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Tag: self-publishing

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Published on 4 Comments on Book Cover Art: It’s A Process

I'm getting close to hitting the Publish button on the first book in my YA trilogy. Yes, I realize it's been in the works forever. I completely understand if you consider this the writer version of crying 'wolf'.

However.

Of the four of us in my critique group, three have committed to publishing our books before the end of this summer. The fourth writer, Rachel Knox, has already pushed Publish and is far ahead of us. If you enjoy reading fantasy, check out her books!

Jim and Dan, the other two in the group, have already chosen their cover art. As usual, I am bringing up the rear. Here's where you come in. I've narrowed my search to two designs. I'd like to hear what you think about them.

Once I decide on a design, I'll contract with a cover artist to create the various cover art graphics I'll need in different aspect ratios for e-book, paperback, audio book, thumbnail, etc. Those of you who know me know I am always sorely tempted to DIY stuff. But I learned the hard way that unless you have some graphic design or other similar art skills, which I most certainly do not, if you DIY your cover, it runs the risk of looking like garbage.

These books are a young adult, or YA, trilogy in the action genre. There is no romance subplot. Think young, nerdy Mod Squad. Three teens getting into all sorts of hijinx as they take on some bad guys. So I will need something that lends itself to a series of books, and not just a standalone. The main character is a guy, but an important secondary character is female.

I found this art on Canva and played around with it to add the title info. You may notice the Canva watermark. If I purchase this option, that will go away.

I really love the colors and the splashy, chaotic vibe. But I am not sure if similar art is available for books two and three. And my friend Dan pointed out that without any specific images to communicate what the book is about, the title suggests romance. He's not wrong.

Here's the second image I am considering. I found a group of images on the iStock website that are inspired by the propaganda style of the Cold War era. When I saw the fork, I took that as a sign, since food plays an important role in the plot.

I don't think I'm quite there yet with the font. But I love what I consider the strong action vibe. No mistaking this for a romance. And there are several other similar images available in the same style that I could use for the other two books in the trilogy.

What do you think? Feel free to drop comments, or even some pix of great cover art, in the comments. Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it!

Click-O-Rama

  • I have several pins of propaganda-style art on my Pinterest board. But this is the one that really grabbed me. It's from an old Taco Bell ad campaign.
  • I must admit I'm addicted to any articles regarding cover art that float my way. Some, especially those from the rarified air of Literature with a capital L, take my breath away.

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2

Published on 2 Comments on The Goodreads Revelation

Like many writers, the lion's share of my marketing efforts is directed at Facebook and Twitter. But the focal point of my recent engagement efforts has added a third leg to the marketing stool: Goodreads. It's not as if I've mastered the other two - I certainly haven't. But when another writer friend mentioned I hadn't set up an author presence on GR (thanks, Matt!), I did some checking and realized I was overlooking an important piece of the marketing puzzle.

As an avid reader, I've been enjoying Goodreads for years. It's a great way to organize reading lists and find book recommendations. Turns out it's also a great way to network with other readers. More readers mean more reviews. More reviews (even if they're not five stars) are better than no reviews.

In the process of setting up my author presence there, I discovered I had never invited my Facebook and Twitter friends to befriend me on Goodreads as well. This was a simple click that grew my GR friends from 60 or so to 350+ and counting. Investigating some of these new GR friends' profiles, reaching out via GR's email function, and joining special interest groups has already led me to some wonderfully generous authors who have shared some great tips with me, like Susan May. Thanks to her cogent explanation of how and why to use Goodreads, I am committed to making GR an equal partner in my social networking efforts.

By now I hope I've convinced you to include Goodreads in your engagement strategy. How much time, you may be wondering? On a recent day, this is how I spent the time I apportioned to marketing/platform:

  • I selected a page of Goodreads friends, around 30 names or so.
  • I clicked on each name to view their profile. 
  • I reached out via GR and introduced myself. 
  • If they had written any books, I selected at least one as Want To Read. 
  • I noted their Twitter handle and made sure I was following them. 
  • Ditto their Facebook page. 
  • If they had a website, I visited it. 
  • If they had a blog, I read a few posts and commented if I had something relevant to say. 
  • I subscribed to their website. 
  • I shared any posts I thought fit into my platform. 

This cost me nothing in actual dollars and cents, and took about one hour of my time. With over 300 friends on Goodreads, working through one page of friends per day, I estimate it will take about two weeks to complete this project. Once I'm caught up, I hope to stay current as I add friends, rather than doing them in batches.

If there are any programs or apps out there that will show me the social media info of people I already follow on Goodreads or Facebook or Twitter, please let me know what they are. I know you can invite FB and Twitter friends to GR, but I don't know of any way to do the reverse other than manually.

Let me digress (and it just wouldn't be one of my blog posts if I didn't digress, now would it?) and thank all of you who place your social networking gadgets in a prominent place near the top of your website. Hunting and gathering for links is the number one time waster in this whole platform/engagement endeavor. I can't tell you how many times I had to go searching manually for authors' Facebook pages because there was no indication on their website they the had ever heard of FB, much less set up a page there. But when I clicked over to Facebook on my own, just to double check, and typed in the author's name in the FB search bar, lo and behold! There was a perfectly nice FB page, all up to date with current posts and lots of likes and everything, just waiting to be discovered. People, for the love of all that is holy, please keep your websites updated with live links. If I hadn't been in OCD mode, bound and determined to track them down, I would have done the BOTH and zoomed on to the next author's site. That is all.

The Brushing Of The Hands (BOTH)

Being engaged is a good feeling. Human interaction can be a lot of work, but also very gratifying. I'm enjoying working with Goodreads. It's a nice change of pace from FB and Twitter, which, let's face it, can be something of a cricket echo chamber. And here's the requisite CTA: I hope you will take a minute and follow me on Goodreads. I follow back.

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