Your Opinion on Social Media Platforms for Author/Reader interaction Matters
Mornin Friends!
I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to go through this survey about a potential author/reader social media platform Alicia Scarborough & I are brainstorming.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DMS5GHS
Dear Author Friends,
Here is a quick guest post from Claire Fitzpatrick concerning submissions for an upcoming non-fiction anthology she is compiling and editing.
Submissions are open for non-fiction essays and artwork about Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft. Word count is 1500-2000 words. $50 per essay and artwork. Deadline is October 1st. Email submissions to claire.fitzpatrick1991@gmail.com.
I also have a Kickstarter for the book:
Mornin!
I am James Quinlan Meservy,
Fantasy AUTHOR Extraordinaire
(NOT COVER OR IMAGE SPECIALIST IN ANY WAY)
And just my luck, August’s theme is Cover Art, a topic of which I know nothing.
I have bartered for cover art, had my publisher design cover art, but have never created my own cover art, and honestly I don’t know where to begin.
I admit that cover’s are important, but they are not my specialty in any way.
Here is my thoughts on covers. I don’t care.
Personally, I am going to read a book because of the author, the series, because a friend recommended I read something, or because an author requested that I review their book on my blog. That’s it. Covers do not even register on my “I am going to or not going to buy/read this book.”
I have seen some book covers that I’m like, “what is that?” Others where I am like “Awesome cover, horrible book description.”
But, I am in the minority of readers. I know a lot of readers who buy books because the cover looks great, so covers are important, but I am not the one to tell you why, how, or even how much a quality professional cover costs (like I said, I barter for covers).
So, with that, have a great August, and I will do what I can to find some guests to talk about covers, and invite my co-host of this blog, Alicia Scarborough (a Photoshop Sorceress who designs phenomenal covers) to share her insights on the month’s theme.
On all indie author’s budgets. Some covers can be as cheap as $20 and expensive as $400 if you hire someone to design it for you.
Or it can be $0 if you design it yourself… all you need is time… you have plenty of that, right?
Though design is an acquired skill and you must hone it to get the desired results or end up with something that doesn’t give any returns.
As with all skills they require time to practice and with the many hats that you already wear it is easy to understand why one would hire a professional cover designer for their books.
Good question.
Let me ask you this… if you had a choice between these books which one would you choose?
Your eye is probably going towards the one with the pretty pictures, right?
Humans like eye candy. They love seeing and enjoying little bits of art no matter where it is displayed.
A book cover is one way of attracting a potential reader.
If you go with a simple text cover that you designed in a word processing application then it will probably 9 times out of 10 be passed over in favor for a book with a well designed cover.
That’s okay.
Just remember that in exchange you have to spend time to learn how to design your own covers.
If you have access to canva.com then you can design it yourself.
Most of the stuff on canva is free. You might need to snag a few free images off of Pixabay to use in your cover. Please do remember to credit the source of the image.
Take a look at the genre that your book is in and get an idea of what’s on those covers. Take note of the colors too. Colors in every genre matter and will help your book get noticed if you follow the trend.
I’ll note that every genre / category follows trends and you need to be aware of those trends too. You don’t want to create a cover that’s too dated.
As you can see below that canva has a wide array of book cover templates so hopefully you can find one that’ll match your genre or come close to fitting in with the rest of the covers.
Pre-mades are another option…
Yup, if you have a few bucks to spare then you can purchase pre-made book covers for as low as $10 from some designers.
Scour Facebook and Instagram for book cover designer groups because sometimes they’ll have pre-made cover sales and you might be able to snag a great deal.
If you’re tight on time then save up to hire a professional cover designer off of fiverr or buy a premade book cover for your story.
Otherwise, buckle up and get to honing your book cover design skills.
Who knows you might be the next best designer out there 😉
Keep on rising above the ashes of obscurity
~ Alicia S.
To be honest, i don’t know what Augusts topics are, but i would like to share something.
Every Thursday is my pull-up day in my personsl strength training schedule. As such, I despise Thursdays.
But, after i complete my pull-ups, i feel accomplished, like i did something impossible.
So my thought is this, what type of goal can we individually set for August, so at the end of the month we can feel like I do after finisjhing my thursday excercises.
I know my goal, have The United screenplay written.
What is yours?
July’s topics are Book Contests and Author Coventions, two topics I know very little about.
I know very little about book contests.
The little research i have done has been a simple google search, which pulls up a lot of contests with pricey entry fees. The only exception, and only contest i have ever participated in was AllAuthor’s Cover of the Month contest, which Kindled Legends, A Burning Embers Anthology took 3rd place in last September.
Quite honestly, the only author convention I am interested in attending is Realm Makers, a convention for Speculative Fiction Authors who believe in Christ. Maybe one day I will be able to attend.
A future convention I may be interested in attending, and hosting, is a potentional Burning Embers Author Convention, but right now that is a a few years down the road.