So, I'm gonna carry on developing Ninja Mom and hopefully have it done by Conception (a UK con at the end of January). I'm not planning to sell it by then in any major way, but maybe play a few casual con demos and people can buy a copy if they are interested.
At the moment it stands at 16 pages. One bad illustration. The rules are only minorly playtested. The text is about 50-60% complete.
Hopefully, it will become 32 pages. 2-3 full page illustrations. 8-12 smaller illustrations. Rules thoroughly playtested. Text 100% complete.
This is gonna be a lot of work, and it's gonna be a tough call, and if it isn't done in time then I certainly won't be too broken up about it. It just gives me a target to aim for.
I'm going to be using Lulu to publish it, since it seems the easiest to work with, even if it is costly. You can check out a preview from here, and I have a couple of sample pages to peruse.
So, any help with playtesting, artwork (particularly a cheap commissioned cover) or criticism would be great.
I have a couple of problems though. Perfect bound (glued) is much cheaper than saddle stitch (staples). Even at 48 pages perfect bound, it works out 50p cheaper than a 32 page saddle stitch (£3.50 to £3.00). But, perfect bound has a tendecy to fall apart, and apparantly, it doesn't do smaller books too well (hence I should probably use 48 pages rather than 32). Is there any strong feelings, experience or advice I can have about what to go with?
If I go with 48 pages, what shall I fill the rest up with? I was thinking it would be nifty to have a lengthy example of play and a comic about it side by side, but I think I'm getting ideas way above my capabilities here. Anything else?
Cheers!