Okay, tomorrow will be October 1st, which means December is just around the corner. Since spring of this year, I’ve submitted my first ever poetry chapbook, titled Flow, to various chapbook competitions. To name a few, I’ve submitted to the Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition, Gold Line Press, BlazeVox, JMWW and Burnside Review, which already gave its verdict of decline. The jury is still out on the others but I’ve made up my mind that if my chapbook doesn’t get accepted anywhere, I will publish it through Amazon as an eBook. The deadline I gave myself was March of next year, plenty of time to get the results
of all my submissions, to see if anyone of these publications’ bites.
Since there is no time better than the present, and it’s not like I’ve given up hope, but now I’m doing research on book covers, more importantly eBook covers, since they’re in thumbnail size, their formatting is different
from book cover/jacket formatting. And apparently, it’s all about the book cover. As I’m scouring the WWW on do it yourself book covers, more and more I’m becoming convinced that I might need a professional and they can cost money.
So is it any wonder that I was deliriously, heart palpitating and dancing for joy when I found Mark Coker’s of
Smashwords, “The Secret to eBook Publishing.”And in it he describes in detail what I as a consumer have unconsciously known, that if a book cover does not piqué my interest, I would pass on by. He even uses an example of an author who had a romance novel with great writing and reviews but dismal sales. Then all of
a sudden the author’s book sales were going through the rough and he couldn’t figure out why.
How did a book with record daily sales in the one digit suddenly shot up to sales in the double and triple digits? The author updated their book cover. And with that in mind, I gave my book cover some serious thought. Lucky for me, my husband actually studied graphic design once upon a time. Unlucky for me, he dared to charge me for his services! :-O
Joking aside, he’ll do it for me anyways, but the problem is we don’t have the software program to make a professional cover. I’ll use the likes of Photoshop if I have to but from what I can gather if using Photoshop I’ll have to prepare myself to most likely ending up having a shoddy cover. There are some negative comments out there on the use of Photoshop and stock art to create book covers by indie authors. And the program my husband loves to drool over, crushing to death on is CATIA, where you can use a pen to draw on the computer screen and make the drawing 3D. Basically, expensive.
I did find out about more affordable programs like Gimp and Google Sketch but those I’d have to research in detail before I can give an opinion, especially on Book Cover Pro. But if you’re someone who wants a professional cover without breaking the bank, I have some suggestions where you can look into yourself….Will update with more later.
Mark’s List at Smashwords
Melody Simmons eBook Indie Covers
of all my submissions, to see if anyone of these publications’ bites.
Since there is no time better than the present, and it’s not like I’ve given up hope, but now I’m doing research on book covers, more importantly eBook covers, since they’re in thumbnail size, their formatting is different
from book cover/jacket formatting. And apparently, it’s all about the book cover. As I’m scouring the WWW on do it yourself book covers, more and more I’m becoming convinced that I might need a professional and they can cost money.
So is it any wonder that I was deliriously, heart palpitating and dancing for joy when I found Mark Coker’s of
Smashwords, “The Secret to eBook Publishing.”And in it he describes in detail what I as a consumer have unconsciously known, that if a book cover does not piqué my interest, I would pass on by. He even uses an example of an author who had a romance novel with great writing and reviews but dismal sales. Then all of
a sudden the author’s book sales were going through the rough and he couldn’t figure out why.
How did a book with record daily sales in the one digit suddenly shot up to sales in the double and triple digits? The author updated their book cover. And with that in mind, I gave my book cover some serious thought. Lucky for me, my husband actually studied graphic design once upon a time. Unlucky for me, he dared to charge me for his services! :-O
Joking aside, he’ll do it for me anyways, but the problem is we don’t have the software program to make a professional cover. I’ll use the likes of Photoshop if I have to but from what I can gather if using Photoshop I’ll have to prepare myself to most likely ending up having a shoddy cover. There are some negative comments out there on the use of Photoshop and stock art to create book covers by indie authors. And the program my husband loves to drool over, crushing to death on is CATIA, where you can use a pen to draw on the computer screen and make the drawing 3D. Basically, expensive.
I did find out about more affordable programs like Gimp and Google Sketch but those I’d have to research in detail before I can give an opinion, especially on Book Cover Pro. But if you’re someone who wants a professional cover without breaking the bank, I have some suggestions where you can look into yourself….Will update with more later.
Mark’s List at Smashwords
Melody Simmons eBook Indie Covers