An Indie Author’s Journey: Hitting A Stone Wall

 

stone wall.jpg

 

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or Kindle Direct to immediately get their books out there.
There’s nothing wrong going that route, but I’ve decided to take a different path.

I’ve completed the final edit and decided my young adult fantasy novel needed a map to help my readers visualize LUNADAR as I see it.

 

Lunadar map

 

It took me one quiet Sunday afternoon to complete it and I am rather proud of my first time effort to draw a fantasy map. I found some scrapbook paper with a pirate scroll design on it. I researched different fantasy maps and listed all the places around LUNADAR I wanted to show.

Once I found elements I liked, I sketched it out on the scrapbook paper with a #2 mechanical pencil. Then I looked for different compasses. I wanted something to tie the map to LUNADAR’S overall storyline. I knew once I saw the sun/moon compass that this was the one I had been looking for. Once the map was completed, I outlined it with an ultra fine tip black marker.

I then took a picture of it with my iPhone in black and white “noir” so I could load it to the front pages of my book. I thought I was breezing through all this like a boss.

Then I hit a stone wall.

I can’t get the two edges of the map to line up on my formatted pages so it’s going to look dumb on the pages of my finished ebook. I’m going to do a shout out to my illustrator friends on Facebook to see if they know something I don’t that can help me. 

Cross your fingers…unless, of course, you are someone with an answer to my problem…and then, please use those said fingers to help another writer out…

 

PLEASE?

 

donna

 

International best selling, award winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy) is scheduled to be released in ebook edition by June 2018 from Story Catcher Publishing, with the print edition coming out by Spring 2019.

Donna L

Hybrid award winning author; aspiring sketch artist; and 4th Degree Senior Certified Taekwondo Instructor. Host of BOOK NOOK REVIEWS. Member of SCBWI. Mom to fabulous son and adventurer delving into the tricky world of indie-publishing.

4 thoughts on “An Indie Author’s Journey: Hitting A Stone Wall

  • June 4, 2018 at 3:44 pm
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    The map looks great. Nice work.
    I have a tiny bit of experience with ebook and print layouts. One of the difficult aspects of ebook design is that the behavior of side by side pages seems unpredictable based on platforms, devices, and settings.
    To help control this, I recently redesigned my print, picture book layout from a 2 page, landscape spread, to be a 1 page, portrait ebook.
    You could do the same by pivoting the scrapbook paper to portrait and then redrawing your map. It is a frustrating fix up front, but should avoid lay out problems in the long run.
    I wish you much success with your project!

    Reply
    • June 5, 2018 at 4:29 pm
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      Hi Michael and welcome to my blog!

      I appreciate you taking the time to offer some advice. I was afraid I was going to have to do this and was trying to avoid it because of limited time. I’m waiting to hear from a few other friends of mine who might be able to help me out but think I’m going to have to go the way you suggested…;-)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

      Reply
  • June 6, 2018 at 5:44 pm
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    Great map you have there. I want to include a map in my next novel so interested in seeing how its solved, though I saw a map in an ebook recently and it had a largish thumbnail of the city which was then clicked to expand the map.

    Reply
    • June 7, 2018 at 3:24 am
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      Hi Christopher and welcome to my blog!

      While the large thumbnail enlarging into an expanded map would be okay for an ebook edition, but I will also be doing a print edition and I want a stationary map for both. I have a friend looking at it now, and hopefully, they will be able to give me some advice on how to correct it…

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

      Reply

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