As I write this, on August 10, 2020, the paperback version of Perdition is “in review” at Amazon and should be available soon. It’ll retail at Amazon for $19.99, but we’ll have signed copies for sale here at the site and on the Facebook page for $29.99 plus shipping (we’ll have that total available when we’ve got it all worked out).
Obviously, a project as big as Perdition is – at one point it had swelled to 973 pages before formatting shrunk it down to 822, just inside the limit for Amazon publication – carries with it a good deal of stress. I started working on Perdition in October of 2019, a few weeks after I finished publishing Animus, so it was a little more than nine months working on it.
The most stressful part of that process was getting the paperback published.
It was a lot of trial and error to get Perdition shrunken down to 822 pages, and it included bumping the trim size of the book from 6″ x 9″ to 7″ x 10″, which bumped up the cost. I was hoping to print the maps in color, but had to scrap that plan when Amazon told me the printing cost to do so would be $58.37 per copy!
If you’re looking for color maps, they’ll be here at this site and in the e-book version. You’ll have to make do with black and white maps on the printed page.
But the book app will be a horse of a different color. The maps will play a huge role in the app – we might have something of a Google Maps-type presentation to the map section; if not you’ll certainly be able to click on sections of the big map and draw down regional or local maps.
And the glossary section of the back of the books will get a major makeover with lots of details about the people, places and things included in the Animus and Perdition glossaries. Plus lots more; there’s no space constraint in the app, so you might well click on a glossary entry for, say, Port William and end up with a local map, some illustrations, a detailed description, book chapters written about the place and even a short story or two set there.
We’re envisioning the app as being a place where you can switch back and forth from the audiobook version to the reader on a chapter by chapter basis, which obviously enables readers to more fully dive into the books. And we’ll have a function by which you’ll be able to read the whole series from the point of view of a specific character. Like Piety Waldiver more than anybody else? Fine. You’ll be able to go to her entry under “People,” let’s say, and maybe there’s a quick illustration of her and a button where you can read just her story taken from Perdition – and perhaps see content about Piety that you won’t find in the books.
We might well have a podcast feature, we’ll do story updates, you’ll be able to buy merchandise – people have asked us whether there’ll be actual C-1 cavalry knives like the one on the front cover of Animus available for sale at some point, and the answer is yes, if we think there’s enough demand for them – and at some point we’ll even break the glass on a Tales of Ardenia video game. Conversations are ongoing about that.
And perhaps, some time off in the distance, it’s not impossible if one day the Tales of Ardenia app becomes a platform from which a TV series might someday stream.
Obviously, that’s way ahead of the skis. But the Phase 1 parts of the app are about to undergo some development this fall, and we should have a product to show you before the year is out. Wish us luck, and don’t hesitate to give us input. What would you like to see in the app?
Tales of Ardenia 