Looking Glass cover remake (and general status update) · 10:07pm May 1st, 2018
Been working on getting a printed version of Looking Glass as a personal project lately. Not something to sell, just something for myself (and plausibly one for Pasu and one for my mom). Before anyone asks, the version of the book I’ve been working on is full color (because all artwork is included), hardcover, and almost 700 pages – basically it’s like an ultra deluxe edition – which costs around $85 after the first copy. So extremely cost prohibitive to sell, not to mention I don’t think I’m at a point where I have enough readers willing to buy a copy to make doing a for sale print run worthwhile 
Anyway, the thing I’m getting at is that the original cover for LG was just too wide for a printed book cover. And while I was trying to figure out what to do with that, Pasu just up and decided to remake it at the correct aspect ratio because she’s just too good to me. Here’s the original for comparison:
(source)
And here’s the remake, almost two years later:
I am so freakin in love with this redo 
I already adore the little one, but on top of Pasu becoming more talented, doing the cover with the book completed allowed it to better use the themes in the book (peep the horse statue in the background and use of visual distortion effects!) As always, you can check out more of Pasu’s wonderful art over here 
That’s really the main thing, just wanted to show off the new artwork. But while I’m here, I may as well give y’all an update on me and my writing. It’s not so much anything that’ll be applicable immediately, more so that positive changes are gonna be coming.
I’ve mentioned my poor mental health pretty often in these blog posts, and I’ve commented on how that’s impacted my writing, but for the sake of those who don’t keep up with me regularly, for the past year and change I’ve had a lot of problems with focusing. My thoughts often jumble in my head when I’m trying to write, and I’ve been getting increasingly distracted more and more. I’ve also mentioned that I’m poor and can’t afford mental health care. Well, that’s finally changing! A mental health program in my area recently extended their coverage to work on a sliding scale where low-income people get free or reduced cost care. And since the only thing as bad as my mental health is my income, I qualified for full coverage. Been going through the necessary steps with them and I’ve got my first therapy session tomorrow, and a psych evaluation at the beginning of June.
Now, realistically this isn’t going to be a full fix. I struggle with executive dysfunction as a result of being autistic. There’s no cure for executive dysfunction, it’s very much something where my brain just doesn’t work right, so all I can do us medication and coping mechanisms to help deal with it. But this is a significant step forward, and there’s no reason I can’t get back to where I was a couple years ago (and with access to treatment, I’ll probably be in a better place than I was back then). I don’t anticipate any immediate change; getting better is going to be a process as things get worked on in therapy sessions and medication gets tested and adjusted in psych. Still, I’m optimistic about my future for the first time in a while.
And of course, this should mean an increase in my writing speed. Which would be terrific because fuck have I been struggling with Unwritten. The early part of this story is particularly hard to write, and I just have not been able to focus on it at all. See, I’ve hinted at a lot of the things in this fic, which is fine. I can keep my stuff organized and all that. But one of the major things I hinted at is just something I really don’t want to do anymore. It’s a core part of the story, and a few of you actually caught it (if you know then cool, but keep it out of the comments ‘cause spoilers 
). So now I have to walk on eggshells with this part of the story to try and treat this part of it with enough care that it’s not awful. The rest of the story is well worth it, and once I get a few chapters in there will be enough going on that I’ll have other aspects enticing me to write. But getting through that rough patch has been blah 
Anyway, enough scaring y’all away from the story I want y’all to read! I’m still working diligently on it, even if I’m not at a point where I can start showing it off yet. Still trying to finish act one before posting anything, so it may be a while, but it’s coming 
I have been wanting to do much the same thing with one of my stories- print a personal hardcover copy with all the artwork I have included. Was wondering who you are going through for getting a copy at $85 as I keep getting much higher quotes.
Hooray, progress!
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Even just having this in the works has been making me feel more positive lately.
Yeah!
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Go to Bookbaby. Your first copy is a flat rate as long as it's under 800 pages. The book and shipping will wind up being about $40 together even if it's hard cover, big, full color, etc. so long as you have everything ready yourself (book formatted into a pdf, the full artwork for the front, back, and spine, dust jacket artwork if you're doing that).
The catch is that after that first copy, you not only have to pay full price for more, they have a minimum order size of 25. So after that first book, your options are either to order 25+ copies with Bookbaby (probably not what you're tryna do) or go elsewhere. Lulu seemed like the best bet when I was looking around, they gave me $83 for a full color, hardcover, 6x9, 550 page book.
Alternatively, if your book is smaller (and more importantly, if black and white is fine for you) you may be able to just do it through Lulu for cheaper. But if places have already been quoting over $85 for you, then I imagine you've got something more costly on your hands lol.
While I'm by no means an expert, this is the second time I've done this with Bookbaby (on that note, it's the first copy of every book you create with them, which is nice if you have multiple books you want printed). If you have any questions about doing things with the site or formatting your book hit me up with a PM and I'll help if I can