Update on the “Handbook for Mortals” Controversy

Recently I wrote a post on “Handbook for Mortals,” which covered the controversy about a first-time author and former band manager whose YA novel made it to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, and how the Twitter YA community uncovered that the author got there by making bulk orders from bookstores. All in order to apparently get a movie deal with the author as the main character. Yeah, that happened.

Well on Monday the author of that very book, Lani Sarem, wrote an article for the Huffington Post defending herself. She pointed out that the publishing industry has changed dramatically over the past couple of years, and that she ordered the books for conventions and book signings, going through the bookstores rather than her distributor so that sales counted towards the NYT Bestseller List. She also said that plenty of people had bought books at these signings/conventions, and that she’d already locked down the rights for the movie so she could have more control over the five movies (seriously? Five?) based off the series she was writing, and to star in the film.

I’ve seen a lot of back and forth in the wake of this article. Some is sympathetic, and others not so much. And Sarem does make some points. The publishing industry has changed dramatically over the years, authors do order in bulk for events like conventions and book signings. And authors do show up in adaptations of their works from time to time. Could all the media coverage of this book and its author, including the coverage from two weeks ago, have actually been detrimental to something positive?* Did one Twitter community accomplish something that another failed to do with the Ghostbusters reboot?

Well, I did some research, and slept on it, and I thought about it. And while there are some interesting points, there’s still some stuff with this situation that doesn’t ring right. Not least that movie thing (five? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! Let’s get to even one and see how that goes! And you as the lead? Really? I don’t know if that’s a sign of a control freak or a narcissist or both).

First off, the buying in bulk thing. Yeah, authors do buy in bulk for events. However, most of the time they buy through their distributors, as it comes with a discount, and it still counts as sales. It’s also considered more honest than what Sarem did. She literally says in her defense she bought through bookstores simply to get on the NYT Bestseller List, which would get her the movie deal. And while she’s technically right that there are no “rules” against doing something like this, there’s a subversiveness about it that doesn’t feel right. Not to mention that, as I mentioned in the previous article, behavior like this got her fired from a band she managed. Heck, tactics like this was used in an episode of Lucifer, and it felt just as subversive there as it does here. It actually reminds me of the time I played an online game and used a cheat code to get to maximize my stats just so I didn’t have to do the hard work of building them in the first place.

And that’s the major problem here: Sarem was looking for ways to immediately reach the top and get her movie deal, rather than get their through hard work and talent. Even if she wasn’t doing technically anything “wrong,” it was still dishonest and meant to be a shortcut to fame and success. That’s why people are upset, and made such a big deal about this. Sarem used a cheat code, all for a film deal, and it got exposed. That’s why she was taken off the NYT Bestseller List.

Because in the end, there is no defense for trying to skip hard work and make things easy. Especially when it comes to literature.

So while Sarem may have a good defense, there’s plenty here that just doesn’t sit right. And if you think about it long enough, you’ll realize there are ways to get a great novel on top of NYT Bestseller Lists, and this isn’t one of them.

Also, Sarem’s cover art may have been stolen from another artist. I’m not kidding you, the cover of the book apparently bears a striking resemblance to an art print called The Knife Thrower by Australian artist Gill Del Mace. And if you look at them, they’re very similar (can’t post it here because of possible copyright issues, but here’s a link to the creator’s website if you want to check it out). Where does it end?

But what do you guys think? This seems like it  might become an ongoing issue or story, one I may revisit on this site in the future, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Was Sarem being dishonest or innovative? Did Twitter go insane again, or was it a cross between Spotlight-style reporting and grassroots activism? Let’s discuss in the comments below.

*As for the quality of the book, I’ve looked at reviews from both before and after the initial wave of articles about Sarem’s unique methods. Some like it, but a lot more find it a mess that seems to have been written by a junior high schooler. Of those who’ve written reviews after the controversy broke, they admit they know of the controversy, but they try to focus on the book itself, which I’ve done myself with different movies and films. If they’re definitely trying to stay unbiased, then the reviews don’t bode well for Sarem regardless of the efficacy of her tactics.

Prisma: An Inadvertent Cover-Creating App?

Prisma app logo

A friend of mine has told me that covers should look good, because people unfortunately do judge books by their covers. With that in mind, I try to create the best covers I can, using what resources I have and looking to friends when I can’t do something with a cover. And recently, I came across an app that I think I can add into my cover creating resources: Prisma.

I got this app on the suggestion of a friend, who told me that it can be used to make your own artwork out of photographs (I’ve got my own apartment these days, and I’m looking to put some more art on the walls without breaking the bank). Prisma is a recent creation dating back to June 2016, and was created by Alexey Moiseenkov. The app relies on artificial intelligence and a neural network to take photos on your phone and turn it into art. The best part is, you can choose from forty different art styles–or as they’re called in app-language, “filters”–in turning your photos into art. Some of these filters come standard when you download, while I believe others can be bought from a store.

Take this selfie of me, pre-filter:

Now put it through the Comic filter:

Not bad, right?

Now here’s a shot of my multivitamins:

Put it through the Roy filter:

It makes no sense to me, so it must be art!

Yeah, it’s a fun app, and the filters allow for some really wonderful, one of a kind pictures for your personal gallery. But I realized soon after I made some art pieces with the app that there were further uses for this app than just stuff for my wall. Perhaps uses that even Mr. Moiseenkov hadn’t thought of. What if you could use this app to give your cover a special touch?

Yeah, we work hard on our covers. We learn Photoshop, we download stuff from the internet, we take special shots in the middle of the night while it’s snowing heavily (or is that just me?). But sometimes we feel like there’s something missing, something that makes the cover perfect. Why not add a little art to it?

For example, here’s a cover provided to us by our good friend Joleene Naylor, who downloaded it from CanstockPhoto.com. The photo was uploaded by a user called–I kid you not–remains:

It’s a good cover, and gives an idea of what sort of story it is. Problem is, the impression might be a bit too general, to the point that you worry it seems too run-of-the-mill.

Now put it through the Candy filter:

Nice! Not only does it look like it was painted, but the effect kind of brings to mind a strange, Warhol-esque vibe. Maybe this story takes place in Greenwich Village in the sixties, and there’s a hippie girl who isn’t so into peace and love, or something. Slap on a title and author name and you’re good to go to publish!

Bottom line, there’s plenty of potential for creating covers with Prisma. With so many different styles to choose from, there’s sure to be a way to make your cover look special. Download it to your phone, give it a go, and see for yourself.

 

P.J. Boox: A Bookstore for Indie Authors

Remember in May of last year, when I reported on Gulf Coast Bookstore, a bookstore in Fort Myers, Florida that showcased the works of independent authors in the Florida area? Well, recently I was contacted through my Facebook page by one of the co-owners of the store with some very interesting news about Gulf Coast. Apparently since the store opened, it’s done rather well. In fact, it’s done so well that it’s expanded. And it’s expanded into P.J. Boox.

Opening in October of last year, PJ Boox currently houses 260 authors from about 11 countries, and plans to grow that number to 500 by the time they hit full capacity, each author getting to display ten of their books in the store. The way the store displays the books allows for readers to get a full look at the books’ covers, which allows readers to make a more powerful connection with the books. And the most interesting and exciting part, at least in my humble opinion, is that authors can actually interact with readers, from anywhere in the world, via Skype or other video-chat options, all in the store’s reading room (so if your book is featured by a book club, you can actually hear what the readers say. Hopefully that’s a good thing).

According to store co-founder and co-owner Patti Brassard Jefferson, the idea of PJ Boox came to her soon after she opened Gulf Coast Bookstore. Within a couple of months, she was apparently “inundated” with messages from authors. This inspired the idea for a larger bookstore that could host more indie and small-press authors. Thus we have PJ Boox today. And while other bookstores for indie authors have since appeared in other cities around the US, PJ Boox and its owners still manage to be trendsetters among the group.

So now to answer the most important question: how does an author get their books in the store? According to PJ Boox’s website, it’s actually quite simple. What you do is rent out space in the store for four months and send them up to ten of your books. In exchange, the store will stock and sell the books. And you get a majority of the royalties back (98% for in-store sales, 80% for online sales). Top that, Amazon! And you can pay for certain upgrades on your rental that include special online options and even more shelf space in the store. It’s not a bad deal, especially since you get some great exposure in the store.

In fact, I might have to try this once my new book comes out later this year. It might expose people to my sci-fi series.

And if you want to learn more about PJ Boox, check out their website for rental rates, books by great indie authors, and information on upcoming events.

3D Cover Generators

What is a 3D cover? Basically, it’s where an artist renders your ebook cover to create the illusion that it is 3D. For example:

3D covers aren’t accepted by most ebook retailers (though Amazon says they don’t accept them, I’ve seen some that slip through, especially on box sets) so why would an author want a 3D cover? One example is the banner above, which I’m using as my facebook cover. Another could be for advertising tags like:

Or maybe the author just wants to put it on their website. There are a lot of uses for 3D covers but, unless you know what you’re doing and/or have the right program, they can be expensive to get.  However, I have found two “free” places to get 3D covers. (There was a third – which was my favorite – but it is sadly no longer available.)

BOXSHOT.COM

Boxshot has several options. To use 3D Book 1 you’ll need the front, back and spine split into three images. (depending on your angle. If you’re not going to see the back or spine, there’s no need to upload them. This can be good for authors who don’t have a wrap version made) To use it you simply upload the images at the bottom of the page and then drag the 3D render around until it’s at the angle you want:

This is zoomed WAY out so you can see everything at once. On your screen it will probably not all be visible together

3D Book 2 allows you to use the full wrap image:

This is also zoomed waaaaaaaay out

When you’re done hit the “Download Cover Image” button and it gives you three options – two are paid (one is 9.99 and one is 29.99 for the single image!) and one is free. The downside to free is that the image is not as “well-rendered” and it is watermarked:

For the purpose of an advertisement or banner, I found the free render to be adequate, and it’s simple enough to cut the background off (there is nowhere on the site that says you can’t do this). I also liked that I could actually hit a download button and save the image to the computer (unlike the aforementioned no-longer-available generator).

The final render with a new background

3DCOVERMAKER,COM

While this is a pad service, there is a demo available. The interface takes a moment to load, and then you get to choose your product type (book, box, etc. Of course I chose book). For this one you need your full one piece wraparound image (which can be troublesome if you don’t have one)

If your cover doesn’t fit 100% (mine didn’t) you can choose a background color that will fill it in, in this case I used the black, which blended in with my cover design.

When it looks good hit the next button and you’ll get a new screen with the 3D render where you can drag the book around to the angle you want. You’ll notice that the download is disabled for demos, but you can – technically – press the “print screen” button on your keyboard (sometimes PrntScr) and paste this to any image program (even paintbrush) and crop it. (not saying you should, just saying you can… they technically have nothing in their terms and conditions against this, so it’s up to you.)

I did like the ability to add the reflection in this one, and the nice black background. To use it in registered mode is only $9.99 for one year (the cost of the other one for a single image, so MUCH cheaper) however the forced bend in the book makes several angles look silly, so that would be a matter of personal taste. If you like it, at the $9.99 for a year price it would probably be worth it to just go ahead and pay for it, especially if you have several books out that you’d want to make 3D versions of.

*****

All in all I like Boxshot better – their site seems more professional and they actually offer the free download – and I’m not a huge fan of the bent book shape. On the other hand, the $9.99 is cheaper for what would probably be a better render (I didn’t try the pay option, so if anyone else has I’d love to hear your results) and the black background looks sharp if you don’t have plans to move it to something else.

Do you know of another 3D cover generator? Have you found much use for 3D covers?

Writing a Blurb for Your Book Cover

“Blurb” is such a funny word to say, but it’s a word that writers everywhere should know, because the blurb can have so much influence on who and how many people buy or download your books. According to Wikipedia (not the best source I know, but it’s quick and convenient, so what are you going to do?), a blurb is “a short summary or promotional piece meant to accompany a creative work.” In the context of a book, a blurb is usually the summary text on the back of the book describing the story, but it can also refer to reader reviews, promotional taglines, and author biographies. For the sake of brevity, I’ll focus on the summary text on the back of a book, since that is what often plays a role in any reader’s decision to buy a book.

Generally blurbs are at most a paragraph or two, and give a brief idea to the reader what they can expect before they open up the book to read it. This brief idea is given in three parts: the explanation, the mystery, and the promise. Here’s what I mean:

Nathaniel is a magician’s apprentice, taking his first lessons in the arts of magic. But when a devious hot-shot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates Nathaniel in front of his elders, Nathaniel decides to kick up his education a few notches and show Lovelace who’s boss. With revenge on his mind, he summons the powerful djinni, Bartimaeus. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal Lovelace’s greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

The Amulet of Samarkand, US edition

This was the blurb on the back of The Amulet of Samarkand, the first book of the Bartimaeus Sequence by Johnathan Stroud. I was maybe ten or eleven when I first read this book. I was just coming out of my Harry Potter junkie phase and wanted something new to read. I wasn’t at first really interested in the book, but then I saw the blurb on the back and I was immediately hooked. I ended up reading the entire trilogy and the prequel, really enjoyed them, and I’ve been influenced by it ever since. And just based on that one blurb it got me to read the first book.

Let’s look at this blurb using the parts I named above. First, we have the explanation, which tells us what the novel is about. Judging from that, the reader learns that the main character is Nathaniel, he’s a magician’s apprentice, and he decides to send a djinni named Bartimaeus to get revenge for him by having him steal an amulet from Nathaniel’s enemy. The explanation stops at telling us what happens next and how it leads into “a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.”

That’s what the mystery is for. The mystery’s purpose is to say that although a little bit of the story has been revealed to you in the explanation, the rest of it you’ll have to read the book to find out. All we can tell you is that there’s a lot of cool stuff there, in this case magical espionage, murder and rebellion. Usually the mystery is held off until the last sentence, meant to leave the reader intrigued enough that they’ll open the book to find out more.

Last but not least, the promise is found throughout the blurb, and it is as it’s called: a promise. In this case, the promise is telling us that this is an awesome story geared for readers just like the person reading the back cover, and that they will miss out if they do not open the book. This should be the main goal of the author when writing their blurb.

Of course, there are some things you should and shouldn’t do when writing your blurb. For instance, it may be tempting to make it seem like your book is the greatest thing that’s ever been written. For all I know, it has. But if the message from your blurb is “It’s new! It’s great! You should read it and make sure everyone else around you reads it!” and that message is too obvious or strong, it might turn away readers rather than make them want to read more. We want people to read our works of course, but coming on too strong never got anyone anywhere.

The best way to do is let the blurb and the story it’s summarizing do the talking for you. Instead of coming on strong, let the blurb subtly entice the reader into wanting to check out the story and find out more. Another way of looking at this could be like thinking of the blurb as a free sample in a grocery store or shopping mall. You get a small taste to begin with, but if you want more, you’re going to have to buy the whole product.

Another thing to keep in mind is not to put too much information in the explanation part of your blurb. Give them just enough information to form an impression, maybe give them a few images in their heads, but not too much that they’ll have a basic idea of where the story is going to go and what will happen, so why bother picking the story up? Make sure to leave some room for the mystery in the story to hint at what’s to happen so the reader will be intrigued enough to open up the book to page one.

And finally, try to do all this in as few words as possible. The blurb above is less than a hundred words and still manages to grab your attention. You should aim to write an effective blurb around a similar length that does the same thing. This isn’t just because keeping it brief is good for giving hints and mystery, though that’s part of it. It’s also because practically speaking you only have so much room on the back of your book, so you should try to keep the word count around one hundred so that the printed summary doesn’t feature tiny, tiny letters that make it difficult to read. And if the reader has difficulty reading the back cover, what are the chances they’ll want to read what’s on the inside?

What tips do you have for writing blurbs?

Using The Audiobook Service ACX

I think I speak for many of us when I say we’d like to have our books in audiobook form. Besides being a possible way to connect to new readers who don’t necessarily like to sit down with a paperback or e-book and another possible source of revenue, audiobooks have a prestige to them. It’s sort of magical hearing your characters come to life in your car or in your earbuds through sound and description. It’s pretty powerful.

However creating an audiobook can be difficult. In addition to a book to narrate, you need an actor to read your book aloud if you aren’t comfortable or able to do it, plus recording equipment, maybe an engineer, something to edit the book with, and then some! And that can run up in terms of costs.

As one might expect, there’s a service that tries to make the process cost-effective and easy to do. Audiobook Creation Exchange, or ACX, is a service through Audible.com, which in turn is owned by Amazon, aims to match authors and their books to producers so they can create the audiobook together. I heard about it from an acquaintance of mine who had her book turned into an audiobook and got interested in it. So after some research, I’m sharing with you how it works and if it can potentially help you gain a wider audience.

First, what exactly is ACX? Founded in 2011, ACX is kind of like a matchmaking/dating service with the goal of creating an audiobook. Anyone who owns the right to the audiobook of a novel (such as authors, editors, publishers, agents, etc) can go on and find audiobook producers (narrators, recording studios, engineers, etc) who would be interested in producing your audiobook. The video they have on their website (the link is below) claims that only 5% of authors get their books turned into audiobooks, so they’re trying to change that.

What do you do? If you decide to use ACX, you sign up for the service using your Amazon account. Then you search for your book through Amazon’s database. Create a Title Profile, which include a description of your book and what it’s about, as well as what you are looking for in a producer (gender, special talents or accents they can do, etc). You also must upload a short one or two page excerpt for producers to use.

What happens next is that producers will look for books that they may be interested in narrating (and hopefully they may decide to do yours if they come across it). Producers will audition by taking your excerpt and recording themselves narrating it, and then sending it to you. Once you have a few auditions, you can go over the auditions, as well as find out a little bit more about the producers auditioning for you. You can most likely find out acting and audiobook experience, hourly rate, and so on and so forth. If you find an audition you really like, you contact the producer and make them an offer.

What sort of offers are there? There are two sorts of offers you can make to a producer once you’ve made a decision, and knowing which one to use is very important, so consider them carefully before sending a producer an offer. These are the sorts of deals available:

• Pay a flat out fee. This is where you pay for the production costs of the audiobook. Each producer has his or her own rates, and you pay that amount for every finished hour of audiobook there is (for example, if I have an audiobook produced of either of my novels and the finished product is eight hours long and my narrator charges one-hundred dollars per hour, I would pay $800). You pay this fee at the end of the production period when you have reviewed the final product and given it your full approval. The fees vary wildly between producers, usually somewhere between $50-$200 with the average being around $100. You can also negotiate rates with your producer on their rates. The upside of this is that you get all the royalties at the end of production of this and you can decide whether to do exclusive distribution rights (which means the audiobook can only be sold through Amazon, Audible, and iTunes and you gain 40% of the royalties) or non-exclusive rights (which means you can sell the audiobook through other distributors and receive 25% of the royalties through the companies listed above).
• Royalty Share Deal. In this deal, you forego fees and instead agree to split the royalties of any sales with your producer. This deal is handy because you don’t need to pay any fees upfront. However you can only distribute your audiobook through Amazon, Audible, and iTunes with this option and you only get 20% of the royalties, with the producer getting the other 20%.

Most narrators do a combination of these methods, so you’re probably going to find someone who is willing to either of these methods. Once you’ve hashed out the details with your producer, you’ll send them the official contract, which says you’ll work together to produce the audiobook, and that Amazon can distribute it for seven years, which is how long the contract lasts.

What’s the process like? The production process takes about 3-8 weeks, depending on the length of the book and the producer’s schedule. The producer will upload the first 15 minutes of the audiobook to the ACX secure website for you to get a sample. If you don’t like it, you can stop the process there or start a dialogue with the producer to see what could be fixed. After that, the producer will upload the book chapter by chapter until the whole book is completed and the author approves the final product. Once that is done, the producer will upload the book onto Audible/Amazon/iTunes, and you as the rights holder will get a notification email.

What happens after the book is uploaded? Hopefully people will buy the audiobook. In any case, Amazon has a contract with you that allows them to distribute through them (exclusively or non-exclusively, depending on the deal you made) for 7 years. After that, you can take down the audiobook, decide to have a new version produced, or extend the contract for another year. As the rights holder, it’s all up to you.

What if I want to narrate the book myself? There’s a process for that where you can do that. Basically you produce the audiobook yourself and upload it onto ACX’s website. Makes giving an offer easier, from what I hear.

What if I decide at the last minute the whole thing’s a mess or I don’t want my book in audio form? Well, then you can cancel the contract. As the rights holder, it’s well within your rights to do so. However, if you do that you’ll have to pay a fee one way or another so that the producer can come out of this with something. Depending on what deal you took, you could pay up to 75% of the producer’s fees or $500 plus whatever costs the producer incurred for producing the book.

How do I design a cover? ACX has their own cover guidelines that are too much bother to go over here, so I’m linking the page that has the guidelines to this article. Once you have some idea of what they’re looking for, it’s up to you to create or find someone to create the cover according to these guidelines.

What’s a Bounty Payment? As I understand it, if a new buyer to Audible buys your audiobook, you get a $50 bonus from Audible. It’s a great bonus system, from what I’m told. It encourages authors to advertise about their audiobooks, so new listeners will be encouraged to get the audiobook through Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.

What countries is ACX available in? At the moment ACX is only available in the US and Great Britain, though ACX is hoping to expand to other countries soon, most likely Canada and other North American countries before becoming established elsewhere. So keep your eyes peeled if you want to do an audiobook through ACX.

How much will my audiobook cost to buy? Depends on the length of the book in terms of hours. The more hours the book is, the more they charge. To guess at the price of your book, an hour of audiobook is about 9,300 words, so do some math and then visit ACX’s website and go to the price chart on the Distribution page to figure out how much your book will probably cost.

Should I do an audiobook? Well, that depends. Personally I’d recommend only going through the process if you feel there’s a demand for your audiobook. It’d suck to go through the whole production process and, whatever sort of deal you have with your producer, only receive a couple dollars here and there, or maybe nothing at all. So before deciding to try and produce an audiobook, see if there are a lot of people who’d want to buy an audio version of your book, and how much they’d be willing to pay for it.

 

There’s a lot of potential in audiobooks, no matter how you look at it. Perhaps your book will be read by a great many in audio form, if you decide to go this route e to produce it.   Jut make sure you feel that it’s right for you, for your book, and that there is a demand for your audiobook before you do so.

Has anyone here used ACX before? What was your experience like? What tips do you have for authors considering using it?

And here’s the link to the website if you want to do more research on your own.

Business Cards and Bookmarks

Not too long after my most recent book Snake came out, I designed and ordered my first set of business cards, which arrived in the mail not too long afterwards. The pictures below show both the front and the back of the business cards. (I’m sorry if the photos are blurry; my camera’s old, so sometimes getting a close-up on something blurs the shot).

I received 250 cards, which I’ve been giving out to anyone I think might be interested. I like to think that they’ve helped boost sales a tiny bit, because I’ve had a few sales since I got them (though I doubt the download from the UK has much to do with the business cards). I thought that since my business cards were doing so well, I’d write an article about designing and ordering your own cards to promote your writing. I also plan to include bookmarks in this article, as the places that print business cards also usually print bookmarks if you ask them to.

This brings me to my first point:

1. Find out what your local options are. Some of you may have local print shops who can create your cards and bookmarks for you. It’s sometimes easier to do local anyway, because you can go and pick them up yourself and work with the people at the shop. However, if it’s an independent print shop, the prices might be a little more expensive, so make sure to compare prices before choosing a place to print your cards or bookmarks. Staples and Kinko’s also make some very good cards, and their prices are usually a little more competitive. And if there’s nothing in your area, you can always go online. I got my cards off of VistaPrint, and they did a very good job for a good price, if you ask me, and they make a whole bunch of other products besides business cards and bookmarks.

2. Choose a design that fits you. A business card or bookmark should have the same sort of feel as the work you write, rather than just being a plan white piece of paper or having a picture of a bunch of books on a shelf. Think of it as selecting a cover for your book: you want it to reflect the tone, atmosphere, and characters of the story. So let your bookmarks and business cards reflect what you write. If you are a sci-fi writer, maybe you should do something with aliens or machines. If you do romance, maybe something with hearts and different hues of red and pink. Whatever it is, make sure it works.

3. Make sure all relevant information is on your cards. Name, blog address, Facebook page, Twitter handle, YouTube channel, Reddit username. If you got it, make sure it’s on the card somewhere. If you have an email where fans can reach you, or even a phone number if you’re comfortable with it, include that too (if you have or have had or think you might have obsessed fans, I’d avoid the phone number though). And if there’s room, include the names of some or all of your books. If you have too many to fit on a single card, include maybe the most recent ones, or the most popular ones. And that brings me to my next point:

4. Update as soon as there’s something to update. Got a new book out? Or maybe you’ve started a new page on a new social media platform? Time to start a new card. Yes, it’s a little bit of a hassle, but in the end, it’s a little less annoying than having to say “Oh by the way, I also recently started a page on so-and-so website/published a new book called this-and-that.” And having it on the card helps to keep it in mind for the person you give said card to. Updating them regularly also gives you the chance to try different designs and configurations for your cards (when I update them, I want to customize mine to have one of my photos from the Paris Catacombs on them. I think that’ll be very fun to do, as well as give people an idea of what sort of stories I tend to write).

5. Include a quote or something about yourself as well. On my business cards, I have a short, two-sentence paragraph describing the sort of stories I write. Doing quotes on bookmarks are especially effective, especially if the bookmark is being used to promote a new book. However, should you pick a quote, make sure it is a particularly powerful one that will entice the reader to actually check out the rest of the book. Just putting any old quote on that bookmark just doesn’t do the trick like a quote that is full of mystery and only offers a small peek into the whole story.

6. Finally, be frugal and generous with your cards and bookmarks. What this means is that you should try to give them out to as many people as you can, but try to make sure to give them to people you think would really want to read your books. It’s not an easy thing to do at first–you want to let anyone and everyone know about your work, and you never know who might be a reader–but you get good at it after a while. I learned how to do it while trying to get people interested in my meditation group at the Asian Festival last year (though that’s a story for another time).

Do you have business cards for your writing? Have they been effective?

What advice do you have on making and designing business cards?

How to Get a Cheap Cover XVIII

So you have your back cover almost done, but there’s all this extra space left over. What do you do with it? You can leave it empty if you want – or you can add something else.   Of course, remember that you don’t want the back of your book too crowded.

What can you add? Well, remember those taglines we talked about for the front of your book? You can put one on the back instead of or as well as the front. For instance I have “Not everything is black and white..” on the front, and on the back it says “not everything is black and white – not even vampires”.  (Yes, I know a better one would have been “Nothing is black and white… but we live and learn)

If you have some already published books out there, you can do some neat things like “By the Author of____ & _____.” As with the bio, you don;t want to make a laundry list of your previous works, one or two is probably sufficient. If you have more than that, then choose to list either your most popular or books that are in the same genre. For instance I’m going to make this blog series into an eBook, but when I release Legacy of Ghosts I won’t put it on the back of the book as a publishing credit because they have nothing to do with one another.  Of course, it will be listed inside, in the copyright info/more books by section.

If you’ve  got some good blurbs from people about other books – or even this book – then you can always use those on the back of the book. However, if it’s for a previous book, be sure to say that. For example you could make a heading that says “Praise for My First Book (use your title)” and then beneath it put the blurbs. I can;t stress enough though: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PERMISSION! You can’t just go putting other people’s words all over your book. Sure, the chances of getting sued are pretty low, but it’s just wrong, if nothing else.

Another idea is you can use your “slogan”. What’s that? Well, that’s a little catch phrase you can come up with that will help define your body of work. This suggestion actually comes from Edward Patterson in his How to E-book that I keep linking to (it is that helpful, people!). He actually suggests using this slogan with your website URL, but you can use it elsewhere. Mine is “You never know what you’ll find in the shadows…” (since my site/blog is Ramblings from the Darkness). If you don’t have one, then not a big deal. It’s just another suggestion.

Of course, you can do anything else that you can think of. Heck, if you want to you can print paid advertisements on the back. It’s your book cover. Just remember the three goals:

1. It should be easily readable
2. It should complement the front cover
3. It should make my book appealing

So long as you have those down, you’re good to go!
And this about wraps up the how to portion of getting your own book cover on the cheap. I only have a “How I did it” post left to share. Oh boy, huh? LOL!

How to Get a Cheap Cover XVII

We’re still working on the back cover.  so far we have a description, and maybe even an author bio and photo (depending on what you want). But maybe it looks a bit plain? In that case, some artwork, or photography might be the ticket.

If you decide to use this, then there are some tings to keep in mind. First of all, make sure that you have the rights/permissions to use those items. using artwork or photography without permission is stealing and more. If you do have permission, make sure to credit the artist/photographer on your copyright page:

Back cover art/photography by:

Make sure to get their real name, or artist name, and not just their user name. Darkcrystal666 isn’t a very professional sounding.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that you don’t want the images to interfere with the readability of the description, bio, etc. A good way to make sure it doesn’t is to put the images at the top, or bottom of your cover. (like I did with the row of trees) You can also run them up and down on either side of your descriptions (kind of like on the sample back cover my friend made me), or use an image to break up the area between the bio and description. If you’re a little more savvy with the image editing program, you can turn the opacity down or use mask layers, and put it under your words, however, proceed with caution! It’s very rare that words can go on top of an image and still be easy to read!

When using images on the back simple is best. You don’t want to compete with your front cover, but complement it. And, especially if the image is at the top, you don’t want the reader’s eye to stay focused on it too long. You want the image to draw them in and then down to the words below it (or from the words and into it, whatever). An image that is too detailed or chaotic won’t have that effect. It will hold their attention, and will stand out more than the words and, unless you’re selling an art book, you want the words to be the most important thing.

In lieu of an image, you can always put your title at the top in a large fancy font, ala VC Andrews paperbacks. Or even just some little twibbly bit of wingdings arranged nicely. After that, though, you might have some space left on your back cover. Don’t worry, you can fill that in with all kinds of cool stuff, which we’ll cover next time.

Places to look for art & photos
The Creative Commons One Stop Shop: http://search.creativecommons.org/
Deviant Art:http://www.deviantart.com
Sci-fi and fantasy art: http://www.elfwood.com/
Flickr – http://www.flickr.com
Creative common show room:http://www.flickr.com/groups/creativecommons_showroom/
Wikimedia: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Stock xchange (stock photos): http://www.sxc.hu/
Stock image resources (a list of links to stock image places) http://www.freestockimages.net/resource-list/

How to Get a Cheap Cover XVI

So,  we’re working on the horrible back cover, and so far you have your copyright, your barcode (or the blank spot where it will go) and your description, now what? That depends on what you want and how much room you have left.

If you opt for an author bio, my advice is to keep it brief – definitely under 200 words, and truthfully more like 100. So that you can get an idea what that word count looks like, here’s the bio I have been using:

*************

Joleene Naylor grew up in southwest Iowa surrounded by soybeans, corn and very little entertainment – so she made her own. She’s been writing and drawing since she was a small child, with a particular leaning towards fantasy, horror and paranormal. It is this love of all that goes bump in the night that lead her to write Shades of Gray, the first in the Amaranthine series.

In her spare time she is a freelance artist and photographer.  Joleene maintains a blog full of odd ramblings, illustrates a webcomic and hopes to win the lottery.  Until she does, she and her husband live near Bolivar Missouri with their cats and turtles.  However, unless she starts buying tickets she may never actually win anything.

**********

That clocks in at 126 words. I could probably tighten it up even more, truthfully.

So what do you put in your bio? You don’t need to list all your college credits and publishing history to impress your readers; they’ll either be impressed by your book or they won’t, and no list of degrees is going to change their mind.  Neither do you want a bio that is just a list fo previously published books. The place for that is IN the book text after the copyright page,  not in the bio. Instead, if you’re mentioning your other books, only list a couple – go for either the ones that have sold the best, or else ones that are related to this book ie. the same genre/topics. Aside from that, you want your name, maybe where you live, and, if you can work it in, something funny. People love funny. I’ve had a lot of compliments on my bio, simply because I added the part about winning the lottery but never buying tickets.
IMPORTANT!! Remember to write your bio in third person. Don’t put “I live in Missouri”, put “Joleene Naylor lives in Missouri”. Much more professional.

If you want to add an author photograph then go for it, but remember not to clutter the back of the book up too much. Your number one goal is to make it easily readable – all important information should be right there, at a glance. Should you choose to includeone, I do have some tips on your author photo.

Do not:

1. Use a blurry photo that looks like you took it with a cheap digital or a webcam. This looks cheap and “hack”, not the impression you want to give.
2. Use a photo with a lot of background in it. Too much background detracts form the important part – you.
3. Use a photo with obnoxious colors in it. This includes your clothing; don’t wear a super bright, or super patterned top unless you really want that “feel”.
4. Use a photo completely contrary to the feel of your work. For instance, if your book is a romance, you don’t want an author photo of yourself in bobble head be-boppers, instead you’d want a “pretty” or “glamour” photo. However, if your book is a funny book, then bebop away.
5. Use a photo where you’re holding something ie; cigarettes, beer, soda, your other books, etc, unless you absolutely HAVE to. Not only is it distracting, but in some cases, there are brand names. (Think MTV videos where they pixelate out t-shirts). Not to mention that, depending on what they are, the items in question can prejudice, and even alienate, potential readers.

Do:

1. Crop the photo. You can do this in any image editing program, or even in photobucket (upload your photo, click on the edit link and use the crop tool, then resave the image and download the cropped version to your hard drive).
2. Use a photo where you’re smiling, even if it’s only a small smile. Smiling photos make you look happier and more enthusiastic about your work, and it will subconsciously carry over.
3. Use a photo with only a few colors that compliment the colors used in your back cover.
4. Have someone else take your photo or, if you have to do it yourself, hold the camera out by extending your arm from the elbow down, but keeping your upper arm as much against your side as possible. This holds your shoulders in a natural position and makes it appear as though someone else took the photo.
5. Consider using a single color “frame” around the photo to set it apart from the background.

And now for the Handy Links we all love 🙂

Online photo editors:
Pic-Nik – http://www.picnik.com/
Photobucket – photobucket.com
Foto flexer – http://fotoflexer.com/

More Photo Tips:

How to take flattering photos of yourself – http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Flattering-Photos-of-Yourself

A guide to taking better pictures: http://pxcphoto.com/blog/?p=3