Cover, Interior & File Refreshes!

Changes are coming to The Monster Novel Structure Workbook! I’m not doing a big launch event or anything, I’m just quietly making these updates and letting them ride. This post details all the yummy new shinies.

Plans For a Print Edition

I polled my list a few months ago and got resounding answer: readers wanted a print edition of The Monster. So I got to work researching how I would go about that. I do all my own designing (thanks, graphic design background) and turning a visual-heavy ebook into a print book isn’t easy. (Nor vice versa, I assume.)

I was making really good progress on this in February and March, when the world officially imploded thanks to a certain one-celled organism. Postal and delivery systems are overtaxed at the moment and for the foreseeable future. Amazon isn’t even shipping physical books for the moment. So, the beautiful bound edition I was working on is going to have to wait until the crisis abates.

But I also had a lot of readers who would be happy with a print-at-home edition. When I did my early research I worked out that taking a PDF to a copy shop to have a nicely printed edition made (not even counting the binding), would cost at least double what a professionally printed copy would. So I was going to skip the print-at-home idea entirely in favor of print-on-demand.

Obviously the world looks quite a lot different now than it did in February.  I’m looking at ways to make the print-at-home edition available at a heavy discount to those who have a receipt for the book. I should have that pulled together in the next couple of weeks. To find out when I do, make sure you’re on my mailing list.

New Blurb

Part of planning for a print edition means coming up with the copy to go on the back of the book. This is often the same as what’s on the ebook sales page, but it doesn’t have to be identical. I patterned my blurb off the new back cover’s text, and also referred to Bryan Cohen’s webinars on writing Amazon ad copy that sells.

I think it’s greatly improved over the original copy. We’ll see if it makes a difference!

New Cover

I love the new cover. It’s more mellow, it suits the genre, and it really showcases one of the essential concepts of the book without giving it away.

I have a full wrap cover ready for the print edition, but I’ll save that when it releases.

Refreshed Interior/Content

When I worked up the new interior for the print edition it was also a good opportunity to do some cleaning up. I tried to make sure I replicated all those changes in the ebook. I also cleaned up the code so that it should display more nicely. I reproduced some of the images with my new software, and added divider bars on the chapter splash pages.

To see the new interior, you may need to delete/remove your existing file and redownload the book.

Downloadable Files: New 30-Day Challenge Calendars

I mentioned that I have new graphics software, and I’ve been getting used to using it. While I was doing all things Monster I figured I should also get around to making the next year’s 30-day Challenge calendars for people doing NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNo, and so forth. I worked out a much faster way to make these, and made a new set of calendars. No matter which day of the week your 30 days start on, I’ve got a calendar for you.

I like these much better than the previous versions, too. They were also a lot easier to make!

Gumroad Storefront Refresh

I use Gumroad to distribute the downloadable files that come bundled with the book. When I did my brand refresh last year I neglected to update my Gumroad storefront, so I’ve done that now with a bunch of pretty new graphics.

So yes, I have been busy the last few months! And there’s plenty more I have still to do, like getting the print-at-home PDFs ready. To hear about the print edition and print-at-home PDF, sign up for my newsletter.