Publishing Layout Design

This post is being crafted and is not yet complete.

Bear with me, 

This information is for people already following the progress.

AG

The First Generation 

Gnome-sized Book Design.

It originated as far back as 2010.

Note that this is a Right Hand Gutter page.

There were actually many iterations of this page design 
leading up to this page

and the components used in this design 
were created basically from scratch.

The Third or forth generation e-Storybook Cover Design.
This was a shared design with the Gnome-sized Books.

Developed after the cover for
Gnomes in a Gnutshell
This is an early version of the inner page.
It was the first experiment for an
e-Storybook
Note the Artwork in the lower left-hand corner (above)
it is a link to the next section.
Depending on the file size and the method of delivery,
some variation of a link may or may not be used.
Initially, this was used for both control and DRM.
There were numerous variations of these designs.

 Here is a promotional shot of the forth Prototype 

of the Hard Copy Books of Volume One. 

As you can see the size and shape 
are quite different from those early pages.

 I will include both early and later inner pages,
 as well as samples of the finished design below,

 including the entire Preface, 
which is important 
to help understand the project as a whole.

This link presents the a narrated version of the entire Preface;

Promotional Sample of the e-Storybook

You can see from this shot that we are producing 

Gnome-sized Books, Big People Books, 
and the e-Storybook - 
Gnomes in a Gnutshell 

 Note that the title information is adjusted for each volume. 

The New Layout is essentially of the same nature, 
but with some significant alterations.

 The Hard Copy Books and the e-Storybook
 have been matched exactly as to size ratio,

but the hard copy books 
need to be scaled to the capacity of the printing press.

That was an issue that only became apparent 
when changes or corrections needed to be made to all the layouts, 

which were each slightly different 
and thus contained in separate files.

Well that was a problem, 
so the last revision was to adjust the Master Layout

to accommodate all three designs.
 You'd think that would have automatically been done.

But no, each product was developed separately,
 for different purposes and had different specifications.

Only gradually did all three layouts intersect, 
thus making it possible and necessary 

to match the layouts for final production.

There have been many subtle design elements 
added to the already extremely complex layout
that have greatly improved the look of both 
the Hard Copy Books and the e-Storybook edition.

It has been a delicate balancing act 
to get those elements to work for both 
the printed and electronic editions.
One does not automatically work with the other 
and you would be surprised to find out
just how many minor adjustments
 are required to achieve such a feat.
There are literally hundreds of elements 
combined to achieve the look of the collection
and there are numerous adjustments 
within those hundreds of elements as well,
all of which need to be cross-referenced.
It has been a daunting task

The size and shape of the new layout is different, 

but  very close to the pages of 
the published Prototypes shown above.
(I posted the final pages on the main blog)

More importantly, the new layout 
approaches the components in a different fashion,
which will allow me to complete the other five stories 
contain within
The Gnomic Tales
in the same format,
without doing all the same layout work again..

It took me, literally, years to come up with the method, 
which is much better than ever before.
 I am rather amazed that it took me that long
 to realize the new layout design,
because if I have employed this method before, 
I would have saved myself those years of difficulties.
I guess it was necessary to get to where I am 
by the pathways that I traveled.

I will update this post when images 
from the new layout are available to me
for use with this computer. 
All my work is done on a Mac.
 This machine is Windows.

Here's an interesting shot;

Thanks for checking in.

AG

Digital Rights Management

DRM is an issue that must be dealt with before the collection of Storybooks can be released. My main problem is the functions of "Save" and "Save As". Not only do I want them to be blocked, but I want any effort to Save to implement an erasure of the document from both viewing and any copies that exist on the current devise, as well as access to the Subscription page. 

 I want it simply and clearly understood that no one may possess this document without authorization, or having purchased that right, and any attempt to steal this material locks the perpetrator out completely.  It is unfortunate that I must take these measures, but the people who pirate these products are also likely to make it available on-line for free and doing that will destroy the commercial viability of the product lines and thus steal the business away from the investors, creative staff, technical staff, theatre operations, merchandizing, and an array of other activities that add value to the economy and help people with jobs.

It is not that I want to control the situation, I'd rather I did not have to do that, but it is clear that society as a whole cannot be trusted to honor intellectual property and at the very least, until we recoup the large investment in creating this work, I must take measures to protect it's value, not only for myself, but for those people who have invested in this project, have yet to do so, or who are counting on participating and deriving economic benefit from it. But truthfully, it needs to be protected for the long term advantages of doing so.

At this point, I am convinced that serving the e-Storybook via a subscription page is the best approach. There are a few reasons for this. 

Firstly, a subscription page offers better overall monitoring of the product and the audience, making it easier to address numerous issues, known and unknown.

Secondly, it will make it easier to deliver the project. The size of the files makes download difficult because of the GFX. It is more practical to break the e-Storybook into scenes and to present them as such. A subscription page will make this easier, because once a person is logged in, I can utilize links to make each scene flow into the next, while keeping the buffer lower. This will also allow me to integrate movies (animation) into the e-Storybook because the movie will be a separate file (implemented via a link). 

Secondly, the e-Storybook is an evolving presentation. There are many aspects to it which are not yet finished and will take time to complete. It is clear I cannot wait until it is all complete before releasing it to people. The entire concept, including "The Gnomic Tales" is, quite simply, huge. So I imagine that a subscription page will allow the viewer to participate in the growth process. One may or may not desire to follow it's growth in this way, but I think I will need to take that chance, otherwise I'll be dead before anyone gets to see the whole thing. That's another reason for the DRM. The project is still growing and we need to control the level of access, so as to avert interference with the process by nefarious actions.

At some point, the e-Storybook will end up being a full length movie, because it was designed with that in mind. In the meanwhile, segments of the story can and will be presented as narrated video files. That is one part of DRM and the subscription page, being that they are updated as they are completed.

 The concept here is to take advantage of the way the Storybook was designed. Knowing that the story might one day become a movie, I designed the Storybook in scenes, not scenes to match the movie, but scenes that match the stage musical. But since the Storybook is intended as a companion edition to the stage play, I took the opportunity to expand upon the information contained within each scene in order to give the reader a "bonus" over the theatre goer who hasn't read the companion edition.

While doing that I had the cinema in mind. So I structured the pages in the Storybook to serve as storyboards, with embellishment that would help to develop the screenplay. That being said, some work on a screenplay will be taking place after the Storybook is locked in and ready to go to the printers (which is very close to being done). Expanding on the idea of a film;There are two basic types of films that we need to consider - Live Action and Animation. Even though I have been a filmmaker and have a degree in Cinema, I'm not very inclined to produce a live action film. I'm in for it if we build a team of producers, but I'm not going to take that on myself. I'm already swamped with what I am doing and adding that to the mix is a recipe for failure. Producing an animated film is a goal I am more inclined to pursue. The higher levels of animation that is currently occurring with CG GFX is interesting and I intend to explore it further, but I will need to graduate into that level of operation. For now, I am looking at integrating classic animation with puppetry. Doing that is within the range of my current resources and abilities, but even that is to be considered experimental and not something that can be put into a competitive marketplace. None-the-less, creating a product based on those techniques can be very useful. As it stands now, I am still building the studio facilities, equipment, and operating systems, so adding some degree of cinema/video activity using the Gnomes is appropriate for refining those elements of IMS. I am also creating a traveling exhibition to go with the opening of the stage show, so there's that.

In my mind, making the e-Storybook part of a subscription page will create some income to continue with assorted production activities, but more than that it will allow the subscriber to be part of the process and check in from time to time to see how the GFX and video animations are proceeding, because they will be integrated into the e-Storybook as we are able to include the finished visuals.  I am also thinking that the fixed illustrations will gradually be replaced by GIFs. Of course there are scenes that will in fact be videos, rather than GIFs, but all this will lead into a finished animated film.

These thoughts are presuming that I will be working from existing resources to gradually move into the full concepts of feature film products, but if circumstances change in that regard, we can easily move into a more conventional methodology, or possibly integrate the e-Storybook into the larger production activity as part of the overall presentation before the public.

Publishing Operations

The goal, for so long, has been to finish the Core Creative Materials of "The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure". This has been an arduous task, because once a product is released, one cannot go back and correct errors, otherwise it is an exercise in futility, that would ultimately impair your market and the public opinion as a whole.

Publishing the series of Storybooks is only one aspect of the project. Those Storybooks originated in the Libretto for the stage musical, but that stage musical originated in a simple puppet show, which also found it's beginning in a short story.  The progress through these literary expressions is something that has taken time, many years, in fact.

The Illustrated Storybooks are the culmination of this lengthy process. Certainly, releasing a final product into the marketplace represents a clear statement about the value of the product and doing so reflects, not only the quality of workmanship, but also the ability of the person or persons involved. 

With this Storybook series, the design has been a large part of the presentation. As I have said before, that design is comprised of hundreds upon hundreds of interlocking components. It has been a monumental task to coordinate those components and to assure that they are balanced and correctly integrated. One aspect of doing that is corrections. When an error is detected, sometimes it is easily corrected, other times it is a major effort to rectify. 

Only yesterday, I was daunted, once again, by searching throught the files to find an original design document, only to conclude that it was gone. I have had many files disappear inside of failed hard drives. Fortunately, I have  devised  other methods of recovering the work if necessary and have profusely saved the material in various revisions, with are represented by the current and final layout being Rev 225.

So, now that the final layout materials are ready for press/digital presentation, my effort is focused on getting the production line set up in the studio. I want to be certain we are capable of publishing and binding a basic amount of books in-house. In that way, we will not be dependent upon vendors to produced a finished product. That is the goal, but that goal does not exclude using suppliers to publish the finished product. Rather, setting up for in-house production offers us security in being able to deliver once the product is introduced into the marketplace.

I have pointed out elsewhere the parameters of selling the books. I intend to publish somewhere around a thousand units in-house, anything more than that will likely be jobbed out, but that depends on the version being sold. All hand-stitched books will be produced in-house at Image of the Mind Studios, while perfect bound versions will be produced by my service vendor(s).

Look for other posts to expand upon Publishing Activities.

AG 🎭🇺🇸

HDTV

Garden Gnomes continue to be available on special order for the purpose of fund raising to support the illustration work. Inquire via email to:

Image.if.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

Well, after a VERY long and arduous task of preparing the e-Storybook, the HDTV format book has been created in a PowerPoint format. Numerous versions were produced, all of which had an assortment of problems that needed correction. It took a long time, between corrections, for me to figure out just how to compress the files to reach a manageable file size. The entire collection in now presented as a Three Volume Set without any audio narration or videos. 

The narration greatly increases the file size, when it is included in the PowerPoint, so the narrated version will be done in Final Cut Studio and be presented as a film. This will be an advantage for inserting videos also. But the narration will be presented as an Audio Book. I expect that to be the next focus of attention, since an audio book can be distributed on it's own. I do want the entire collection to be available in multiple formats before we begin any serious marketing push, because I don't want to deny anyone the choice to have the visual art along with the audio narration. As I write this, I think the Audio Book will need to, at least, be offered simultaneously with the Hard Copy books. With the hard copy books to follow along with the narration, a person can turn the pages themselves, as opposed to the HDTV e-Storybook, where as a film, the pages will turn with the narration. Making this happen via Final Cut Studio will take longer to implement.

Still, the Hard Copy Books will also take some time to release, because there is artwork and illustration panels that need to be completed in the center sections if the collection. 

That artwork primarily pertains to stories contained in "The Gnomic Tales", which are briefly alluded to in "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure". Moving forward with that artwork will also advance other stories from The Gnomic Tales. When that happens, I'll all be buried back in the hole writing, which I don't mind, so long as "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" has been released and is providing me with income, so I can just write.

As I often say elsewhere, 

check the 

Facebook pages titled:

Image of the Mind Studios

and 

The Gnomes of New Hope

or the main blog:

The Gnomes of New Hope 

or the main page for IMS:

Image of the Mind Studios Virtual Studio

Each of these pages adds to the overall picture, since I post at different times, discussing an assortment of subjects, sometimes the same subject with a different perspective.

More later, AG

Marketing and Distribution

The image above is part of The Industry Review Package. I'm posting it here just to make it interesting and will change it later

I'm beginning this post and have yet to address any of the points involved on this subject. I can say that Volume One; An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope is available for purchase. I am setting up links to PayPal to implement purchases both of individual books and reseller quantities. Those links can be found on www.thegnomesofnewhope.blogspot.com

For resellers, do not expect a full keystone on any quantity less than a gross and it may even be higher than that. There are different editions of the books and until I have enough orders for 5K books, all production is on demand and hand stitched bindings. The cost of producing the books in this fashion disallows a full keystone. So to make up for that extra cost, those books will be signed. If I build inventory sufficiently to allow that keystone I may offer it. Look for a sales flyer and an order form to appear here and elsewhere.

More later. AG

The e-Storybook

I've been preparing a PowerPoint presentation, more than one actually, for the Gnomes of New Hope. I'm absolutely amazed at how cool that program is. Beingvan occasional filmmaker, it's very akin to making a cinematic presentation. In fact, it rather expands upon that process by including a full range of other mediums into a presentation format that works quite well for what I am doing with the Gnomes project as a whole.

So I have decided to use PowerPoint as the tool to present the e-Storybook. For quite some time, I have struggled with how to present the e-Storybook. The main difficulty being how to release it without making too much of it public before we get the ball really rolling in the production management end of things. Well, I think I have come up with a solution to that problem; a subscription page.

I'll get back to this later. AG

Read-Out-Loud Reading Sessions, Libraries & Bookstores

One of the aspects we are pursuing is Read-Out-Loud Storytelling Sessions. Since The Gnomes of New Hope was designed as a read-out-loud book series, that only makes sense. From a production standpoint, the design of a session is such that optimally, it should include using some of the puppets we are planning on using for a number of our presentations. I am trying to focus (as much as possible with all else that is happening) on constructing the first three puppets: Constable Warren, Zach & Zebby. Now that I write this I think maybe that, since we are doing Garden Gnomes and releasing one garden Gnome with the release of each book in the series, it sounds like a good idea to make certain that we finish one puppet in the same time frame. The only flaw in that idea is that we need the three puppets mentioned to make a reasonable read-out-loud session interesting. We could maybe get away with one puppet, but that doesn't sound too good. Unless... Constable Warren was the storyteller! Then one puppet might work.

Well the point of this post is to address another aspect of the storytelling sessions. As you may already know- we are releasing the first book in a series of seven books. The first book is "An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope". The remaining six books tell the story of "Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure".

The books are being released in two editions The Gnome-sized and The Big People Books. You can see the other posts for information about all that, but...

Sponsorship Proposal
 ... It was suggested that we might find a sponsor for the Storytelling sessions. What exactly that sponsor might pay for is not yet clear. But the main idea is that the sponsor would provide the funding to produce a run of Gnome-sized Books that would be given away to the kids who attended the Story-telling sessions.

I think that is a great idea.

I would be able to, as that was part of the plan anyway, take the second page in of the books and craft a customs page giving the sponsor credit for supporting the reading program, which would make that edition of the books even more special and collectible.

 Here is the first page in the book.

This is the last page in the book

(from the first prototype)

The pages show above represent the design of the pages. The first one has the twine border which was added to the final design. You can see that the second image does not have that twine, but it does in the final edition. So, the back of the first page would look like this second example, only with the twine. The text of the page would be crafted to reflect the information, and graphic desired by the sponsor. It would be crafted so that it is in keeping with the design of the book. If desired, we could have Jency create an Illustration, or if you like, we could use this graphic and replace the text for Gnome Gnog with the sponsor's information. The same goes for the Image of the Mind information, which could be replaced with the sponsor's. Or I might create some variation of this page using other artwork we have.

As I write this and think on the subject, I do think that if a sponsor was willing to provide funding for the books, then maybe we should add the cost of paying someone to supervise and/or conduct the reading sessions, which should include touring that read-out-loud storytelling sessions around. I guess I will craft a budget and an outline for doing that  using Bucks County as a test. If that works, then we can apply that budget on a per-county basis.

There are two options for sponsorship, as I see it now. One is to fund a budget for the Reading Tour. The other is to sell a License for distributing any one of the Ancillary Markets and use that money to fund the Reading Tour. Funding the Reading Tour would essentially be a License for all the reading sessions which may arise. In some circumstances, there may be an income opportunity for the sponsor, selling product at an event, but for the initial Library tour, there would not be any selling. The Gnome-sized Book would be given away and people would be directed to a bookstore if they want to acquire the Big People Book.. In that instance, the Big People Book would be sold by the bookstores, but in the instance where, say there is a museum exhibition of the artwork, etc. combined with a Storytelling session, if the sponsor provides publishing funds for a Gnome-sized Give-away, the sponsor could partake in the profits from selling Big People books on-site. The same could be said of outdoor festivals, given that the sponsor is partaking in the expenses of presentation. All these details need to firmed up in a Production Approach Summary crafted specifically for these venues.

In the mean while, I suppose I need to hop to on getting the puppets finished up.

Puppets
I have not finished the work on the puppets, primarily because of work on publishing the books, but also, I am trying to come up with the best method of operating the puppets. Marionettes or stick puppets? There are numerous applications for the puppets. Reading Sessions, Concert Presentations, Stage Presentations, the Parade Float, Cinema and Television Production. So I have bee trying to determine what is the most universal design that I can come up with. The size of the puppets is another issue. A Storytelling session, in an intimate setting doesn't need puppets that are as big as the ones needed for the stage and parade presentations, but sculpting numerous sized puppets will be time consuming and costly. So I am looking into 3D printing, which ultimately links to the 3D animation programs we anticipate using. So there's another level of complexity and cost. If I can acquire the scanning technology required to scan our sculpted puppets, then we will be able to size the 3D renderings in the computer for printout, depending on the application. Puppets and figurines of different sizes would be much simpler to make.

Zach has been laid out in the shop waiting for me to work on him.

I'm sure he's bored staring at the ceiling.

So that's a bit of an update. That's all for now. If you would like to become a sponsor, let me know. I will be pursuing that, because I definitely think it is part of our game plan for introducing the product line into the marketplace.

AG