Megalomania Starter kit
A good way to become immortalized is to put one’s thoughts, ideas and creations into print! Before the desktop publishing revolution that was both expensive and difficult, but today almost anyone can publish anything, in any media. It is a democratic access to both tools and venues these days. The same with knowledge – there are Youtube tutorials on all imaginable subjects. The only real obstacle is figuring out what the relevant keywords might be when entering the search terms on Google. Therefore, it can be handy to have at least one piece of reference book to begin with.
You can find the ebook Self-publishing on this site. It is shareware, which means that you only have to pay if you find the information useful, and you can decide the cost yourself. If you don’t want to pay anything, then just enter a zero in the payment field.
The perfect companion to “Self-publishing” is The Hermetic Press “Stylebook”, written by Stephen Minch. Stephen composed it to answer common questions from other authors of magic instructional texts. The entries are in no particular order, and deal with all kinds of grammatical and stylistic snags an author of magic literature can get caught up in.
“Self-publishing” was published 18 years ago, so some information regarding specific software and hardware have become slightly dated. Not a real problem since it is the basic techniques that is taught. One of the tips that is mentioned is the possibility of buying discounted older versions of various software. However, these days you can find a lot of free or Open Source alternatives. Here are a few:
Photoshop alternatives (for raster images)
- Photoshop CS2 – Photoshop CS2 is close to [born]2005[/born] years old, but it have more functions than you’ll ever need. It can be downloaded for free from Adobe’s site.
- Gimpshop – an opensource photoshop alternative based on Gimp.
- Gimp – the most known photoshop alternative there is.
- Seashore (Mac)
- Photoshop Express – Adobe’s online free version of Photoshop.
Illustrator alternative (for vector images)
Vectorization (Tracing – bitmap to vector conversion)
InDesign/Quark Xpress alternatives (for graphic layout)
3D software (to make realistic images of props)
AutoCad alternatives (for blueprints etc.)
Writing
And there you have it – the only starter kit you need. Go forth and publish!
