Publishing Lessons Learned 2

Proper format is everything...  Sigh.  I have tried to upload a POD cover for The Ghost Downs three times now. Hope the third time is a charm...  I got a note on the first upload that I messed up the spine width...  I used the template - but somehow got it wrong.  I was very careful in the spine width on the second upload - but it got kicked back with a "general format error" kind of message. Poking around, looks like I didn't leave room on the back for the ISBN.  I MEANT to... but I didn't... Crossing my fingers...

The frustrations of being a one-man show are legion - but this appears to just be inattention on my part.  I forget that POD needs a barcode so I lay out the cover like I would for PDF - trying to get the elements in pleasing balance...

If this was my job, I should be fired... But it's a hobby.  As frustrating as this whole cover thing has been, I've learned a lot and I'm enjoying the process (does that sound contradictory?  Maybe it is...)

Northern Tier Review

Over the past 24 hours there was an uptick in downloads of the Northern Tier hexcrawl, so I did a quick search for reviews and found one!  Thanks for the review!!

Review of the Northern Tier


Affiliate Link to Rosethrone Publishing on OBS

Done and Yet to be Done...

Link

I have three items uploaded to OneBookShelf:

The Northern Tier - a hexcrawl set in the Rosewood Highlands (150 pages). The PDF is currently free, the Print version is $12.99 (bundling the PDF is, of course, free).

Link

The Ghost Downs - a partial hex within the Northern Tier (70 pages). This region uses maps from Dyson Logos for a half dozen or so encounter areas. $3.99 for the PDF, $9.99 for the print, probably be $10.99 for the combo, though I'm leaning toward just making the Print OR the Print+PDF $9.99.

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The Shrine of Fallen Angels - a single small (16 page) dungeon location.  This was the first thing I wrote for the Northern Tier and the Rosewood Highlands.  It's not live yet, but will be soon.  I plan on putting this with a couple of the other smaller adventure location PDFs together for an omnibus printing - though I'm considering offering saddle stitched versions.... Not sure yet.  Anyway, $1.99 in PDF.


Yet to be done...

I'm working on another larger (about 60 page) manuscript for the Palace of the King Under the Water, Blackfalls Hall.  Again, this adventure location uses several Dyson Logos maps. The layout is almost complete (it looks like two more pages have to be done) and then the covers. The price points should be close to the Ghost Downs.

The Hall of the Gnome King is in layout.  It's looking like about 20 pages. The Rusted Tomb is being re-edited and will have some additional content added before it's ready for layout. It should also be around 20-24 pages.

The rest of the Highlands Locations are still in the writing phase.
I've got some other things to talk about, of course... future reflections forthcoming...

Affiliate link to Rosethrone Publishing

Publishing Lessons Learned: 1

While the bar for entry in the realm of self-publishing is pretty low (can you figure out a way to create a PDF? You're in.), there's a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to doing it well.

All the advice from the pros is right:
Focus on what you do best - if you're a good content creator, create; if you're great a layout, do layout; if you're an artist, do art... If you're good at a couple areas, go ahead... but know that the fewer eyes on a project, the more likely compromises and errors creep in.
Edit, edit, edit - There's a quote I read somewhere (for my other job, I think), that said a writing project is not done when there's nothing left to add, but when there's nothing left to take away.  I get it.  That's hard for me - I am wordy by nature, so having the wherewithal to see those darling words not as something precious to protect, but as possible fat to trim is powerful - and not usually in a writer's zone...
Playtest - yeah, this step is really important, and really, really easy to skip over...
Use the right tools - Layout software is powerful and does exactly what it says on the tin - allows you to professionally arrange elements on your pages with precision and with a minimum of fuss. So Word or Libreoffice or whatever - the "jack of all trades" word processing programs that can do layout but aren't really designed for it (and Word seems to HATE large, image heavy files, for those who want to know) - yeah, you can make them work, but that's not really their strength...

And lots of other advice.  Thing is, I ignored all of the above advice. That may tell you something about the products we're producing here at Rosethrone Publishing, I don't know.  I think it says more about me and my passive-aggressive attitudes toward people who try to tell me I'm wrong than anything else...

Lessons learned:
You CAN produce good quality products with the tools you have on hand, the tools you are super comfortable with. I have tried Scribus so many times over the past ten or so years - knowing that I'm "supposed" to use it, but I just hate the implementation.  I have used Word (or the like) since before Word existed - I was using Wordperfect and AmiPro decades ago - and pushing them as far as I could (I tried to replicate what was then considered professional RPG layout in AmiPro in the late 90s).

Thinking about the past several years of trying to put things together, I find it interesting that Layout is my favorite part of this process.  I like "having written" but the process can be arduous, and I always look at what I've written with a jaded eye. I will continue to peck away at Scribus, maybe I'll take an unformatted adventure (reduce something to just text) and try to do a layout from scratch.  I don't know.  I'm happy with my results, YMMV of course.

I've got some other things to talk about, of course... future reflections forthcoming...

Affiliate link to Rosethrone Publishing

Uploaded the File finally

So this blogging exercise has FINALLY borne fruit - I uploaded the PDF to Drivethrurpg this afternoon. It's 140 pages plus cover - about twice as long as I thought it would be.

This is the test document for me - testing layout, PDF tools, etc. I've set the price at free - I may make it PWYW at some point, don't know.

I have a bunch more projects, some ready to upload, some not even started.

I remain hopeful....

Affiliate link to Rosethrone Publishing

Rosewood Highlands Map

Here's the overall map of the Rosewood Highlands.  The Northern Tier - the region sketched out in the previous blog posts - is in the northern part of Hex E-4.

The Northern Tier Wilderness Map

Here's the final map (in lower resolution, of course) that will be included in The Northern Tier hexcrawl PDF that I've put together. Note that some of the hex numbers no longer align with the hexes in the previous posts, but most are close...