eventually came to use a new AI program to develop artwork and bought the rights to use said artwork for commercial purposes. For example, here is the original full cover spread of the first book:

 

 Next are the redesigned front and back that I planned to put together:

I really preferred the updated versions, which helped convey how a being regarded as a fallen deity could interfere in man's domain and create a growing number of zealots willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of power. I wanted to present the mysteriousness of the cosmos in the form of light cosmic horror, since there are aspects of the story influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. But that's not all there is to the book, and I fear the old cover could turn people off because its appearance is too obscure and occult (which technically fits some of the content). Yet the story is also one of hope in the face of tragedy. In the far north, the morning star (or the sun) is regarded with so much praise that it has a cultural influence on the characters. There is also a hidden realm of dreams being explored by a small group of characters, which occupies their minds with inspiration, escapism, and even glimpses of the future. So I find the updated look more reflective of this: 

As you can see, the front aligns with both the physical setting and the general theme of the first chapter. It works brilliantly to that effect. Yet it also foreshadows an event near the end of the book, where the light of dawn is more sinister than it appears. The back of the book represents what many call the Red Dawn, and in later centuries is referred to as the Day of Whispers, where the sky turns crimson red and the deities fight for control over one another, involving humanity in an endless battle. There are also hints of a biblical end of days and the same cosmic horror I was going for originally.

With the use of new artwork, I have also updated the new website with brand new art. The maps of the world were all redesigned with a program specifically made for map-making. For example, the world map that I once designed in Microsoft Excel (believe it or not), was entirely redone. 

I've also updated nearly all of the depicted scenes in the books, the page about the World of Dreams, and the info page about the gods. I will be creating some new images shortly, but they will mainly be meant for updating the new set of book covers for the unreleased books

 

 

 

 

A Year of Progress

It's been forever since I wrote an update, and given the state of past events in 2020, I regrettably did not give this blog much thought. Though I have still been writing, I had yet to document my progress. Today I will change that and start releasing more frequent updates.

First of all, the Dream Dweller Archive was published a few months ago (both digitally and in print on Amazon). I spent part of last year adding more content to that little side story, expanding upon the world's history while documenting more locations within the World of Dreams. I found there was little else I could add, so it was time to release it. Though not technically Part 3, it is best read after the second book. 

Last year, I had also joined a writing class where we shared our projects and gave each other valuable feedback. This had proved absolutely essential to improve my own writing, as I always lacked the proper number of beta readers. I have recently been in the process of rewriting the first book to reflect what I learned. Essentially, the book is going to be twice as long and should prove more exciting. I had finally figured out what I could add to the story, and all of this work should be worth it in the end. I am currently halfway through with the edit. I also plan to update the second book, but it should not require much more content. If anything, it is going to be shorter, as some of the events are being moved to the first story. Though it is a longer story to go through line by line, there is less overall to do.

Since I am making sweeping changes to the first and second book, I have stopped the physical copies from being sold online and wish to apologize to anyone who may have bought one (though I doubt many have given my sales numbers and lack of advertising). Digital copies are still up, as these should automatically be updated once the new versions are released. I expect the edits to take a few more months, but I will post periodic updates.

Publishing Complete

After a grueling few weeks of writing new chapters for the second book and formatting both the eBook and physical copy, I was able to submit both for publishing two days ago. Both are now available in Amazon. I also made some formatting changes to the first book, but am waiting for the details on the Amazon page to update before I purchase another physical copy for myself. Apparently, it takes 72 hours to fully update the store page.

The second book ended up becoming three times longer than the first, reaching 315 pages in the print version. Now that it's done (for now), I plan to edit sections of the Dream Dweller Archive, which may be published just within a month. I have a habit of never making my writing goals, but considering there's not much that needs to be added or changed, I could even release it within a week if I really wanted.

I also completed an update for the series trailer that is posted on the website. Though I didn't feel like altering the audio, the images I used are more recent, with a few added video effects. Overall, it appears more professional than just some text flying through the screen. It may also prove beneficial to eventually create trailers for the individual books, but I don't think I have the resources to make that work yet.

New Name

I decided to update the name of the blog just to better emphasize its current use, which is to detail the writing process I've gone through while making the Epic of Old series. The series name is now in the web address, and the title describes the point of the blog's current existence. I used to just post on here about random topics and musings while I was in college, but I took down most of that long ago.

Months of Work

It's been a while since the last update, so there will be much to summarize. For the third book, a new story arch with widespread consequences was added, involving a country threatening the peace within the Hendvlask Coalition. Ultimately, Rhinesvelt gets involved, and the results are not pretty to say the least. There is also more information regarding a past war that gains considerable importance by the end of the book. All that is left is completing Lucas's journey to and from Almyros, and adding more chapters showing Frederik's actions behind the scenes. I would say there are five or six more chapters to edit/write.

I have since turned my attention back to the second book and plan to release it by next month if possible. I am currently rereading it and editing certain parts so that they go into more detail about certain events. I just finished reformatting the book for the ebook release, and now I'm just working on making it more exciting than it already is while editing and redistributing some of the poems.

I have also put a considerable amount of time into changing up the website and most of the pictures on it, including the maps that will be present in the books. The first book will also receive an update soon, featuring a new Skiven map and an updated back cover for the physical version. Once I'm sure the map is finalized and the black and white version looks good enough, I'll be updating the Amazon store page with the new content. This should happen within the next two days.

I've long considered whether or not the first book needs more content, given its length, but I'm still under the impression that it would just become filler (given I've already added 10,000 words since the re-release). Given how much I've improved the overall story after planning and writing the future novels, it's not impossible that I'll think of something new to add to the first book. However, it appears to do its job just fine, acting as an exciting springboard for the rest of the books. After all, the third book was originally the first, highlighting the primary plot device that drove the story.

Finally, I want to find the best method to open up a merchandise store. For a long time, I've wanted to distribute bookmarks to market the series and already have front and back designs for two of them. There are a few print on demand websites if I want to distribute the physical copies myself, but I'm hoping to create a store page where I can just sell them for a few dollars along with a few other things. I've done this sort of thing before, but the old website I used wouldn't be the right fit for all of my needs. That being said, I'm hoping to have something set up by the time the second book is released next month.

Progress

All is going well with book three after finishing Talmanus's arc in the World of Dreams. I've figured out how to change the first chapter of the book by basically removing it and adding elements of it later in the story. The prologue and chapter two also merged together, and I added an extra scene to present a new political struggle. The few chapters after that have also been edited, so basically the first fourth of the book is done. Right now, I'm currently working on extending the chapter where Marathias meets Rhinesvelt after traveling with a band of soldiers, and then have a subsequent council meeting to flesh out after the fact. Once that is done, I have to rewrite Elizabeth's journey to Almyros and then work on the final arc involving Frederik. Hopefully, it will all be finished in the next two months.