The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Eighty One Up

[LadyTevar]

*squees* Hardback or paperback?

[GrayAnderson]

*squees* Hardback or paperback?

I'll pay for a hardback copy of the series. No, seriously, I will.

[Stuart]

I was planning to do it as a paperback. However, a hardback is possible. It would be expensive though.

[Darmalus]

Will there ever be an ebook? I love books but space is something I just do not have much of these days.

[yaque]

I'm just a lurker who occasionally drops a couple of cents,
But FWIW I don't much like the cover. It's too ... occult.
Which is precisely the opposite of the atmosphere of the book.

Somebody in the first pages of TSW, I think,
put up a picture he took of a F16 on a red sky background as a suggestion for a cover.
It was awesome. IMHO.

He was sorry he caught it with the landing gear down,
but I thought it made it look more businesslike, more real, more gritty, less abstract and pretty.
Makes you think "OK,he's coming in for a landing ... where? in Hell?! wow!"
implies improvised airfields, supply dumps, armored columns, the smell of diesel and dust.
I really got that.

Minimalist, but invoking the whole idea of the book.
In my humble opinion.

[Stuart]

I'm just a lurker who occasionally drops a couple of cents, But FWIW I don't much like the cover. It's too ... occult.
Which is precisely the opposite of the atmosphere of the book.

That's why the occult symbology is riddled with bullet holes.

[Nematocyst]

I'd buy a hardback version, even if it is made of gold.

[Mr Bean]

I'd buy a hardback version, even if it is made of gold.

Your average hardback book after a quick search weights in at 17.4kg of weight. Stuarts book would be rather lengthy but then we are not making it out of pure gold? So lets say only 11kg of actual gold to 10 kg of book material. At current gold prices your talking about a 13,343 dollar book assuming a price of gold of 1213$ per kilogram (Roughly what it's trading at now)

[LadyTevar]

What he means is Hardbacks are expensive for the PUBLISHER to produce, which is why only an author who's known to sell a certain number of books will be published in Hardback. The Publisher has to sell more copies to make up the extra cost of the Hardback, even at the increased price for a Hardback.

So.. While it would be NICE to have a Hardback (signed by Author, with personalized inscription -- hinthint), the publisher may only want to go for a paperback first-run.

[Michael Garrity]

Three carriers, plus a bunch of other vessels? Just how big/deep is that lake? Too bad the Iowas aren't in service, I'd love to see them join the party.

When I read that chapter, I could have sworn that the background from Mythbusters was playing in my mind. I find that seriously cool.....

Mike Garrity

[CaptainChewbacca]

Three carriers, plus a bunch of other vessels? Just how big/deep is that lake? Too bad the Iowas aren't in service, I'd love to see them join the party.

The Lake is huge, probably the size of one of the Great Lakes and rather deep.

I like the cover, I'm just thrilled to death that I'm the one who came up with 'All Earth is about to break loose on Hell.'

[Simon_Jester]

That is a good way to cap off the jacket blurb, yes.

[LadyTevar]

I forgot to state how absolutely COOL it is to have the Mythbusters in Heaven. Wanna bet they measured the speed of a "bat outta Hell" for that episode as well?

[Michael Garrity]

In considering the size of the gates into the Eternal City, I am reminded of certain scenes in LOTR: Return of The King. The Black Gate is perhaps as tall as the gates into the Eternal City, but I don't know if it was as wide. Where it beats the heaven gate is in thickness, and material. The Black Gate is at least twenty feet thick, as evidenced by a film sequence in TTT, where cave trolls are seen to be assisting in opening the gate by walking atop it and pushing against several huge levers. TTT (the book) also mentions that the gate was made of iron.

Mike Garrity

[thegreatpl]

You know, if the mythbusters got there fast enough to film that sequence, i wonder if the movie studios got there fast enough to film a couple of scenes with some people dressed in peasant clothes. You just know that that would be reused in most fantasy movies and shows.

I think i will get the book when it comes out. Been a very fun read so far, and hopefully it will continue to be so.

[open_sketchbook]

I know I'm not going to be popular for saying this, but I think that cover needs some help. It looks rather simplistic. The placement and imagery itself is solid, but it lacks flash and the font hurts the overall design. That particular shade of red on black rarely looks very good, and everything seems rather oversized. I would suggest making the text for "The Salvation War" smaller, lose the colon (the space performs that function so it's redundant, it just hangs there off the end of the title), don't use italic text (something with straight, bold lines and big, meaty serifs would stand out more. A bevel effect would help greatly. You typically want a book's cover to be somewhat symmetrical, and italics throw off the symmetry of the title. That isn't attractive to the eyes) and use a darker shade of red, a crimson-ish shade, which will flow better with the black (the current shade clashes heavily, looking unprofessional. The highlight of the beveling will keep things from looking too dark, but the cover will look sleeker overall for it.)

On the side, it might pay to have a book number and a small version of the front cover image. This'll make it clearer it's part of a series, and look better on the shelf. As for the back, sticking to a non-italic font, possibly with smaller text (you can add another image, or an about the author thingy) would streamline it a little. I'd recommend testing some border or pattern effects on the back; though it may not be nessesary, it might spice it up a bit.

[Teebs]

How difficult will it be to get a copy from the UK when it comes out?

No problem at all. It'll be available via amazon.co.uk.

Awesome, I'd worried that it would only be sold in the US. I'll certainly buy it then.

[Junghalli]

The ??? is now ?

Excellent if I understand you right, a simple Armageddon? would be a much better title.

[Bayonet]

I'm just a lurker who occasionally drops a couple of cents,
But FWIW I don't much like the cover. It's too ... occult.
Which is precisely the opposite of the atmosphere of the book.

Well, that fits with the meme that the cover artist must never have read the book.

[Bayonet]

I like the cover, I'm just thrilled to death that I'm the one who came up with 'All Earth is about to break loose on Hell.'

Yeah, that's a keeper. It should be on your resume, somehow.

[ANTIcarrot]

"If the Army and the Navy ever look on Heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by the United States Marines..." who, in turn, are using street maps drawn up by the SAS.

British maps for US Marines? That could cause problems...
"What is this shit?! Brook Drive? Harmsworth Mews? Lamlash Row? Fucking British! Why the hell can't they just use numbers, like normal people!"

[MGlBlaze]

Didn't Jamie once mention that he knew some guys in the military? Maybe said strings were pulled.

Well, for one myth they DID managed to get a Gatling gun with ammo, and don't forget they also manage to get lots of explosives...

I think they got the use of a minigun for more than one myth.
They got one for cutting a tree down with a machine-gun.
They got another one for 'shooting fish in a barrel'.
I know they also used one with incendiary rounds for the myth about shooting a propane tank and it exploding.
There may have been others, but I'm not sure.

The ??? is now ?

Excellent if I understand you right, a simple Armageddon? would be a much better title.

I concur, as do many others if I remember right. Sounds (and looks) much better.

[Nematocyst]

"If the Army and the Navy ever look on Heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by the United States Marines..." who, in turn, are using street maps drawn up by the SAS.

British maps for US Marines? That could cause problems...
"What is this shit?! Brook Drive? Harmsworth Mews? Lamlash Row? Fucking British! Why the hell can't they just use numbers, like normal people!"

Not to mention the driver's seat is on the right side of the car... and the lanes...

[Negativedark]

Yeah, I have to say that cover is Lame. It just doesn't stand out and draw any sort of attention to it. You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but that cover makes the book look boring.

[KlavoHunter]

I think the bullet holes should be in a different pattern, the way they are now, it took me a bit to realize that they were bullet holes at all.