Saturday, May 31, 2014

Paperback News

Good news! The proof copy I was waiting for came yesterday instead of today! And it looks great! I still lacks a little of the weight of that very first proof, but I’m satisfied. I also tweaked the cover just a smidge and it turned out perfectly. You know what this means? It is now available on Amazon! Yay! I put in an official order for books, which means I can now start taking orders for autographed copies. I’ve included the link below to purchase a copy on the website. I thought it would be nice to offer a $2.00 off deal for autographed books. :) That makes them $12.99 + shipping. If you would like to order now, I should be able to send them within the next 7 to 10 days.

3D Cover

Resistance Autographed Paperback
$12.99 + Shipping
Buy Autographed Copy

or

Thursday, May 29, 2014

My plans moving forward...

Well, release week and the Resistance Blog Tour have come to an end, and what an exciting time it was! I've never had a blog tour for any of my books before, and I am so grateful to all the bloggers who participated and to Amber for setting it all up. It was a great way to introduce Resistance to the world. I can't to see what the future holds for it. If you have read and enjoyed it, remember that Amazon reviews are a HUGE blessing to an author. Those are the reviews that really help sell more books.
 
Now that Resistance has launched, it's time for me to get back into serious writing and editing. I've got a lot to do in The King's Scrolls before I can send it to beta readers. That will be one of my main focuses this summer. If you didn't see it yesterday, I have added a board to Pinterest for The King's Scrolls. I was going to wait until closer to release, but then I thought, why note share some pictures to give a sneak peek at the mood of the story? :)
 
And, of course, I have to keep writing so I don't fall behind. I'm currently about to finish chapter 14 in book four. I'm estimating 35-40 chapters. That's actually a bit longer than I originally thought. This is due in part to a last minute addition of a third storyline to the original two, which involves a certain prince. ;) I'm having a ton of fun with that.
 
I also have a lot of posts planned for this blog. Some character spotlights are at the top of my list as well as writing up a commentary on Resistance. I think it will be a really fun way to share some of my notes and the planning process that went into the book. Seriously, you should see my notes binder. I've never had so many notes for any story before.
 
So those are my plans for the next while. I'm looking forward to sharing more behind the scenes extras for Resistance, and hope to keep this blog updated regularly.

And don't forget, if you didn't win the blog tour giveaway, you can still enter to win one of three autographed copies of Resistance on Goodreads!
 


Goodreads Book Giveaway

Resistance by Jaye L. Knight

Resistance

by Jaye L. Knight

Giveaway ends June 20, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to win

Monday, May 26, 2014

Announcing the Title of Book Two!

As part of the Resistance Blog Tour, Amber and I are each doing a special post today. We thought it would be fun to have the official announcement of the title of Ilyon Chronicles--Book Two. So, without further ado, that title is...
 
 
And, for a little sneak peek into the story, here is the logline for the book:
When a mysterious group of dragon-riding cretes arrive at camp, those in Landale must join their mission to rescue a teacher of Elôm and the last known copies of the King’s Scrolls before the emperor’s men can locate them.
 
Resistance has only just been released, but I'm already looking forward to sharing the continuation of the story. The King's Scrolls is what I call "Kyrin's book." Now don't worry. Jace is still very active in it. And he gets more than one book of his own that focuses predominately on his story later on in the series. The reason I call this Kyrin's book is because a lot of it deals with her family and their situation. If you've read Resistance, you'll know there are some very interesting dynamics going on between the different members, especially with her oldest brother, Marcus, and her grandfather, the General. With family members on opposite sides of a struggle, it makes for a very interesting story, and I really had fun exploring it. And, as you can tell from the logline, I finally bring cretes and dragons into the story. I just love writing about dragons. They're a bit different from other dragons I've written about, but I think these are my favorite because I spent more time developing them, and they have some fun little characteristics. Then, of course, there's the cretes. I LOVE cretes. They are some of my favorite characters in the series. That's about all the information I can give for now, except that it takes place in the late fall/early winter, which was interesting to write. Every other book I've written so far in my life has taken place in the spring, summer, or early fall. It was very different taking cold weather into account, but I think the whole feel of it really added to the mood of the story.
 
As I said, I can't wait to share it. Very soon--hopefully in the next couple of weeks--I'll get serious about editing it. I'm not sure when it will be ready for my beta readers this time. I'm expecting late fall or winter. I'm basically on the same sort of schedule as when I prepared Resistance for publishing, though I hope this goes  little quicker and easier. I had a couple of months last fall where health issues kept me from getting any real work done. I'm hoping nothing like that will slow down the preparation of The King's Scrolls. I'll definitely keep everyone posted on the progress.
 
Now, as an added bit of fun, Amber suggested I put together a character personality quiz. I've always wanted to do that for my books, but this is the first time I actually set out to do it. It was quite fun, especially when I tested it on my brothers, who got Trask and Kaden as their answers, which I thought was fitting. :) I got Jace, big surprise. Lol! ;) So go ahead and take it yourself and see which Resistance character you would be. You can leave your answer in the comments if you'd like. I'd love to see what everyone gets. :)


Friday, May 23, 2014

Another Paperback Update

Wow, so after working all morning almost non-stop, I finished my third round of formatting Resistance and just submitted the files to CreateSpace! I didn’t actually think I’d finish before the weekend, but I’m glad I did since the weather is supposed to be gorgeous. Now I can completely relax! I’m just praying these will be the final files. The happy news is that I went from the thinner 484 pages back up to 525 pages! :D It’s not quite the 550 pages of the first proof, but hey, I’ll take it, lol! So I’ll probably get the next proof copy in the middle of next week, and then HOPEFULLY approve it for sale and put in an order to use for autographed copies. I am SO ready to be done with this.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Resistance Paperback Update

So here’s the deal on the Resistance paperback. I received my latest proof copy yesterday, as expected. My first reaction upon seeing it was, Oh, it’s a lot thinner than my first proof. :( And yes, add the sad face into the reaction. That’s not exactly the reaction you hope for when you’re potentially holding the final version of your book. The thing is, if you know me well, you know I love thick books (even if it means less royalties). My first proof copy made me so happy. It was just so substantial and heavy. I loved it. The second proof copy is closer to a standard thick book, which is perfectly fine unless you’re like me and want it to be more of an epic, monstrous-sized book. Now to what I plan to do about it. I’ve approved the thinner copy, because, aside from my personal beef with the size, it turned out very nicely. It is now showing up for sale on my CreateSpace eStore (purchase button below). In order to make myself feel better, in the next week, I am going to be formatting it AGAIN (yes, this the the third time I will be formatting a 140,00 word book in less than a month, ugh) with a slightly larger size of the new font I used. It’s only half a size bigger, but it should make it closer to the original thickness. And you now what? I had a feeling I should have done this from the beginning. I really should have listened to my gut. I would have saved myself a whole LOT of trouble. I could just try to get over it, but when it comes to Ilyon Chronicles, I can’t settle for less. However, I did want to have the book available in the meantime. Nothing else is going to change about it, and the price will stay the same. So, if you can’t bear to wait and don’t mind if the book isn’t 800 pages long (okay, I exaggerate, it was 550 pages), then you can order the current paperback (484 pages) from CreateSpace. As soon as I have the final version finished, I’ll set it to be listed on Amazon as well.
Buy From CreateSpace
 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Resistance Release Day Has Arrived!

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00026]It's here, it's here, it's here! I feel like a little kid on Christmas. :D After almost three years from the start of writing it through all the rewrites and editing, Resistance is now available for Kindle! I’ve been publishing for quite a few years now, and though I’ve released several books previous to this, this seems so much more “real” thanks to all the awesome people who have been and are a part of it. One of the things that makes it so exciting and special is the awesome blog tour my publicist has put together. You can see the schedule here on her blog: http://seasonsofhumility.blogspot.com/p/resistance-blog-tour.html Make sure you check out all the awesome stops through the week.
 
And now, of course, here is the button to the Resistance Kindle book on Amazon ($3.99).
 
Buy Resistance
 
As far as the paperback, I am expecting my final proof copy on Wednesday. Well, I hope it will be the last. Since the first proof was almost perfect, I have high hopes. If I can approve it on Wednesday, it should be available by the end of the week. I’ll also put in an order for my own copies and start accepting orders for autographed books.
 
As part of the festivities for the blog tour, I’m also excited to share a fun, Resistance inspired giveaway! This was especially fun to put together. It includes an autographed paperback copy of Resistance, a wolf necklace handcrafted by me and inspired by my main character Jace, a Better Homes and Gardens “Warm Rustic Woods” candle, which I have dubbed the official candle of Ilyon Chronicles, and a leather wolf paw bookmark from Lodgepole Leathercraft. So make sure to enter using the form below! (U.S. residents only.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, May 10, 2014

The First Resistance Proof Arrived!

10294426_10203880364718906_8139293772221574586_nAfter what felt like a very long few days of impatient waiting, the first proof copy of Resistance arrived yesterday! Considering the magnitude of this project and that this is the very first time I’ve seen the story officially in print, it was quite momentous. I’m happy to say, I’m very pleased with how the cover turned out. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but it’s a bit took dark, however, the colors really look good. I’ve had trouble with greens before, so I’m happy about that. Hopefully all it will take is to lighten it a bit for it to be perfect. Since I haven’t published anything in a while, this was also my first look at CreateSpace’s matte cover option. I think I really like it. Much better than glossy, for me anyway.

The interior of the book, however, is not quite as satisfactory. Something just isn’t hitting me right. I’m not completely happy with my font/size choice, and the outside margins feel a bit too big. Unfortunately, to change this means to reformat the entire book—all 550 pages worth. But I don’t want to settle for “good enough.” After all, the choices I make now will carry through all six books, so I’ve got to get it right . So, over the next couple days, I will be formatting again to change the font to something a bit lighter and smaller and trim down the margins just a little. I’m actually not too disappointed about it. It’s tiring, yes, but if it goes as smoothly as last time, it will be better in the end.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Ordered the First Resistance Proof!

Last Thursday, I received the proofread copy of Resistance back from my editor, Amber Stokes. I spent the day going over that and then began working on formatting the paperback. It took pretty much all of Friday and Saturday, and then some tweaking yesterday. Thankfully, it was the easiest formatting I’ve ever done. In all my previous books, Word always acted up on me and left me wanting to pull my hair out, but it decided to play nicely this time. Very nicely. Everything went perfectly. So I upload the files to CreateSpace yesterday and they were approved overnight without any issues—another first for me. Needless to say, I’m thrilled and was able to order the first proof this morning! Now, I still have a couple little things to tweak and add to the interior, but I wanted to get a proof ordered as soon as possible so I could see how the cover will turn out and how much adjusting it might need. I just can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. It should arrive sometime later this week. This is the first time I’m going to be trying a matte cover since I haven’t done a book since they added that option. I’m curious how that will look. I think I’ll really like it for this series. The books will be like Bryan Davis’s Dragons in Our Midst and its sequel series. I always loved those covers.

And now that formatting is completed, I have the final page count—507 pages for the story itself, while the whole book with all the extras has a grand total of 551 pages. :D Yes, thick books make me happy. That’s about 50 pages thicker than Courage was.

I’m really hoping the cover will turn out as well as everything else has so far so it has a greater chance of being available in paperback the same day as the Kindle. I’m certainly doing all I can to make that happen.

Now, for a little surprise to celebrate my first proof order, how about a little sneak peek of the formatted first page? ;) (Click to see it larger.)

Resistance-FirstPage

Today or tomorrow I’ll probably begin formatting the Kindle version, which should only take an hour or two. I’m kind of anxious to do some writing as well since I my stomach kept up for a while last night and I made use of the time by figuring out how to including a whole new storyline into book four that involves a character who I think is going to be a reader favorite if some of my early indications are correct. :) I’m looking forward to figuring out the details of that and how to fit it in with the current two storylines.

Hope you enjoyed a small taste of the beginning of Resistance! I can’t wait until the whole story is released to the world! I can’t believe it is this close! Oh, and don’t forget to add Resistance on Goodreads and enter the giveaway there!

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Resistance Goodreads Giveaway

I wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know that I have a giveaway for 3 autographed copies of Resistance going right now! It runs until June 20th. Make sure to enter and add it to your read list! :)


Goodreads Book Giveaway

Resistance by Jaye L. Knight

Resistance

by Jaye L. Knight

Giveaway ends June 20, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win