Individual Books (updated)

As I said in my last post, the cost of the books concerns me. The fact that The Gnomes of New Hope is a graphic novel increases the cost significantly over a regular book without illustrations and even an illustrated book with artwork every so often. This collection has illustrations on every one of the nearly 900 pages. When I decided to put an illustration on every page, I was somewhat concerned about the cost and effort to do that, but it felt very much like if I didn't it would come off as a rather half-assed effort, falling short of really being complete. I had no idea of how much work it would take to complete that task. Forgetting about the fact that I still need artwork, the layout, proof-reading and corrections have been a monumental task!  

As it stands now, the three volume set is being printed and I have purchased all the ISBN"s for the entire product line. That amounts to twenty products; the Gnome-Sized Books and The Big People Books in hard copy, both individual and Boxed Set, the Three Volume Hard Copies of The Big People Books (not yet a boxed set) and the e-Storybook. You can read details about those different products in this blog.

I have changed the pricing since my last post, mainly because the price needs to be set once the ISBN's are properly registered to the titles and go into the international catalogues. So, these prices are the most that I dare set as the MSRP. I figure the distributor and retailers can discount the books if they want to, but my wholesale price is set, primarily by the cost of printing. I am assuming a keystone and I am assuming that IMS Publishing will implement fulfillment.

So the revised MSRP is as such; 

Individual Gnome-Sized Books - @$8.95 (Boxed Set: TBD)

 Individual Big People Books - @$29.95 (Boxed Set: TBD)

Gnomes in a Gnutshell E-Storybook - $49.95  

1 year subscription  (Gnomes in a Gnutshell retail package will be released after it is infused with animations and which will lead to an animated feature film).

The books will also be available in a Three Volume Set, sold by volumes. 

Volume One, Book One; An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope 100 pages ($29.95 MSRP)

Volume Two, Books Two thru Four; Act One Scenes One thru Nine of Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure, 286+ pages ($39.95 MSRP)

Volume Three, Books Five thru Seven; Act Two of Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure, 402+ pages ($49.95 MSRP)

The books will have a scheduled release, determined by the distributor. 

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com will perform fulfillment to distributors who will then provide product to retailers. IMS will provide signed and numbered hand stitched limited editions. The MSRP does not apply to Limited Editions.

TBD= to be determined

Further Notes;

In the instance of the Boxed Sets, they will not be available until after the books are finished with all the artwork. That has been discussed elsewhere, but the first four books are done, with Book Five being incomplete because The Gnomic Tales was never illustrated, having not been intended as part of the collection. Book Five is Scene Ten plus The Gnomic Tales. Those Tales in Book Five are summaries of the larger stories.

It seems like the books will be released in intervals so that the first books to be released will create the income necessary to finish the artwork and further develop the animations for the e-Storybook. A few versions of the narrated e-Storybook are done, but the details of delivering it on line still need to be worked out.

Well, that's all for now. AG

March 2021

The full Three Volume Set is out to the printers for the prototype. I have multiple printers, who each perform different roles in the process; one for digital prototype & Limited Editions, one for offset and one for web printing. So, the final layout is out for printing. I'm afraid I may have to increase the MRSP of the books. I have tried to price them at a reasonable level, but they are pretty big and have a lot of artwork. So they may be pricey to publish. The only alternative is to publish them as seven books rather than the three volume set. We'll see what happens. If I get decent sized pre-paid orders from distributors so that the production run is high enough, we will be able to keep the price down. Let's hope for that.

I have said before that there has been a lengthy proof-reading process and because of the way the artwork is integrated into the layout (and other components) the pages have needed to be assembled using multiple smaller files. File size was a big issue and the layout went through numerous stages to keep the ability to work with higher resolution in doing the layout. I wanted to avoid destructive editing. In some cases that was not possible, so there are a few illustrations that will eventually get replaced, but for now, they are fine for printing. I imagine that the majority of the illustrations will be turned into animations anyway.

It is when the e-Storybook is viewed on a very large high resolution HDTV that some of the imagery worries me. Not so much the quality of the images, although that is a concern, but the color balance, as that tends to change from screen to screen. I have done that layout (the e-Storybook) on a high definition 32" screen, but kicking the image up to the newer 4k and larger screens, is a concern. Well, it is what it is and it is great on an e-pad and a reasonably sized HDTV.

So, now that the entire 900 pages of the hard copy collection has been fully proof-read (for the thousandth time) and adjusted (again) to perfectly match the e-Storybook, I am moving in to the Music. I already did the e-Storybook and narrated it up to a point. It was when I was narrating it that I discovered the mistakes. Typos and sentence structure errors, plus a few GFX mistakes, mostly alignment issues. The alignment shifts when converting the pages to say, PDF or JPG. So I will be leaving the Publishing layout in lieu of working on music. We may kick up again with illustrations, but not until I refurbish the coffers with enough funds to pay for the artwork. In the meanwhile I am concentration on the studio space and getting a number of workstations properly set up for production.

The workstation used to compose the music had numerous failures, both hardware and software. I have been collecting what we need to redress the music with new programming and improved processing capabilities. We were using a Mac Quicksilver to write the music. I built that machine up and it worked great, but it died. So I bought a G4 Mirror Door to replace the Quicksilver. I am setting that workstation up again. Even though is is an older machine, it will serve well for certain functions and the hardware from the Quicksilver will transfer over. When we started, we were using ADAT, but then it became obvious that we didn't need that and the hard drive was sufficient. When last we worked on the music, Shawn was running the Quicksilver and I was running a single processor G5. Now I run three Macs at my workstation and numerous other workstations of various types, performing various functions. My workstation consists of a G4, a G5 Quad, and a Mac Pro, plus two xServe units and a number of other storage options. I am setting up the Digital Performer 9 with Mach Five 3 on the Mac Pro, with DP5 and Reason in the G4. The G4 setup is what we used, the DP9/Mach 5 is what we need to transition to. All this is also leading to setting up the sound stage, so we can bring in the pit orchestra and singers to rehearse and record both the instrumental and vocal numbers. That needs to take place before we can consider mounting the show on the stage.

Further than that, my concentration is also on building the Parade Float/Mobile Stage. It may be that the design of the parade float will turn out to include a staging scenario for remote performances. I do not want to be wholly dependent on theatre rentals for a performance space. I'm keen on doing performances outdoors in assorted locations. I think that gives us a better chance of survival, overall. I do not want the longevity of the show to be contingent upon it's "legs" in a theatre. That also involves the increased cost of Union personnel. I am inclined to seek to license the Union level out to another Producer, as well as the film rights for a live performance, and even an animated feature film.

Oh, and by the way, I have changed my perspective on this show. Rather than referring to it as a musical, I am not thinking of it as an Operetta, because that surely is what it is.

That's all for now. AG