Amazon drama, spiral-bound formats, AI vs ART, and Chapter 3 comic panels! 😃

Thank you! 🙏🙌 (Wait, what? 0 reviews…yeah 👇)

For over a year, I had been selling my book, Room By Room, on Amazon with the subtitle “A Collection of LEGO® Mini-builds”.  In late June, Amazon randomly decided to yank my title due to “potentially misleading, assumed official brand affiliation … leading to  customer confusion.”  What’s worse, they couldn’t tell me what specifically didn’t meet their guidelines – I had to guess!  After two weeks of revisions and KDP support, I finally changed the subtitle (and cover art) to “Your Unofficial Guide to Custom LEGO® Interiors” with a “Proudly Independently Published” banner across the bottom.  Never mind that I was already following The LEGO Group’s fair play policy and properly using “LEGO®” everywhere; these tweaks made KDP happy.   Yeah, Happy 4th of July.  Now, my reviews have reset to ZERO.

The Amazon drama actually forced me to reexamine the old cover art and available formats on all the platforms (since I basically had to REPUBLISH everything on Amazon, IngramSpark, & my website).  I created a “Premium” version of the paperback on Amazon, which is basically just a better color-quality print on glossy paper (like the hardcover), but in paperback form.  This was a requirement to sell in AU & JP, so I opened it up to everyone. I also spoke with local print shops and will finally have a spiral-bound option available on the website soon.  The major advantage to this format is the book’s ability to lie flat, which, as we all know, is critical when following LEGO® building instructions.  Around Town will also be offered in this format once I nail down the process.  But this will only be available on my website!

Not only did I hear your requests for spiral-bound, but I also listened to feedback for eBook bundles!  You can now get the eBook version for 1/2 off when you buy a print version in a bundle.  I know, a lot of good that does for you now after you own a copy already, but remember, I’m carrying these ideas forward with future books. 😎

If you’ve read this far, good for you.  I know this newsletter isn’t the most interesting thing on the internet; AI is.  That’s all you hear about lately.  Now, being an IT professional, I am really interested in it.  I use it to make some quick social media stuff or automate processes, but when it comes to creating the quality content that I plan on putting in my LEGO® books for sale, I want you to know that I’m not for that.  Jesse and I got into an interesting conversation @Brickworld about AI, and we’ve landed on supporting human-made art and creativity instead.   I bring this up because I wanted to share with you a difficult creative process I just encountered that could’ve been easily solved with AI, but I’m doing it by hand instead, by choice.  The last chapter in the book, Around Town, will feature a mini-comicbook story element chronicling the life of a minifig named “Joey” as he runs “around town”.  So, no spoilers, but take a look at the image above.  This was my prompt to AI on how I wanted the first panel to look.  So, I’m done!  Copy/Paste into the book, right?  Well, no.  Look at how things are built, pieces /prints that don’t exist, or parts that don’t go together.  I know all of you would spot these!  Also, I have to declare on some platforms that I used AI, which could potentially block it from distribution in some retail sites as well as turn off some customers and make them question the validity of the rest of the book.  But this comic style looks really good to me, so I decided to try it myself.

All of those steps look something like this… 👇 

And turns out like this after hours of hard work… 😮

So, what’s the point of this comic book?  Again, no spoilers, but it’s just a fun, unique, and different element to add that helps tie in the last chapter.  You’ll have to purchase Around Town to read the story!  

And why did I spend so much time showing you how the sausage was made?  To justify that disclaimer at the top: “Images are not AI generated.”  Because in this day and age, integrity is everything.

I envision waiting for Around Town to come out must be like waiting for a bus.  You never really know when it’ll show up!  So, I made a little graphic to at least guide us on the route it’ll take.  I hope you enjoy watching its progress as much as I do.  And in case you’re wondering, I’m measuring the back of the bus crossing the “STOP” line as making it to “Publish St.”! 😅