Agents of Magic: The Process

Agents of Magic: The Process a fantasy trilogy promotional campaign

Dounia Sabah

Copyright © 2021 Dounia Sabah All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, or distributed in any form whatsoever without written permission from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

Book Design & Photography by Dounia Sabah Printed by Lulu

Agents of Magic: The Process Dounia Sabah

To my mother, To my family, To my friends, Thank you for all of your help and support.

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Table of Contents

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Section Name

Introduction

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Old Ways of Book Promotion

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New Ways

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Promotion Checklist

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Characters

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Models

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Costumes

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Locations

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Photo Shoot

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Design Process

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Introduction

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Introduction

Introduction Reading is an important part of our lives. Books inform us and can create empathy within us. I love to read fantasy books. I actually hated to read, ironically because of school. They would assign us all these non-fiction war books, after war books, after war books, and I just got so tired of it. It was like can we get something new please? I just did not like reading these types of books or other non-fiction books they would assign. Don’t get me wrong, these are important to read however, for a High School student to read it over and over and over again, it just got so depressing. I did not enjoy the readings and I didn’t know what other genres of books were out there.

We finally were assigned dystopian books and was introduced to something new. After getting my first taste of the fiction high tech dystopian worlds, I began my journey to discover new genres. While on my quest I ended up finding fantasy books. After I ended up finding and reading such treasures, I became absolutely obsessed. I had finally found my genre and fell in love with reading. I love the world building, the characters, the storytelling of it all. It was absolutely astounding to read such stories and the authors that write them just have these amazing minds to create these worlds and

characters. I just fell head over heels for them.

It was great to have that little escape for a while in times of need and just be enveloped within the story; be taken along on these amazing adventures with the characters. Having these endless possibilities just opened up the world for me; I begin to see things in a new light and found that anything was possible.

I’ve always loved to write; I would write poetry and narratives however, after finding the fantasy genre and grew such an appreciation for them, my passion for writing fantasy stories began.

Not only did I become infatuated with reading but I became even more passionate with writing.

Through these books I became inspired to write.

I’ve become inspired through design and film.

All of these fantasy elements have been imbued within me and spread out through my other mediums of design, photography, and film.

Due to my discovery of fantasy books, I came across fantasy photography and became absolutely captivated with that medium that it inspired me to create my own. My friends and Professors now know me as the woman who loves all things fantasy and superhero such as Harry Potter and Marvel. I could not be any happier that others are able to see my passion.

Due to my love for these types of books, I fell in love with creating the covers and layouts for books especially the fantasy genre. I’d love to create the covers and layouts for these amazing stories; create a design that will grab the audiences attention and say, read me! I am meant to be read! The whole saying "don’t judge a book by its cover" is absolute trash. Everyone judges a book by its cover whether you admit it or not. People pick up what seems like it would be an interesting story to them, THEN they read the blurb and decide whether to buy it or not. It is my journey to learn more about this type of design and create covers strong enough to grab peoples' attention. I would love to create more fantasy photography to be on the covers of these books.

I am very confident in my compositing skills and it’s what I always do and have always done however, with this project I really wanted to challenge myself and create fantasy photography in person and have them as the covers without having to composite people on backgrounds and add all types of other elements within it. I wanted to create it within picture.

That was my goal for this project.

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Why Fantasy?

I want to emphasize and empower women with this fantasy trilogy promotional campaign.

Within the fantasy genre women are shown in revealing clothing that sexualizes them and shows them as objects. I want to dispel this notion and show women in this genre as strong warriors who do not need to show their bodies or have a prince or knight save them. This type of imagery causes a negative impact on young girls.

Having such revealing clothing is just completely unrealistic as well. Would you really enter a sword fight, or any other type of fight, with your stomach and legs exposed?

Instead of the normal tropes of the man saving the Kingdom or the knight saving the princess, the 3 women warriors will be saving the

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Kingdom. There are even character traits, both positive and negative, that show up more often generally in male characters and should show up in female characters.

The fantasy genre is an amazing one that can inspire, uplift, and nurture creative minds. It is also a great escape when needed.

Why A Book Promotional Campaign?

Publishing companies and self-publishing authors should be able to take the additional promotions checklist I created and apply it to their own promotional campaign. These new ways could reach new audiences and get them reading. Reading is such an important part of our lives and can create empathy in a person. We can discover new things and gain knowledge even from fiction books.

Section Name

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Old Ways of Book Promotion

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Old Ways of Book Promotion

The First Chapter of Books Before the Sumerians invented writing, information was spread by word of mouth.

Writing was created to record religious texts, law, genealogies, and important social matters that were once memorized. However, it was not meant to spread information. The date books were formed after the invention of writing is unclear due to their fragile state unable to stand against the test of time. The oldest writings that survived were on clay or stone such as the clay tablets of Mesopotamia and the papyrus rolls of Egypt.

The Birth of Printing Even before the printing press was invented, there were thousands of books in Europe.

However, scribes had to write everything down by hand. Just imagine how much time it took to write an entire book and all of its copies! After a German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press, it spread widely especially with German merchants and their trade routes.

Spanning 50 years after printing came to be, by the year 1500 there had been an accumulation of 9,000,000 books. This speaks on their demand and of the written word. This fierce stockpiling of printing continued until the 16th century where it then became regulated.

Days of Old Book Promotion and Marketing The earliest known marketing took place in Greece and Rome. However, modern marketing began to surface during the Industrial Revolution. After it ended, printing became the heart and soul marketing. The first mail order catalog in the United States was Tiffany’s Blue Book in 1845. Advertisements soon after integrated catchy headlines, limited time only sales, and market positioning.

Due to the economic struggles after World War 1, it brought upon the sales era where differentiation, promotion, and persuasion became the concentration in marketing. TV marketing boomed after that and $5.7 billion were spent in the year 1950 in the United States for commercials. Technological advancements gave way for marketing’s creative revolution in the 1970s. Skipping ahead to the 1990s was the beginning of e-commerce which was great to substitute expensive marketing for cost efficient ones. However, it was still brand new during this time and online marketing was limited. Though complex online marketing has been accessible for businesses since 2010.

From then on, video marketing has been readily accessible and no longer needs to be only shown on TV. Social media has been an exceptional

platform to promote products and businesses in addition to connecting brands directly to their current and future customers.

Book publishing and promotion isn’t what it used to be. Big publishing houses used to decide what got published and what did not. The promotional strategies of the past for books no longer work.

When self-publishing was not a thing and publishing houses decided what books entered the world, it was a newsworthy event. Writers were celebrities and they were held in the highest regard. It was a big deal when someone came out with a book. All you had to say in a media pitch was that you wrote a book. A specific target audience was not even needed; you can see how that would not work now. It used to be that you could send extravagant and flamboyant printed media kits that would catch the attention of the media and the people. Since promotional material was printed, its presentation had to stand out against other press kits that had been mailed in to a producer or editor along with the book. Another way book promotion used to be was that you could wait till it was published to begin promoting it. Today that would be a waste of time, costly, and inefficient. The reason being it worked then was that book publication was rare.

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New Ways

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New Ways

New Ways of Book Promotion and Marketing The foundation of promotion stays the same but the process of informing people a new book has been born is very different.

It was not until the digital revolution that publishing became accessible to those who were interested in self-publishing. This initiated a wave of hundreds of thousands of books being published each year. Having access to social media has changed the way publishing works as well. This of course changed how books are promoted and marketed today. It has become a competitive market with thousands upon thousands of books vying to be read and simple promotional techniques just will not do. Do not fret! There might be competition but there are many new and amazing ways of book promotion.

Social Media has made it easy to be in front of new customers and has been used to promote books. Instagram has been a prominent way to promote books and still is. You can post advertisements, video content, and book trailers.

How to Promote Books Now While doing my research of new ways to promote books, I’ve come up with a couple ideas. Instagram has been used to promote

books and still is a great way to do so. A visually appealing photo set up of the book will help grab attention. Shoppable posts have only been available for a couple years and can be a fast and easy way for a customer to not only buy the book but other collateral such as T-shirts, pins, bags, etc. People love to watch clips or moving designs so posting a book trailer or moving advertisement will surely grab attention.

Creating animated covers to post online and social media have become popular. Taking any video content created for the book and posting them to TikTok will reach more people, especially if you are trying to reach a younger target audience. YouTube is another place to post book trailers. I would not deduct YouTube however, the latter two options might receive a bigger payout. That is if you are just posting the trailer. You could have the trailer played as an Ad for people to watch. That will however, cost you some money unlike the free marketing you could do with social media.

and interactions attaching the audience to the characters, which in turn increases its fan base.

Creating these attachments to the character can compel the audience to read the book. These interactions create a continuous interest which would result in more book sales.

There are two different types of AR, one on a 2D surface such as a cover or poster that can move when an app, such as Artivive, has been opened by the user. The other way, such as Adobe Aero, Spark AR, or Snapchat’s Lens Studio, allows us to implement designs we create in a 3D space. Lens Studio is used for Snapchat and Spark AR is used for Instagram and Facebook. If this promotional technique of using AR on a book cover is used, it can be advertised as such letting the audience know there is a hidden secret within the cover. It can generate curiosity and people would buy the book just to see what it is.

I have found that augmented reality would be a great addition for not only book promotion, advertisements, and posters but for the book cover itself. I believe AR is great for genres such as Fantasy, Sci-fi, Mystery, Dystopian, Historical Fiction, and Horror. By promoting early using AR, it will help create more buzz 15

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Promotion Checklist

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Section Name

Create AR book cover with Artivive or Adobe Aero.

Short reading on Tiktok.

Create an animated cover and animated advertisements.

Create some type of contest to give away collateral.

Post a cover reveal on Instagram.

Drop in that the cover uses AR.

Create a countdown a month before publication.

Create an AR filter for Instagram or Snapchat for people to use.

Post a book trailer on Instagram, TikTok, and/or YouTube.

Create photography within the theme of your book to post.

Post on launch day.

Post a flat lay of your book that matches its aesthetic with the description and or a quote from the book.

Create shoppable posts of the book and collateral on Instagram.

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Characters

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Characters

Aaziy Gargoyle

Can turn her skin into rock.

Character Traits Positive

Negative

Courageous Funny Decisive

Over confident Stubborn

Xena Vetala

When about to attack, sharp fangs extend and eyes turn blue and snake-like.

Positive

Negative

Nema

Loyal Protective Relaxed

Trickster Erratic

Has powers of nature and is able to shift into any animal.

Character Traits

Fae/Shapeshifter Hybrid

Character Traits Positive

Negative

Strategic Driven Daring

Brutally Honest Sarcastic

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Models

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Models

Amani @inamaha_

Charlotte @charlotte_traub_

Alana @alana_marketa

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The Process of Hiring Models Going through the process of getting models for the photo shoot, especially in a time of a pandemic, was pretty difficult. This was even my first time doing so. I actually wanted to go through this process and learn from it so I could possibly do more in the future.

I searched models and modeling agencies within my area on Google. I even went through Yelp and found an agency through there. A site I found but did not necessarily use was a site called Model Mayhem with individual models you can contact within your area. Since I’ve seen fantasy photos on Instagram and other types of photography where photographers tag the model(s) or put certain hashtags, I had thought of searching on Instagram through hashtags and clicking on the models who have been tagged in the photos. I searched up with a hashtag for models in my area so it would be #(insert State)model or #(insert city)model. I actually contacted the modeling agency first, however, it took a while to get a response. That’s when I began my search on Instagram.

When I found models that I thought could fit within my project I DM’d them with details of my project, how much I can pay them, and said if they had any questions they can contact me 22

back. Here is the message I wrote to give you a guide for your own project:

some additional questions. One of the models I reached out to on Instagram replied back that she was interested! Yay! I messaged back:

Hi, I’m Dounia! I’m an art student at George Mason University and I’m working on my Senior Project.

Wonderful! Thanks so much! I was hoping to shoot

My project consists of creating a promotional

this weekend to not fall behind on my project but

campaign around a fantasy trilogy where the 3

I still need to get the costumes and I still need 2

main characters are a Fae/Shapeshifter hybrid,

more women.

a Gargoyle, and a Vetala (snake humanoid) who are all strong, independent women that save the

Just to let you know my availability is Fridays-

day instead of a man that saves the day within the

Sundays and so we will be shooting one of those

fantasy genre. I will be creating 3 book designs and

days. Let me know if there is a conflict.

transform their covers into 3 movie posters along with other collateral.

In terms of costuming, the characters are warriors so I will be getting clothes that fit that style in the

It will be a fantasy style photo shoot with 3 women

fantasy genre. Just as an assurance, they will not

in place of the characters. I already have someone

be revealing since a point of my project is to be

for the character of the Vetala and am looking for

away from that toxic imagery. Let me know what

2 more to play the roles of the Gargoyle and Fae/

your sizes are to make sure everything would

Shapeshifter hybrid. I can only pay up to $xx an

fit. Maybe we could do a zoom call or FaceTime,

hour. Let me know you are in the (city) area and if

whatever works for you, to discuss the costumes

you’re interested or have any questions!

and if you might have something you think could work. Especially if you have any boots?

After I had messaged models on Instagram I got a response back from the modeling agency about their prices. I originally sent an email explaining that I was a student working on my senior project, what my project was, and asked what their prices would be for a 4 hour shoot or at least a 2 hour shoot. I emailed back with

Due to COVID and financial reasons I will not be getting a makeup artist so I would ask you to do just basic natural makeup for that day.

Here is a character chart that I made; let me know if there is a character you would like to stand in for!

Models

I still did not hear from the agency and time was closing in, I decided to call them. I did not see a phone number on the website and there was just an inquiry page. After they emailed back from my inquiry I realized a phone number was attached to the signature of the email. I was able to talk to the agent and tell her what I was looking for and negotiate pricing further.

I decided on a 3 hour photo shoot. I informed her that I no longer needed 3 models but only 2 since I already got someone to fill in for one of the characters. She asked me to send pictures of the costumes. I, of course, had to let them know where the photo shoot would take place and explain that they can change into their costumes in my family home then head over to the location which is within walking distance. Since I could not afford every single piece of clothing for the costume and did not think it would be necessary for me to buy pants and boots when they could bring their own, I let her know, and the other model I contacted on Instagram, they would need to wear any type of black pants or jeans and wear black combat boots.

model available only if I push the time to 4pm.

I was a bit concerned with the lighting but I looked at the photos I had taken of the location when I went scouting; the time stamp was around 6:40-50pm and the light was still out.

Thanks Daylight Savings Time! I agreed to the 4pm time confirming first with the first separate model. The agency then showed me another model and I agreed. They confirmed with their models then confirmed with me that they will be there for the photo shoot. This was all confirmed 2 days after the call. After they were confirmed I was sent a booking confirmation to sign. A couple days after the photo shoot I received the invoice.

This was such a great learning experience and now have made new connections to do this more in the future! It was also wonderful to talk to a modeling agency, gain experience from that, and I am so glad they were able to work with me!

After pricing was negotiated and agreed upon, she and her assistant began to ask their models if they were available on the date I asked for.

The assistant told me there were scheduling conflicts with their models but told me of a 23

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Costumes

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Costumes

Nema I thought this long, flowy slit top was perfect for the character Nema. I usually see Fae or Elves in flowy and intricate clothing in drawings and films. Thinking about this in a realistic way, the top still needed to be something the character could fight in. The top would not get in her way and the sleeves are not long and baggy to get caught in something either.

Nema might have magic but in case of a physical fight in her "human" form she would need some protection. For that reason I gave her gloves with some studs for more damage and gauntlets to block punches coming toward her.

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Xena I was not sure what type of outfit I wanted for Xena. I found pieces of her outfit gradually until everything fit. I stumbled upon the top and the claw gloves. I did not really think about having the snake humanoid in a snake print top until I found it in my search. The gloves were a sweet surprise; when I saw them I thought they were absolutely perfect for Xena's Character and could be her weapon of choice. In my search for vests I found this pointed one that fit with her character as well.

I also got fangs for her to wear. They came with these glue dots that begin to stick when put in hot water. Yes they came off.

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Costumes

Aaziy For Aaziy's character I made sure her top did not have sleeves to show her arms and make it easy for her to shift her skin to stone (and easy for me to make it look like her arms are turning into stone). Her costume is simple because I did not think she needed too much. She has the ability to turn to stone so she did not need any armor.

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Locations

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Locations

Location, Location, Location A location is incredibly important and can be the underlying notion of the books story.

I went location scouting on foot. I wanted a place with a lot of trees and thought I could find some spots like that around my neighborhood while walking around and not driving. However, I did know of 2 locations I would like to visit before hand near my home.

I thought while I walked to these 2 locations I might find other locations that could work along the way.

The first location I went to was more of an open field and the other was a more forested area. For the first location, I thought I could shoot with the trees in the background and try and make it work. After, I went to the more forested area (on the left) and thought it fit even better than the first. It was perfect. I was elated because it was a great backdrop for the book covers.

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These two images are from the same location.

It was too open and I was not too crazy about it. You could see homes and other places behind the trees as well. These two spots in the location were covered just enough but if I moved at a different angle it wouldn't work.

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Section Name

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Section Name

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Photo Shoot

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Photo Shoot

Photo Shoot Now that I have my location, costumes, and most importantly the models, it was time for the photo shoot!

I made sure to empty my SD cards, charged all of my batteries- camera and a light just in case I needed it, brought my reflector, packed my lenses and all my other camera accessories. I packed what I can into my photography back pack. The camera I have is a Canon 80D and the lenses I brought along were a portrait 50mm f/1.8 lens and a telephoto 55-250mm f/4-5.6 lens. I also brought a standard lens but those are the two I used to take pictures. I did not end up using some things I brought along but it is better to be prepared than needing something when on location and you do not have it.

However, before the photo shoot I researched poses and looked at how the models on fantasy books were posed so I had an idea of what I wanted the photos to look like as well as being able to communicate to the models what I was looking for. I saved some images that inspired me into my phones camera roll to show the models how I would like them to pose during the shoot.

Models cannot read your mind and know what you want them to do; you have to communicate to them and give them some direction.

Before we began the photo shoot I gave the models contracts to sign that basically said I can use these images, post them, sell them, etc. I let them know they can take their time to read it over while we get ready and wait for all the models to show up and get into their costumes.

I also got their emails to send them the images once the pictures and project is completed.

As each model showed up I gave them the costume for their character to get dressed and set up. While we waited for everyone to arrive and get ready I asked some questions to get to know them a bit better. I wanted to make it a fun yet comfortable environment. I let them know that if they were uncomfortable at any point, to let me know and I would accommodate them.

Once everyone was in costume we began our quest to the location. I got lucky that there was a nice gust of wind that day that made their hair fly a bit. I first got pictures of all three of them together with my telephoto lens. I wanted the background to be a bit blurred to separate the models from the background but I found that I had to go further away from the models to get all three of them in the picture. I could have changed my lens and tried something else.

I found that I loved the 50mm lens for the

lone portraits showing a great depth of field. It creates a beautiful blurred bokeh background.

During the photo shoot I would let them know what poses I was looking for, telling them to keep that pose and I would move around to get different angles, doing the pose myself or showing the direction they should be facing, and giving affirmations. Along with giving direction, giving affirmations is important so they know they are doing a good job and are doing the poses you are looking for.

Communication is key. I believe the pictures would also turn out better especially if they are comfortable. How do you think the pictures would come out if you kept berating them and were uncomfortable? After I felt I got everything I could from one spot in the location we would move to a different spot.

Behind the Scenes I thought it would be great to show how the photo shoot went than try and explain it.

Check out behind the scenes of the photo shoot by scanning the QR code below with your phone camera! Thank you to my brother for coming along and filming it for me!

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Photo Shoot

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Design Process

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Design Process

The Book Design I looked at many fantasy book covers both in person and online to gather inspiration for what I wanted the book covers to look like. I have seen books where each cover was a different color so I drew my inspiration from that and implemented it into my design, each one having their own unique story to tell. Since everything was in picture, using Photoshop I had to select and separate them from the background to blur it and add light rays behind them. I even drew in some fly away hairs since the hair was difficult to select and mask against the forest background.

Install the Artivive app to see the book cover in agumented reality!

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Movie Poster Design Being a film major as well I had to create movie posters. Using the images I created for the book covers, I designed them to look like movie posters. They can be used as movie posters when the time comes or can be marketed as, how would they look as movie posters? I put an AR symbol and a description to download the Artivive App and see the poster in AR. This would be a cool feature to have on movie posters and would be sure to grab attention. This will definitely stay in the audiences mind and persuade them to watch the movie. Another way to market it would be to a QR code to the trailer of the movie.

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Design Process

Collateral For collateral I designed a drawstring bag, t-shirts, a pin, and a toy. There are many more options you could choose from such as lanyards, water bottles, note books, etc.

Bags I wanted to add a drawstring bag so if at any event this could be an easy and cost effective way to give out collateral. Pins and T-shirts could also be put in the bag.

Pins Pins are great to sell and are great give aways too. Having the series name connects with all of the books. Fans can show their love and support through this pin!

Toy I decided to create a badge people could have as a keepsake and/or use for cosplay. This actually can be turned into a small pin too. This badge could also be put on a necklace.

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T-shirts I wanted to create a T-shirt for each character to display their own abilities. Fans can also pick their favorite characters. I created one shirt with the series logo on it so fans can show their love for the whole series.

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Typography I wanted to create the typeface for the book since I began to grow an interest in typography and wanting to make my own. I drew inspiration from fantasy books in my bookshelf and my fantasy book cover Pinterest board. I first sketched out the look I wanted in my notebook. Then I headed over to Illustrator to create it. It did not go over well the first attempt. As you see the second attempt is way better, after all I ended up using grids to aid me to make sure everything was even. I used the rectangular tool and created flourishes and serifs from there with the pen tool. I also played with stroke widths using the width tool. On the right, you can see all the letters I created. I did not create all of them since I did not need to.

From this ugly thing

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To this beautiful thing

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Thank You! @dounia_sabah_

References “A Brief History of Publishing - SparkPress - Publishing.” SparkPress, 7 Jan. 2019, gosparkpress. com/a-brief-history-of-publishing/.

“History of Publishing.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica. com/topic/publishing.

“How Marketing Has Changed Over The Years: Article.” Amplify, 20 Apr. 2018, www.aimg.com/ blog/marketing-changed-years/.

Smith, Sandra Poirier. “4 Book Promotion Strategies That No Longer Work.” BookBub Partners Blog, 19 Oct. 2020, insights.bookbub.com/4-book-promotion-strategies-that-no-longerwork/.

Agents of Magic: The Process Join me on an adventure and discover how Agents of Magic came to be!

Women, especially in the fantasy genre are often shown in sexualized and unrealistic clothing. What kind of message is that to women and little girls?

Men are always clad in armor when women have their stomachs and legs exposed. One slash and they are done for. Is that how you would really enter a sword fight or with any other weapon?

See the process of how I got models, costumes, found the location, took the photos, and created the designs! Discover the old and new ways of book promotion as well!

Empowering Women In Fantastical Ways In Book Promotion.