Back on my bullsh*t: Turning fanfiction into paperback books, pt. 1

Fanfiction has a contentious reputation, but I can't deny that it shaped my childhood and who I would become. As an edgy preteen I used to write a ton of Gundam Wing stories before I grew up, got a job, and fell out of the fanfiction community.

Well, after what felt like a lifetime of burnout I'm back, and this time I'm on a mission: to sharpen some editorial design skills by developing long fanfics into retail-ready paperback books.

I wanted to start this project with a completed fic with more than 20 chapters from a franchise I'm currently obsessed with, Persona 5. After cruising Archive of Our Own for a few days, I found 21 Days of Hellfire, an absolutely torturous fanfic in more ways than one. It was relatively new, over 40 chapters long, and had a lot of interesting formatting choices — perfect for a paperback.

I'm, uh...not gonna get into what it was about. iykyk. I blew through 15 chapters in a single night, but it took another week to stomach the whole story. Beware; it gets daaaaark.

After I'd finished, I contacted the fic's author, Discovery, and they gave me the go-ahead to try my hand at turning it into a physical book!

Formatting the manuscript took way less time than I expected. The story alternated between two characters' POVs. I got a little giggle out of delineating POV changes using each character's respective mask at the top of the chapter. Unnecessary, but kind of cute?

My editorial design clients tend to already have a finished cover or at the very least a concept ready to go. I don't have much skill or experience illustrating covers myself, so I'm excited to give this one a try.

Yes, the colors are booboo, but I'm still experimenting. We listen and we don't judge!