Debra J. Edwards's Blog, page 15
June 12, 2013
Book trailer at last!!
Book trailer at last!!
June 10, 2013
Book trailer so far!
It has been an exciting few days, sorting out the book trailer and I feel I'm almost there. This is the first screen that will show and it comes across as quite eerie which it was I was after. Still have some bits to tidy up and all in all it has been a steep learning curve, but really good fun.
June 7, 2013
Wattpad
This site is proving really useful for trying out Marvin's Curse on readers before launching the whole book. Here, readers can scan through different genres of sample chapters or whole books to see what they like. Marvin's curse has been read by 169 people so far which is very pleasing.
http://www.wattpad.com/story/3921672-marvin%27s-curse
http://www.wattpad.com/story/3921672-marvin%27s-curse
June 6, 2013
Judging a book by its cover!
At last I've decided on a book cover for Marvin's Curse and thought I'd blog about the process.
When I finished my first book, Aggie Lichen; Pilp Collector, I was desperate to 'get it out there' and paid very little attention to the cover. Why would it matter? What was inside was more important! Oh, so wrong. I messed about in Word using a background of purple and then added basic shape stars to it. The stars were filled with silver and spread all over the front and back covers. I found a nifty font for the title and my name and bingo! Well, in school, where I was at the time teaching, it went down well, but after a while I decided that the cover wasn't saying anything about the book. It didn't give the reader any kind of insight as to what was inside and when compared to other books of this genre it was just plain dull. I found an illustrator, one of my daughter's graduate friends, and a new cover was designed for all three books in the series as they emerged.
Now you think I might have learnt a lesson with my new YA book, MARVIN'S CURSE, but things have changed considerably tech wise in the last ten years. I've used a photo/draw package to develop the cover. I looked more into it, paid more attention to what other books looked like in this genre and this time found advice on the web to guide me through it. The most difficult part was finding an image I really liked and that was somehow connected to the story. Images, while possibly royalty free, are not usually free and have licences to be purchased. Surpisingly, there are millions of images to choose from and they need not be too expensive. I did find one, but after waiting for the owner of the image to come back to me with a price I gave up and started again. The image I have used, The Angel of Grief by Meletios Verras, has an extended licence for resale ebook and printed book use and cost 50 credits, around £35, from the site 123RF. After payment, the image was immediately ready for download and I can go back and download again if needed. Personally I think that's a good buy, but remember I don't own that image. It's copyrighted and I just have a licence to use it for my book.
For the rest of the cover, I have played around with different fonts, colours and shadows. I've added flowery bits from art on the internet which didn't require licencing. If I print the book, I'd like to pick out the flowery bit in relief, with the stem possibly in silver. At the moment though, I'm just going to release it as an ebook and see how things go. I'd possibly go for POD instead of using my own printer, but that's a blog post of the future!
When I finished my first book, Aggie Lichen; Pilp Collector, I was desperate to 'get it out there' and paid very little attention to the cover. Why would it matter? What was inside was more important! Oh, so wrong. I messed about in Word using a background of purple and then added basic shape stars to it. The stars were filled with silver and spread all over the front and back covers. I found a nifty font for the title and my name and bingo! Well, in school, where I was at the time teaching, it went down well, but after a while I decided that the cover wasn't saying anything about the book. It didn't give the reader any kind of insight as to what was inside and when compared to other books of this genre it was just plain dull. I found an illustrator, one of my daughter's graduate friends, and a new cover was designed for all three books in the series as they emerged.
Now you think I might have learnt a lesson with my new YA book, MARVIN'S CURSE, but things have changed considerably tech wise in the last ten years. I've used a photo/draw package to develop the cover. I looked more into it, paid more attention to what other books looked like in this genre and this time found advice on the web to guide me through it. The most difficult part was finding an image I really liked and that was somehow connected to the story. Images, while possibly royalty free, are not usually free and have licences to be purchased. Surpisingly, there are millions of images to choose from and they need not be too expensive. I did find one, but after waiting for the owner of the image to come back to me with a price I gave up and started again. The image I have used, The Angel of Grief by Meletios Verras, has an extended licence for resale ebook and printed book use and cost 50 credits, around £35, from the site 123RF. After payment, the image was immediately ready for download and I can go back and download again if needed. Personally I think that's a good buy, but remember I don't own that image. It's copyrighted and I just have a licence to use it for my book.
For the rest of the cover, I have played around with different fonts, colours and shadows. I've added flowery bits from art on the internet which didn't require licencing. If I print the book, I'd like to pick out the flowery bit in relief, with the stem possibly in silver. At the moment though, I'm just going to release it as an ebook and see how things go. I'd possibly go for POD instead of using my own printer, but that's a blog post of the future!
June 4, 2013
Chap 5 Marvin's Curse
Chapter 5 of Marvin's Curse now on Wattpad.
http://www.wattpad.com/17813349-marvin%27s-curse-chapter-5#.Ua21T5wQOrg
http://www.wattpad.com/17813349-marvin%27s-curse-chapter-5#.Ua21T5wQOrg
May 31, 2013
Another giveaway! 5 signed copies up for grabs. Please re...
Another giveaway! 5 signed copies up for grabs. Please review if you win! .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; background: white; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important; text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; background-image:url(http://www.goodreads.com/images/layou... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596; outline: 0; white-space: nowrap; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(http://www.goodreads.com/images/layou... color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; } Goodreads Book Giveaway
Aggie Lichen by Debra J. Edwards
Aggie Lichen by Debra J. Edwards Giveaway ends June 24, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to winMay 15, 2013
Second book Kindle freebie!
The second book, Arty's Revenge, will be available on Kindle for free over the next five days starting 16th May.
Here's the Amazon link for the download. Grab it while you can!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aggie-Lichen-Pilp-Collector-ebook/dp/B007SXTOXQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1368641609&sr=8-5&keywords=aggie+lichen
Here's the Amazon link for the download. Grab it while you can!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aggie-Lichen-Pilp-Collector-ebook/dp/B007SXTOXQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1368641609&sr=8-5&keywords=aggie+lichen
Giveaway!!
With the Goodreads giveaway now closed, I was pleased to see that 845 readers entered to win one of five signed copies of the first book! Congratulations to the winners who have all been notified! Your books are winging their way to you! Enjoy!
May 11, 2013
KINDLE PRICE CUT!
Aggie Lichen; Pilp Collector - the first 'Aggie' book - is now on Amazon for £1.02 for the Kindle edition. Won't be for long so snap it up!!
Cornerstones WOW Comp 2013
Although 'Marvin's Curse' didn't make the longlist... 'We thought that you may be pleased to know that you did in fact make the First Round of 32 entrants selected out of over 400, which I hope you will agree, is quite an achievement.'
