So I have been doing an attempt at illustration of a children’s book. I think I overestimated my own art.
I did some images in canva to see if I can do better and I think I did better there.
I managed to hire the same person to do Dylan and the Hotel Zombie as I had for Dylan and the zombie pet. I don’t see the person being willing to do another job (She dragged her feet on this job) so I don’t know if I will be writing more in that series. However, I will be releasing Dylan and the Hotel Zombie for kids week December 2025.
This year I will be releasing Pip, That is not yours! And Where is my Sugar. I don’t know what the second one is going to be next year… If I am even going to be releasing a second. I have a year to decide.
It was suggested that I should make a third one in Dylan’s series but make it a middle grade. Then I could use the same images from the previous books and allow older children to follow Dylan’s adventures. I have to think about it. I can see where it would allow me to broaden Dylan’s world a little bit.
I have a middle grade in the bedtime tales series. It might be a fun thing to do it for most of the series. I don’t see Pip ever getting a middle grade. That one is always the early readers.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
This one is about the various people that are useful to a publisher… Some of them I have been doing the job for. Some of them I have to find myself on occasion.
Editor – most of the time people don’t realize that this is an umbrella term. It breaks down into a couple of different things. Line/copy editing is what I do. It is going over and checking for spelling and grammar issues. It’s the most basic form of editing. This is the one that catches the typos and the spelling oops that makes a manuscript look like it was written by less than a professional. It is a necessity. There’s also Developmental editing. I am not capable of this. (well I might be capable but I don’t want to.) I have a short list of people that I refer the authors who need this to. They have to deal with the cost of the editor at that point.
Social media management – this is also known as a publishing Assistant or a PA. I am so lucky to have Jenny Elliott in this role and we have gotten to the point of needing others to help. I currently have Cindy Pilcher and Angel Ellison doing this as well. People can’t buy the books if they don’t know about it. So our street team is there to see the marketing images get seen.
Illustration – Fae Corps is currently looking for illustrators willing to be recommended. I can do some. I am not always going to be what the author wants. I would love to have a similar list of illustrators as I do with my developmental editors.
Narrators – this is a fairly new one for us. We have one that is in the process of getting set up so we can do audio books, and we have an agreement to share the royalties for payment. I would love to have a couple more options for the authors.
Cover creator – So far I have been the one who does this, but I have accepted it when my authors have brought me covers from other places. I only have a few rules (No Ai. They have the license. Not prepublished)
The last one is the reader… Especially when you leave reviews. The reviews are not for me or the author… They are to feed the algorithm. They are to tell other readers that this book is worth the read. Even if you get a book from a library, I would encourage you to leave a review on goodreads.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help. As You can see this changes slightly each week. Things get adjusted because Authors are not ready or I get a book that I had promised space.
July –
19th – Falling Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
16th – Darkness lies heavy in the heart by Joshua Pavelsky
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Mariah Lynde
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
27th – Human Shaped Verse by Patricia Harris
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology – Nightmare Whiskers
November-
8th – Thoughtfish by Ruan Bradford Wright (2nd Edition)
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – Where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – Spoiled Naughty Ponies by Capri Summers
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
This week I want to talk about the details.
Each site I use to publish has a different set of requirements for the manuscript and cover.
The title has to be each word capitalized. The author has to have two names.
The manuscript has to be at least 24 pages to be published.
The manuscript has to be as free of errors as possible.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help. As You can see this changes slightly each week. Things get adjusted because Authors are not ready or I get a book that I had promised space.
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
16th – Darkness lies heavy in the heart by Joshua Pavelsky
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Mariah Lynde
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology – Nightmare Whiskers
November-
8th – Thoughtfish by Ruan Bradford Wright (2nd Edition)
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week unannounced. (details are not available yet)
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
Okay. This week I want to address a couple of the elephants in the room where publishing are concerned. Both of these have come up and they bother me.
First, Editing does not mean your writing is bad. And your Editor is not the final say in what is good for your writing. Though these are two separate things, they are only the first item I want to address. You are the only one that knows how your writing should be. Everyone has Typos, and if it is a minor thing that doesn’t affect the voice of your piece then you should think about the editing suggestions. However, Again, you are the final say in the words used. This is why AI editors are not so good as a dependable thing. You may be trying to use a dialect that is somewhat different (Appalachian speech patterns, British speech patterns, etc) or you may have specific reasons for the words you used. (For example in poetry). Do not hesitate to tell your editor no when dealing with your work.
The second thing that has come up recently is the assumption that publishing is easy. That once I have the formatted and edited manuscript all I have to do is basically push a button. I personally publish to FIVE different sites, each with their own requirements. I have to take the manuscript and create an epub and a PDF. I have to have the proper cover file for all five sites. Then I use Books2read to make sure the links are all in one place. I also have to make sure the author is happy with it all, and I have to deal with the accounting when royalties are paid. That is not counting any thing I do for promotion. (Which thankfully I have a team for to assist me). So someone told me that I was not doing a lot after the manuscript was done…I wanted to scream. I don’t think anyone realizes the amount of work that goes into getting a book made. Especially if you want it made with any quality.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help.
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling in Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
16th – Darkness lies heavy in the heart by Joshua Pavelsky
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Mariah Lynde
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology Nightmare Whiskers
November-
8th -Thoughtfish (2nd edition) By Ruan Bradford Wright
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week possibly closed (Recieved a submission that is currently in review.)
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
First… I did the annual poetry marathon this past weekend. I signed up for the half marathon and I wrote more than I signed up to do. I was rather pleased with that.
Next, Fae corps publishing is in the process of creating – taking on? – an imprint. I don’t have a whole lot I can tell you about it yet… But it’s actually really close to being a thing.
Next, I was invited to try to write a story (Serena) that is for a really interesting anthology. That doesn’t mean that they are going to accept the story. Just that I am allowed to try for the call. It is entirely out of my normal wheelhouse writing wise. I have until November to write it and I have it halfway done. It has been flowing. I am terrified. But I am writing it anyway.
And the last update for the post is that I do realize that I accidentally scheduled the Tuesday Tunes post last week for the wrong time. It went up at six pm instead of six am. I am grateful for your patience. I will try to be more careful this week.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
This week is less about my tools or what I do but a clarification of terms. Again.
These are general book terms, and I have been seeing a few people who have been confused about them.
YA- This term has been around forever. It means Young Adult. It’s generally about 16-21 year old characters and written with that age group in mind. Some people have it in their heads that it means that these books are not good because of the age it is aimed at. Some of the best books I have ever read were in this category.
NA- New Adult. These are generally aimed at people who are in their 20’s. Again they generally have characters in that range. These are the results of people deciding that YA is not acceptable after a certain age.
RH- This is a Romance genre specific. Reverse Harem. It’s one woman who takes several husbands/lovers.
Why Choose – Again a Romance genre specific. So this is very similar to reverse harem… But it allows LGBTq2s+ roles. It is exactly what it sounds like. The main character is given more than one love interest. And they accept both.
Middle Grade- this is a children’s book category. Picture books are usually called early readers. This is what falls in between early readers and YA.
Anthology – I added this because I have seen people confused about it. Anthology is always multiple authors. If a single author puts together a group of stories that will be a Collection.
Chapbook – This is a small poetry volume. Usually it will be roughly 24-35 poems.
Omnibus – this is a collection of books. Often if an author does a series… They will release an omnibus version to allow the space saving for the fans.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help. As You can see this changes slightly each week. Things get adjusted because Authors are not ready or I get a book that I had promised space.
June –
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
16th – Darkness lies heavy in the heart by Joshua Pavelsky
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Mariah Lynde
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology – Nightmare Whiskers
November-
8th – Thoughtfish by Ruan Bradford Wright (2nd Edition)
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week unannounced. (details are not available yet)
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
This week is less about my tools or what I do but a clarification of terms.
I have seen several people unsure in the new way of publishing what these terms mean. So I plan to clarify.
There is Four types of Publishers. Traditional, Hybrid, Vanity, and Self.
Traditional publishers are ones that have been around forever. They can often offer an advance and you have very little say in your book. They choose the cover and such.There is no room for Author input beyond the writing of the story.
Hybrid publishers (Like Fae Corps Publishing) are often smaller presses. They do not usually do advances on the book. There is more author input on cover design and marketing schemes. These are more Author centric. They are choosy as to whom they publish. They rarely ask for any funding upfront from the author. If they do it is to cover services such as is needed to get the book to look it’s best. Paying the editor, cover designer, illustrator and such. (Though I personally do not. I allow those services to negotiate directly with the author when they are not in house.)
Vanity publishing is the ones that expect the author to pay to have the book published. There is all upfront costs. They do nothing to help you get your book out there. I personally feel like these are a scam. Vanity presses accept everyone regardless of quality.
Self Publishing is exactly what it sounds like. You are doing everything. There is no support. This is in my honest opinion the hardest one, but you have the most control over the final product.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help. As You can see this changes slightly each week. Things get adjusted because Authors are not ready or I get a book that I had promised space.
June –
14th – Hope Splashes by Patricia Harris
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
16th – Darkness lies heavy in the heart by Joshua Pavelsky
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Mariah Lynde
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology – Nightmare Whiskers
November-
8th – Thoughtfish by Ruan Bradford Wright (2nd Edition)
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week open
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
Okay. Finally we are going to talk about the covers.
I do the original designs on Canva. I sometimes will adjust with art programs on my computer to get the exact look the author (or I) am aiming for. I do have the pro version of Canva. This allows me access to all of the images, and only costs me $12.95 a month. I feel like it is worth the cost as much as I use it.
Then I have the template downloaded for the 6×9 from Amazon. I make the front and back and use the templates for the front and back covers in pdf to set it up. Since I have Master Pdf Editor…I add the image, make sure it sits right…then I use the arrow tool to Select all…It will say I have 61 objects. I click on the image holding the control button until it says I have 59. Then I hit delete. that will delete everything behind the image.
I do that for both front and back covers. Then I use Barnes and Nobles to create the spine. I can download the full cover (and often do) from there and make minor adjustments as needed.
All of Fae Corps books have the logo in the Left corner of the back cover. The spine text if there is any always is in Libre Baskerville. This small continuity keeps a easy to recognize brand across our books.
If you need to find the template to download for the book you are working with…Amazon has all of them with a calculator to get the right one here…
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help.
June –
4th – Anthology The Owl Light Menagerie (a special venture with the owl light network)
14th – Hope Splashes by Patricia Harris
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling in Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
16th – Darkness lies heavy in the heart by Joshua Pavelsky
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Mariah Lynde
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology Nightmare Whiskers
November-
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week open
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
Last time I said I would be discussing covers. I decided that will be next week. I realized that I was not as in depth about the epub as I should have been.
When you first open the epub with Sigil it will ask you if you want to add the doctype html to the document. For some reason open office forgets to add this and it is necessary.
In the stylesheet section there is a line that says something about direction. I don’t remember the exact line but it is the only line that says direction. That has to be removed.
You need to go through and check your pages for the way you want it to be laid out. Merge pages and cut pages as needed. Adjust the toc.
When you go through if you notice your text is not colored properly you can take the color information out of the stylesheet.
The last thing I recommend is taking out the <title><title> at the top of each page. I don’t know why but it causes error messages if you leave it in.
Don’t forget to save your work.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help.
May –
29th – (not a release date but I will be on the Owl Light Network reading Pip and Friends Live)
June –
4th – Anthology The Owl Light Menagerie (a special venture with the owl light network)
14th – Hope Splashes by Patricia Harris
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling in Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Amima Raziel
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology Nightmare Whiskers
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week open
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
Pattimouse 