You and me both! But here's the skinny on that. After I finished the Libretto (eons ago), which was taking place in conjunction with writing the music, I realized that publishing a Companion Storybook Edition would be the best way to develop an audience for the show.
Now, I have an extensive background in primarily technical theatre, but also a reasonable amount of performing as well. Performance was never really my goal, not seriously enough to make that a primary activity. Anyway, I have witnessed my share of costly mistakes in theatre. Not-the-least-of-which are shows that have a huge amount of energy in production but not enough of audience development. This leads to, at most, a two week run. The really sad thing about this is that, without a plan to move on, the crew of a limited run show disperses. Once that happens, it's very unlikely that the show will get mounted again, at least not without great difficulty.
It used to be said that recoupment of a show takes 21 weeks. That's five months! That's assuming everyone is properly paid and the show is mounted with professionals, not a bunch of volunteers, a sour subject for me.
So, the investment in mounting a show, especially a musical is substantial, before anyone steps foot on a stage, let alone performs before an audience.
Thus, utilizing every method to garner support for the endeavor is necessary, even critical. But more than that, it requires very careful balancing of the production elements both as a whole (marcocosm) and individually (microcosm).
So, in developing the project, it became clear that a published Companion Storybook would be the best tool for long term development of an audience.
As that Storybook was beginning to be crafted from the Libretto, it became clear that the Libretto itself needed some illustration to assist in visualizing the settings, which would need to be constructed for the stage. Not only settings, but costumes and characters as well. So the process of Illustration began to take place.
Well, that helped to fill out the Libretto, which only required an occasional illustration as reference. But as the Storybook began to take shape, another dilemma arose. How many illustrations should be in an Illustrated Storybook? After due consideration, I determined that every page of the Storybook needed some kind of artwork. Ha! Little did I know that the combination of making room for the artwork, embellishing in the basic story of the stage show and including the lyrics of the music, would create a Graphic Novel that would encompass seven books totalling 766 pages!
Even less did I realize that; with the complexities and magnitude of the publishing layout and multiple computer hard disc failures, the completion of this endeavor would extend over a twenty-five year period. It's now 2022 and this started in 1997. Of course, over that period, quite a bit more than just a Graphic Novel was developed.
But the publishing layout is virtually completed, only requiring final completion and insertion of missing illustrations, which is underway.
So, the biggest issue right now is a release schedule. Many alternative approaches to releasing the books have been considered. It gets down to holding back on the official release until all the books are done, done, with all the finished art in place and at least 1,000 copies of each book are inventoried on the shelf and ready to ship.
Optimally, it would be best to have production underway on all product versions, which, believe it or not, amounts to around forty product lines. And that's only for the published books. There are, literally, dozens of Ancillary Products, either in development or conceived of.
The work of Image of the Mind Studios is focused on development up to and including prototyping. Manufacturing, Marketing and Distribution are critical arenas that are only now being summarily addressed. Engaging with outside agencies for these aspect may be appropriate, given that the proper agreements, which include investment can be brought into play.
As it stands now, Books One through Three are complete and are being published, as Limited Edition Hand-stitched Books. Books Four, Six and Seven are almost complete, requiring relatively few illustrations. Book five is a bit more of a challenge because it consists of "The Gnomic Tales" a collection of five other stories that are comprised of the backstory to "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" .
All of the finished books are being inventoried in expectation of the release of the full collection. Orders for the Hand-stitched Books will be taken (for now Book One), however release is not yet determined, as numerous registrations need to take place first. Absolutely, Book One can be Released at any time, since it is an Introduction and can stand on it's own. But Books Two thru Seven are interdependent, meaning they need to all be complete and capable of being offered as a boxed set.
I will address more details of this at another time.
I welcome dialogue and I will be moving to establish and secure The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture. For that organization, I will be seeking to establish a Vested Board of Directors and I will be turning all of the Worldwide rights over to that Joint Venture.
AG
image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com
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