Paperback vs Digital Book: the creative decisions I made for Wychtown: Demons & Toys
Realized early on that the digital version of my graphic novel Wychtown: Demons & Toys would have to be different from the paperback. Sometimes radically different. Mainly because the digital medium for books is much less forgiving than paper. Image-heavy books need fixed layout and prefer landscape mode. Which meant cutting my paperback pages into thirds and trying to make the text more spare. By that I mean giving the text much more visual space. The one advantage to digital was that I was able to use vibrant background colors.
The disadvantage to digital? The file size problem. My graphic novels are over 300MB. Which exceeds the file limits of most ebook distributors. And, really, who wants to download 300MB? Breaking the massive file down into several manageable files was the sensible thing to do. Which is why the digital version comes in five serialized volumes while the paperback is self-contained.
I suppose the last question is ‘why do a digital version at all?’ Still pondering that one.
In any case, some examples. First image is paperback. The rest are the digital pages I made from the original.
If you’d like to buy a copy, the paperback is available through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CRM4M97. The digital book can also be purchased on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FP577RM. Also Apple Books and Kobo. The link to Apple: http://books.apple.com/us/book/id1581305496. The link to Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-fly-8 #graphicnovel #graphicnovelart
