Update 3/21

I have found that there are two IMS Publishing blogs. This is the older one, which is not really in use. I will attempt to merge the two, but in the meanwhile.

 Refer to the main blog: thegnomesofnewhope.blogspot.com

Restrictive Covenant Agreement

The RC Agreement is a necessary evil (as they say). It sets down the parameters for understanding and agreeing to ownership of the creative content of the project. I think it's a drag to have to require it to be signed, but after the books are released to the public and officially enter distribution, that agreement will be less critical. Still, it outlines certain understandings, like, the storyline and characters cannot be changed in any way shape or form, without prior written approval.

It rather also serves to shows me who can be trusted. Anyone giving me grief over the RC clearly doesn't get it and is not someone I want to deal with.

I'll post the most recent Revision here. I made some minor structural changes, which are more or less final, noting that changes the previous ones we've used.

AG

Book One, The Big People's Book

I thought I'd post here, rather than on The Gnomes of New Hope page, since I need to embellish this blog somewhat.

The Gnome-sized book is essentially finished. There is another typo that showed up, which needs to be corrected, but other than that, it finally appears to be done.

The greatest delay in all of this had been issues with computer power and file size. Without going into details, my files have been frustratingly inaccessable, causing me to be forced to do the same work over again countless times. But I'm past that now. The fourth and final prototype run has been completed, showing that it is truely finished. It may have been quite a bit more than four runs, but it has been about four versions of the design to bring it to this point. Each version has different design specifications, not to mention the editing adjustments.

Work for the past month or so has been to conform the Big People's Book to match the Gnome-sized Book. There are a number of elements that do not interpret well when the book is enlarged, but also there are aspects that had to be changed for them to work in the smaller size. So those adjustments are underway.

The Gnome-sized Book has been sent out for quoting and evaluating the design for binding. If the binding house cannot provide the book according to specifications, the we will do that in house. The biggest issue is making production conform to MSRP. We have a certain practical and workable price range, but we also have design elements that are critically important that we keep in the design. Those design elements are not the standard binding found on most, if not all of the books on the market. But even so, the binding design that has been incorporated into the product line has proven to be a key element in marketing. So we need to produce the book in that fashion, as much as possible.

Since, production of the books in this way requires a degree of hand-stitching, production volumes are by necessity less per hour. I'm working out a production line now and building fixtures that will expedite production assembly.

The other approach to the hand-stitched design is to limit that production, based on demand. If significant demand is achieved, then the hand stitched books will only be made available either in Limited Editions, or possibly by special order for an additional charge. I'm developing those parameters and preparing our marketing package, for the time when all production is ready to proceed into public release of the series.

I'll continue to post the business of publishing these books thru IMS Publishing, here on this blog. I suggest checking the other blogs and social site pages, as I spread my thoughts around to keep them all fresh. I believe I identified those sites on the IMS Virtual Studio (www.imagemindag.blogspot.com)

AG

Release of the First Book in the Series

Keep watch on the primary blog; thegnomesofnewhope.blogspot.com and peruse the posts to discover the history and progress of the project:

"The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"

Here is the latest on the Illustrated Storybook:

Volume One consists of one book. There is a Preface, the Body, and an Appendix. There are a total of 120 pages, with the Body comprising 78 pages. The Preface expounds upon what the project is, some of the Ancillaries and describes the process of creating "The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"

The Body of the work is an Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope, describing who they are, where they live, what they think, how they act, and some of the problems they face. This leads the way for "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure", which is presented in Volumes Two & Three. As it stands now, each of those two volumes is comprised of three books, although that may expand, depending on how the completion of the artwork turns out.

Volumes Two & Three are laid out, but the required artwork has not been completed. So, even though the space for the panels has been defined, that may change to give more room for the art.

Volume Two, Books Two & Three are complete and ready for pre-press. Book Four needs about 15 more panels. All told, the series, meaning "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" still needs 345 more panels.

"The Gnomic Tales" are not fully written, only those portions needed for "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" have been sketched out, although some of those tales have been embellished, but none of them have been illustrated.

So, Volume One, Book One, "An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope" is ready for release to the public, with the plan that income from Book One will pay for Book Two, of course while also recouping the expenses for Book One. Alternative funding plans exist, one of which is Licensing certain aspects of the project.

I'm always open to discussion via email: image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail

You can find additional information on the IMS Virtual Studio at; imagemindag.blogspot.com

AG

Book Sales of The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure

The plan is to set this page up for sales of the Illustrated Storybook. Volume One of book collection is on the verge of being released, hopefully to be followed, without too much delay, by the remaining six books.

As it stands now, I have the first four books in the collection, with only a few illustrationd missing from Book Four.

Book Five needs quite a bit of illustrationd work to be done, while Books Six and Seven have a fair amount of artwork done. But all told, we still need 348 illustration panels to complete the collection. That sounds like a lot, but there are over 800 pages in the collection.

In addition to Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure, there are also The Gnomic Tales, which is comprised of about five more stories. I may blend The Gnomic Tales into the Film version of the stories. As it stands now, only portions of those tales has been blended into the Collection, only enough to fill in the gaps. I assume that at some point those Gnomic Tales will be embellished, presuming that there is a demand to do so.

So, keep watch here, as I will set-up an order form where the books can be purchased via PayPal. I expect to sell the books individually at MSRP, but to also sell them wholesale to distributors and booksellers.

There are opportunities for persons who specialize in book sales, so if you may be interested, do contact me at;

Arthur Greisiger
image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

Online purchase of Volume One

If you check The Gnomes of New Hope blog, my most recent post there will bring you up to date.

I will be building a page to purchase the published books. "Volume One, An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope" will be available shortly and I will be using this blog for sales.

Booksellers and individuals can both purchase books from here, once I set up the pricing schedule.

All the books are published by IMS Publishing, a division of Image of the Mind Studios. We will be selling quantities under 12 units for the MSRP of $20.

The wholesale pricing is available to booksellers, beginning at 12 units and going down in price as quantities go up until the price bottoms out, allowing for a full keystone at that point. The pricing schedule is not posted, but will be provided upon request.

Distribution is under discussion, so those terms may change. In any event, no product will be shipped from IMS until it is paid in full. The terms are at all times 50/50. No credit is extended, as those funds are required for other production activities.

If you want to lock in an agreement for direct sales of product, you should do so before a Distribution Agreement is in place, otherwise the wholesale cost will go up to accommodate distribution fees.

So those are a few notes regarding the release and distribution of the books, by way of direct sales from IMS Publishing. Other details will follow.

AG

e-Storybook

   Work on the final technical layout is continuing. I can't tell you how many revision have been required to finish refining this product. The numbering system is up to Rev 19-31.

   I will be moving forward to set up the operation of the e-book... again! The design elements which seemed to be finished, were found to have flaws, have now been corrected. So the file stucture and links need to now be rebuilt.

   Once this is completed, the Industry Review Package will be ready to distribute to investors and other business partners.

    The illustrations for the product are not complete and the volume of illustration panels required is currently 348 panels. That is a other of panels, which represent composites of many more pieces of artwork.

   With all this, the art department will be the focus of attention and that means that the animation department will be part of that attention.

   So, there's much to do and it all requires funding resources. If this is of interest to you, check out IMS Producing Partners.

AG