Creating a Good Bookcover…
This is perhaps the most important thing you can do as a self-published author. You have no idea!! I once published a book with a rather bland cover, and after taking the time to change it, book sales tripled!
Here are some important things to remember:
1. Unless you are a professional Photographer, spend money on a good photo! (it’s typically between $30-$70) I use istockphoto.com to buy mine…
2. Harness your inner artists eye. I know you have it, and the most appealing covers are those that have been cropped to add interest. Who is that? What are they?
3. Buy or Download a font (free works too!) Fonts are the quickest way to add interest to your story. I love to use unique fonts, and I like to add gradients to them as well. You’ll be amazed how fast a font can transform a book cover. I loke dafont.com, just make sure the author of the font does not require a donation for commercial use, if so, help the artist out! Donate a little!!
Here are some of my latest covers…
Is CreateSpace Screwing Me?
My Morning Coffee Is a Little Bitter…
I Feel Used…
I’m not one to get mad, no, but I do have a problem when numbers just don’t add up. I released my newest book Parallel: The Life of Patient 32185yesterday on Amazon. Very successful, got as low as #2,186 in books, really awesome, only 2,167 books behind Dan Brown! My point, I know for a fact that I sold at least 35 books through my affiliate links, and yet, CreateSpace shows only 26? ONLY 26? Seriously, you do not get numbers like I did selling 26 books…. It should be closer to 100!
So My question is, is CreateSpace Screwing me???
I used to back them pretty hard, recommending the system to tons of people because it was nearly free! I guess for now, I have to continue to use them, but really, they better get this figured out if they wish to keep their heads. I will go after them if the numbers don’t catch up, and soon. No excuse for bad managing. Really, is it that hard for information to get transferred? I guess so, maybe THEY need to get a smarter system, like the energy commercials suggest.
This is when the fact that they have no customer service number really begins to become a major downside in their system. Do you think they are knowingly ripping us off? I had mentioned it when I was talking about liking CreateSpace and seeing it as the only downside, well, now it’s a major downside… I just hope they come up with a reason why, and soon.
I guess there is no real way for me, the customer, to know if they’ve been screwing me all along or not…. What do you think??
Self-Publishing: A future MUST DO for authors looking to get an Agent?
Here is the article I read below, very interesting for all us out there that are Self-Published authors…
Self-Publishing: Future Prerequisite
Until recently, if you were self-published virtually any agent or book editor worth her salt didn’t want to hear about it. Many of them would want nothing to do with you at all, as if your self-published status might rub their own cachet off or something. But given the tenor and content of the sessions at this year’s Writers Digest Business of Getting Published Conference, I predict it won’t be long before agents and editors will routinely respond to queries by asking what you’ve self-published, and how it’s doing. That’s right, and you heard it here first:
I predict that within 5 years, self-publishing will no longer be an option, but a prerequisite for unknown, aspiring authors hoping to land a mainstream publishing deal. It’s the logical, inevitable next step in author platform.
At the conference, the prevailing message was that authors, both aspiring and already published, need to be getting themselves and their work out there in front of the reading public at every opportunity. And guess what? If you’re blogging or making your writing available for download in ebook or podcast formats you’re already self-publishing. As for those who aren’t doing these things for fear of intellectual property theft, in numerous sessions attendees were reminded of Tim O’Reilly’s now legendary quote: that for anyone trying to build an audience, “Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy.”
Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, both of whom broke through to mainstream success after building an audience for their podcasts, advised conference attendees that the best way to get publishers to sit up and take notice is to demonstrate your ability to build an audience and move your material on your own. Social media guru Chris Brogan said the easiest way to get a book deal is not to need one—because you’ve already established your own platform and have your own audience—, and proposed that rather than follow established roads, aspiring authors should go where there are no roads and create their own. Writers Digest Publisher and Editorial Director Jane Friedman reminded us that here in the 21st century there are no longer any rules in publishing, and reiterated the notion that for aspiring authors, platform comes before the book deal. Be The Media author David Mathison hammered away at the importance of connecting with your readership directly. Booksquare’s Kassia Krozser urged authors to push out into every available channel to enable readers to find them, and as for The Writer Mama Christina Katz, the title of her most recent book is Get Known Before The Book Deal (’nuff said!).
So, how do you intend to enable readers to find you, or build an audience, or connect with readers directly, or get known before the book deal if you’re not publishing or podcasting any of your work? You can’t just tell your site or blog visitors your writing is great, they should trust you on that, and then expect to hold their interest with what amounts to a lengthy series of hang-in-there-I-swear-when-the-book-comes-out-you’ll-love-it messages.
As we all already know, a manuscript’s content is only one piece—an increasingly small piece, unfortunately—of the decision-making puzzle when it comes to convincing a publisher to make an offer. When the editors, marketing wonks and other decision makers get together to consider which manuscripts to acquire, Risk is the name of the elephant in the room and mitigating risk is the key to a sale. When you approach an agent or editor with a quality manuscript, you may convince them you can write but you’re doing nothing to reduce their fears about the eventual book’s performance in the marketplace. If you can approach those same people with a book that’s already in the marketplace and already has a fan base, you’ve already answered the question of how the book will perform post-publication. You’ve reduced their antacid intake by half and given them some very good reasons to invest in you and your book.
Don’t let anyone tell you self-publishing is a desperation move. It’s a power move.
April L. Hamilton is an author, and the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting from her Indie Author Blog.
Kindle is Changing Their Policies… and my Kindle for iphone Review
It used to take just a few hours to publish onto Kindle, but now it seems it can take up to five days. This isn’t so bad, more over, it’s a good thing that they’re controlling it a bit. Two hours seemed intense, and at times I wondered just what got published. When Kindle first started, it was 72 hours, not bad, I was used to that. Still, though, Kindle is an easy way to go with Self-Publishing, it’s completely free!
On another note, I finally became part of the ‘in’ crowd and got an iphone. There were two apps I bought straight away, one being ‘tweetie’ the other being ‘Kindle for iphone’
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 4 out of Five Spades
Overall I really like it, and I love the simplicity, ease, and lack of any real wait time to get your book. I love that you can change the colors of your font, and size, to whatever suits your needs. Of course the screen is small, and so scrolling is needed, but that’s not the fault of the app itself, just the iphone. A big bonus is that it’s FREE, which compared to buying the actual Kindle platform itself, is awesome. You already spent $200-$300 on the iphone, PLUS amazon is making a pretty penny off all those downloads (60%) so we should at least get the app for free.
- Currently I am reading My Soul To Lose, by Rachel Vincent, $0.00 on Kindle. So far I like it, very curious story… my review to follow…
My Review for Self-Publishing on CreateSpace…
Since starting with Self-publishing, I have tried many different forms of publishing, from lulu.com to independent presses, but when it comes down to it, you really can’t beat the ease and accessibility of CreateSpace. For the cost ($39.99 if you “go pro” but if you don’t its free) you really can’t beat it, making it easy to publish whatever you want and see if the public even likes it before pouring money into a bad book. You have options as far as looks go, like using one of their pre-made deals, to having your own cover designed. I design all my own stuff, so for me this really makes sense. lulu.com is similar, but not quite (print quality not as good), and I have seen other sites popping up lately that I may someday try. Now if we could only get more people reading, right?
Here is a wrap up of my thoughts:
Positives:
It’s cheap and dirty, and the book goes up on Amazon automatically at no cost, with all the bells and whistles like the “look inside” feature and such. you can order your own books, for say, book signings, or to stock in local stores, at a decent cost, about the kind of discount you’d get from a regular quality publisher for a bulk run of 1000 books, very competitive, nice. They send you a “real” proof, meaning your book all put together the way it will really look. And there are lot’s of size options, color, bleed, etc. even custom sizes.
Negatives:
Biggest negative is that there is no way to contact them by phone, so if you’re having trouble you have to get on the website and try to message them, which often they give you a generic reply. Their layout guidlines are rather strict, but I get their point there. I just wish, as an artistic person, that they would allow me to have the title bleed off the page, they don’t like that… bummer. One other thing is that they tell you your proof will take forever, which it doesn’t. In all actuality I guess that’s a good thing, if you know that, but now you do 
so no worries!
So if you’re looking for a place to start, I endorse using CreateSpace… try it, it won’t set you back much.
Self Publishing Will Carry Us Into the New Age…
As I’ve found, the economy has done a major number on the major publishing houses. Aside from whichever house carries the Twilight Series, writing hasn’t really seen any household celebrities for a while. Sure, we know every hollywood star, even a couple of no-name characters with eight babies! Why in the world do books suffer when compared to that? Well, let’s not be so drastic, books don’t really suffer, in reality the book industry is thriving! All thanks to the new age technology that’s hitting the market.
Kindle, for example, is the new toy, the new iphone if I dare to say so. Amazon must have done their research on this one, because it’s not a new idea, but for the first time, it was an idea done right. personally, I like Sony E-Reader and Kindle best, but even your iphone and blackberry can now serve as a reading device (mobipocket.com). In short, books are finally keeping up!
As a romantic, to me there will never be a replacement for the feeling of paper between my fingers as I anxiously turn the page and read on, but, the trees. I worry about the trees, and for anyone that’s has read a bit of Feather Book Series than you know I have a knack for nature. Not that I’m a hippy, though I do eat organic. It’s a new age we’re in, and being green is no longer nerdy, in fact it shocks me to see it becoming trendy! but I’m getting off subject…
So, it’s so easy to Self-Publish, so easy in fact, that I don’t understand why more people don’t! All authors out there need to take advantage of this wonderful time in the world of books. For the first time, we have a chance to be openly judged by our peers, get a good or bad rating based on the masses, not a bunch of no-it-all’s in some office somewhere in New York that think they are the cheese as far as books go.
Anyway. As a first post on this new blog, I encourage all you out there that feel intimidated by the idea of writing to choke that intimidation out, and get to it! Why aren’t you doing it! If this will make you happy, help you to relieve stress, or any other form of emotional blockage, for lace of a better phrase, DO IT!
Abra Ebner
Author of Feather Book Series and Parallel: The Life of Patient #32185
