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Or: Contributions To Kingston Academy Lore Needed
So here's the deal. As I've said many times already (and probably annoyed people by saying too much,) I'm working on rewriting PFH for publication. This mostly just involves cleaning things up as I go through (I'm re-typing the entire thing sentence by sentence, restructuring as I go) but it also includes expanding on areas of the story, including adding a whole lot more description, as well as re-working elements if they just don't really work.
Because of that, I need some input on a few things.
School colors:
--Right now I'm going with purple and silver for the school colors. Uniforms are charcoal grey, with a grey/purple/silver tie, and a silver and purple crest on the left breast pocket. Opinions?
School crest:
--I honestly have NO idea on this. I was thinking the typical sectioned shield, with a lion on the upper left and a book in the lower right, but I know these things are typically supposed to mean something. Any suggestions as to how to make sure the crest is not only attractive, but also meaningful?
School mascot:
--I was thinking Lions, given it's Kingston and lions are the king of the great cats and all that. On the other hand, I'm open to suggestions. This could also affect the school crest, too.
Princesses:
--I'm thinking about cutting down the number of Princesses in the program. My editor pointed out at one point that it felt like I had too many characters and I wasn't utilizing them enough, and I have to agree. I was thinking about cutting Wendy and Kylie, since I never used either one for much and both were basically just filler for what I thought was an appropriate number. This would leave us with Becky, Rose, Brandy, Leslie, Jules, Sarah, Amanda, and Danielle as active princesses. This would make the mix of princesses about 2 out of every 100 students, which SOUNDS right....
--Is the scope of the program handled well? I think it is, and makes sense for the kind of experimental program it is, but I'm likely a bit too close to things to be able to make a real value judgement.
Expanded content:
--I've had the suggestion of putting in more content concerning Beck actually working on school work, to help emphasize the importance of his/her scholastic performance. While I'm at it, is there any other content anyone would like to see covered in the story I might not have included or glossed over? This isn't me offering to add extra chapters or extra time to the story, but if there is any content I could easily include I may have skipped, lemme know.
--By that same extension, if there is anything you think I spent too much time dwelling on or revisited too much throughout the story, let me know that too! I've written the story for me, so now I'm working on making the story the best I can.
Bonus content:
--I was initially planning one bonus story for the published version, but now I'm thinking two: a spring break story for Beck/y, and a short story concerning either Sarah's first day as a Princess or the day she joined the program. On top of that, I had a few other pieces of bonus content planned for the published version as well, including Beck's class schedules for each semester, profiles on each of the Princesses (another reason to cut them down a bit,) and maybe even the entirety of the original free version's text as a bonus.
Book versions:
--Also, opinions are needed on "versions" of the published book. I could do two versions, one the core story and one with the bonus content, for different prices: I'm thinking something like 3.99 for the regular and 5.99 for the version with all the bonus stuff (US dollars.) The alternative will be just the version with everything for 4.99 USD. Does this pricing sound fair? Keep in mind that this is the ENTIRE story, not just the first semester!
--Likewise, the free version will be getting unpubbed (NOT deleted) probably one to two weeks prior to the Kindle version going live. I may open it back up to being read for free at some point in the future, but I figure a period of exclusivity will do the book good. Does this sound fair?
--I intend to also give Miss Erin a copy of the book for inclusion in the hatbox. Should I include the bonus content with the Hatbox version, or would people feel okay about me retaining that as exclusive to the e-book version?
--Non-Kindle versions of the books. What services/formats would people like to see, and do you have suggestions for the easiest way to prepare the book for those versions?
Cover:
--I've got several ideas for a cover, but I want reader input on what they would like to see as well. Right now the idea I like the most is a purple cover with the school's crest in the middle with a tiara hanging off the corner. Other ideas include Beck/Becky standing back-to-back with him/herself, as a boy and as a princess, or just a picture of Beck/y dressed in one of her many costumes from the story with Andrew standing behind her. Anyone else have other cover ideas you think would work better?
Other:
--If there's anything else anyone can think of they would like to see me do, or want information on, let me know. Reader feedback is important, and I want to make the pubbed version of PFH the best I can.
Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions!
Melanie E.
Comments
e-book format
Personally I prefer the epub format to the kindle (mobi) format.