Illustration, Animation and Music Update

  

Here's the crazy 

Master Gnome

 Well, as I said elsewhere, we started working on the artwork for the remaining illustrations. There is a lot to do. Years ago I determined that every page of the Storybook would have an illustration. That was before I knew that the Storybook would end up to be a collection of seven books, amounting to more than 850 pages.

   As you may have seen in other posts, I have been focusing on getting the technical layout finished, meaning; done, done. You know, I had major difficulties getting these books finished. Computer deficiencies have caused me untold troubles with the layout, in numerous cases causing me to have to rebuild my files multiple times to accommodate, repair and take into account computer and hard disc crashes, which caused me to loose my work. I mention this because that has been a great cause of delay. 

I'll be using the above image as an etching on the Boxed Set

Now, having upgraded again, I expect to be in a position to move into 3D CGI and animation. I wasn't going to do that until all the illustrations we're finished and the books were in distribution, however the plans need to change. The simple fact of the matter is that there are a lot of illustrations remaining to be done and we are all slowing down as life brings us twists and turns. In this instance, I must depend on other people, artists, to provide me with the raw artwork, which I then process to make it suitable for use in these books. 

     It seems that finishing this artwork will take some time. Some time indeed, probably years, at the rate we are going. I have been printing out canvas sheets, for use in creating the raw sketches that give a rough idea of what the finished art will be. The stack of pages is already an inch and a half thick, and that represents the bulk of Book Five. Book Four needs around fifteen panels and Books Six And Seven are, in fact, mostly done too. But none the less, we need 348 more illustration panels.

   That being said, I expect to move into 3D CGI while the other watercolor art is being generated. With luck, I can get the characters built using Poser. I know there are other programs, but this is what I have. My thinking is to build some animated scenes, possibly for publicity. Really, the other use of the Poser platform is to layout the scenes and send them to the illustration workstation, where the digital rendering can be brought up on a screen built into the drafting table, which serves as a lightbox and tracing guide. Part of my reasoning is that we need to keep the watercolor motif. As much as I would like that texture to remain in the animations, unfortunately, the reality is that the variations present in watercolor will likely not work when merged with motion. However, by using the CGI as a guide for building the illustrations, the animations will more closely represent the artwork in the books. I think that is a great advantage. It will help maintain the overall consistency.

   Being that completion of the illustrations will take a significant amount of time, and that the technical publishing work is finally done, it is most appropriate to move back to the music, while also building and exploring the animation. So that is what will be happening.

    I'm still open to Options for the Cinema and I will continue the work of securing Representation, with a focus on advancing both theatre and film production.

   On another front; I have acquired a Plasma Cutter for the purpose of cutting the body off the Corvair truck, which is being used for a parade float.

It gets down to the fact that I have two Corvair trucks (actually three) and I could conceivably build two or more parade floats. There is a market for renting parade floats, although I don't want to get distracted from the Gnomes, unless I have to, when the weather permits, I will advance into cutting this body off and fabricating the mobile stage (Parade Float).

This depicts the truck without the body. So you can imagine the Parade Float sitting atop this frame.

This Flyer was made when the stage was just begun. It shows eleven 4x8 platforms were used.

 I expect this mobile stage to also serve the festival market and one of the Ancillaries of The Gnomes of New Hope is producing Gnome Fest. But without the festival presentation ready to go, that is I'll advised. So, not only the mobile stage, but the puppet, and the festival version of the stage show needs to be up and running before Gnome Fest can occur. I could produce Gnome Fest at Tamanend Park in Southampton. It's a very good locale, albeit, a bit distant from New Hope. 

This was the stage I built in Tamanend Park where we performed as The Shakespeareans of Tamanend Park.

Here's Shawn, my partner in composing the music for The Gnomes of New Hope when we were doing The Shakespeareans.

   Having worked out of New Hope for many years, I moved my studio down to Southampton for practical reasons. Unfortunately, New Hope does not have a park facility as nice as Tamanend Park. But of course, Tamanend Park is two miles from my studio and Southampton has a pretty significant parade on the Fourth of July, as does Northampton as well. I'll discuss the area parades after I get the mobile stage built.

Here we are one year, when our theme was Robin Hood.

That's all for now, AG

Working on Music, with other notes.

Here's the cover from the Second Prototype of the Storybook. I'm up to the Forth and final prototype. We are working out a printing run of the entire collection, which consists of 847 pages in Seven Books or Three Volumes.

We are moving forward to finish the remaining Illustrations and I'm setting up another workstation to do 3D CGI Animation and 3D printing (for figurines and puppetry). I'm also getting ready to set-up the next updated music workstation, because once the publishing layouts are locked in to the production standards (as opposed to the limited edition prototype layout), then I will be moving over to the music again.

I was doing some research on Digital Performer 9, the next upgrade to our music workstation. It seems very clear that when I move over from publishing to music, I will not have the time or mental capacity to tend to manufacturing, marketing and distribution of the books. So, I'm posting this as a heads up. There is no doubt that both the continuing work on Illustrations and Music will be taking up the Lion's Share of the time available. Add to that; the work with building the Parade Float and synchronizing the set construction between the different variation of the show.

So this being said, I expect that handing-off the fulfillment for the books is the best approach. If you are engaged in that end of the industry, feel free to discuss that with me. The best approach is to use E-mail. Telephone only works after we reach an ongoing degree of dialogue. Cold calls via telephone don't work for me, because I get so many unsolicited calls, I often ignore answering unless your number is in my contact list.

A Promotional PowerPoint

I made this some time ago and posted it to my YouTube page, which sadly, I barely use. I suppose I should change that and start to post more often. Truthfully, I was testing it to see if it would upload, and it did. Well, this promo is designed as a sample of how the e-Storybook will look. Of course, it will be more refined than this sample and it will include other thing, like animations and GIFs, but for now this sample is posted for your review. (I may have posted this before, but since we are getting closer to releasing the books, here it is again;

 

The Gnomes of New Hope; 

Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"

 I should warn you that this entire video presentation is 39 minutes long. I have to admit that it moves along slowly, as I narrate it methodically, in an attempt to make sure it comes across clearly. Like I said, it was a test. But all-in-all, I think it's pretty nice in it's presentation and it is informative, as it was intended to be. I might be more excited by if I hadn't seen it a thousand times as I wrote, designed and narrated it.  I suggest that you might like to digest it in chunks and return to it from time to time, picking up where you left off. 

As I said before, I am seeking Representation for this project, thus the reason for posting this here, plus we're getting closer to publishing the books.

Enought of me. I hope you enjoy the video.

AG

Pricing the Books

I have tried an assortment of prices as the MSRP for the collection of Illustrated Storybooks.

 I started out trying to produce the Gnome-sized Books for a retail price of $4.95. Nice thought but no way. So I raised the price to $5.95. Again, no way. Ok I tried $6.95, $7.95, and then $8.95. Again, it couldn't be done. Not and provide enought profit to pay the expenses and profit margins required by the industry. So finally, I seem to have settled in at $9.95. I dare not go any higher than that. The budget balances out at that price, but there is one cavet. Quantity. In order to bring it in at that MSRP, the quantity has bto be high enough.

So, using one Gnome-sized book as the Standard (in terms of pricing) a minimum quantity, likely 25k, will be required. And that is only on one book. There are seven that make up the whole story of "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure". The other stories of "The Gnomic Tales" make up five more stories, which are ultimately connected to "Zach and Zebby..." and may or may not be published.

  The end price of $9.95 MSRP is of course at the discretion of the retailer and their determination to discount or not. At the Wholesale level, there is no room for price reduction unless the Distributor is committing to significantly higher quantities, but that won't change the MSRP. If anything, that will only increase the discount they choose to offer. But the increase in quantity needs to be substantial.

That leads us to the Big People Books. initially I had hoped for $14.94, quickly that went to $16.95. After a short time it went to $18.95, then $19.95, and then $21.95, followed by $24.95. Based on the Hand-stitched Binding it was clear that none of those MSRP numbers worked. Dare I increase the price to $29.95? I had no choice. Advisors told me the thought even $34.95 wasn't too high a price for books of this quality.

  I felt that going over $29.95 was just too much to ask of people for one book of, more-or-less 110 pages. But then the other books in the series, that were upwards of 150 pages had to be amortized into the cost as a whole. And so the MSRP of the Hand-stitched books settled in at $29.95 and completion of the publishing layout advanced under that assumption.

   Introduce into the mix two types of book-bindings; Hand-stitched and machine binding. Well, all the test marketing that has been done indicates very high approval of the hand-stitched books and a strong opinion that the books must be hand-stitched. That was a dilemma. The cost of binding the books by hand is half again as much as printing the books, even more.

   So that introduces new challenges. What if the price is too high for a significant portion of the potential buyers of the books? How do you solve that. Well, one way is to offer the Gnome-sized books as a less expensive alternative. But what if a person doesn't want the Gnome-sized book? What then? A less expensive version of the Big People books. Well that would be a book bound by a machine. But the machine cannot reproduce the aesthetics of the hand stitched version. 

So, the machine bound books become The Standard Edition, with a squared off spine that is glued as so many paperback books are these days. Doing that reduces the price of the book by a significant factor. Then the MSRP can become $24.95 . That number was derived after $19.95 did not quite make enough to cover all the costs.  Again, moving into Machine Bound books also increases the required quantity in order to setup and publish those books, not to mention a different aesthetic appearance.

   Well, in order to retain the preferred aesthetic appearance, the hand-stitched books now have become The Custom Edition with an MSRP of $34.95, which is sufficient to cover on-demand publishing. 

   An additional series of Signed and Numbered Limited Editions is also being published with  price of $49.95 per book.

   Further, the book series is being published in Three Volumes (with prices to be announced in the future) as well as Boxed Sets of both the Gnome-sized and Big People Books.

   All of this is being planned and will be offered via a Shopping Cart page, once the releas schedule is confirmed.

   I offer this analysis for your reference, whether you are an individual, a distributor, or a retailer. 

The budget numbers on don't lie, as they say. And so, these are the anticipated MSRP of the books (as it stands now). If that changes I'll certainly post that info here or... It will be reflected on the shopping cart/order form page 

That's all for now.

AG

Other Forums

I manage a number of blog and social media sites that deal with an assortment of aspects regarding The Gnomes of New Hope. 

Here is a link to a recent Facebook post, which you can follow if you like.

The Gnomes of New Hope, 

Facebook Page

In addition to eBlogger, I also post on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and I'm beginning to post on Gettr 

So what's going on ?

Ok, as I said in the last post, ISBN#s. I'm working to properly order the Barcodes on the ISBNs so they be serve both the Shopping Cart (when it gets built) and the Sales Office, Manufacturing and Inventory, not to mention the numerous registrations and book categories. 

As it stands now, there are thirty products which have numbers assigned to them and there are still another six or so needing to be included. For now, we will be concentrating on the Gnome-sized books. I'm trying to balance the budget and determine the margins, but it looks like it will be very difficult to offer a full margin, unless a buyer wants to purchase and entire press run of 25k or more books. We'll see how it goes after all the covers are locked in with the new barcodes. I'm guessing at the cost elements, based on previous quotes.

Although I have some of the production line set up, there's more to do. I'm building tooling for the Hand-stitched binding, but I have come to the conclusion that the cost of the hand-stitched will just have to be added on, no matter what that is. So the hand-stitched edition is being defined as the Custom Edition, while the machine bound books are referred to as the Standard Edition. As I said before, the Custom Edition is only being offered direct from IMS Publishing. If a retailer is willing to pay the higher price, the Custom Edition may be available to them for resale, but I rather doubt that they will pay the extra money for hand-stitched binding. The Custom Editions are limited, mostly because of how long it takes to make them. So, one at a time, or 25-50 is no problem as to turn-around within a week or so, but larger quantities have a longer wait time for delivery. If you are a buyer, keep that in mind. I will take orders for the first book via email at any time, however, there are still registrations that need to take place before the items can be shipped. I can begin making books as soon as I get a prepaid order. So a larger order of Custom Books will need lead time to complete manufacturing.

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

That's all for now.

AG

p.s. we are working on more art and have been discussing work on the music.

Barcodes

Here's a funny graphic I came up with to imply what the show might look like onstage.

 Regarding publishing the Companion Editions of the Storybooks

     It didn't occur to me that the numbering of the ISBNs would throw me off with my book covers. So now that I have created new barcodes for the books, using the IBSNs in their numerical order, I need to replace the barcodes on the books. Well, this has caused me to rethink how it is that I update the pages. I have concluded that it is easier to do it using the final flattened graphic files, as opposed to upgrading the original layered working files. Mostly the reason for this is the absolute massive number of files doing this layout has generated and the variations between those files.  The reason is that I save new work (most of the time) under a new Revision. That way I have the last file as a backup. It really is just incredibly difficult to find the most recent set of files which do not always contain the elements I am looking for.  I say this because, if I walk away from the layout for even a week, I have to spend the better part of a day acclimating myself to the files again. You wouldn't think that to be the case, after all I was the one who ordered the files, but none-the-less I still have trouble finding the correct files. In the past, I have moved forward with a Revision that I thought to be the most recent, only to find I was working with an old file, thus negating the work done on the previous work session. Don't get me wrong, I have methods of working around this, but I am very cautious. Because strangely enough the "last modified" data does not alway record properly, thus giving me a date that sometimes reflects when the file was created, not when it was last worked on. You would think that the file data would be updated every time you save, but that's not always the case. I don't know why that is, I've only observed it to be true. And my search function is practically useless, because it doesn't follow the criteria that you set for it. Mainly because it searches the entire computer and all the hard discs connected to it and no matter what you tell, it to search for, it searches the content not just the filename. That seems to be the case, I have no real good explanation. I only know that for the most part,  45 minutes later it give me squat and a thousand files. it's easier to just do it manually.  I guess I just need to move all the files that I know are outdated to another disc. Except, sometimes I need that old revision to recover a design element that I am looking for. By that I mean a design element that will allow me to work with it for my purposes. I've even taken to modifying the graphic to give me a working document, more often than not that is quicker and easier than trying to locate the file I want. It' crazy.

    Anyway, that's what I'm up to. Still jerking around with this stuff. Well... you gotta do, what you gotta do.  It's almost done. ( I keep saying that, one of these days it will be true.) Thanks for reading my posts.

AG

Music Thoughts

  I recently bought a CD/DVD publisher. I know that CD's are somewhat passe', but for the price it was worth it. When I figure out how to run it, I'll be able to produce CD/DVDs more efficently and in bulk. (I should be so lucky!) This is good, because, at the least, I can distribute production materials to the crew and others via this method. You know, script, libretto, music score, etc.

  Well, I'm still playing around with the publishing layout. A few days ago I bought another batch of ISBN's because I didn't have enough. So now I have 30, but I still need more. By the time I'm done, I'll have a couple of grand tied up in ISBN's. So as it turns out, right now the published product line amounts to 29 products. I still need to add in the boxed sets, the libretto, and anything else that ends up being published, which can happen later. 

   So, in getting more numbers, I now need to replace all the barcodes on the books. As I was coordinating the numbers and creating a spreadsheet for inventory and sales, I discovered that the numbers I had assigned to the books were somewhat arbitrary. Well, that won't due. So letting Excel put the ISBN's in order, and making a new batch of barcodes, I needed to reorder the books so that they are easy to manage for inventory and identify for sales. I'm assigning an inventory IMS number to each ISBN. That results in needing to replace the barcodes on all the covers. Ugh. 

Better to do it now, than run into problem after things start moving. Well, it does get down to the fact that when the books become listed in the categories, the ISBN's will be a significant factor there. So, being that the collection is a set, it's best that they are in order. I guess now I need a scanner.

. These discs were my way to present the materials. I'm not sure that will work because the size of my file exceeds the capacity of the DVDs. I made these sample discs, only to discover that the graphics covered over an area in the center hole that was needed to write the discs. So I need to rethink that. I know that the entire music score is pretty large. It might fit on a disc if they were all PDFs. So there are a lot of issues with all of this and preparing it properly for it's ultimate use... and people ask me "when will it be done" (which means to say; Why is it taking so long? ) I can't imagine why they would say that. It's only been 23 years. Ha!

  The cover letter above is part of the Industry Review Package, which I some ways is out of date. Those materials still apply, but need review. I expect to post that package on IMS Producing Partners, which is a closed blog, requiring a request to view. If you are an Industry professional or investor, you are welcome to contact me in that regard. I expect that I will refine that package on the blog and address the business structure, so it is pertinent.

  I am looking to develop relationships that pertain to Licensing, Options, Marketing and Sales. Once these product lines have moved into Inventory, I will need a Sales Manager and I need to develop the Online Shopping Cart scenario. I have tools available to me, but frankly the volume of work involved needs a team. It's a reality that is becoming ever more poignant. You can see that if you've been reading this blog.  So if anyone is interested, talk to me. 

   Beyond that, as I've mentioned before, I'm looking for a Registered Literary Agent to pitch this. There are contractual limitations that cannot be surmounted without that, in order to reach another level of operations. We can do it at IMS, if we have to, but I'd rather not.

   The Business Plan accommodates internal operations, but to be honest about it, I'm rather tired and need a break. But I don't want the momentum to be interupted. So... I need to pitch it to external operations.  

Onward and upward.

AG

Release of the Storybooks

 I know, I've been talking about this for years. Well I needs to be happening soon, for various reasons. We have begun working on the remaining art and although we are starting out slow, things will pick up there. The fact that we are moving forward with more artwork gives us a clearer picture of what is possible with releasing the books.

A very early shot of the puppet shop being set-up. 

More recent puppet activity is focused the Parade Float requirements

and constructing Stop-Action Puppets for some old-world filmmaking.

The skin to fit over the skull on the three foot chassis.
I think this is Zebby.

Our Constable Warren Garden Gnome

We inventory about a half a dozen or so of these concrete Garden Gnomes.

Well, release of the books has taken a new turn. The Hand-Stitched Books will initially only be available through IMS and in the Boxed Set Collections. The reason is primarily due to the quantity limitations placed on distributing the Hand-Stitched Books. I love the hand-stitching, everybody loves the hand-stitching, but they take a lot more time and cost quite a bit more to implement.  So I've decided that the Hand-Stitched Books will be Limited Editions, by special order. This may change if I can get production quantities up to speed. If we have booksellers who request the Hand-Stitched Books, we will meet those orders, but delivery times will not be committed to, unless we are pulling those Hand-Stitched Books from inventory.  I have been setting up the production line, but the tooling is not yet finished, so I cannot determine an absolute minimum assembly time yet. I do expect to inventory about 500 of each book with the Hand-Stitched Covers, depending upon the demand. The cost of the hand-stitched books is about one third higher than the machine bound books.

The Initial Flyer that was developed to market the product line.
A new plan for manufacturing and distribution is being developed
with the machine bound books being widely distributed, while
 the Hand-Stitched Book will remain Limited Editions and custom orders.

The Pricing on this order form is for the Hand-Stitched Limited Edition Books
These prices are subject to change.
 A new pricing schedule is under development for the Machine Bound Books
although the MSRP will remain the same for the Hand-Stitched Books.

So, as the Printer's Layout is locked in for the entire collection, we will begin to inventory the books. The previous discussions regarding the publication of Book One, gave a good overview of the process, but after Book One was completed, it became necessary to conform the entire collection of Seven Books and Three Volumes, in both Hand-Stitched and Machine Bound Books. This was far more complicated than I ever imagined. But it is literally days away from completion and once that it absolutely finished then production line details can be confirmed, giving us accurate delivery times and other details. I say all this to inform those who have been "watching and waiting". I won't go into the design alterations that have taken place in this effort to conform all the books one to another, but I will say that they are significant.

I'm looking forward to getting the new artwork finished and installed.

That's all for now.  AG

Access via a new Hot Spot

 Zach Finds himself in a real pickle.

 I'm experimenting with a new method of accessing this blog, so here is a shot from Book Two, We have begun working on the remaining illustrations, since the publishing layouts are very nearly finished.

I do hope we open up new channels for distributing these books and I invite business people involved in marketing and distribution to touch base in that regard. For my part, I hope to be moving more actively into constructing the Parade Float and the Little Theatre Puppetry components, as I need a break from the work that I have been doing for many years in regard to publishing. I have many other Studio items that need tending to, so I am most interested in handing the ball off to some degree. I will, however, be building inventory of the book products, for obvious reasons.

AG

Gnome-Sized Books

 

an earlier Prototype Version of the books

   I've posted this image numerous times elsewhere, but I am using it here to show the two sizes of the books.  As you can see from the other posts, I have been conforming all seven books and three volumes in the collection to the same standards, which although I thought I had done that, turned out to be sufficiently different as to have interfered with the printing process. Now that all of the collection has been matched (in terms of the book covers)  I am reviewing the inner pages and making a few typographical corrections. Luckily I found a new way to do that which is WAY easier  than the methods I was using.

So why this post?  Well, one reason is to announce that I will be giving away a certain number of Gnome-Sized books of Volume One, as a promotional item. If you want one, you are welcome to send me a request. The other thing that has occurred to me is that I will be looking for a sponsor to publish a quantity of these Gnome-Sized books to give away to kids when we have readings at local libraries. I see that as a good publicity opportunity for an organization or company who wants to project good will to the families who may attend those readings.  

Years ago we has a reading at Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove. It was done to raise money for the Southampton library. I was flabbergasted at how excited people were by the project. Unfortunately it was no where near ready to be released. It still is not ready, but we have three books completely finished. The forth Book is only missing maybe ten panels of artwork, before that will be ready to release as well.

 I have discussed the release in other posts, but I can say that until we are well on our way to completing all of the illustration work, a release schedule just isn't practical. But releasing Book one can occur at any time, since Book One stands on its own as an Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope. 

Books Two, Three and Four are companion books to Act One of the Stage Play, while Books Five, Six, and Seven are companions to Act Two of the Stage Play. Truthfully, Books Six & Seven are almost complete, with only a relatively few panels needed. Book Five is the hangup, having no illustrations, because it contains The Gnomic Tales. Not the complete Gnomic Tales, but only brief synopsis of the five stories that are currently a portion of the Gnomic Tales, which are presented in "Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure" (the sub-title of the Stage Musical).

I expect to be printing the next (and final) prototype run of the Seven book and Three Volume Collection, after which I can register the IBSN numbers. Now in that regard; 

I am producing two version of the books; the Hand-Stitched Collection and the Machine-Bound Edition. Without going into details about that here, let me just say that the Hand-Stitched Collections a Limited Edition (with variations) and the Machine Bound Edition is for high quantities and mass distribution. I am registering the Hand-Stitched Collection to IMS Publishing as a product of Image of the Mind Studios, but I am leaving the Machine-Bound Editions open to be distributed by another publisher. Therefore, as it stands now, the machine-bound editions do not currently have any IBSNs attached to them. That means; if another published wants to license distribution of these books, you will need to contact me. If I do not develop a relationship with another publisher within a reasonable time frame, then I will be registering the machine-bound editions with IMS Publishing and moving forward to manage those books internally. Frankly, it would be much easier for me if another publisher took care of marketing and distribution, because I need to focus on producing the music and the details pertaining to the stage production.

That also means that I will be looking to Option the film rights as well as locating a Literary Agent.

So there is a lot to do and things are moving forward very nicely.  I met with Jenny Latta (the artist) about starting up again on creating the remaining illustrations and I am building an Animation/Illustration workstation to achieve that.  I also have other artists possibly on line, if we need to expedite matters.  Let me just say that I am also looking for a sculptor to create an assortment of figurines and Garden Gnomes.  I have been discussing 3D rendering of the characters with a number of people, but really, I would prefer working  with someone who is within a reasonably close proximity to the current Studio in Southampton PA. I'm looking into 3D printing as part of that process.

One more thing; I have been setting up to manufacture the boxes for the Boxed set of Books & Volumes. Although I prefer to only produce prototypes and leave production to job shops, I can manufacture if we need to do that. The Boxes for the Hand-Stitched Collection will be Hand-made wooden boxes, while the boxes for the Machine Bound Editions will be a cardboard version of that box.

Work has not yet begun on the Parade Float, but I am tooling up to start doing that, meaning I need to acquire a Plasma Cutter, before I start cutting the body off the Corvair Greenbrier. I am planning on shifting over to Facilities and Equipment work that needs to be done and when that happens, not much will be done by me on The Gnomes. Hence the need for others to step up to the plate to keep up the momentum. We'll see what happens.

That's all for now.  AG

10/21 Update

    a photo taken around 2015

Ok, here is the latest with IMS Publishing; 

For the past two weeks I've been working on aligning the Gnome-Sized book cover artwork, particularly the spines. The spines of the books need to match exactly. Even though they are not the same, they need to align with each other so that then boxed set looks right, when the books are in the box. Believe me, that is easier said then done. Part of what makes it laborious is merging the files after making adjustments, checking the alignments, then doing it over again if it is wrong. It's not really just alignments, there are a lot of other factors. The covers involve three print files for each book and there are at least twenty-one book files to cross-reference, being that there are both Gnome-Sized and Big People Books. The Big People Books are also offered in a boxed set, but there is also a Three Volume Set. Now that I'm writing this, I think I will offer the Libretto as an additional set, attached to the Three Volume Set. Eventually, the Score will be bound as another component of that collection. My morning coffee buddy just ask me "Who's going to want the Libretto ?" Well, besides the fact that the material has to be presentable, I see it as a tool for collectors, investors, and production personnel. 

I'm also at the point where I'm very ready to pass the baton, presuming the correct party steps up to the plate. After this cycle of publishing work is done, I need to shift over to other studio work that has no immediate connection to The Gnomes of New Hope. I'd hate to loose momentum, but there are just too many things I have pushed aside to get the creative work on The Gnomes done. I'm literally moments away from finishing he Core Creative Materials, as it pertains to the book layouts and I need a break. But the truth is, I'm past retirement age and I can't be sure I'll be able to regain the momentum if it's all on me to do so. So it's about time to bring in some new energy. Certainly, book manufacturing & distribution is one arena in need of expansion. I am well on my way to having the studio set up for manufacturing, but really, I need to focus on theatre production. So, I'm open to an arrangement with another publisher, since IMS is really only engaged in development. Those other business activities are discussed elsewhere. Check on the IMS Virtual Studio at imagemindag.blogspot.com (I'll put a link in later)

As always, I welcome your thoughts via email at; image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

AG

p.s. You will find a link to an older Resume/Bio at the top of the page for Image of the Mind Studios. I hope to place that with an updated version sometime soon,