I received the second sample of the Dragon Diaries Special Edition HardCover Omnibus this week and wanted to show you the interior.
The cover is the same as the last sample and just as gorgeous. You might remember that I messed up and set the interior to be black and white instead of colour the first time. This sample has the colour interior.
Here’s the dedication page opposite those gorgeous dragon scales on the end papers. I just love this to pieces.
The first chapter in each book has a double-page image spread of a dragon drawing. Here’s the one for Flying Blind:
There are lots of dragon pix in the books: they’re sepia-toned like the one above, and I like how they look on the cream interior stock.
The illustrations drawn by Jaka Prawira appear as double-page spreads, like this one of Nick:
These came out really well IMO.
Here are the other three illustrations:
Here’s the bit I’m going to change. (This is the advantage of getting a proof copy.) Right now, the title pages for each book are blue with white, as below. You can see that there’s some show-through from subsequent pages.
One of the ways to address this is to change to a thicker paper stock. This is the thickest uncoated stock offered by the printer, though, so I’d have to change to coated stock. I don’t like coated stock interiors on books meant to be read, plus a coated stock would mean that I couldn’t do sprayed edges.
Instead, I’ve asked the designer to create title pages that are blue with yellow type, like the dedication page. Here’s that image again.
Nothing will show through that blue! I also think that it will make for a more matchy-matchy interior, which makes me happy.
So, there you are! These editions will only be available in my online store and in future Kickstarter campaigns – they aren’t coming to retailers.
Late pledges are available in the Kickstarter campaign through Friday, so if you’re quick, you can get one of the first batch of copies.
See the Kickstarter campaign for the Dragon Diaries omnibus here.
Deborah Cooke: Author 