]t’s been a super stressful few weeks, between getting the last final proof to read, reaching out to ARC readers, and trying to grow a social media platform. Actually three social media platforms, or maybe even four, but who’s counting? Anyway, there is one piece of exciting news this week: our funky stickers for The Dead Shadow.
TL;DR: You can find a sticker preview at the bottom of the article!
The Thoughts Behind the Stickers for The Dead Shadow
So, we’ve been looking around, and we’ve found that a lot of authors accompany the launch of their books with some stickers.
It’s a good idea for a lot of reasons:
- stickers are an affordable marketing tool (let’s not forget that indie authors have literally zero budget)
- stickers are fairly quick and easy to design (nothing like planning a huge billboard campaign for a book, for example)
- stickers are also easy to ship, especially when you are adding stickers into the package for your advanced readers.
- Everybody loves stickers (you’re obviously a weirdo if you don’t, sorry to break it to you)
So, of course, we needed stickers for The Dead Shadow. We couldn’t possibly not have them.
But how do you design cool stickers?
The Neurodivergent Urge For Inclusive Stickers For The Dead Shadow
Inclusive stickers? What does that even mean?
Glad you’ve asked. As far as we are concerned, we thought that it was a pity that once you set up for a sticker design, you also enforce a specific character look onto your readers.
We’ve all read a book and built up an image of what a character should look like. So, the moment the book gets transcribed into the image world, whether moving images with films or more static with illustrations, it can get disappointing because the characters look nothing like what they did in your mind.
We wanted to avoid that by reaching out to different artists with the same character descriptions. We wanted to bring to the readers different views of the same characters.
We’ve received the first design from one of the artists we contacted. In the meantime, Paul also created a smaller set of stickers for The Dead Shadow to illustrate a quote for each key character. They are four quotes, and a set of four crazy quote stickers for The Dead Shadow.
And earlier this week, we’ve received the first character designs. So we wanted to give you a cheeky preview.
Are These Stickers For The Dead Shadow Only For ARCs?
They are designed to go in the advanced readers pack at first. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t find any other purpose afterwards.
In fact, some of the designs and illustrations we have in the planning may not even end up as stickers. They may be part of another freebie for the advanced readers. Ultimately, yes, everybody loves stickers, but perhaps not a dozen of them at the same time. So, some designs may end up on small notebooks or other stationery items… or whatever else we are thinking (yes, we do have some ideas, but they will only be revealed once they are brought into life!)
Now to the second point: Will only the advanced readers get the stickers for The Dead Shadow? Probably not, there is no joy in life if only a small number of people can get stickers.
We are planning to keep some for different book launch events as well as meet-ups, interviews, and whatever else we discover indie authors have to do.
In the long run, who knows? There may be some items available for purchase online. This is for the long term, obviously! We’re just about getting on with writing blog posts consistently, so let’s not get over ourselves with a mini merch shop. But just so you know, there are a lot of ideas floating around.
Anyway, check the little preview below!
