Pre-made #Cover Sale! #scifi #fantasy #romance #art #bookcover

My uber-talented, fabulous editor and cover designer Danielle Fine is having a sale on her pre-made covers. All the covers featured HERE are $50, and there's a bigger discount if you schedule a book for edits too ($30). AND a couple of random lucky customers could even get their chosen cover for FREE! Seriously, you need to grab these quick. Here are a few of my own favourites to show you:

The covers she's created from me have placed in contests and books she's edited for me have won awards.

If you need more convincing than that and the handful of covers I've shared above, go read the testimonials on her site HERE.
The sale is on until the end of May. Well, go on!

Judging A Book By Its Cover - #EPIC #Ariana 2016 #finalists

I am so excited to announce I got notification this morning that two of my book covers (and therefore two of my cover artists) are finalists in EPIC's 2016 Ariana cover awards. Woot! Congrats to Victoria Miller (my former Breathless Press artist) for my superhero romance When Dark Falls, and to Danielle Fine (who has created so much of my beautiful artwork from covers to marketing images, banners, and posters) for time travel romance Keir. Much deserved, ladies, and thank you!

News, News, and more News...

Last week was unbelievable! And I mean in a good way, before anyone thinks this is going to lead off into one of my rants. Sorry to disappoint anyone there... :-P

So what came first?

On Saturday 11th August we added to our family with three bantam pekins - Scoop (blue), Tails (buff) and Blaze (lavender). Yes, the kids named them. Could you tell?

Tails, Blaze and Scoop

They're settling in nicely, and already happy to take food from our hands. By next week we should be able to let them scratch around in the garden and handle them more. This breed is especially easy to tame and pet, although it will be a few more weeks before we get any eggs.

The second arrival was my first print copy of Keir in time for the story's third anniversary. I've said it before - I love digital and I love my Kindle, but there's still magic in holding a print copy of your book, perhaps especially when it's your first. I have to say a huge thank you to my publisher, Lyrical Press Inc., for deciding to offer it in print. As it's also Keir's third anniversary, I currently have two giveaways running for a paperback edition to celebrate. One is via Goodreads, and you can see the widget for entering to your left in the side bar. This is open until the 17th September. The second is on my blog and is only open until the 29th August - just comment here telling me how you'd most like to celebrate a special occassion and whether you'd like it signed. As a bonus you'll also get a bookmark. Both giveaways are open INTERNATIONALLY. But if you can't wait and want the paperback now, The Book Depository currently has it at a discount and ships worldwide.

The third surprise was something I'd been waiting on and mentioned in my post at the Spacefreighters Lounge last Wednesday. Having received a request for the full manuscript after querying with a partial, my YA scifi novella Gethyon has now been contracted to Champagne Books under their science fiction/fantasy imprint Burst. Woo hoo! Not only has this laid to rest one of my lingering doubts that somehow Keir was a one-off, but I've already had such a warm welcome from the publisher and my new fellow authors that it's blown me away. Champagne was recommended to me by friend, fellow author and SFR Brigader Misa Buckley, who not only has books contracted with Champagne but is also responsible for some of the gorgeous covers on their books. I need to say a huge thank you to her for pointing me in their direction.
BTW, this isn't the official cover to Gethyon but something I mocked up when considering self-publishing it. I will, of course, do a formal cover reveal when I have it, and currently Gethyon has a projected publication date of June 2013.

But that still isn't all. Oh, no. I received my first piece of FAN ART! Well, a piece of artwork that my wonderful friend John Robson commissioned, based on his interpretation of the opening scene in Keir and the talents of artist Jonathan Moore. Not only is it a beautiful piece of art that really captures the essence of that scene, but I'm overwhelmed by the thought of someone taking the time to do this, and fascinated to see how my descriptions are being seen. This is one of the biggest compliments I've been paid as a writer.

I have to say I'm especially pleased with the depiction of Quin. With Keir being on the official book cover, I felt she was missing out a little. :-P

In the meantime, my book trailer for Keir is up on the You Gotta Read site and I'd really appreciate some votes! Thursday I'm off to see Essens:1 perform live at the Edinburgh Fringe, and will finally get to meet Ian Peaston - eclectic violinist, scifi author, and someone who helped to inspire me on the road to publication. It's been three years since we met on Facebook, but this will be our first meeting for 'real'. And my first time on a plane in 15 years. And on my own. Eeek!

So while I'm flying high, shedding tears of happiness, and bouncing off the walls with excitment, do you think I have time for anything else? Of course not. But that doesn't mean I don't have anything to do. I'm still on target for finishing my campnanowrimo project, even though for the last couple of days I don't really know how I've come up with the daily word count needed. Reading some of it back this morning, I found myself thinking that perhaps it doesn't suck as much as I thought, but there's a long way to go yet. When Dark Falls, even if I complete the 50K for nanowrimo, will definitely be on the project list for next year. My projects for the rest of this year are:

1.Continuing to promote Keir.
2.Editing, and preparing the promotion for Gethyon.
3.Keeping the monthly Amazon tag parties going on the SFR Brigade blog.
4.Finishing the edits on Keir's sequel and submitting asap.
5.Preparing Tethered for submission.

Those are pretty major goals for the last four months, but all necessary. Of course that's not all I'll be doing. One thing I've learned about being published is once you start rolling, you can't stop. Onward!

Libraries, Lattes and Art

Okay, I know the title might seem a bit of a mixture, but it WILL make sense...eventually. And there's some valid points. Anyway...

First, a confession. I very rarely go to the library. <ducks hail of sharp objects> This despite the fact that not only does Colchester have a large main library, but also several smaller branches, one just a ten minute walk from my home. You see, I'd rather OWN the books I like to read than borrow them. My groaning book shelves bear witness to this sin of hoarding paperbacks. With my newly discovered love for my Kindle, that problem has been alleviated by my latest books all being digital now (yes, I'm aware there is some debate over whether you actually 'own' a digital copy of a book. I've heard about Amazon deleting titles from Kindle accounts. But that's diverting from my main topic today). In all honesty the last three times I've been to my local library has been to make use of their computers or their free Wi-Fi. Ironically, my last but one visit was to use the free Wi-Fi to register my Kindle, the device now most responsible for my lack of library visits. Other than that, my visits have been for research - to see what speculative fiction titles are around and whether my own works fit in with anything else currently available.

But today is the last day before a week's half term school holiday, so I made a trip into town to enjoy my last morning of freedom. Yes, I should be writing/editing. I will....later. I had errands to run, and two reasons to visit the main library. Firstly, a local artist called Claire Heaton has a small exhibition there. I'm a huge fan of Brian Froud's fairies - the man responsible for the Goblins in Labyrinth and the Gelflings in The Dark Crystal, two of my all-time favourite films. I prefer his version of fairies compared to the Disney variety. They're more elemental in feel. And Claire Heaton's work runs on a similar vein. 

I loved them! Now if only I can sell enough copies of my book to buy one. If you'd like to see some (and Colchester library is outside your range) you can find her at www.claireheatonart.com. 

The second reason I went there was for some research - again.Colchester main library is a large, two storey building, but an awful lot of it is no longer taken up by books. It has a reasonable sized music and DVD selection, a huge childrens' library with play area where they hold story time, a cafe, a heck of a lot more computers than I remember from my last visit, a large room devoted to the history of Colchester (it IS a historic town after all), a small area given over to the display of Claire Heaton's artwork...and the rest is books. Not a huge amount of books, to be honest.


I can understand that to a degree - the library is trying to adapt to changing trends, hence the large number of computers and additions like the cafe. More and more people are doing their research on computers. Ereaders are becoming more popular. The library has got to offer more or sink.


But the speculative fiction section depressed me. Science fiction and fantasy share one entire shelving unit, one side each. Horror also has a side to itself, but a third of that is taken up by urban fantasy/paranormal works. Looking at the science fiction alone, I became even more depressed. Most is hard scifi - dark, techy stuff. Don't have a problem with that - I have and still do read that. There were six Neal Asher books, five of which I already own. One entire shelf was Doctor Who. Star Trek and Star Wars also had a shelf each. Various incarnations of Stargate and Primeval novels shared a fourth shelf. There were no Jaine Fenn books (sob!). No Linnea Sinclair. There were a dozen Anne McCaffrey books, some co-written with her son or another author and none of which I've read - I stopped reading them after the last book in the Crystal Singer trilogy. I could be wrong, but after picking up a few I found the blurbs all read as more Young Adult stories than the adult sfr I'd always associated with her. None of the authors I have gotten to know, read and love since I began the whole publication process were anywhere to be seen. Not so surprising I guess when most of them are published through predominantly digital small press publishers, and in the States too, but it left me feeling a little lost. Maybe I'm too out of touch, at least with the scifi scene in the UK. Maybe because while science fiction romance is fighting for recognition in the US, it's still unheard of here. I couldn't see anywhere on that shelf that I felt my own work would fit in. Not that I have any illusions that I'll be big enough to warrant making a shelf in the library. (Yet. I add the 'yet' as I'm ever optimistic, yet still try to be realistic. That's a balancing act in itself).

The romance section was no better. It had an entire shelving unit to itself, but mostly for a ton of identical looking Mills and Boon style books. Mostly contemporary, a handful of historical. But again, my book wouldn't fit in there.

Out of curiosity (a morbid one at that) I visited my local branch on the way home. Here, all the speculative fiction shares one side of a shelving unit. Doctor Who rated half a shelf (I think the children's library upstairs also has DW titles). Only two Neal Asher books, one of which I own. One Jaine Fenn book (Yay! Although I own all of her titles already). Most of the horror section was again paranormal/urban fantasy. Probably a fair selection for a small local branch, but it left me sighing. So this is one reason I don't go to the library. Now I have a Kindle, I can go to Amazon, check out the blurb and the first few pages if something catches my eye, and have the entire book to devour in a couple of minutes. I just don't have a reason to go to the library. And I feel bad about that, when I've always loved books so much. So much so that I write them too. I just hope the libraries can keep coming up with ways to pull people in. Like the art exhibition and story time for children. Because I would hate to see them go.


Oh, and the latte? My treat for walking into town and back again (a good hour's fast-paced walk) is a coffee at Slice who make a decent cup without charging Starbuck size prices, and with homemade soups to die for. Told you it would all make sense. :-P

Are you ready? Keir is coming...

So this morning I woke to find this pretty waiting in my inbox. What a way to greet Monday! My totally awesome and fabulous publisher made this banner for me, and I'm blown away. It's gorgeous. Not only is it gorgeous, but it's up on the Lyrical Press site here. Did I mention how much I love my publisher? Renee Rocco's cover designs were one of the (many) deciding factors when I chose Lyrical Press to submit to, and when I see something like this it just confirms my choice absolutely. 

Just two weeks from today, Keir will be out. My book will be available to buy. I'm so excited and yet a little nervous. Will people like it? Will they enjoy it? I really hope so. One reason I write is because I want to share the stories in my head with the world, and I hope that even just a handful of people get some enjoyment from them too. 

Keir is coming. Are you ready? :)

Tour dates and places

May 1st-14th
1st - guest post on Writing Demons into Science Fiction with Chantal Halpin
2nd - guest post on Casting Keir with Lauri Owen and interview on the TBR blog
3rd- guest post on Tattoos at Kerrianne Coombes blog
4th - guest post on Time-Travel with Gayle Ramage
5th - SFFSat
6th - SSS
7th - official release day on this blog and announcement on SFR Brigade blog.
8th - interview up at The Galaxy Express and guest post on Naming Keir at Layna Pimentel's blog.
9th - guest post on why Keir is oh so blue on the Spacefreighters Lounge and guest post on Falling into SFR at Backward Momentum
10th - guest post with Misa Buckley on Doctor Who
11th - guest posts with Kaye Manro on Science Fiction with a Medieval Twist and Laurel Kriegler on the Origins of Quin
12th - SFFSat
13th - SSS
14th - guest post with Liana Brooks on Red Hair and an interview with Jessica Subject

15th - The draw will take place for all the prizes offered on the tour and winners will be notified.

Addicted to BuddyPoke

If you haven't heard about these, then I'm just going to look completely crazy. Hmmm, maybe rephrase that - crazier? BuddyPoke is an app on Facebook for creating the cutest little avatars/cartoon characters EVER! I'm afraid to say I've been having far too much fun playing with them. In some respects I'm not very artistic - I certainly can't draw my own characters, not to the degree I'd like to. So this has given me the opportunity to bring them partially to life.

So, meet Keir ...

...and Quin

Or at least close approximation of them. Sadly you can only have one per Facebook profile (yes, I have two. I write under a pseudonym, so one account is for family and close friends, and the other for all the awesome writer peeps I know). But what I didn't know at first is that they can interact!

So here are my two MCs admiring the stars

and, well, let's just say it's not all watching the stars...

This is Tyree, a Su assassin and my latest creation, the MC from Tethered.

And Gethyon from my scifi novella of the same name.

Have you ever used an app to bring your characters to life? Are you more artistically gifted than me and sketch them out? Or do you just find images that come a close second to what you can see in your head?

Working on promo stuff

For me, the marketing side of being an author had come the hardest. I am not a salesperson, unless you count the tons of eBaying I used to do, and the odd car boot sale (for my US buddies unfamiliar with the term that's like a garage sale, but we do it out in a field usually, hundreds of us all flogging junk from the boots of our cars). Learning that I not only have to promote my book(s) but myself as well came as a bit of a shock.

It also seems like pretty much any kind of marketing and promotional items have been done to death. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the promotional items I've seen. I'll happily collect bookmarks if they're pretty. Postcards too. Fridge magnets tend to fall victim to my youngest child, often vanishing under the fridge until years later when we buy a new one. Sadly if they're of the paper/card variety they don't survive the interim. Bags and T-Shirts seem a step too far - certainly too expensive for my budget! If I'm going to pay out hard cash, I'd rather spend it on some decent advertising.

I've been blessed with a stunning cover, so creating a bookmark was an automatic must (but I asked my publisher's permission first!). I have a cunning plan you see...but I'm not giving that one away, mwah-ha-haaaaaa! Er, sorry... I've had a printing company recommended to me - sadly in the US (I'm in the UK) and their shipping costs to me were downright heinous! $83! Luckily I have a good friend there who will ship them to me if I send them direct to her for about a tenth of that. Another fabulous author told me that he prints his own and laminates them an A4 sheet at a time (after autographing them), and then cuts them up. I'm going to give that a try too. Well, as soon as I've bought myself some card and a laminator. :)

An idea I came up with when the SFR Brigade were looking for promotional ideas/swag was for an sfr charm bracelet, so I did a little research and even made one of my own. I'll be making one, or maybe more than one, specific to Keir at some point.

The other thing I wanted was a business card. I could just hand out bookmarks (since they'll have my blogsite address on them anyway) but I wanted something that related more to me than just my book. I mean, hopefully at some point I'll have more than just the one book to my name. I do have a short story I published myself although I probably haven't done as much as I could to promote that. Right now, everything is centering pretty much on Keir alone.

I'm not entirely sure about it yet. Just putting 'author' doesn't seem quite right, although the 'weaver of words' may be a little OTT. I need to play with it some more. I did think of using the banner from the blog, but since that's a free image I'm not sure I'm allowed. Also that bright glow in the middle makes it hard to place text that will show up. Something with a general sci-fi theme is enough for me I think.

So how are you finding the promotional side of being an author? Did you have a marketing plan set up beforehand? Did you have any idea it was coming? If you have any tips you'd like to share, please do so! :)

2011

At the end of 2010, I started to write a post about my non-resolutions for 2011, but never published it. As 2011 draws to a close and I'm clearing out drafts of blog posts that never 'made it', I came across my aims for the year just past. It made for interesting reading, in terms of what I'd achieved, so I thought I'd share. :)


Plans - I already had two book reviews to write, was awaiting feedback from my two critique partners on my unpublished SFR (Keir) before doing a final edit and polish, and needed to write a blurb, synopsis and query letters for submission. I'd signed up for a university course to start in the October and run through to February 2011. I had ideas for a dark fantasy, and wanted to write a scifi novella. I also had two sequels written to Keir badly in need of editing, another sequel half written with vague ideas for a fifth, and a promise to edit a fellow author's second book.

Results - The book reviews weren't completed until February/March time, but they were done and more besides over the year. The edits on Keir took longer than expected, and then the whole submission was delayed because I submitted the first 500 words to a critique contest and had it ripped to shreds. My confidence was destroyed, and so I didn't submit Keir until June. In the meantime I managed to write and self-publish a scifi short story on Smashwords - The Bones of the Sea - tied into the same universe as Keir. I was also asked to guest post about my short by Laurie A. Green on the Spacefreighters Lounge blog.

I passed my university course in March. I wrote and edited my first scifi novella - Gethyon - and had it ready to submit at the same time as Keir. I finished the dark fantasy - No Mercy - and submitted it for a short story competition in June, after which time I had further ideas to expand the 5K short into a novella at a later date. I read, critiqued and proof-read my friend's book which came out in July - Blowing Embers, a paranormal/fantasy romance by Lauri J Owen.

Keir received the offer of a contract from Lyrical Press Inc (squeeee!) in June, with a projected publishing date of May 2012, and I finished my first round of edits in time for the 12th August deadline. Gethyon received a revise and resubmit request (another squeee!), and work on that took me into mid-August, with a promise for feedback from a fellow author in September. In partnership with Lauri, we took it upon ourselves to compile and maintain a list of book reviewers, now over 170 strong.

My second university course was due to start in October, a far more intensive one than the previous which would have taken me into June 2012. However, as the study material arrived I discovered that the diploma I had been aiming for was being replaced by another that not only required twice as many credits, but also in different subjects to those I'd chosen to study. As a consequence I quit the course. In September, I FINALLY began to edit Keir's sequel - Lost Serenity - despite struggling with the MS for some time. I had one of those eureka moments, where I could see how to change a major element of the story and improve the whole. Book Three - Shadowcast - still awaits edits, and Book Four - Seekers of the Nine - is still incomplete. However, I have made inroads into rewriting the very original prequel to the Traveller Series, including a new title, and started one scifi novella and another short chronicling Quin's early travels.

My edits arrived from my editor at the start of November and WOW was there a lot to do! I was given two weeks but eventually had to ask for three to complete it. It also raised huge doubts over doing any further work on the series.Thank goodness I wasn't doing my course though! Gethyon got a rejection but went out on submission again. If all else fails, I'm thinking of self-publishing it. My fantasy short didn't get placed in the competition and has been put aside for future work - again, I may expand it to novella length and either submit or self-publish.I've just finished and submitted an SFR short for a fellow author's anthology. I've also worked on a scifi short to self-pub in the New Year - Samaritan - and even have the cover half done. A fellow scifi author has offered to trade tweaking the cover for a beta read. :D Keir now has cover art and a release date of 7th May 2012.

In summary - I hadn't set myself very much for the year. I'm not sure if that was because of time constraints - I have three young children on top of writing and studies - or because I had such little confidence in what I could physically complete. I don't think I always make the best use of my time, but going by how much I did actually get done this year, I'm pretty impressed with myself. Of course now I'll have an inflated idea of what might be accomplished next year. :(

So how did you do on your goals for the year? Do you believe is setting yourself resolutions, or letting Fate have her way? :)

Do you judge an Author by their book cover?

I have to say, I ALWAYS judge a book by its cover. It's the first thing you see. In most cases with a new book, it's the first thing that attracts me, that gets me to pick it up and read the blurb, unless I've already decided on the title because of reviews or recommendation. The cover has to at least grab your attention for those few seconds your eyes skim over the thumbnail on Amazon or the shelf of your local bookshop.

But something occurred to me this weekend after several differing reactions to my cover. Not only might my book be judged by my cover, but would I be as well? The thought came as a bit of a shock.
Now, I love my cover. I think it perfectly captures the mood of my male MC and the story itself. Some people have found it a little...well...racy perhaps? More naked than they were expecting? Generally that's been well-received (predominantly by my female friends, which comes as no surprise!). It is not, I will admit, probably a cover to attract male fans.

Now that's a bit of a conflict for me. I have never written with a target audience in mind - I follow that adage of writing the book I wanted to read - so I guess that would make my main audience, intended or not, scifi lovin' women like me. At the moment I have a straight scifi story out on sub, whereas Keir is a scifi rom, so the cover's going to reflect that. But does it mean people will view ME in a certain way? Will they take one look at my cover, and decide the kind of person I am?

Does it matter? And should it? I'm a pretty modest kind of person, but I think Keir is a damn good story and I'm proud of it. I know there are going to be people who won't like it. I get that. Honestly I do. I know I can't please everyone, and I'm not going to twist myself in knots trying doing so. For those who don't like romance, I'll have straight scifi coming out - I already have a free scifi short out that isn't the least romantic, and another I hope to release next year.

But the thing is, I don't get to chose the cover. A lot of people, especially the non-writing ones, probably don't realize that's how it works with a publishing contract. I had a form to fill out of the kind of thing I had in mind, but I get no say. I can ask for changes to be made, but in essence the cover is decided by the publisher.

So do you find that people judge you by your covers? Has it ever come up? Perhaps I'm just being too paranoid about the whole thing!

Six Sentence Sunday #41

Hello peeps! Welcome to another #sixsunday. Thanks to everyone who stops by and comments each week, much appreciated. Last week we were with Gethyon as he arrived home, but later that morning I got a nice surprise in my inbox - the cover for my first full length science fiction romance. Squee! So this week I'm going to share my beautiful cover and the six opening lines from Keir, due out on the 7th May 2012. Enjoy!

In the darkness and the silence, Keir sat with teeth gritted against the pain racking his body. With each ragged breath he sought to shift his focus from the agony of ribs that were surely broken. He tried not to feel the ache in his head where his hair lay matted with blood against his scalp. The cell's damp seeped through his rags and into his skin until he throbbed with the cold. He clenched his fists against the shakes that possessed him and wished he could force them still.

Wordlessly he raged against the injustice of it all, as though the anger could keep his life burning when all it really did was waste his energy, hastening the end.

© 2009-2011 Copyright Philippa J. Green All Rights Reserved

Please check out the other awesome authors participating by clicking on the banner below. :)

A Very Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year!

Riding the Wave

Several things have happened over the last couple of days that have really hit home the reality that I'm a soon-to-be-published author. After three rounds of edits, Keir feels like a whole new book, and much stronger for it. The essence is still there, the heart of it still intact, but it's been polished up and revamped. The flaws have been smoothed out. It's a good feeling.

But Sunday I got a wonderful new present delivered to my inbox. My cover! Oh, it was a shock at first. I had to stare at it for a while, leave the computer, have a little wander round and then come back. And then I knew. I loved it! It was dark and brooding, like my MC. It was clean and simple. Perhaps not the Keir I had in my head, but the guy on the cover is very...er...VERY nice, and I can see him as my MC. He is missing his tattoos, but there are limits with photo stock images, and I understand that. As soon as I got permission to flaunt it you can bet I did just that! Here it is -

But it's not just the fab artwork. It's seeing the title in lovely, flowing script. The tag lines that I came up with stamped on the cover. And most of all, it's seeing MY NAME on it, with the publisher's logo. It makes it real in a way that the contract didn't. That even the edits didn't. This isn't just some picture that I've put together in my spare moments for a bit of fun, or a poster off the internet. This is the real deal, a proper book cover from MY publisher, with MY name on it as author. It's a beautiful symbol of all the work I've put in, all the tears and moments of doubt, all the voices inside and out saying I couldn't do it. I have done it, and the cover is there to prove it.

And then there was more! Tuesday morning I got a tweet from Lyrical Press. My gorgeous cover was up on their 'Coming Soon' page for all to see. Not only that, but my name and author bio are up on the site too. I'm officially and publicly Pippa Jay, author of Keir, with Lyrical Press Inc. Oh, man, that's such a great feeling!

There's still a long way to go. More edits. More forms. More steps along the way. I've been compiling lists of useful information for the lead up to release day. I'm doing a New Year blog hop and a guest post on the 18th. I just got my first author interview too! As the year draws to a close, I know the first few months of 2012 are probably going to be the most hectic so far. Would I have it any other way? Hell, no! :D

Self-publishing - The Mechanics #2

Last time I shared my experience with two POD companies and the options they offered on cover design and formatting. This time I'm going to look at the artwork and software I've used to create covers.

There are numerous companies that sell images and photographs - type it into a search engine and you'll find them. The one I've used is dreamstime.com although I've also been looking at fotolia.com recently. Again, dreamstime was recommended to me by a friend, and has been an invaluable source of images and inspiration for me. They even have a section of free images for use on blogs, and for those of us who don't have the budget for commissioned artwork, they are a reasonable alternative. Virtually every image on this blog is from there, aside from the odd personal photograph or those donated by friends.

But a great image isn't necessarily enough. I originally bought two beautiful images to use as potential book covers for a good price with the right to print 500,000 copies (maybe a bit ambitious in terms of actual books, but I can aim high! And there's always bookmarks, business cards etc.)




Both of these images work well as book covers in their own right. But I wanted the ability to do something more, something more creative or ambitious. As a teenager I would often draw images to accompany my stories, but my artistic abilities haven't grown with me, and I find it frustrating that I can't visually display my stories in the same way that I sketch them in literary terms.



Which meant finding software that could do the job. And it had to be free.



So a friend suggested GIMP. It's free to download, but I found it very hard to use. I made one piece of artwork and created the heading for my blog, but that was as far as I could go.





Then I was given a link for a free software trial for creating book covers. Click the link to see my review of Book Cover Pro, but the upshot was that I struggled with it; I found it a little limited and complicated without achieving the results that I was hoping for. Perhaps if I'd been able to devote more time to it during the trial I might have done better, but you can try it out for yourself here.





With the trial expired and the software expensive to buy, I was back to square one.





Then, on a whim, I posted a request via Twitter. I had two responses. One suggested GIMP, which I'd already tried, and the other suggested Aviary Phoenix.Whereas GIMP is a free download, Aviary is based on the website. On first investigation it looked horribly complicated, more so than GIMP, but it did provide some very helpful step-by-step tutorials. So I gave it a try - and failed abysmally. Again, my technical abilities let me down. Even though I followed the steps and re-read carefully, what came up on my screen was nothing like the example given, and I gave up. A more technically-minded friend offered to go back to GIMP and refresh her memory on its use and then take me through it, so I kept my fingers crossed.

But I'm stubborn. Oh, very much so! Being defeated by a piece of software wasn't something I was happy about, so I went back and tried Aviary again. And discovered that on my original attempt I'd messed up the very first step which meant that any others would fail no matter how closely I obeyed the instructions of the tutorial. D'oh!

So now, I can turn these:













into this:













And then with a little work on blurb.com, into this:

OK, it might not look like the cover of the next blockbuster, but the difference is that 'I' made it myself. :)

The down side is that all of this takes time and experimentation, and a little cash to buy the images. However, for someone on a small budget with a few hours to spend on it, it's a more realistic option than commissioning artwork where, even with a stunning and capable artist, their final effort may still not be the image you had in your head.

Have you tried designing your own covers? What did you use and how happy were you with the results? Or did you commission something? I'd love to know, but I hope some of this helps you. :)

Self-publishing - The Mechanics #1

Those of you who have followed me for a while (and thanks for doing so!) will know that, while on the winding path to traditional publication, I've also been investigating the various options on self-publishing. I am, at heart, a traditionalist. I want my book published in the traditional fashion and, failing that, I want to be able to produce hard copies of good quality while offering the option of an e-book download as well. As a newcomer to the whole business, I've run into problems along the way and wanted to share some of my solutions and suggestions. Just to try and make YOUR path a little smoother. :)

So where to start? How about POD services?

A friend directed me to lulu.com and I've used them several times. They are by no means the only company of their kind, but they are one I've used so I'm going to tell you about my experiences with them. They're ok. The quality of the book when printed (I used the trade 6x9 inch standard paperback version, although I've had one hardcover too which is nicer quality) is reasonable. You need very high resolution images for your cover, and I strongly recommend printing off test versions before committing yourself to more than the odd copy. If your image isn't a high enough resolution, you'll get a warning icon come up. And it isn't too difficult to use either - I am not a very technically-skilled person but have managed my way around the designing stage without having to resort to the 'Help' section.

(current cover version with lulu)
Now, I'm not entirely happy with the options lulu gives you on the covers. The text size for the front cover, and especially for the spine doesn't go high enough in my opinion. If you're trying to draw attention to your book amongst all the hundreds of others, and many of them may be well established authors, you need text that calls out and catches the eye. Also, I found it very hard to have the title and my name placed where I really wanted them to be. One way around this is to make your front cover elsewhere with the text already added. There is also a limit on the style of text, but again, if you prepare that part of your cover beforehand, there are other option online for downloading more text styles. I haven't done that myself because I haven't felt the need to - so far.

I've also had a problem with formatting the actual contents of the book. Now, I don't think this is down to lulu, not entirely. I've been using an almost prehistoric version of Works Word Processor which, while it can save documents as .doc, hasn't been completely compatible with other Word software. Also, I wasn't aware of the page break or paragraph formatting options - I just used the space bar or, in extravagant moments, the tab. So the fault most likely is mine. As it was, I found myself having to upload my MS, check how many lines out my chapter headings were, before correcting it on the .wps document and uploading again. Tedious to say the least! It is also worth noting that you should set up your contents and acknowledgement pages as a separate document to be installed at the front of your book. Otherwise, your title page will be numbered as 'one' rather than your opening chapter. As lulu allows you to download a PDF document of your book before printing it off, you can check how it will look before being committed!

As a final note, I will add that the last shipment I had from lulu was damaged. I e-mailed them and they asked for photographs which I duly despatched, and they offered to replace them if I returned them. Unfortunately for me, I had ordered these ones in the US to gain the free shipping and had them sent to a friend who then brought them over whilst on a visit to the UK. So to return them would have cost me more than the printing had. Since Keir has now undergone a major revision, I didn't see the point and chalked the incident up to experience!

So, in general, I would say it's worth trying them out for yourself.

However, I'm currently trying out a new POD service. My husband doesn't take much interest in my literary adventures in much the same way that I don't involve myself in his love of football. Despite that, he was kind enough to take note of a recent interview in which the author had self-published, and a book expert (here my husband's interest in the article faded too much to take note of whom the expert was!) declared the book to be of bookstore quality. The company used was blurb.com. The set up is somewhat different to lulu. Here you download the software to format your cover and book, whereas lulu required you to do so on their site, and then download the cover and contents to view. The Home page is a little confusing and it took me a while to figure out that I NEEDED to download the software in order to create my book, but as I mentioned, I'm not especially bright on the technical side!

However, once past that hurdle, I quite like blurb compared to lulu, although I haven't yet printed a test copy through them. The cover design software is more flexible and has more options. Text placement is still a little limited but not to the degree of lulu's. The first cover here - all black - is a blurb version of my original cover. The second is a completely revamped version which I love, though I'd still like to include the Keir 'face' from my blog - I'm currently working with some software that should allow me to do that!(see the top image for the 'final' version!)





The formatting of the book's content is also more flexible. I can edit the document in situ whereas with lulu you have to download the PDF to 'see' it, and then alter the original document and upload again. However, despite that fact that I now have all my manuscripts in newly-purchased Word 2010 software, there is still a problem. None of my paragraphs are indented, although there is clearly a break between each. This is more than likely due to my inability to make full use of all the formatting options and resorting to the old-fashioned space bar, rather than a fault with blurb.

As I'm still in the process of Keir's 'final' edit, I'm not yet ready to print off a test copy. And as a note, I don't print these copies off to sell but to edit - staring at a computer screen constantly makes me go word blind. Working through a book is easier, and means I can take it anywhere to work on. But when that time comes, I'll let you know how it goes. :)

I'll be posting more about POD and creating covers in the near future, but if anyone has any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment! I'd especially love to hear about anyone's experiences with the POD companies mentioned or that they've used and would recommend or not.

Divine Inspiration

Where do you find your inspiration? Is it already boiling away inside your head? A bolt from the blue? Or a slow and steady brewing as you absorb things from your surroundings?

This is another topic that has come up in my student cafe. Many sources were quoted. Films, books, TV. Radio, conversation, people met and known. Music. Art. Dreams and nightmares. Nature and artifice. Life itself. All perfect ingredients to add to the recipe.

But what about when the inspiration fails? Then what?








Sometimes I'll sit and continue to write, even if it's all gibberish flowing onto the screen or scrawling across the page. Sometimes I know what needs to be written, but simply don't have the enthusiasm to pursue it. Sometimes I have to do it regardless, to force the words to come.





If all else fails, I have three key things that can tempt the inspiration back. A long walk or drive. Listening to music. Searching through images.


A friend recommended Dreamstime to me when I was hunting for a possible book cover as an option for self-publishing. It's a site that specialises in images - photographic and digitally created. (Again, there are other sites that offer the same service and I'm not endorsing this one in any way - it's simply the one I like to use.) Not only has it provided me with a couple of superb images to use for my book, but several others for my blog and Facebook page.




Usually I'm looking for an image that ties in with something already written. Sometimes I'll just type in a random word and then flick through the images until something grabs my attention. Something I like. Something I can use. A few of my favourite pieces have come from a single image that has inspired a train of thought and led me onwards. And the best thing is, even if I don't find something that fires my muse today, who knows what might be on there tomorrow?



So where do you find your inspiration? Do you actively seek it or wait for it to come? Hopefully you might even have found a smidgeon of inspiration here..... :-)