Servant

I received the proof of SERVANT from CreateSpace today. Folks, it is georgeous. Inside and out. The cover, title page, Isaac Stewart’s map, headers, front and back matter, chapter titles, the poems. I’m so pleased.

Most readers will look at it and say, hey, looks like another book. But that’s the point. The interior is designed to give a great reading experience and fade into the background, letting the story come to the fore. The cover is meant to grab and give the feel. I think both do their job splendidly.

Of course, you know what this means, don’t you?

It means that next week we will have a new release day with the new release discount pricing. You may wonder why I don’t just do it now. The answer is that there are some copy edits that need to be made. Things you never catch until you see the story in book form. That’s why you always get a proof. As soon as we’ve made those updates, I’ll announce the sale.

Folks, I’m trying to decide between 2 book descriptions for SERVANT. Tell me which one appeals to you more.

OPTION A

The spirited blacksmith’s daughter accused of using the dark and terrifying sleth magic.

The young man who hunts her. 

And the ferocious monster who only wants to be free.

Trapped in a web of lies and ancient secrets, of right becoming wrong, the three must struggle not only against each other, but also a being of irresistible powers. A creature who is gathering her servants to usher in the impending human harvest.

If the three succeed, they will save those they love the most. If they fail, the clans of the land fall with them.

OPTION B

Sugar, the blacksmith’s daughter, is on the run, accused of using the chilling sleth magic.

Talen is determined to catch her, not only to get the bounty on her head, but to clear his people from her guilt.

But his plans go awry when a terrifying creature of grass and stone begins to stalk the clan lands. A creature that is somehow tied to those both Sugar and Talen hold dear. A creature sent by the dark Mother, the true master of the land, to both find the seed she planted in a woman’s womb a number of years ago and kill all those who might oppose her. 

At odds and trapped in a web of ancient secrets, lies, and lore, Talen and Sugar must struggle to find the truth. But will they be able to uncover a way to fight back and save their loved ones before the Mother finds the one she bred to be her scepter and return her to power? The one bred to become lord and usher in the impending human harvest.

Let the voting begin.

The cover illustration for SERVANT is finished!

(and there was much rejoicing.)

yea.

Actually, there was DANCING. Because I think the final piece rocks. The artist is Victor Minguez. Here are two of his pieces that I really enjoy.

The first is “Angel.” I love the bright contrast, the face, and the fact that there’s so much rich detail.

The next is “Champagne Havoc.” Again, a wonderful face, but also an awesome idea (a robot carrying a woman in the palm of its hand), and then the lines and chopper give the whole piece a lot of energy.

Click here to see other works in his portfolio.

So we kicked the project off by me sharing the goals I had for the cover and tons of reference on everything from color scheme to character costume. I asked Victor to develop some concepts for an ensemble of Hunger, Sugar, and Talen as well as some for the cave scene towards the end of the book. He came back with these sketches.

 

I liked the first because it would allow us to see the figure’s faces more clearly. And there was a lot of interesting detail with the cave. Look at the roots by the entrance. I also liked the structure. I liked the third because it included Hunger, and Victor was taking Hunger in a new direction. I also thought we could do some neat things with the energy of Sugar on the horse and that long sash. The fourth one, however, just felt right. It had so much potential energy. I was immediately drawn to the body language. And so this is the one we decided to develop.  Then one of my beta art viewers suggested moving closer and putting in more strong diagonals. It was a perfect idea. Victor agreed and came back with this.

 

I liked the lines of her stance but wondered if she needed something stronger with her legs. Victor adjusted, but my idea just wasn’t an improvement.

So we decided to stick with the previous version. However, this was all too dark. Way too much gray. When looking at things in thumbnail, the cover has to pop. I shared more reference images. And Victor went back and delivered this.

Boom! That was exactly what I was looking for. Bright, dynamic. However, we needed a more neutral bit at the top for the title and author’s name. And the brightest spot had to be behind Sugar to draw the eye to her. Here was the next version.

At this point I started to dance. This was IT! There was a lot going on here. We had the high contrast I wanted. We had the energy. The wind with the hair and leaves and sash and torch all add kinetic energy. As do all the diagonals. Notice as well the cave details–we have hints at previous habitation, runes, and some interesting contrast with the dark foreground. I had shared a number of N.C. Wyeth and Tim and Greg Hildebrandt pieces as reference, and I think this captured elements of those and gave them a new twist. Note as well the sharp projections on Sugar’s behind. Victor put them in there purely for aesthetic reasons. He had no idea what they were. I loved them. He loved them. They worked. We would just have to make them make sense.

After a few more iterations, he delivered the final.

I think it’s gorgeous. And will advertise the book perfectly. In a few days I will reveal the final cover with title etc. Shortly after that, SERVANT will be available again to please English readers worldwide.

 

 

Because a number of folks have emailed or posted asking this question, I figured I should address it in a post.

This edit of SERVANT was signficant, but it involved mostly line edits, copy edits, resequencing, and one important adjustment and addition.

Line edits are things that make individual sentences or paragraphs read more clearly. I made line edits to almost every page. I think most readers won’t notice these. But then that’s the point.

Copy edits catch small things like typos and misspellings. There were a number of maddening copy issues that were introduced into the manuscript in the publisher’s version and others that weren’t flagged. I fixed a number of these and then had two copy editors read over the manuscript to find more. No book is perfect. I’m sure there are still some gremlins lurking in the text. But we caught a lot of the little buggers. 

Resequencing is moving chapters or sections around and does affect the experience. The biggest resequence was switching the first eight chapters back to the original order I intended. This is an important change and will have a large effect on the reader for the first quarter of the book. Then there were three other smaller sections inside the story that needed to be moved around to make the chronology clearer and improve the suspense.

The line, copy, and resequencing edits make up the bulk of the edits. But I did adjust and add a short section to the ending immediately after the climax to clarify a few things that should have been revealed in the first version and that lead into book two.

What does this all mean?

It means that while this is a superior version of the tale, the base story remains the same. I care about the stories of Sugar, Talen, Argoth, Hunger, and the dilemmas they face. So I did not change their tales. However, I did significantly change the experience of those tales for the reader.

If you have already read SERVANT, you know everything that happens. However, you will want to get a hold of a copy of the new version to review the updated ending for the new information it includes.  To avoid spoilers and confusion, I will not be releasing the ending in a separate document. But if you sign up for my release notification, I’ll let you know when I have my release sale so you can get it cheap. 

One final note. Because I feel this is a superior version of the story, and because I do not want readers to be confused about which version to read, I’m releasing it with a different title and different cover art. It will be called “Servant” and include the series label “The Dark God Book 1.” 

I think readers are going to be very pleased with this version. I know I am. And then we can move on to “Curse,” the next in the series, followed by “Glory.”

116 hours.

677 pages.

184,000 words.

I re-sequenced the beginning and three other spots that had me scratching my head on how the first edition had gotten it wrong. I added a chapter to the ending to make it flow as it should. And tightened small things on almost every other page.

Now it’s off to my copy editors.

The cover is progressing.

Very soon, Precious. Very soon.

I now turn to the editing of CURSE.