Creating my Books (Part Two)

So, all the pieces are finished, all the text is written, what next? surely it's nearly finished?

A project "Beauty Shot" and story page from "Steampunk Apothecary"

Well, next comes the "beauty photography". Thats the lovely picture you see at the start of a project, which shows the finished item, often in a tableau with other items to help tell a story or suggest  a theme.

Martin Soulstealer

This is often done "in house" at the publishers with a photographer whose often kept on a retainer fee to work on many different projects as and when needed.
For both Steampunk Apothecary and Steampunk Teaparty I've been lucky enough to choose my own photographer, and I decided to work with Martin Soulstealer, whose work I love.

layout pages from "Apothecary"

I collected all sorts of exciting props and objects d'art to use as "dressing" in the tableaux, a history of film and art direction helped here, and I borrowed lots of gorgeous things from family and friends too. Martin and I built mini sets for each picture in both his studio and mine, taking several photographs from different angles etc before we decided on The One that we loved.

An early version of the page layout and design, we decided it wasnt vibrant enough

Once all the beauty shots had been adjusted for colour and cropped if necessary, they were sent to the publisher who could begin the design and layout process with their in-house designer.

early cover

final cover

The designer creates a BLAD (Book Layout And Design) for everyone in the team to look at and comment on, usually just of one project and a front and back cover. then after discussion/reworking of the design, the rest of the book is laid out, pages numbered and a first copy printed on flat paper.This design process can take 2-4 months depending on other book commitments at the publishing house and simplicity or otherwise of the design. Mine are quite complex obviously and I like to give the designer loads of reference material and ideas to make sure they know whats in my mind straight off.

flat copy for proofing

Once I have the flat copy, I have to check everything is where it should be, the correct picture is with each step etc and that the measurements are correct. then a copy editor re-checks everything, finding any other flaws and sometimes a technical editor will check it too!

Then it's off to the printers and a long wait...... again 2-4 months for the printing. I get an authors proof copy to read carefully just in case, and if everythings ok, then the print run is completed!

Signing at Waterstones

Finally the book is in the shops and sent out to press and reviewers. I can have a lovely launch party to say thankyou to everyone who helped and sign some books too!

Creating My Books (Part One)

I love books, all kinds of books inspire me; novels, reference and how-to's. 
I've learned pretty much everything I know from books, so I find it terribly exciting that I'm now in a position to be comissioned to create my own. It takes very long time to make a quality how-to book, so I thought you might like to see how the process works!

I am a very hands on author, I like to have input into the final design and layout to ensure that my books have the right old world vintage feel to them. It's very unusual for an author to be allowed to do this and I'm very grateful the publishers trust my vision enough to let me guide the visuals. I'm sure this makes me a nightmare for the layout artists but they always rise to the challenge and create beautiful work, as I'm sure you agree!

 Each book starts with my pitch to a specific publishing house, it's usually compact, just two sides of A4 with the books overall concept, my artistic and book writing credentials, who the book is aimed at and a list of the rough idea for chapters and projects to be included. I have to do this for each new book I suggest, and I may suggest 3 or 4 different concepts to several publishing houses before a comissioning editor sees one they think will sell. Obviously as a freelance writer this is all unpaid work.

Once a publisher has spotted something they like, they will put it forward at a publishers meeting. If everyone agrees it's a great idea then it will go forward to the next shortlist meeting, if they don't, it's back to the drawing board for me, sending out more ideas or trying a different company! 
If they like it they will ask for a more detailed breakdown of the proposed book, this will have more descriptions of each project, maybe some moodboard visuals just to get the visual concepts across.

The publishers will have another meeting at this point, often with the sales team to see if it fits with their book list and outlets, maybe talk about slightly different angles or projects too. 

To get a proposal up to this point can take anything between three months to a year and if the sales team dont like it or someone decides its not quite right, the idea can still be rejected at this point.

If everyone likes it, hooray!  I'll be offered a contract with the royalty
percentage, lots of legal details and the "advance" (which has to be paid back from any sales before I start earning royalties) as well as the deadline schedule. The deadlines are usually between three and six months, so from here on I go from 0 to 90 miles per hour in a frenzy of writing, photographing and making!

The fun can begin! I draw sketches and notes for each project, then start to make each one up, photographing it step by step myself in my little photo studio  which has been especially designed for this work. I use a light tent and two small daylight photographic lights and a Fuji Finepix bridge camera on a tripod. I often have to use a self timer because obviously I need both my hands to hold or demonstrate the technique I'm using!

Sometimes something doesn't work the way I thought it would, and I have to retrace and rephotograph a project, or a few steps too, this is just part of the process and I've made some truly spectacular mistakes sometimes, but hey it's good, because then I can give all the helpful tips of how not to do things as well as how to! I write all the steps up as I go along in huge detail, then simplify into more understandable methods for my readers afterwards...

Parallell to writing the projects during the week, at the weekends I'll be dressing up and photographing the models for the intro stories, this is always epic fun, and a nice chance to see my friends and be silly. We joke that if you come for a visit and stand still long enough in my studio, you are bound to be dressed up and photographed!

They are photographed against a plain wall or back drop, then one of my pet digital artists, like Julian for Steampunk Emporium or Terry for Teaparty and Apothecary can be getting on and creating a beautiful fantastical background from my notes and sketchups,  making a beautiful picture for the chapter openings.

Once all the projects are photographed and written up into steps, I can start on the intro stories, I love writing these whimsy pieces, this is the bit that feels like pure fun rather than work! They are inspired primarily from the actual object and then sometimes by friends or conversations in the steampunk community too.

Finally I have a finished manuscript and the step by step photos. Time to double check, triple check, edit and rewrite before submitting it to the Publishers!

(to be continued in part 2 next week, so do check back then!)