Tangled Tales

A related initiative I scheduled to fit with this module was creation/publication of an interactive ebook from a comic called Tangled Tales that I created some years ago. It consisted of six sets of six panels readable in 6 to the power of 6 permutations: it was originally hand-made in tiny editions, and not viable to have commercially printed.

I had commissioned a web designer to create an electronic version to my specification, and under my supervision, in a web and then in ebook form. Ebook platforms such as Smashwords could not accommodate the interactivity, with only iTunes able to accommodate it. Getting this published to iTunes Store has involved some hurdles, as it required installation of iTunes Producer, which in turn required an operating system upgrade.

Anticipating Sterling devaluation, I selected payment in US Dollars, although I had to adjust prices across territories from Apple's straight Dollar to Sterling/Euro conversions. The first completed version did not pass Apple's automated check due to some slight aspect ratio mismatch, and by the time of having a revised version Producer required reregistration which lost my saved 'project', i.e. publisher and pricing information, etc.

Recognising that this is something of a niche project, I joined a number of social media groups for experimental and small press comics that I will use for targeted marketing, in addition to mainstream and comics press. The former networks have secured a recommendation from Matt (99 Ways to Tell a Story) Madden: '[...] beguiling[...] perhaps the earliest of its type I have seen.'

​This project then has let me apply: marketing, business (costing), design, and digital production aspects of the course, and take a live project to market.

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