Sunday, November 24, 2013

Preparing to Self-Publish

My experience with my latest novel is completely different from my first book. With my first--an epic fantasy--I didn't know what the ending would be, but once I approached the end it simply came to me and I finished the book off very quickly. With my new book--a sci-fi thriller--I also don't know the full ending, but I've been close to the end for some months and I just can't come up with the perfect ending yet.

So, I've temporarily set the new novel aside in order to go back and prepare my fantasy novel for self-publishing. I have three major obstacles before I can actually do so. I've been working on two of the obstructions--editing the text one final time to put in some final improvements, and trying to prepare a good enough map to include in the book. Here is my latest attempt at the map.
click to enlarge

The final obstacle will be managing the formatting so that the book looks good in both Kindle and print editions. I want to include the map for certain, and if possible I'd like to figure out how to also include both of the paintings that I commissioned from artists. My friend Ivan Amberlake seems willing to help with some formatting issues, but he didn't have a map or artwork, so I'd be thrilled to hear any tips on how to manage those issues.