FAQ

• When will we get the Tiffany short story?

  Now that that bonus goal is officially reached, it's certain you will get the Tiffany short story.  Not instantly, though -- what this funding means is that I can afford to take the time to begin working on it.  But as soon as I finish, you'll get to see it.

  Obviously, my highest priority is the regular updates.  You guys earning the five extra updates next week means I'm going to need to speed up the pace of those a bit.  And I've got bonus sketches to complete!  :D  So I have quite a bit of extra work ahead of me, and I'm going to rebuild those five weeks of backlog first before beginning extra pages.

  I'd like to complete the Tiffany short story and begin posting it in December.  If that isn't possible, my goals may shift.  But within a year sounds entirely feasible to me.

  In case we reach the Kendra short story (and/or the Rhea short story): I will not begin working on this until after I finish the Tiffany short story.  So I have no idea about these timeframes.  But as soon as I possibly can, obviously!

  Last updated: Wednesday May 16, 8:57pm EDT
• What can you tell me about the size and format of the print editions?

  The printed manga chapters are 8.5 inches wide by 11 inches tall, and (like magazines or a comic book) are folded with two staples for the binding.  8.5 inches by 11 inches is the finished size (the paper they are printed on is 17 inches by 11 inches in size), so they're a little bit taller than your average magazine.

  The covers of the first four chapters, and short stories, are the same type of paper as the internal pages.  (This is normal paper weight, what you'd usually see.)  I was unhappy with the printers I was using after chapter four, so I tried a new one with chapter five, and they printed the cover of this one on thick cardstock.  That printer moved locations soon afterwards, and their customer service was not stellar, so I moved to a third printer for chapter six.  That one gave chapters six and seven very nice covers that are glossy.  I was highly pleased with this, and their ink quality, and so I consider them the best I've worked with so far.  It's likely that chapter eight (and the rest, ideally) will be the same, since I'd like to stick with this new printer permanently.

  The book is printed through Createspace, so the covers are thick, and the internal pages are cream.  The book is 6 inches wide by 9 inches tall, so it's just a bit bigger than your average trade paperback (which is 5.5 x 8 inches), but still one of the standard sizes in publishing.

  Last updated: Wednesday Apr 25, 6:34pm EDT
• How about book length?

  Black Magic Academy is about 150 pages.  (It's actually exactly 150 pages, but that's counting the six in the front before the first chapter begins.)  Word count-wise, it's 36,000 words -- which is short (by comparison: most books aimed at young adult or middle grade audience are about twice that length).

  I think it has as much plot as your average book of 60,000-80,000 words; I just tend to feel the shortest amount of time you can take to tell a story effectively is the best way.  But of course, not everybody agrees with this.  I have a friend who thinks I write things way too briefly.  ;)

  (At its longest, Black Magic Academy was a whopping 120,000 words, by the way.  I trimmed out loads of dead weight, and I think that makes it a MUCH better story.)

  The manga chapters weigh in at 24-32 pages.  The shortest is Chapter Four, with 20 comic pages; the longest is Chapter Five, with 30 comics pages.  They're all a mulitiple of 4 as far as page count, and they all have at least one bonus comic page.

  Last updated: Thursday Apr 26, 3:58am EDT
• What kind of things are in the bonus pages?

  There are three types of bonus pages.

  Every chapter has exactly one bonus page of the first variety: a one-page, canon-but-not-necessary scene from the story.  It's always the first bonus page, after the commentary.  And it's often funny.  I use these for flashbacks, continuations of conversations that keep going off-screen, or (in most cases) just plain fun scenes that weren't crucial to the plot and only needed one page.

  Since each print edition needs a multiple of 4 pages, if I have leftover space after this, I fill this with one of the other two types of bonus pages.  The rest of the extra space is split between these types equally.

  The second type of bonus page is when I do some in-character writing.  I choose the font to match a character's handwriting, I create a signature for them, and I draw a picture of them in the process of writing whatever-it-is.  Some are long and informative, such as Kendra's "Unsent Letter," or Rhea's propaganda tract "A History of the Infestation Known as Magical Girls."  Others are very simple and silly, like Chronos's "How to Regain Peace and Quiet," or Felicity's terrible poem obsessing about Daniel.

  My third type of bonus page is usually preferenced by "Emily's Sketchbook Presents . . ."  These are silly one-page bonus comics based around things in reality.  Some of them are about working on the story ("Somewhere Around the Fifteenth Draft," "The Writing Process," "Blasted Backgrounds," and "Too Many Ideas"); others are about silly things that have to do with me, my friends, and my family ("Dream Pets," "The Perseid Pig," "Nine-Month-Old Distraction," and "Toddler-Speak").

  If you'd like to see how many bonus pages each chapter has, you can see a complete list:

  http://worldpeace.emilymarthasorensen.com/store.html

  "Bonus Comic" means the canonical one-page extra comic that is in every chapter; there is always one of these.  "Bonus Page" means it is one of the other two varieties; there can be anywhere from zero to three of these, depending on how much extra space needed filling.

  Last updated: Wednesday May 16, 8:32pm EDT
• What are the Chapter Eight bonus pages?

  The bonus comic is called "Overhearing."  It's a humorous scene that happens in Chapter Eight off-screen.

  The bonus page is "Toddler-Speak."  It's based on real, true, yes-these-really-happened (in some cases, to my great exasperation) things.

  The back cover shows two characters from Chapter Eight.  I call it "Guard Duty."

  Last updated: Wednesday May 16, 8:32pm EDT
• Hey, what's okay to request for the bonus sketches?

  Let's say: up to two characters from any of my stories, keep it clean, and don't expect any backgrounding -- though I may do it if I reaaaaally feel like it, or I think the picture needs it.  I'll probably spend more time on polishing if it's just one character featured, but I'm cool with drawing two characters interacting.

  So there's a lot of flexibility.  Here are some potential ideas --

  - A scene from the past or the backstory.  (For instance: Wings of Justice team pose, Florence's evil boyfriend two years ago, Kendra versus a previous arch-nemesis, anything Tiffany . . .)
  - A character design or costume design for somebody.  (For instance: Kendra's mom as a magical girl, the Wings of Justice pre-power-up costumes, Chronos and Rhea as kids, Chronos and Rhea's parents . . .)
  - Non-spoilerific future scene.
  - A concept for somebody's transformation scene.
  - Any two characters interacting.

  I'll draw up to three characters if it just ought to be that way (like a Wings of Justice team pose), or if the character designs are fairly easy (like a request with characters of A Magical Roommate).  And I'll probably use these as TopWebComics voting incentives eventually, so feel free to come up with something you don't think anybody else will be requesting.

  Last updated: Monday May 21, 7:00pm EDT