*** Edit: This has been on my front page for a while, but it's been exposing a lot of people to independent publishing, so I've been keeping it up. ***

"So THAT'S why Pai's art flow has been so slow the last month or two!" Why yes, it is. And I'm already reverting to my usual habit of cranking out art like there's no tomorrow again 8D

I'M SURE YOU ALL don't REMEMBER THE PIECE OF WRITING I DID BACK IN NOVEMBER, DEMISE OF THE SPIRIT'S GUIDING LADY. Well. Back in February, I decided on the spur of the moment to turn it into a comic series. I figured, 'oh it's pretty short, and I've already got everything written and all the characters designed, why not?' Then things happened and pages started to fly out and it was decided that I was going to get it published, and... well... IT WAS! The zero-budget comic ended up being done in just six months (for the first couple months I was just treating it as a side-project, but if I'd known it was getting published it would've been completed a lot sooner xDD I REALLY worked during the summer though to crank out the rest before my self-assigned due date.), and it stretches 144 pages, and I gotta say I'm pretty proud of it... xD it's my first finished comic.

I'll also admit though that the actual process of publishing it was terrifying. I was SO nervous about screwing up; but after many, many hours last Saturday of Being Careful, I finally sent it out and it was clear for publishing by Sunday afternoon, and I just got in my first 10 copies today. With excellent timing, it also went through to Amazon today.

I'm shocked at how nice the actual books are. They're 186 pages ('cause the writing is included in there, too), almost the same width as a regular manga, but the pages are thin so it's a little on the small side.The double cover is printed really nicely and all the insides (printed on deliciously cream-colored paper) came out WAY nicer then I expected--especially the comic part.







The comic you can read for free here, at MangaMagazine.net. I joined the site a while back to support another friend who had a comic there, and eventually got really interested in the community and decided to start posting Demise there and see how things turned out. It has a lot of nice people on it, and if you enjoy making comics I encourage you to post a series there. My next comic will be up there, as well. 8D

I had the books published through CreateSpace after finding out about it from *Lubrian, who published her book Hurricane Lane there (which I HIGHLY encourage you check out. I bought a copy of it, myself xD it's a great book). The process was extremely easy and stress free (aside from all the self-inflicted stress I kept putting on myself, of course), and it costed little to nothing, aside from the price of actually buying copies (horray for supporting zero-budget projects!). They do music and movies, too. And their terms are incredibly reasonable (I was so nervous when I made my account that I actually went through and read ALL their terms and agreements).

It's pretty crazy, trying to tell myself that I've published a book. It's pretty much been a dream of mine since I was a child to hold my own book, a book that I wrote, a book that was professionally printed and a book that people could buy. My mom had called me at work telling me that the books had come in, and I was just SO EXCITED, and kind of flabbergasted at the thought of, "My childhood dream is waiting for me in a package when I get home." She later said that when I opened the box and took out a copy I looked like I was going to cry xD I still can't really believe it. I keep picking it up and fingering through it and just sort of sitting there, staring at it.

Overall, this has been one heck of an exciting day xD  Oh, and you can actually get a copy here. I'm not really asking anyone to buy it, you really don't have to, but they're certainly there if you'd like one xD They're printed to order, so they'll never go out of stock.

And to end this extremely long journal, I shall leave you off with the obligatory GO READ QUASICAKE! 8D