Know Anyone Who Draws Like This?

(Tim Warnock)

I'm looking for an artist.

See, I've been slaving away at a novel for...oh...years, now...and while I've queried off and on, and gotten several requests to see more pages, I haven't landed an agent. Now the publishing industry has imploded and I'm done waiting.

I'm going to publish it myself.

No! No! you'll scream. Don't do it!

Believe me, I've said the same thing many times over. Self-publishing is the kiss of death for any novel, right?

Maybe. But I haven't just written a novel; I've created a world that can house many stories. It's our world, but it's different and there's room for plenty of growth. If I hand my novel over to a traditional publisher, they will decide how to market it, pick out the cover, and pretty much control the process from there on out. If the book isn't a huge success, they may decline to publish the rest in the series, leaving me high and dry with a story not fully told.

I want something different. See the pictures up on top of this post? It was made by Tim Warnock, and I love it. I probably can't afford to hire Tim to create the artwork to go along with my novel, but I'm going to find someone who can do a close approximation and together we are going to present this story to the world. I will serialize the novel and publish it online on a site that is so visually stunning that you'll want to return to it just to look at the artwork again. As the story unfolds post by post, the visuals will change from time to time, like the illustrations in a traditional novel.

In time, I may make the website interactive, allowing for readers to post and critique their own stories or artwork, offering editing services, contests, etc. Maybe someday I'll be able to put other authors and illustrators together to publish more books.

I put a call out to artists on ifreelance.com this morning and have received 18 bids for the artwork so far. It's a lot of fun to look at the various artists' work and compare their styles. Over the next few days I'll post in a few other locations. I figure the worst that can happen is I get some killer new artwork for my walls.

Know a starving artist? Send him or her my way.