Support the Artists to Support the Arts - The Consortium

If you’ve been waiting anxiously for a paperback copy of The Dragonswarm, you can get it now!

The sequel to the bestselling epic fantasy Taming Fire by Aaron Pogue is now available for $12.99 from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Click here to find out more about the book.

E-authors face a lot of competition. Even though they have a pricing advantage over traditional publishing companies, there are already  many inexpensive and free e-books available. This means that low prices are not enough. E-authors have to find additional ways for readers to notice their books and become interested in reading them. E-authors create a positive first impression when they have book covers that look professional and excellent book descriptions.

The cover is usually the first impression of an e-book that readers have when they are surfing online. On most websites, a cover image is small but can also be viewed at a larger size. A quality design will look sharp in both sizes instead of blurry. The title should also be readable in both sizes. Some e-authors create their own covers with a specialized program or a graphic design program. If they do not have the time, skills, or desire to do it themselves, then they hire an individual or company to help. The cover is important because it shows the book’s “personality,” giving potential readers a glimpse of what to expect.

Another way e-authors can create a good impression is by having well-written book descriptions. When online shoppers click on a book, the description is usually the first text that they see on the page. It is positioned far above the reviews, so if shoppers do not like the description, they will probably not read the reviews. The description tells what the book is about and attempts to create interest in the reader. It also helps shoppers determine what the genre of the book is and what makes the book different from others in that genre. Some books do not have a description at all, which makes it difficult for shoppers to tell what the book is about, especially if the book does not have any reviews either. Shoppers are less likely to buy a book if the only information they have to go on is the cover.

Since the description is usually the first thing that shoppers will read, proofreading carefully is important. Errors in a small block of text could give the impression that the book also will have a lot of errors. Ultimately the quality of the book’s contents matters the most, but a favorable first impression is a crucial aspect of being a successful e-author.

Consortium Books is proud to announce the digital release of The Dragonswarm, sequel to the bestselling epic fantasy Taming Fire by Aaron Pogue.

 The Kingdom of the Sarianne teeters on the brink. While its tyrant king plays out his petty vendettas, rebellion foments on the edges of his domain. Politics and power struggles gamble civilization on the tides of war.

Yet war is not the greatest threat to civilization. A far older enemy rises. The dragons are waking and these fiends of Chaos will swarm across the world of men, razing it to bedrock just as they have done in ages past.

But this time the world of men has a champion in Daven Carrickson. Once a beggar and still a fugitive from the king’s justice, Daven is also a hero with unrivaled powers. A brush with one of the deadly dragons left him forever bonded to the beast and able to tap into the ever-shifting maelstrom of Chaos that roils beneath man’s fragile reality.

It is a dangerous connection, one that threatens to consume him. Can he pay even that ultimate price if it means the salvation of humanity?

Get your digital copy at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble! A paperback format is coming soon.

You can find out more about this book at the author’s blog.

Joshua Unruh is a writer with the Consortium. He’s also a fan of comics, graphic novels, and tabletop games, and he’s offered to share that experience with our readers in a regular column.

You can read more of Joshua’s work at his site, JoshuaUnruh.com.

Cow Boy is a tremendous read that I’m having a hard time pinning down.

Not my feelings about it, mind you. I loved it. But the book itself is…complex. Yeah, that’s a perfect word. It’s complex, so I can’t boil it down to a one- or two-sentence high concept. That’s probably the main reason I liked it so much.

So the easy stuff first, those so-called “facts” that don’t need to know how I feel about them in order to be important. Cow Boy vol. 1: Justice Ain’t Got No Age is written by Nate Cosby (Pigs, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller) and Eisner and Harvey Award nominee Chris Eliopoulos (Franklin Richards, Pet Avengers). It also will feature several short stories from Roger Langridge, David Gallaher & Steve Ellis, Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener, Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin, and others. The publisher is Archaia, which means it will be a gorgeous, full color hardcover available in bookstores that know what’s good.

So, that’s done. Here’s why the thing is a complex piece.

It’s an all-ages book. I follow Nate Cosby on Twitter and he’s often talked about his commitment to and belief in the importance of all-ages material. I share this belief, and not just because I have children. I share it because there are children in the world. I’m a prime example of somebody who developed a love for reading, literature, mythology, and high adventure because of (superhero) comics and I lament deeply that this isn’t really something that can happen with (superhero) comics for my kids. Or at least, certainly not in the bulk of them as it did for me.

Enter every other kind of comics. Especially this one.

Cow Boy is a Western. This isn’t just because that’s a good backdrop. It’s a Western in that the patois is decidedly Western, the archetypes Cosby and Eliopoulos are playing with are decidedly Western, and it’s a premise that works within the genre conventions of a Western and may not work in too many other genres. The tale follows 10-year-old Boyd Linney as he rides across the West determined to bounty hunt his entire, worthless, double dealin’, no good, outlaw kin. All of them. And there’s apparently a lot of them. And he starts with his daddy.

That’s pretty heady stuff for an all-ages book. Betrayal, familial neglect, gunplay, tough-talkin’, and bounty huntin’ (not to mention a crushing disappointment for Boyd from a corner you do not expect) are all tough concepts to talk to kids about. But that’s why this complex book works so well. Eliopoulos’s art is very well done and wonderfully cartoony. I’ve enjoyed his work in broad, slapstick books before.  But in Cow Boy, it’s cartoony to show just how angry Boyd can get, to show just how mean bigotted townspeople can get, or to show how dismaying it can be to know you’re utterly alone in the world at the tender age of ten.

There is some violence, but most of it amounts to less than you’d get from a roadrunner and a coyote. There is some tough talk, but nothing you wouldn’t want your elementary schooler repeating. Mostly, you get very difficult, very emotionally charged topics presented in a way that gives you an opportunity to discuss them with your kids and maybe, just maybe get ahead of some of their own emotional development. That’s pretty intense. And it’s also pretty great.

All of that is wrapped up in a tremendously entertaining story with a lot of very clever writing, both in the plot and in Boyd’s own turn of phrase. They’re then bookended with short stories of only a few pages from some of the more colorful, inventive, and funny people in comics. Though quick and not always packing the same punch as Boyd’s tale, these shorts are a welcome addition to the book.

I recommend Cow Boy to parents, to aunts and uncles, to teachers, to Western fans, and to anyone who thinks smart, emotionally charged, all-ages fiction is worthwhile and important. Look for it in April 2012 in fine bookstores everywhere.