03 April 2015

A Succession of Bad Days progress update

So, yes, I've entirely missed March. Whups.

So, anyway --
  1. send it out for critique by unfamiliar eyes -- DONE!
  2. get an ISBN -- DONE!
  3. get a cover -- Art Done, Design Pending
  4. copyedit -- 1st Pass Done, Final Pass Pending
  5. generate EPUB -- automated long since; even counting the manual zip step, requires < 30s
  6. make available -- unfulfilled dependencies.
That all said -- is there a consensus as to the best way to indicate "second book in a series" on the cover?  It's not a direct sequel and is a complete book.

(I'm going to suppose no one pays attention to the metadata indicators for series position and set them anyway.)

I expected this book would not require anybody to read The March North first, that's not the consensus of the folks other than me who have read it.

That suggests I really have to put "book 2" on there somehow. And four-dot hexadecimal notation for "2" at the end of the "A Novel of the Commonweal" banner is probably too subtle.

Anyone got an opinion about indicators of series position on book covers?


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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous06:50

    (Hi, I'm one of Ursula Vernon's fans.)

    Put the actual book title on the cover.
    Put "Book 2" on the cover.
    Put the series title just above or below "Book 2". (It's either 'the March North series' or 'the Commonweal series'.)

    Indicators of series position need to be blatantly obvious at a glance, not inside jokes or subtleties.

    Also, for ebooks, remember that online catalogs usually display covers at thumbnail size. Your cover art should be one simple image -- no small-but-significant details or subtle shading that would be hard to make out when the whole thing is one inch tall. Likewise, the author-and-title lettering needs to be high-contrast and big enough to read easily at that size.

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  2. Graydon07:42

    Hi, kathmandu!

    Actual book title definitely going on the cover.

    Series-wise, it's the Commonweal, which is why "A novel of the Commonweal" on The March North's cover. I'm thinking of this one having "A novel of the Commonweal 2". (Don't want to give up a whole BOOK 2 line in the case of something that already has a longish title for a book with that whole 1" thumbnail problem.)

    But mostly I'm trusting the cover designer, who understands this stuff. I am so not Ursula, and I know I don't comprehend visual arts so well.

    Thanks!

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