Book Cover Design: TOTNP
Full Book Title: Tale of the Nightmare Princess: An Adult Fantasy Comedy Adventure

I am in the process of prepping a novel for self-publishing on Amazon. I have a couple more books doing nothing and sitting nowhere so now that self-publishing is a valid venue for authors I feel the need to put them out before I start my next one. I currently have two that I am going to most certainly publish and afterwards will assess the quality and readability of the third as to whether it would be something that I want public with my name on it or whether it is worth the time spent in repairing it. I truly hope this is the case because it is by far my most ambitious project but at the time of writing it I was not prepared to indulge in such a venture. This is not the first time this has happened. The last time I had a similar problem I did not finish the book and almost quit after a year of trying to stubbornly produce it. Instead I started this novel (TOTNP) as a joke. By the fifth chapter it wasn’t a joke anymore. At least not to me.

Here are a couple of notes on the process so far as I have found it:

Blog: Because I knew I was going into self-publishing I had started a blog as means to provide myself with short writing exercises and to start a presence online, albeit an insignificantly small one. I also had wanted to use it to network with other writers with the same aspirations as myself. I am sorely lacking in this area due to my current time constraints, however, this is something that I plan to become more involved with as soon as I am able as I fully realize its importance. Overall, there is much needed work to be done here, starting with the header in creating one that does not make me look like a sadistic child-killer. But overall I have found that change does not need to occur all at once and I am picking at it here and there.

Book Title: The original title was just ‘Tale of the Nightmare Princess’ but I have recently added ‘An Adult Fantasy Comedy Adventure’. Why? Because it sounds a little nuts that someone would do so but it does fit the theme nicely. And self-publishers are lucky to sell one book so whatever I can do to give the reader pause or add flavour to the cover or at least make them more curious may just well work for me. Overall I’m not entirely sure but at this stage I am willing to experiment. Besides, there are four good key search-words in there. And Hell, this kind of title is definitely something that I would go for. It sounds totally fucked.

Editing: Because the thought of someone else fucking with the way I say things greatly unsettles me I currently do my own editing. And because I’m not a professional editor each time I pass through my work with a red pen it’s like a net: you’ll catch some of it, most things if you’re proficient –but some mistakes will get through, so you have to do it again and again if need be. I just started the third edit of this title because I found some mistakes that should not have been there in the first chapter, therefore it’s all getting done over. Yes, it’s as much fun as it sounds. Yes, it’s a fucking nightmare. No, I will not put something out that contains mistakes.

Packaging (Interior): This is my next part and final part. I have chosen ‘garamond’ as my font but other than that will not be sure how this will fly until I actually start the process. If anyone has any suggestions I’m all eyes. But I will go through this as painstakingly as I do everything else. This book is a big deal to me, and it is not going out until I am completely satisfied with both its content and appearance. And I am one meticulous OCD Motherfucker when it comes down to it, you should see how clean my kitchen is.

Cover Design: I went old-school with this simply because I had to learn photoshop because I wanted to do everything myself and now, beyond the extreme frustration at times, I am glad to have done so. First off, the back cover is redundant because this is only going to be an e-book. This is my folly because I like to come out swinging with both fists before even reading the damn instructions. But hey, I needed the photoshop experience. Secondly, I wanted to utilize my paintings where I could IF it suited the theme and aesthetic of the book. This does, I believe. If you think it’ shit definitely let me know so I can tell you to go fuck yourself. Just kidding. I’m all open arms to all suggestions, comments, and considerations.