Brewer Process Book

Capstone Project Process Book ART 0448

Situational Analysis I will be branding a small publishing company, Starcatcher Press, and their debut book series, Phoenix of Hope. This will be a multipart project that will revolve around market research. The primary focus of this publishing company is fantasy stories and this will be reflected in the company’s branding.

The debut series presently has two books written with a third coming up as a work in progress that will be considered a pre-order for the purposes of the project. Outside the publisher’s branding and website, the focus of the project will be on branding and marketing this series.

Audience The main audience of Starcatcher Press would be fantasy lovers or, in the case of the Phoenix of Hope series, young adult fantasy readers. Technically the category of young adult fiction readers ranges from 12 to 18 year-olds, but approximately half of the market is reported to be adults. This puts my target market at events such as Comicons and on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Other sources of advertising widely used by small publishers are newsletters and Bookbub’s ad platform.

Competitive Position As a small publishing company, Starcatcher Press cannot compete with the volume of books or the marketing budgets of publishers such as Penguin Radom House, but they can compete with the quality of design and smaller marketing efforts put forth by the big five.

Tone of Voice While a sense of whimsy is required for a small press that focuses on fantasy, the company also focuses on strong female characters in fiction. To successfully convey both strength and whimsy, the press branding will be turning to mythology, particularly Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology, for inspiration but will be taking a more modern approach to the brand’s illustration style.

For the series, everything will revolve around the YA Epic Fantasy market. The design of the series will be guided by what is currently doing well in this market. Various marketing material will be dictated by market productivity.

Concept The final product will be a multipart collection of branding, web design, and advertising.

This project is expected to include: Publisher Branding Publisher Website Newsletter Series (including an introduction to the publisher’s brand and their flagship series) Book Branding Print & Ebook Covers for books 1, 2, & 3 Audiobook Covers for Books 1, 2, & 3 Interior Layout for books 1 & 2 Social Media Ads Publisher Business Cards Retractable Banner Table Runner Stickers Bookmarks Book Trailer for series

PROPOSAL

Let us explore the process of branding and marketing a small publisher and their debut book series. While a small publishing company cannot compete with the volume of books or the marketing budgets of big publishers such as Penguin Random House, they can hold themselves to the same design and brand consistency standards. This paper will cover multiple topics related to the publishing industry, marketing, and book publication as it pertains to the creation and design of Starcatcher Press and their flagship series, Phoenix of Hope. Due to the nature of small presses, nothing can be done or created without some sort of potential market value and that includes everything from its copywriting to design.

Starcatcher Press is a small publishing company that focuses on fiction novels with the stories coming up for publication in the near future primarily being stories with roots in mythology and creation stories. These myths and stories have directly influenced the design and personality of the Starcatcher Press brand. Word lists and research into the names of mythical creatures and gods helped create not only the name of the press, but also the visual identity of the publishing company.

Because most of the books in the works fall within the fantasy and sci-fi genres, I wanted something that would appeal to both markets. After narrowing the list of potential names down to those that would appeal to both sci-fi and fantasy readers, I used my author newsletter of seven thousand subscribers to gage what name they found most appealing and fitting for the press. The names I presented them with as options were: Fallen Star Press, Starcatcher Press, Nott Press, and Stardrop Press.

Nearly all of the responses I received favored Starcatcher Press because it was uplifting, fun, and lends itself to the ideal of what I want my publishing company to express.

The design of Starcatcher Press is strongly influenced by both the chosen name and the research done in its creation. During the initial research process, runes stood out as a strong potential influencer of the press design. With the idea of incorporating runes and their meanings in the press’s

turned up a nice mix of mark inspirations that utilize clean lines. Originally, I focused on creating a design that combined runes with meanings related to knowledge, learning, wisdom, communication, and creativity, but while the runes represented the meanings I wanted, they were not something that would resonate with the majority of Starcatcher Press’s target audience.1 With this realization, I returned to my research. Nearly all myths and creation stories have animals of one type or another 1 Peschel, Lisa. A Practical Guide to the Runes: Their Uses in Divination and Magick. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1999).

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branding, I went in search of visual inspiration. A series of searches on LogoLounge and Dribbble

and after digging into myths from a wide variety of cultures I chose to use a wolf as the press mascot. Wolves are present in the stories of many different cultures. “The Pawnee call the Milky Way, our galaxy, the Wolf Road” and the brightest star in the sky is the Wolf Star. Algonquin mythology on the other hand considers Chibiabos, a great wolf-spirt, to be a fair and kind ruler of the dead.2 And Germanic based Norse mythology has several wolves in their myths, from Odin’s wolves Geri and Freki to the wolves Skoll and Hati, who are said to chase the Sun and Moon through the sky.3 Thus, wolves represent both chaos and destruction as well as loyalty, bravery, protection, and wisdom, all of this lends itself well to what Starcatcher Press wants to represent. They are not just a publisher of happily ever after stories, rather Starcatcher Press seeks to pull on people’s heartstrings and express the complexities of life through worlds outside our own. With all of this in mind, I began with a more detailed illustrated approach to the wolf’s design, but it soon became clear that this style would not work on materials such as the spines of books. This led me to look at what other publishers do with their mark. While Penguin Random House uses a penguin as their mark it is illustrated with very simple, thick lined shapes. The geometric and simple nature of their mark allows for it to be identifiable at a very small size. With this information in mind, I went back and boiled my wolf illustration down to clean straight lines that mimicked the appearance of the rune based typeface I had already created. During this entire process, I also worked on putting together a color palette that would reflect the meanings behind the logo itself. In the end I chose six colors to represent the brand: a creamy white, light blue, medium blue, a mid-tone grey, charcoal black, and a pale red almost peach color. The cream and charcoal colors were chosen to represent the light and the dark in the world, while grey is the fine line in-between, with none of them being truly good or evil. The blues were chosen for their sense of calming, where the soft red was chosen to represent passion and turmoil while offering a necessary pop of color.4 Textures and patterns were also brought in as part of

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the brand identity. A paper texture was chosen to be reminiscent of paperback books, thus bringing in a nostalgic factor, and a subtle geometric pattern was chosen to add some visual interest and comple2 National Geographic Society, Caryl-Sue. “Wolves at the Door.” Edited by Melissa MacPhee National Geographic Society. National Geographic Society, October 17, 2014. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/wolves-door/.

3 “Skoll and Hati.” Norse Mythology for Smart People. Accessed January 23, 2020. https:// norse-mythology.org/skoll-hati/.

4 Englehardt, Natasha. “The Psychology of Color and Graphic Design.” Platt College San Diego, October 7, 2016. https://platt.edu/blog/psychology-color-graphic-design/.

ment the geometry of the logo and press typeface.

Outside of the usual logo suite, a typeface based on Elder Futhark runes was designed for the press using clean lines with rounded corners and ends.5 Though this typeface is based on runes, many letters were merely inspired by the clean style of the runes so as to keep their legibility. This typeface is then used to create a wide variety of materials for the press, including but not limited to: publications, decorative page headers, and ads for the press. For legibility and usability reasons, two other typefaces were chosen for things such as the website. Avenir Next Condensed was chosen for its clean lines and vertical appearance, demi bold was chosen as the primary font variation for use in the logo as well as in the print and add graphics. Nunito Sans on the other hand is used for the majority of the website for its legibility in a body of text while being similar to Avenir Next Condensed.

Starcatcher Press’s brand guide was then used across their digital platform and print materials. They have a website, newsletter, and multiple social media accounts, as well as some materials for live events such as a retractable banner, bookmarks, and business cards. The main goal of all of this is to build awareness and validity for the press while also promoting their flagship series. Due to this split in promotional efforts, things that are specific to their books will be discussed later in this paper. In boiling a business down to its core, one will usually find that longevity is the true goal of any business, this brings up the dilemma of how a business such as a small press is to achieve this goal with the help of design.

The number one thing a small business that deals primarily in digital goods needs is a website. This allows the company to have a specific place to direct traffic that is completely in their control. Having a website allows the business to control how a viewer sees their product and what order they receive information. While it could be tempting for a small publisher to link directly to retailers when making advertisements, a good publisher will publish wide and will thus need a way of direct-

while encouraging the potential customer to continue on the path to purchasing the product. While all of that applies to specific book pages, the press homepage is a different matter.

Publisher websites are generally really boring with a serious lack of brand personality, the goal of Starcatcher Press is the step outside this norm. The homepage of Starcatcher Press is focused on letting people get to know the press itself as well as its authors. Many well-designed websites 5 Thorsson, Edred. Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2012.

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ing readers to their favorite retailer. This leaves the perfect opportunity to reinforce the press’s brand

employ the use of an environment to set the mood of a brand. In this case, the homepage starts with a welcome message featured over an environment illustration that bleeds into the background, thus encouraging the reader to scroll down. The website then moves into a fun little about us section which would change as the press evolves. Upon scrolling part of the way down the page, a flyout comes up offering viewers a free eBook in exchange for signing up for their newsletter. Following the about us portion is an author feature and then a preview of their book catalog with a link to their book page.

A press’s book page is the equivalent of a shop page and needs to be clean and organized.

This page is set up on a basic grid layout starting with a hero image slider featuring the first two books in their flagship series. From here the website moves into a multi column layout listing the press’s catalog of books. Below this is a coming soon feature with a link that will take the reader to a page where they can read more and find where to pre-order the book. Each individual book page is set up the same from one book to the next to avoid customer confusion. Due to the nature of book publishing, the goal is generally to get people to buy from one of the big retailers rather than themselves. This is due to the difficulties involved with getting things such as an eBook to the reader’s preferred app as well as the benefit of sales on retailer sites helping a book’s rank within the retailers’ search engine.6 This is why retailer links are given priority over the option to purchase directly from the press.

Something that is brought up by almost every successful small press and independent author is the need for a newsletter and this comes from the root need to have a way of directly contacting customers. While social media is a valuable tool, newsletters do not have the caveat of being regulated by an overarching company. That is the main reason that newsletters are and continue to be one of the best marketing tools available to companies big and small. With this in mind, the main goal of a company should be to eventually get customers, potential and otherwise, to sign up for

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their newsletter without being overly pushy. This is where things such as loss leaders come in. The flyout mentioned earlier in the description of the Starcatcher Press home page is one of the places the newsletter is pushed, but social media marketing is where the real push will happen as a lot of the website traffic will be coming from the newsletter itself. The fact that the newsletter will constantly be growing means that it has to have an onboarding system.

Onboarding systems and loss leaders vary depending on the goal. In this case, I chose to 6 Martelle, Craig. Release Strategies: Plan Your Self-Publishing Schedule for Maximum Benefit. 1st ed., 2019.

go with a free side story from the main flagship series which acts as bonus content. Due to the new GDPR requirements, a double confirmation sequence should be in place. This means that the first email they will receive will be an email asking them to confirm their subscription. This has an added bonus of weeding out incorrect emails before they land in the actual list. Because this confirmation email is the first one they receive, it is important that this email matches the press’s brand.7 To insure this, the first thing people see when opening the email is the press’s logo on top of their pattern. Below this header, there is an illustrated mountain and star background with rune type welcoming the viewer to the pack. For brand purposes, all followers are considered pack members, this brings in a feeling of belonging which should in turn help with overall subscriber rates.

Following this confirmation email, subscribers will receive an email formally welcoming them to the pack and giving them their promised free goods. While the confirmation page will cause the newsletter to lose a few people who do not want to do the extra step, those subscribers generally wouldn’t be the kind of subscribers you would want anyway.8 After the promise fulfillment email, subscribers will receive an email the next day that will both make sure they got their promised free book as well as introduce them to the pack with a small about section. A couple days later they will receive an email with a special pack deal, this is a deal that is exclusive to pack members. In this case, the deal is a discount on the first book in the Phoenix of Hope series. This leads us into our final email of the onboarding sequence which features reviews of the book they were offered a deal on and a notice that they will now be moving into the regular schedule of receiving an email every Monday. The reason behind this multi-step system is to insure the people on the list actually want to be there and they are interested in the press’s books. That said, it is important to note that the sequence would be altered for different audiences, so people who are brought on via a link in the back of a book would likely only receive a confirmation email and a welcome email before moving into

The reason I chose to make the longer onboarding sequence comes from research into where the majority of subscribers will be coming from. Social media and more specifically, social media ads will be the main origin of these subscribers. This brings us to taking a look at our social media presence. Social media is an interesting beast because as much as companies would like to simply 7 Tammi Labrecque, Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert. n.p.

2018.

8 Tammi Labrecque, Newsletter Ninja.

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the main pool of subscribers.

ask people to buy this cool thing but it doesn’t work that way. One of the first priorities of social media marketing is to build validity and proof of value. This begins with using the brand’s visual identity in their social media profile images, banners, and the posts themselves. Research into what publishers such as Penguin Random House are doing revealed that one of their more recent campaigns, Read to Sleep, utilizes quotes on a specially designed background that makes the campaign easily identified. Using the landscape background ascetic already created for the website, bookmarks, and banner, I made a series of graphics featuring fun quotes that relate to reading and the press’s brand.

These same backgrounds were also used to create promotional images for the press’s flagship series.

The press’s flagship series is a brand in and of itself. While the press’s logo is the keystone of their branding, book covers are the heart of a books branding. The Phoenix of Hope is young adult epic fantasy series. Technically, the category of young adult fiction readers ranges from 12 to 18 year-olds but approximately half of the market is reported to be adults.9 So, while print books are making a resurgence with the younger generations, the majority of a small publisher’s sales and profit comes from eBooks. With this in mind, the appearance of the covers on a bookshelf matters less than the cover’s visual appeal at a thumbnail size.

Visual research into best-selling books in the genre revealed multiple trends varying depending on sub-genres and storylines presence in the book. Based on that information, I narrowed my search to young adult epic fantasy books with a sub focus on sword and sorcery as well as mythical creatures. This search brought up several books by the big five with visually appealing covers that served as the basis of my inspiration. These covers include Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo, Novice Dragoneer by E. E. Knight, Tess of the Road by Rachel Harman, and The Boy with the Tiger’s Heart by Linda Coggin. All of these titles are newer, trending titles that have or were expected to hit the many of the best sellers lists. Market research also revealed a few things to stay away from

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to avoid miss marketing the book as the wrong sub-genre, the primary being to avoid vibrant purples as it is nearly exclusively considered a paranormal romance color. Visual research also showed that there are two main visual styles among successful epic fantasy covers. There is the classic hero illustration and then there is the symbol or creature cover route. Due to the over saturation of hero covers and the fact that mythical creatures have a large role in each of the stories, I chose to feature 9 Peterson, Valerie. “Young Adult Book Market Facts and Figures.” The Balance Careers. The Balance Careers, December 16, 2018. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-young-adult-bookmarket-2799954.

mythical creatures on my covers.

To avoid the covers looking like a knockoff of my inspiration, I chose to bring in an art style that is not commonly used on covers, which is poly art. The use of flat geometric shapes allowed me to incorporate the clean simplistic nature of some of my inspiration while allowing me to feature more complex creatures such as a hydra in a way that it can be appreciated at a smaller thumbnail size. Each book was also given a color pallet that both matched its title as well as it’s genre and creature. Book one is titled Cast in Fire and features a phoenix and a saturated orange color pallet with colors shifting from deep red all the way to yellow. Book two is titled Tempered in Ice and features a hydra in a blue color pallet that dips to a deep purple to nearly white. Book three is Etched in Runes and showcases a dragon in greens that shift to a yellowish hue. Each of the color pallets are saturated, vibrant, and bright, all criteria of the young adult epic fantasy genre.

For type I chose to go with something none traditional for the genre because I wanted something that would fit the geometric nature of poly art. I ended up making my own typeface, both a flat version for use inside the books as well as an almost three-dimensional appearing variation for the covers. For the secondary type I chose times new roman, both for readability as well as to contrast against the primary display type. Part of the reason for this decision is because times new roman has a long history of being used in book publications because of its ability to fit more words on a page while also being easy to read. Outside the normal type, I also created a set of three different scene break markers for the interior of the books. Scene break markers must be fairly simple to avoid distracting the reader from the story itself, as such I decided to go with solid black icons of an arrow, a sword, and a spear, each a weapon of importance in the stories.

Only books one and two have been completely written, so only those two have been moved past the eBook cover stage. Both of these books have eBook, paperback, case, and dustcover jacket

for printed novels and is supported by the mass distribution channels. Every print version features the blub on the back cover. The dustcover jacket also features the series order and an author bio on the inside flaps. The third book in the series only has an eBook cover for marketing and pre-order purposes. The completed books have their own title, copy right, and dedication pages that lead into the story with a call to action designed at the end of each book. Both the covers and the interior title pages showcase the publisher’s logo as part of the overall publisher branding.

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cover variations. All of them are sized at six by nine inches as that is the current market standard

Thus, Starcatcher Press’s branding is an overarching brand that represents the company and its goals through the use of line, texture, and color. This branding is used across all of its materials, though limits its presence within the books themselves. The press’s flagship series, Phoenix of Hope, also features its own personalized brand throughout its pages, though it utilizes the press’s branding in its advertisements. The overall finished product of this project is a separate set of brands, books, and marketing materials that work and interact well together in both print and digital formats.

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Citations Englehardt, Natasha. “The Psychology of Color and Graphic Design.” Platt College San Diego, October 7, 2016. https://platt.edu/blog/psychology-color-graphic-design/.

Martelle, Craig. Release Strategies: Plan Your Self-Publishing Schedule for Maximum Benefit . 1st ed., 2019.

National Geographic Society, Caryl-Sue. “Wolves at the Door.” Edited by Melissa MacPhee National Geographic Society. National Geographic Society, October 17, 2014. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/wolves-door/.

Peschel, Lisa. A Practical Guide to the Runes: Their Uses in Divination and Magick. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1999.

Peterson, Valerie. “Young Adult Book Market Facts and Figures.” The Balance Careers. The Balance Careers, December 16, 2018. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-young-adult-book-market-2799954.

“Skoll and Hati.” Norse Mythology for Smart People. Accessed January 23, 2020. https://norse-mythology.org/skoll-hati/.

Tammi Labrecque. Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert. n.p. 2018.

Thorsson, Edred. Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2012.

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Star Astraios Astraea Astrea Asteria (nocturnal oracles and falling stars) Moon Cerridwen Selene (associated with two snow white horses) Artemis Hecate Phoebe Bendis (associated with two spears) Máni Hunt

PRESS WORD LIST & NAMING PROCESS

Artemis Cernunnos (associated with a stag) Herne (associated with a stag) Odin (wolves and ravens) Orion (later in his story he dies and is changed into a constellation of stars) Pakhet (portrayed by Egyptians as a feline-headed woman) Skaði (or Skadi, Skade, or Skathi) bowhunter Sky Latobius (mountain) Taranis (thunder) Chaos (lower atmosphere) Hera Iris (rainbow) Nephelai (cloud nymphs) Theia (sight and shining light of the clear blue sky) Night Hectate (magic, witchcraft, night, moon, ghosts, and necromancy) Nyx Nott Nature Abnoba (forests and rivers) Arduinna (forest, huntress) Druantia (trees) Nantosuelta (nature, earth, fire, and fertility) Sucellus (agriculture, forests, alcoholic drinks) Cybele (wild animals) Dryades (tree and forest nymphs) Epimeliades (nymphs of highland pastures and protector of sheep) Hamadryades (oak tree dryads) Fulla or Volla Victory Nike Sigyn Andraste Warrior Goddess Freya Valkyries Badb

Star, moon, hunt, peace, power, women, goddess, sky, mountain, trees, forest, starlight (Stjarna), Fate (web of wyrd), raven, wolf, dragon, Tree of Life (Yggdrasil), Fire (Kaun), Tree of life (Crann Bethadh) Perchata – Twin sister of Frau Holle, known as the elf woman. She is leader of the hunt. She teaches spinning to woman and initiates the young men. Percht is an alternative spelling of her name.

Skuld – The Norn responsible for the future. Skuld was also a powerful sorceress and Queen of the Elves.

Potential Press Names: Stjarna Press Kaun Tree Press Star Tree Press Asteria Press Druantia Press Norns Fate Press Perchata Press Mabb Press Mountain Forest Press Starlight Warrior Press Starlight Huntress Press Star Hunter Press Fallen Star Press Keen Wolf Press Fae Hearts Press Mortal Press Druid’s Heart Press Enchantress Press Soultress press Starcatcher Press Startress Press Nott Press Destinies Book Press Stardrop Press Already In Use by Publishers: Starlight Press Nyx Publishing Skuld Press Destiny Publishing Culled List: Fallen Star Press Starcatcher Press Nott Press Stardrop Press Final Name: Starcatcher Press

PRESS LOGO INSPIRATION

PRESS BRANDING PROCESS

PRESS BRANDING PROCESS

PRESS BRANDING PROCESS

PRESS BRANDING PROCESS

PRESS TYPEFACE INSPIRATION & FINAL TYPEFACE

ABCdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz!,.”’$

PRESS ICONS PROCESS & FINAL PRESS ICONS

Series Word List

PRESS’S FLAGSHIP SERIES WORD LIST

Star moon hunt peace power women sky mountain trees forest moss starlight raven wolf dragon horses Fire Ice Phoenix Griffon Rebirth Wizards Cave Guild Bridge Realms vines war peace turmoil fighting warrior bow knife dagger sword staff magic wind water earth spells spiral chaos telepathy gods explosion desolation hope peace disaster kin family Elves Dwarves Wolfbloods Hyperians Darkans Dragon Riders

Sight Loss Feel repress open closed life death king queen lead rule strong broken whole shattered crushed tortured tormented lost found discovery rebuilding doubt path hidden persevering honor bond Forged cast fall fate chased tempered Etched brandished  Series Title Ideas: A Phoenix of Hope Novel Book 1 Title Options: Fate Fails Fall from Fate Forged in Fire Cast in Fire Made in Fire Book 2 Title Options: Chasing Fate Tempered in Ice Book 3 Title Options: Etched in Runes Chased in Runes Book 4 Title Options: Ready to Fight Brandished in Light Burnished in Light

Final Names: Cast in Fire Tempered in Ice Etched in Runes Burnished in Light and each would have line under that on the covers that says the series title as such: A Phoenix of Hope Novel Symbols/Animals present in each book: Book 1: Horse Wolf Dragon Phoenix Sword Book 2: Horse Wolf Dragon (Kniteoff & Orvi) Bow Book 3: Dragon (Raven) Staff Book 4 Has not even begun the writing process so will not have a cover.

PRESS’S FLAGSHIP SERIES INSPIRATION

COVER SKETCHES

EBOOK COVER DRAFTS

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890!.’,” >~<

CUSTOM TITLE TYPEFACE & INTERIOR LAYOUT DRAFT

INTERIOR LAYOUT DRAFT

RETRACTABLE BANNER ROUGH DRAFTS

BOOKMARK & BUSINESS CARDS ROUGH DRAFTS

FACEBOOK & TWITTER ADS ROUGH DRAFTS

TWITTER & INSTAGRAM ADS ROUGH DRAFTS

NEWSLETTER ONBOARDING SEQUENCE DRAFTS

NEWSLETTER ONBOARDING SEQUENCE DRAFTS

HOMEPAGE ROUGH DRAFTS

First Rough Draft: https://youtu.be/i_16ShM6w6M Second Rough Draft: https://youtu.be/aT5ambJfWG4

VIDEO WALKTHROUGHS OF WEBSITE ROUGH DRAFT

To view the video walkthroughs, please visit the following links.

FINAL STYLE SHEET

FINAL ICONS FOR PRESS WEBSITE

EBOOK & AUDIOBOOK COVERS

EBOOK & AUDIOBOOK COVERS

PAPERBACK & DUSTCOVER ROUGHS

FINAL PAPERBACK & CASECOVER VARIATIONS

PAPERBACK MOCKUP & FINAL DUSTCOVER JACKETS

PAPERBACK MOCKUP & FINAL DUSTCOVER JACKETS

CAST IN FIRE

CAST IN FIRE A Phoenix of Hope Novel

>

by Zora Marie

Copyright Š 2020 Zora Marie Cover design by: Zora Marie Edited by: Ducky Smith All rights reserved. Published by Starcatcher Press. No part of this book may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent and permission of the author.

This work is of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any person or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

For contact information, please visit: www.starcatcherpress.com First Paperback Edition, April 2020 ISBN: 9798623530486

III

INTERIOR LAYOUT EXAMPLES

TEMPERED IN ICE A Phoenix of Hope Novel

~

by Zora Marie

TEMPERED IN ICE Copyright © 2020 Zora Marie Cover design by: Zora Marie Edited by: Ducky Smith All rights reserved. Published by Starcatcher Press. No part of this book may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent and permission of the author.

This work is of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any person or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

For contact information, please visit: www.starcatcherpress.com First Paperback Edition, April 2020 ISBN: 9798615480157

III

1 Chaos had broken across the wall walk where Darkans spilled over the ramparts. Zelia plowed into one of the deformed and twisted descendants of the Dark Elves that ran towards her brother Alrindel. Even with a stab of pain in her side as she slammed into the Darkan, she did not falter. As she knocked the Darkan’s blow away from her brother, she heard a faint snap but paid it no mind as the thunderous roar of her heart pounded in her ears and she slid her blade through an opening in the Darkan’s armor.

Then time seemed to shift, and she shook as she sat just inside the inner gate, watching as the cracks in her hands and arms receded, leaving trails of blood in their wake. A spike of pain emanated from her gut as the rush of adrenaline ebbed and her hand came away from her side, coated in her own sticky blood.

Suddenly she was riding out of the inner gates with the remainder of her kin and King Gregory’s men to give those inside a chance to escape in the tunnels that led through the mountain. Her side burned from her hasty cauterization, but still she rode. Their horses made it past the remains of the outer gate before falling to the spears of the Darkans. Her brothers stood with their backs to her, each protecting the others. Time dragged on as she fought, then she turned towards where Eragon and Saria fought side by side. “No,” she muttered, watching helplessly as the tip of a sword pierced Eragon’s chest. Her sword slipped from her fingers, and she screamed.

The warmth of tears and blood mingled on her cheeks, and the embrace of someone else enveloped her.

“It’s just a dream,” the voice was soft and familiar, yet did not belong to the person who held her.

7

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To Mrs. Perrott for helping me learn to read. (though still cannot spell)

FINAL RETRACTABLE BANNER

FINAL BOOKMARKS & BUSINESS CARD

FINAL TWITTER

FINAL TWITTER

FINAL FACEBOOK ADS

FINAL FACEBOOK ADS

FINAL INSTAGRAM ADS

FINAL INSTAGRAM ADS

NEWSLETTER ONBOARDING SEQUENCE

NEWSLETTER ONBOARDING SEQUENCE

WEBSITE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; NEWSLETTER CONFIRMATION PAGES

To view the video walkthrough, please visit the following link.

Final Website: https://youtu.be/dIw-74zH4wY Or view the website itself at https://starcatcherpress.com

FINAL WEBSITE