The Gnomes of New Hope is being pursued as an Internal Project of Image of the Mind Studios. The possibility of that changing is inherent in the design of the management, however, the primary objective is to keep the project moving forward with or without external intervention.
The potential to move into a highly active production schedule now exists, because the Core Creative Materials have reached a stage of completion where the full scope of it's range is not only defined, but certain variable elements are now locked in and are invariable. Having reached that stage of completion is a great relief. What this means is that the portion of the project that is presented before the public - the published goods, are now satisfactorily refined to the point where no major changes will occur. All of those changes revolved around the layout design and corrections to the material.
As I have noted in other posts, most particularly on The Gnomes of New Hope pages and on IMS Publishing blog, there still remains a significant amount of artwork for Illustrations to be completed. I have estimated that the amount of money required to complete those illustrations is approximately $90K. Of course, being that this is the IMS Management page, I don't need to say that I will be seeking to raise these funds from one or more sources. If you are reading this page, you are likely a person of the caliber and nature that you might be able to become am IMS Producing Partner.
That being said, I am still working with Front Money and among other terms, front money returns 300%. If you are capable of providing a minimum of $10K and would like to communicate about investment, please contact me via e-mail at; image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com
The work of preparing the e-Storybook and printing the prototypes of the Hard Copy Series is coming to a conclusion, making the Three Volume, Seven Book Collection available for release to the public, pending completion of the remaining 348 Illustration Panels. I will address the approach to that in another post.
I invite you to explore the other blog sites that discuss the nature and progress of this project where I also comment on how the books will be released. If sufficient capital is not gathered to forestall the release of the products until all the artwork is completed, which would be the preferable approach for marketing and distribution purposes, then we will release the books on a scheduled basis in order to generate the cash flow to pay for the remaining artwork. I am leery about doing this for various reasons and would prefer to secure the $90k required for all the remaining illustration work. But we will do what we have to do.
In terms of Internal Operations; work is continuing to set up the scene shop as the first priority, followed by the metal working capabilities (meaning securing another lather and a decent milling machine). In the midst of setting up the shop, there are numerous facilities issues that need to be address, not the least of which is preparation for the winter season, when operation expenses increase substantially to involve the issues of heating the buildings. My goal is to secure sufficient back-up funds to never have to concern myself with issues of the facilities overhead. Up until this point, the bulk of resources have gone into crafting The Core Creative Materials and publishing. So now that that is coming to a close, hopefully more resources can go toward facilities. Although, printing,binding, inventory, shipping, not to mention marketing and distribution, will still draw resources away from other activities, at least until cash flow is gained from the product line.
Well, that's all for now. AG
