Epic Apocalypse - Edge of Time Book Series New Covers

Hey folks, the new year is almost upon us and I hope that all your aspirations are in place and taking place this coming 2020.

I've revised my book covers for the series once again because I needed to match them a bit better so they look like they belong together.

For now, this is what I've got and as you can see the book in the middle, Epic Apocalypse has a bit more color but what good is using fire if you can't show it burning hot?

Right, and so I've lowered the color saturation in the artwork quite a bit so it still has those dark edges and these covers seem to work for the series.

When designing your book covers for a series, keep in mind that you want your book covers to match either in colors, typography, or artwork, ideally all three should match. The middle cover is by another artist but I don't think it's off key. The other covers are my own design in Photoshop and I might still change the third book, although I do like how these three covers look together.

The main difference and what helps this trilogy is the red, white, and blue bands of color at the top. That's just a feature or "gimmick" to unify this trilogy, which gives the series a deeper meaning, plus it looks cool when you have the three books together on a shelf.

Only time will tell if this book series will be popular enough to make a bestseller list. I've really pulled out all the stops on this one and hope it will be a success. But it's hard to say at this point because I'm new in the game.

Don't underestimate yourself 

and what you know . . .

But here's the thing, don't underestimate yourself and what you know. You just might surprise yourself along the way. For me, the series will be a success in my mind because I've worked hard to get here but if the financial rewards are scarce, I'll learn from it and make adjustments to get it right next time.

Another thing is that this series doesn't necessarily have to identically match the artwork from the board game, although that wouldn't hurt, but these are standalone stories, so it's okay if the artwork is a bit different, as long as it's not too far off.

The board game does of course promote the books, and vice-versa, but each product should stand on its own, from a marketing point of view.

I've got plenty of work to catch up with so please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.

And as usual, play on!

Edge of The Apocalypse Book Trilogy [ New Cover]

Hey folks, I hope you're well and moving ahead with your plans. As usual, I'm working on my most important project.

After a hiatus of about 6 months, I'm back in the saddle and making great progress.

A small change of plans with the book series, which improves it by leaps and bounds so here is one of the new covers.

This is the original cover I had designed for the first book but I had added an image of Andrea and her dog because most of the books in this genre include a figure in the foreground. And so I think it's important to keep this image similar to other books in this genre. Although, that being said, I've noticed that just about anything goes in this sub-genre (post-apocalyptic) as long as you're showing some kind of explosion event. This image is inspired by those atomic blasts that the government tested back in the 50's.

I've had to revamp this first book because I've expanded the story to 3 books in this series and so I've made some subtle changes to Book 1. Book 2 is complete and Book 3 has reached chapter 8 and almost done. I have an amazing ending for this series and look forward to writing it and putting it out there in early 2020.

The good part is that the series is far better with more depth and it flows much better and makes more sense how I've organized it now. I'm very excited to finally finish the three books by the end of this year so I can start to promote them early in 2020 leading up to the debut of the board game on September 11, which is in its final stages of testing.

New Sepia tone box with book offer.

What a great way to start the new year, with a new product on the market. It's going to be exciting to promote these books along with the companion game. I've taken my time with it for several reasons but mostly, I'm careful to design it all as best I can.

I'm confident that once I polish the three books and the game, everything will come together as intended and sales will hopefully reflect all the work I've put into this project for the past 4 years. Sales are of course important for this and any project, however I'll feel good about it either way because this project is meaningful to me and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

I'll be posting the other two books in this series, Epic Apocalypse, and Beyond the Apocalypse soon, using the new font.

The offer on the box is for a free e-book download, which helps promote the 3 book series on Amazon.com.

A lot going on with this project but the best is yet to come next year when everything is on the market at the same time. At that point I can focus on promotions while I finish work on another board game, Warpd!, which is also close to completion.

Enjoy the holidays and have a great new year, folks. I'll see you on the other side with more exciting news very soon.

BTW, the new Tesla Cybertruck is available for pre-order. Deliveries begin around 2022. Very awesome truck and I mention this Cybertruck in my story. It's how Andrea and Maria flee Austin after the initial nuclear attack. And yes, these 2021 models should still be running in 2157. That's only 137 years away. Imagine that.

Tesla Cybertruck

Awesome Book Cover Design Tips [Apocalyptic with Photos]

 

New cover

Here are several tips to help you improve your book cover layouts. For this cover, I wanted to show the apocalypse in a different, more sophisticated way as opposed to the usual burning buildings and explosions, that are so typical of this event.

The ominous sky and its warm/cool colors are reminiscent of a lunar eclipse. The skyline is not on fire, but you can see evidence of a blast blowing across.

In the foreground, the main figures (Andrea and Apollo) stand and watch the event as if protected from the blast and superior to its effects.

The actual story starts off with a blast in Austin, Texas, but of course, New York City is the center of 9/11 and so I felt it was more important to feature that city on the cover. Besides, Andrea and Maria eventually wind up there.

This composition needs a bit of work because the main image is competing with the background (Freedom Tower) so I'll have to take more time to tweak it. Chances are that I'll have to reduce the size of the tower and that should fix the problem, but we'll see.

I also added Andrea's trusty pooch, Apollo, to the cover because they are inseparable. The main reason for adding these two images was so that the book cover resonates with the game box cover. I'm still debating if I'll match the gray colors of the box with the book. (A compromise would be desaturating the colors in the book cover.)

As it was before with only the skyline, there was no point of reference to the board game. Besides, I think this image of Andrea tells a deeper story overall. If you look closely, she's carrying a gun for protection and you can see that her hand is mechanical (as in cyborg).

Revised version

Notice the subtle but very important differences in these two covers.
Let's start at the top with the hook.

•  I added the word and with an ellipsis so it flows better.

• I moved my name under the title so I could unclutter the main image.

• I also reduced the size of the background tower a bit so it doesn't compete with the main image.

• I'll have to figure out what to do with the color band running across the bottom, now that I moved the name up. Most likely I'll remove it when I fix the artwork (missing feet). Right now I'm not sure of the trim on the bottom so that's still a bit of trial and error.

So far, I think this works and hopefully, I can keep it this way up to the date of publication unless I find another way to improve it. But as a group, the freedom tower, Andrea, and Apollo make a nice diagonal line for a much more pleasing composition. I might either blur or take down the saturation of the tower just a bit to see how that looks, but the Freedom Tower is an important part of this story and that's why I'm thinking of leaving it alone.

Current Box

So the whole point is that you should always show your main image at its best. In this case, the juxtaposition of the main image grouped with the background is symbolic of the events in this story so it's okay to visually group them as one.

You want to tie-in the main image with anything that will tell a deeper story at a glance.

The real trick for me with this unusual array of products is to prioritize the purpose of each product. My main goal is to promote the board game with the book. But at the same time, the board game should also promote the book. It's a balance of design and writing that works discreetly with subtlety, although, it's really all about the board game.

For those of you following the evolution of this game, I'll be posting updated photos of the new game board and several new card decks soon.

I'm getting really close to locking down all the elements and mechanical aspects of the game and synchronizing the artwork as a whole. The most important development to the game has been the addition of the Manifesto Card Deck, which sets off the game in a grand way.

Nothing else changes as far as skills and rescue goals. Everything remains as it was, but the Manifesto serves as an "inciting incident" (novel speak) of sorts. This was the big thing I'd been missing and finally found a way to include it and present it without too much additional cost.

Final Revision

Here's the final version (subject to change) with a pier to ground the figures. A small portion might be trimmed when printed so I'll have to make adjustments after the first proof.

Overall I think it works so we'll see how the actual printed version looks.

More about that in my next post.

Until then, keep on gaming!

Your questions or comments are welcome.

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The Road To Hell is Paved With Works-in-Progress - Philip Roth

The title is one of my favorite Philip Roth quotes and it's quite appropo in my case with Broken Heart.

Here's the latest version of the GWBH cover. The most important part is the sales copy, I mean the blurb on the back cover, as it's known. As it stands now, it is a mixture of fact and fiction in all its incarnations, and as far as I can tell, it still works.

I've added an element, a short mention about clues to a riddle and an image to go with it, which is central to the main plot. Namely, anagram clues that tell which state is the next to get bombed. Nice touch, I think, but who knows?

AUNT IS AT SEX

You can barely make out the first clue: It's Big, followed by the anagram, AUNT IS AT SEX with a strip-tease image. Kind of funny if you think about it. The answer is a bit obvious, Austin Texas, the opening setting for the story. The anagrams get progressively more difficult to solve and that's part of the challenge for the characters in the book, as well as for the readers.

Playing Card

It's becoming obvious to this blogger that Girl With A Broken Heart is decidedly a full-length stand-alone novel. But for the purposes of the Millennium board game, I've kept the short story to about 110 pages.

The beauty of this book is that it serves as an in-depth promo for the board game, if you will, and vice versa. For those who first purchase the game and then learn about the book, they have an option to download a free PDF copy online. Otherwise, the paperback (available on Amazon) comes as a collectible edition with a prologue and photos that the online version does not include.

There has to be a clear distinction between the two, otherwise what would be the point, except that one is digital and the other is a physical paperback copy. Maybe that's enough, so we'll see if I decide to make them identical and leave it at that.

Playing Card

I'm leaving no stone unturned but in reality 95% of all the work is already finished and I still have about a year before the official launch date of 9/11/2019.

I love that because it gives me plenty of time to ruminate and experiment with it to see how I can make it even better. Although, I'd be happy to publish both the game and the book in January. It all depends how I feel about it at the time. But I'd like to stick to the official publication date because it has more meaning as it ties in with the 9/11/2001 events.

Sometimes momentum and trends are everything and they're important to incentivize and motivate sales at all levels. I still have another ace in the hole as far as marketing goes. I'll talk about that in my next post.

Meanwhile, I do have six more games and two other books that I'd like to finish so I'll get to it.
Your comments and questions are welcome.

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Play for free online at: Tabletopia.com

Learn about the game at: TheGameCrafter.com/games/millennium

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Free eRuleBook: https://boardgame-news.blogspot.com/r/rulebook.html

http://www.TheGameCrafter.com/games/millennium

Girl With A Broken Heart-Andrea's Final Journey: A companion story eBook available now in free PDF Format on the website:

http://www.TheGameCrafter.com/games/millennium