Designing the Pearlsong Trilogy
Over the last few months I have been working with Michael D Warden on The Pearlsong Refounding Trilogy he is writing (2 books are now done). It has been a fantastic labor of love. Michael previously was signed with a publishing house, but when some unfortunate circumstances came up, he was unable to meet the deadlines for the remaining books.
“It was just a few years ago that Waymaker was under contract with another publisher, and I was happily plugging along writing the story. But then, family tragedy struck: My dad passed away, and I was called from the mountains of Colorado to return to my childhood home in Austin to grieve with my family and assist them in what proved to be a difficult transition for all of us. In the months following my dad’s passing, my mom encountered many serious health challenges of her own, and it wasn’t long before my work on the novel got overrun by other more pressing, and frankly, more important matters.”
“The publisher was very patient. They waited many months past my deadline in hopes that I would be able to get back to the work. But it wasn’t to be, and by the end of 2004 they made the difficult decision to cut me loose, and cancel the contract. I don’t blame them a bit; in fact, I honored they held on as long as they did.”
“Over the next few years, as my family normalized again and I slowly got back into the writing, I began the slow, arduous work of finding the novels (both Gideon’s Dawn AND Waymaker) a new publishing home. But I learned a difficult lesson in that process. Traditional publishers don’t like to take risks. And anytime a book has been taken out of print before the story is complete—whatever the reason—publishers run from it like the plague. Again and again, I heard the same message from editors and agents alike: “Love the story, but I can’t sell it to the marketing department.”
“So finally in December 2007, I made the decision to quit trying to find a publisher, and just publish the books myself. Within a week of making that decision, I was contacted by Josh Tilton, a terrific graphic artist, book cover designer and web designer (yes, ALL that and more!) who offered his expertise to design new covers for the books and create a website to help sell them online. And all this, if you can believe it, for free. A gift. I was blown away. I didn’t know Josh before he contacted me. He had read Gideon’s Dawn, and the story impacted him so much, he just wanted to help. Amazing. So you see the book covers for both novels? That’s Josh’s work. And this website? That’s him too. Awesome.”
The Website
Michael and I both agreed that the trilogy had to have a website to keep everything regarding the books in one spot. Everything started with the leather texture. Once I had that I started designing on top of that, trying to go after a look that felt like you could almost touch it.Just like this blog, I chose Textpattern to power the trilogy site.
The Book Covers
(Yes, Waymaker is quite beat up now. It has been passed around a lot already…)
I admittedly do not do to much print work. I’m a web guy first and foremost. With that said, designing for print was an absolute blast! Yea, the file sizes were huge, but I didn’t have to think about how the design would work on the web. The books went through various revisions until I was happy with the layout and detail.
These books were printed by LuLu. I have been very impressed with their turn around time. They wanted to make sure everything worked perfectly and would not let me squeak by ( I ignored their bleed rules). I am very happy with the finished product.
These books are well worth your time. They had a great impact on me and I hope that the work I have done will enable more people to experience Gideon’s story. Although I didn’t get one dollar for this project, having the chance to create the website and book covers for my favorite novel is a chance that I couldn’t pass up. I hope to be able to show my future children this work but also teach them the lessons I learned during the production. Not everything has to be about the dollar nor is the greatest satisfaction found in the paycheck amount.
liam Says:
This work is really good man, I really am looking forward to seeing more. I just love the final outcome on the book, it really is amazing! The website is also looking amazing too, and loads surprisingly quick considering the amount of graphics.
Also congratulations on the baby announcement, wish you all the best.
Josh Tilton Says:
Thanks A Lot Liam for your kind words of support! The website was a huge challenge to get it to load decently. I think I learned a lot about image optimization with that site! Maybe I should do a tutorial on it!?
Michael Warden Says:
This work IS really good, Josh. I get comments on the quality of book cover designs and the website all the time. I’m eternally grateful for all you’ve done, and will continue to sing your praises to folks far and wide. THAnKS!
Michael—author of Gideon’s Dawn & Waymaker
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