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Inspirational Quotes...sort of...kind of...okay not really...

1/14/2020

For me, Eden Crowne, occult thriller author and slightly crazy person, Inspirational Quotes do not have to be nice. Or particularly inspirational. Or quotes.

Mostly, I want a bunch of words combined in a way to make me laugh -- especially at myself -- or ironically, or in gleeful shame. Even better if they remind me of one of my characters, which means they kind of remind me of myself since I created that character out of MY head!

If you've read any of my books you know I have a wry sense of humor. Where I grew up in California there were many, many smart people with smart kids. You had to hold your own in a conversation and keep those quips and yes, sarcasm, coming. But you had to be able to take it as well as dish it out.

I'd like to share some of the random words thrown together by strange people that describe me or my characters.

"Ha ha ha," she laughs, the edge in her tone like a sharp knife...

Please, please send me some of your relatable quotes! I want to know! Show me!

This is very important to keep in mind. Yes.

My goal is to be like coffee. It should be yours, too.

Me at the end of the day or maybe 3 o’clock......

Honest,ly, each book takes a little more of my soul and holds it hostage. But it’s sort of a Stockholm Syndrome situation so it’s kinda okay....

Also, also me. I like to talk on the phone to my kids and...um...my kids. All others, let’s text, okay? Texting is awesome.

My personal mantra including the skull. Don’t just ‘Do It’.’ Figure out a way to do it better, dang it. This is from a clothing line I saw in Japan.

Also me.....

This has been around a long time, I know. But it is so me and so Cali. To those socializing at Starbucks, we’re like, ‘Could you keep it down? People are working here!’

Yup, pretty much. Modern life. You better have research skills.

Me, last night. Except I had blankets and pillows.

Not all the time. In fact I like mornings, as long as they are on my terms. Meaning I am up and out the door with my laptop on the way to the coffee shop with minimal interaction.

Those are just a few of the Me-isms.
I leave you with this. Don’t give up. Keep trying. You. Me, all of us, we matter! Laugh!

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How Not To Sweat Your Book Cover Part 2: Custom and Premade

12/2/2019

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A Premade Cover from Storywrappers for my novel, Cruel and Unusual Magic.

In Part 1, we talked about resources for creating your own covers DIY style. Well, let’s say you want something gorgeous with multiple layers and complex color effects and a special font and there is no way you can make it yourself. Not with all the You Tube tutorials in the world! That means either a Premade or Custom Cover.

I don’t want to throw stones but you get what you pay for. Any premade under $100 is probably not going to blow you or your potential readers away. Budget between $100-$300 for a decent premade. Custom can easily run up to $500 and beyond. But these are just ball park figures. If these amounts are just not in your budget, re-read the last blog. You can do it yourself with time and effort, large amounts of wine or coffee depending your preferences and probably a few tears.
Both Premade and Custom designers give you copies of the covers that you can manipulate in JPEG form. If you don’t know what that means, this is the image form you need to upload onto most websites. As a JPEG, you can place it in banners and promotional material that you create for your website or campaigns or whatever.

Premade

I experimented with Premade Covers from Story Wrappers https://storywrappers.com
for two of my most recent occult thrillers: Cruel and Unusual Magic (the photo above) and Fear club 2: The Summoning. I felt like I was at the point where I was willing to pay for a product I could not create on my own.

For the basic price of a Premade Cover you get your author name, book title and generally subtitle over the image you’ve chosen

A little tweaking with positioning is accepted. Beyond that, you must pay extra for changes. Hair color, different clothing design, etc. will add to the price. Don’t think the designer will bend over backward making change after change. This is premade.

Choosing Premade means you have a limited number of designs and may have to build a little flexibility into your story to accommodate the cover you choose. I found a cover I liked for Fear Club 2: The Summoning. I tweaked my main character’s – Soul Lost Lexi Carpenter -- appearance slightly to sync with the image. I put in a line about Lexie dying her hair white blond. This worked because she is in Europe on the run from a gang of Soul Eaters and in disguise. I got the cover and it all worked out.

The Premade cover is from Storywrappers for supernatural thriller, Fear Club 2: The Summoning. This visual is in a mirror effect for an event. This is the advantage of having Jpegs, you can resue them for promotions.

Custom Covers

Custom Covers give you the chance to work creatively with the designer. This can be fun or terrifying depending on your abilities. If you have zero inspiration and zero design skills, working with a designer lets you hand over some essential info from your book and see what they come up with but you still need to give them some ideas about what you would like.

I've only done one custom cover so far and this was actually for my first book. Prices have gone up, of course. I told the designer what the book was about, the setting etc. She came up with several mock-ups. The one with the pagoda is an example. When I said I wanted to focus more on a single face and reduce the background, I finally decided on this.

An example of the cover in early stages when I was brainstorming ideas with the artist.

After my suggestions and her work, this is the final cover I decided on.

There are so many great designers on the Net. You will have to do your homework. See what works for your book and price range. It’s going to take some time. Remember you are designing this cover to attract readers who will pay money for your book. All of us choose a book by its cover. Don’t rush it.

Type ‘custom book covers’ into your search engine. Most premade design studios of course make custom covers as well so you will see overlap. You can also refine the search terms exactly like Premade: custom covers fantasy; custom covers mystery; etc.

If you are wallowing in a black hole of creative despair, look for designers with a catalog of covers. Check through their backlist of designs for inspiration.

Here are a few totally random examples from a typical search in no special order. These are just to let you have a look at what I’m talking about.

I would love suggestions from readers for designers they have used and examples of your covers! We can feature them in a blog post.

The Cover Collection:
http://www.thecovercollection.com/premade-ebook-kindle-covers/portfolio
Premade EBook Cover Shop
https://www.premadeebookcovershop.com
SelfPub Book Covers.com
https://selfpubbookcovers.com
Kingwood Creations
https://www.kingwoodcreations.com/premade-book-covers/
Paper and Sage
https://www.paperandsage.com

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How Not to Sweat your Book Cover Part 1

11/15/2019

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DIY Graphics and
Copyright Free Photo Sources

If you’re an independent writer the choice of the cover falls on you and that’s scary. We’ve all seen those designs: Images that don’t match the title, poorly placed text, glaring color choices, terrible balance.

I'm an independent novelist; I write occult thrillers and paranormal romance. I know the fear! Should I make my own cover? Buy a premade? Go for a custom design? I’ve sweated through all those choices. Let’s break them down.

Inspiration
Before you dive into Premade, Custom or DIY, you have to decide what you want your cover to look like. This is one decision that is almost never sweat-free, sorry.

You know the genre for your novel or non-fiction book. Break it down into a few images in your mind. Man? Woman? Children? Monsters? Ghosts? Technology? Cityscape? Swamp?

What I do is browse stock photo or copyright-free sites by placing specific search topics like ‘Ghosts,’ ‘Angels,’ or ‘Mysterious.’ And then I scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll looking for images that catch my eye. Stock photo sites like Big Stock let you save the images to look at later for FREE. This is invaluable for inspiration. Save everything that you like. Look back through your catalog of images and think about what might work.

Also, visit cover designer websites and look at covers they have made to see what might be a good design idea for you.

Making your own cover: For do-it-yourself authors
Alert: the optimum size for a book cover on Amazon is 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. This is very important if you are going DIY. If you forget, type ‘Amazon optimal book cover size’ in your search engine.

Copyright Free Photo Sites
Your cover will need a photo or an image. Maybe several layered together. For a start, here are some budget-friendly copyright-free photo sources.

Unsplash, Pixabay, Stocksnap, and Pexelsare all good examples. People, places, mysterious settings, nature, textures for background, they have huge catalogs. Easy to download and open. No special skills required. I’ve used Unsplash for atmospheric background images in several promotions.
(Please credit the photographer somewhere as that’s the only benefit they receive.)

Pixabay https://pixabay.com
Stocksnap https://stocksnap.io
Unsplash https://unsplash.com

Do your own search for more design sites. Type, ‘sites like Unsplash’ in your search engine.

These are all from Unsplash by Jr. Korpa and good examples of some of the atmospheric photos you can find.

These are all images I found on BigStock. I then cropped them and added text with Photoshop.

Paid Stock Photo Sites
Paid photos may become an option depending on your design. All of mine have come from BigStock https://www.bigstockphoto.com a large stock photo supplier. But Big Stock is just one of many similar sites.

Search “Stock Photos” and you’ll get a selection to browse through and come to your own decision.

BigStock is free to join as are others. Most of the stock photo sites make you join to browse the whole collection. You don’t have to buy a subscription. I don’t. Instead, I buy the images individually as I need them. BigStock doesn’t make that very clear but it is an option. You buy credits and those credits are used to buy photos.

Please understand for a cover you need to download and pay for the ‘Extended License’ version of the photo. Not all photos have an extended license. This has happened to me several times when I found the perfect image only to see no extended license listing. Also, read the legal notices about how and how often you can use the image from whatever site you choose. There are rules. Break them at your peril!

If you are creating a banner or some other design feature for your website, you generally don’t need an extended license. For those graphics, buy less expensive versions and then use them over and over. But if you are going to include that image on something that generates income, you will need the extended license.

The original image I was so thrilled to find. I even edited in the skull tattoo with Photoshop and found a great font (cracked). Then discovered it had no extended license option.

The image I ended up using for the cover. Not as happy but I can update it later.

Free (or low cost) Design Sites
You’ve found an image but now you must do something with it. At the very least you will need to choose a font and size and layer on title and author text. That means you are going to need a design site. There are alternatives to Photoshop.

Canna.com and other design sites like Easil, Stencil, and Snappa let you manipulate your photo – resize it, etc. – and layer it with text or whatever. Sites like these are a blessing because as an Independent Author, your design needs are going to extend far beyond a few book covers.

Websites demand graphics and good looking text for promotions, seasonal sales, announcements, giveaways, etc. Even if you opt for a beautiful custom cover, you can only use it so many times before the graphic gets boring. A few easy design skills become a huge asset to your author platform.

These sites have free and paid options. The free tools are extensive and should meet most of your needs at the start. Especially if you are new to this. They provide premade sizes perfect for banners, badges, etc. for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your web page. You can even use them to create a webpage design. This is a great alternative to paying a designer for every graphic you need.

I haven’t made a cover with them, however. If someone has, let me know. I have made websites alongside several friends to show them how little real design skills you need! LOL!

Easily pricing
Stencil pricing
Snappa pricing

For other examples, type ‘sites like Canva’ into your search engine.

Photoshop
For my first books, I asked for help from a cover designer. Then my budget said “Learn Photoshop damn it!”

Photoshop was worth every hour I spent cursing and floundering. I am no design wizard but I learned to make my own covers and graphics and those skills have saved me a lot of money and kept the ‘independent’ in Indie Author for me. And God bless You Tube. When I have a graphic design question, I look for a tutorial. Generally you have to slog through a few to find one that works with your skill level, but they have great stuff.

With Photoshop and the most excellent resource, Mark, of CoverVault: covervault.com I can put together my own promotional material. More on this site in the next post.

If learning the program – plus the annual fee (https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/pricing-info.html0-- seems too daunting, head over to one of the easy design sites mentioned above.

To be continued in Part 2: Premade and Custom Cover Sites and Tips

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Inspirational Quotes...sort of...kind of...okay not really...

How Not To Sweat Your Book Cover Part 2: Custom and Premade

How Not to Sweat your Book Cover Part 1

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