Kathleen J. Shields's Blog, page 14

How to make a Great Book Cover (Self-Pub)

       You’ve written the book, yeah!
You’ve edited the book, super!
You are ready to publish the book, wahoo!

But Wait!
You need a book cover.

If you are not a graphic designer like me, you may feel a bit overwhelmed.  You are creative with words, not pictures.  How do you begin? Where do you start?

Programs: If you have Photoshop – perfect. If you don’t try Gimp (it’s free). There are also a lot of other programs for graphics available to you, Corel, Paint Shop, just do a search and you’ll find a whole slew of them. Make sure you can save as PDF. If you can do effects, like filters, textures, and layers great, those are incredibly helpful.  Not necessary though…

You could also work in publisher or even PowerPoint.  Word is an alternative as well, as many office programs have  text effects and colors, royalty free images and clipart (not suggested as clipart is so 90s). If you don’t have Microsoft office you can download Open Office (it’s free as well) Open Source programs are making the world so much easier to work in. (hmmm, possible blog topic)

Layout: If you are self-publishing with Lulu or CreateSpace or others they can usually provide you a cover template (layout). When you are looking at a real template, you see the back cover on the left and the front cover on the right and there is extra space in the middle for the spine text. *It is VERY important that your spine text area has the exact dimensions as the finished thickness of your book, otherwise your spine will not be centered or your front or back cover may be cut off. A good cover template generator will ask the number of pages in your book and generate the template accordingly.

Now it is time to get creative.

Title:  You have a really catchy title right? You’ve put plenty of thought into it, it describes the book in a few short words and is as original as you can get… right? Well then lets work on fonts.  Open a word document and type out your title, then try it out with different fonts, sizes and colors.  If you don’t have many great fonts to choose from there are some marvelous websites that you can download free fonts to use. One is 1001 Free Fonts. There are so many shapes and sizes to choose from it could be overwhelming but worth it when you find the font that goes so perfectly with your book. Will it be bold, tall, curly, script, artistic, cultural?
* Do make sure that the font you choose is easy to read, you don’t want your potential reader to put the book back because they can’t make out what it’s called.

By-Line: Is there a subtitle or by-line to the story? This goes directly under the title in a smaller font. Maybe the same font, maybe different, but play with it until it looks good together. You don’t want your font choices to clash.

Author Name: Yes, that totally needs to be on the cover! But it needs to be smaller than the title (unless you are Stephen King or Daniel Steele) and most likely at the bottom. It doesn’t need to be the same font, but don’t use more than 2 or 3 fonts together, anything more tends to look busy and self-made.  You can do it – just believe in yourself!

Picture: Does your book need a picture or can you get away with solid color? Yes. On both accounts but remember the old saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words” then ask yourself that question again.

Where do I get pictures? You can buy stock photos but they are expensive and there may be limitations as to what you can do with it. Read the fine print before you buy one. You can do an image search on Google or Bing but some images may be copyrighted (you do not want a lawsuit). You can narrow your search parameters by filtering out the protected images and using royalty free but ideally you will want them to be pictures you’ve taken (no worries with those).

Also search for large images. If they are small, and low-resolution, you will not be able to enlarge them and they will look blurry and pixilated. This tends to look horrible, cheesy and amateurish. While you are an amateur, you don’t need to portray yourself that way.

Oh how boring! My own pictures? I’m not a photographer! Ugh!

That is where Photoshop or Gimp come into play. Grab two or three images that pertain to your story. When you think about your book what images come to mind? A scene in the book? A color? A person? Then use a filter, change the color of the sky to pink, the flower to black or the person to blue. Layer them over one another, put a stormy night over a floral field, mix and match, really get creative – I’ll bet you will find it fun once you get into the groove of it. By manipulating multiple images into one, you have created one brand new image. When you’re done with your image, decide how big you want it, complete cover, half cover, a strip on the cover. Then place your title, in its font and color preference making sure it isn’t too hard to read over the image or that the colors don’t clash. Carry the color from the front to the back and write your back cover text. Don’t forget your spine text and author name in the middle going up and down. And make sure you’ve left room on the back for the ISBN barcode. (CreateSpace’s template will have that built-in.)

Export as PDF and upload and see how it looks. It’s not simple but if you put your mind to it, it can be fun. And even if your cover doesn’t come out great, you’ve got a great start if you ever need to hire someone to create it.  Having already put the time and consideration into it’s design helps incredibly when someone else creates it for you. You already know what font you like, what imagery you want and what colors you prefer. But even if you keep the project all to yourself, the more you play with your programs the better you will get and the more creative your covers will become.

The point is: This is your baby… don’t you want to dress it nice?

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You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
Don’t let yourself indulge in vain wishes. – Rabindranth Tagore

This reminds me of my mom, who always said, I’ll win the lottery when the blue bird of happiness leaves the winning ticket on my doorstep. Guess what, she never won. You can’t win if you don’t play and the same can be said about any of our dreams.

You can’t be a ____ (insert your dream here) if you don’t try, study, learn, practice, set aside time to accomplish it or go for it.

That being said, my finding time to actually write is really hard! A short blog – no problem, a quick email – easy, update my website – simple, but actually write a chapter or even a few paragraphs – incredibly difficult.

Of course when you write, when you really write, you have to put yourself in that characters frame of mind.  You have to place yourself in that particular situation. You have to feel what that character is feeling, smell what they are smelling, taste what they are tasting, etc. 

If your story is going to be believable –
YOU have to believe it.

So I need silence (husband not home talking in the background), no music, no TV, no incoming emails pulling me from my imagination.  I need to know my work is done and I don’t have a set time limit. I need to have everything else work-wise caught up so there is no stress or guilt (maybe that is just me) and I need to be in the right frame of mind.

I can’t become the super-power Kaitlyn, the defenseless Kristen, the 11 year old Kate or the innocent Krystal if I am not ready to become that person. (Notice a theme with the first letter of each character name?)  Muchless can I figure out what the powerful Tom would say, the Dandy Lion would do or the Niko would envision if I am not literally in that place and time in my mind.  (Some current stories, some future stories)

So while I am an author facing a sea of challenges attempting to escape into worlds unknown, I’m at least attempting to swim in the shallow waters at least once a week (if not more) because I can.

Don’t let yourself indulge in vain wishes…
come on in – the water’s fine!

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First Grade Proverbs – Too Funny!

My illustrator came across this the other day and when I read it, I laughed myself silly! Time to pay it forward… hope you all get a giggle out of this too!

The following proverbs were collected by a first grade teacher.  She gave her class part of an old proverb and let them fill in the rest.

As you shall make your bed so shall you …… mess it up.

Better safe than…… punch a fifth grader!

Strike when the…… bug is close.

It’s always darkest before…… daylight savings time.

Never underestimate the power of…… termites.

You can lead a horse to water but…… how?

Don’t bite the hand that…… looks dirty.

No news is…… impossible!

A miss is as good as a…… mister.

You can’t teach an old dog new…… math.

If you lie down with the dogs, you’ll…… stink in the morning.

The pen is mightier than the…… pigs.

An idle mind is…… the best way to relax.

Where there’s smoke, there’s…… pollution.

Happy the bride who…… gets all the presents.

A penny saved is…… not much.

Two’s company, three’s…… the Musketeers.

Don’t put off to tomorrow what…… you put on to go to bed.

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and…… you have to blow your nose.

None are so blind as…… Helen Keller.

Children should be seen and not…… spanked or grounded.

If at first you don’t succeed… get new batteries.

You get out of something what you…… see pictured on the box.

When the blind leadeth the blind…… get out of the way!

Now that’s funny!  I sure do love children!  Hope you all enjoyed!

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Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

What a great quote!

Yes I like quotes – they are great inspirational writing starter topics – perfect for blogs – but this one is truly amazing…

Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and environment had these words to encourage your efforts; “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

I KNOW that is true. I started with graphics; playing around with paintbrush in Windows ME.  Playing with Publisher and PowerPoint in Windows 98. Playing with PrintArtist in 2000 and then getting into Photoshop in 2002.  I LOVED Graphics – before I even knew it was called graphics!

I learned what I could, got creative and landed a job doing a worldwide advertising campaign.  That’s when I began down this path.

It was when I wanted to become a graphics designer – running my own company – that I realized I needed a website.  Free advertising…. If I could create the website myself.  Why not? I taught myself graphics, why not learn website design?  So when I started my Graphics Design company, I was asked to do websites by my clients…. okay?

So I became a website and graphic designer, who got a client requesting Flash animation. Can I do it?  I can learn.  So I taught myself Flash.

What was necessary for graphics was a website. What was necessary for websites was flash and what I am doing now is something I once thought was impossible!

Graphics led to greeting cards, which led to my poetry, which lead to my children’s stories and now I am a full-fledged publisher and marketing guru doing everything by myself (shy our new theme song – which I did the video for) and there you go.

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible;

and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

 

My motto when asked can you do it?  “I don’t know it yet… but I can learn!” and that has gotten me leaps and bounds closer to my dreams.  So the next time you think the task is impossible… start by doing what’s necessary…

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When the world pushes you to your knees; you are in a perfect position to pray.

I haven’t been in this position in a long time… that being said, now that I have just jinxed it – we’ll see what comes of it. But it’s an interesting quote don’t you think?

Life is hard! Things can come at you fast and leave you spiraling at a loss. Someone close could pass away, you could lose your job or receive bad health news… even a flat tire on an over-scheduled day with no spare money to buy a replacement can throw you a curve ball you weren’t expecting – and those are just some of the things that can get you down.

I’ve been there.  As I’m sure most of us have at some point in our lives. The difference is how long did we stay there?  You may not believe in the power of prayer but I do.  Yet for me, it’s kind of two-fold. Is there a higher power helping out, opening doors? Would spiritual guidance be considered coincidence? Luck? You can call it what you want but the fact of the matter is; you have to be open to see opportunity when it arrives.  Even the darkest day has a little light shine in it. God doesn’t give you more than you can handle – although he sure does test the limits sometimes.

But the second part of it – the prayer-thing – is for me, about expressing what you need. Maybe by simply thinking about what is going on, actually taking the time to say “I need help” maybe that helps to open you to future possibilities.

[image error]It’s like opening a window when you burn something in the oven.  [image error]You need to let the smoke out of the house, air out your troubles, so the fresh air can come in. Sometimes someone may see the smoke and come to assist you or offer help, maybe they don’t. But the fresh air and the release of that smoke clears out the room in your head – and to me that is prayer.

Say it aloud while alone in your car – the higher power is the only one that will hear it – and express what’s been going on. “This sure has been a rough day. I’m not sure I can handle it anymore. I really need a break or an opportunity.  What can I do to receive it?” and you know what… that may have been enough to let some of it go, enough of it, maybe, to have an opening that will let in what you needed.

Or maybe I’m nuts. You decide.

 

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Bullying: What are the answers to the questions?

I did some major research for a children’s bullying story I was writing for the Hamilton Troll series and what wowed me were the statistics. The in-depth research that was done as to the various types of bullying, the various reasons bullies are created, the various reasons bullies attack, but the ‘how to stop the bullying’ simply wasn’t there. Sure there was tell a teacher or parent but how well does that usually go? And there was stand up for yourself, but again, if he’s bigger, how well does that go?  Where are the answers?  This has started quite a stir within myself to write this but I sure would love some insight!

Types of Bullying:

Physical – hitting, kicking, etc.
Verbal – saying mean things, teasing
Indirect – spreading rumors, etc.
Social – alienation from groups
Intimidation – making the other do things for him
Cyber bullying – sending messages, pictures online or text.

[image error] Types of Bullies:

Sadistic – likes to hurt others
Imitative – does what has been done to him
Impulsive – does it to belong to a group
Accidental – doesn’t realize what he’s doing

Who gets Bullied:

Anyone who is different
The pretty person
The smart person
The loner
Someone with low self esteem
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time

How to Stop Bullying:

Tell a teacher or parent
Go to the bully’s parents
Teach children to not bully
Tell the bully to stop
Walk away
Stay away from bullies

Really? These don’t work! Are you serious? I mean, yes, do these – but here is what I get from all of that:

Tell the teacher – she can’t get involved and even if she does, the bully will just do it again when she’s not looking.

Tell your parent – they say tell the teacher (the circle of life) or they go to the principal which calls the bully in and reprimands him but then he’ll just do it again when no one is looking.

Go to the bully’s parents – it is likely they could be as bad as the bully, how else did he become like this? But worse, the bully gets in trouble at home and takes it out on you when no one is looking the next day.

Teach children not to bully – great advice, but what about the children who are already doing it?  That doesn’t solve the immediate problem although I agree it definitely needs to be done.

Tell him to stop – because if it were that easy wouldn’t bullying be extinct?

Walk away – great idea until you are called a chicken and everyone around laughs. Or worse yet, he follows you.

Stay away from bullies – really? Let’s put together another list. Where does bullying happen?

Where Bullying Happens:

Schools
Classrooms
Cafeteria
Playground
Hallways
On the bus
In the park
At home
On the street
On the internet
And everywhere in between…

So, if you avoid all of these places you will be fine. Let’s also throw in there: At work, in the board room, on the road in your car, at a club, in a bar, at the store, at church… yes, I’ve even been bullied at church, emotional isolation and a feeling of not belonging.

Bullying happens at every stage of life in every way possible. And it can be severe! It hurts physically, emotionally, spiritually. Bullying changes a person, not for the better, it causes suicide and emotional problems.  It trickles down the line through generations, and it is everywhere you look and the how to stop it message is clearly not working because bullies are smart enough to not let it!

To truly stop a bully they need to be AFRAID to Start it!  They need to know that there are repercussions to their actions.  That it is not accepted, that their parents will not stand up for them, that they will not get away with it, that they are not cool for doing it, that others will not want to be their friend.  They need to KNOW they can’t do it and while educating children now will help, it is not enough.  There is not enough of an ability across the board in every household, in every walk of life to teach every child (even the ones that are already being forgotten and neglected) how to not do it.  And for the bullying children that learned it from their parents…

Stand up to them, together with others, in a kind way, that shows them that they can’t get away with it, that it will not be tolerated, is the only thing I can think of.  But that actually requires our children, even the scared ones and loners, to band together for a common goal, which is completely against their personality (although it would truly help pull them out of their shell in the same exact moment).  Yet, in this world with an everyone-out-for-themselves mentality, how can that happen?

My problem with bullying is two-fold:

1 – it exists

2 – it isn’t stopping – and there are no real answers

[image error]

I hope that is not too negative but it is how I feel. I pray the education all of those groups are doing help but it just doesn’t solve the immediate problem and that is the part that is most important – to the bullied.

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There are ideas inside you waiting to be released

There are ideas inside you waiting to be released.  You can’t teach yourself to be creative, but you can learn to get out of your own way and let your natural creativity flow.

This was a horoscope of mine a while back. I must say, I liked it!  But the same can be said about any of you?

[image error]If you are not an artist,

have you never picked up a paintbrush?

If you are not a teacher,

have you not ever shared your knowledge?

If you are not a mathematician,

have you never solved a problem?

Creativity is about being positive.  If you say you can’t do it before you even try, you won’t be able to do it.  If you try with a feeling you will fail anyway, you will fail, mainly because you are limiting your natural creativity and inhibiting your talent. If you try with everything you have and still fail, you’ve given up. Keep trying, but most importantly let your imagination soar with it. Don’t discount your ideas. Nurture them. Develop them, and help them grow.

Whatever your idea is: Go for it. Invent it. Construct it. Grow it. Build it. Design it. Write it. Paint it. Create it.

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When one door closes another one opens.

When one door closes another one opens. – Alexander Graham Bell

Easy to say, hard to see.  How many people can see the open door next to the closed door? The door that was open moments ago, the one that we were heading towards, had the goal of walking through, had been anticipating the idea of seeing what was on the other side and them SLAM! It closes in front of you leaving you staring at that door knob, reaching for it, twisting it, but finding it locked tighter than a drum.

[image error]Appalled, you stand there gasping, focused on why it is closed, what you did, what happened, will it open again, should I wait? Little do you know a door down the hall opened that you hadn’t noticed before. Maybe it was just installed, because you always keep your eyes open for new opportunities, right?

Needless to say, it’s open. There is light shining through the doorway. There is a red carpet across the threshold. There is a welcome sign on the wall. Maybe you would have noticed it if a high school marching band was playing through but alas traffic was horrible and they were held up.

Really?

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shapes of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience, and we soon shall see them in the proper figures. – Joseph Addison

Blessings to me are open doors (or windows big enough that I can crawl through) because I will take anything that I can get! And while I tend to miss the first sign, or the second or third, I try really hard each day to pay attention and to keep my mind and heart open to hear what God has planned for me. (Yes I said the G-word).

My mother’s death was as painful as it comes, especially amidst the traumatic circumstances. The loss of the child we were caring for was like grieving death all over again. A closed business, changing our lives completely, how much pain and disappointment can a person go through?

But when I look back at all of that loss, when I look back at the closed doors, the pain and death, the disappointments, I realize how blessed we are.  When the child we were caring for, for two years, was taken back it hit us like a death but God brought us an amazing dog to fill the hole in our hearts.

Now I’m not saying that a dog will fill the void a child leaves behind but it helped us. It was someone new we could love, focus our attention on, take pictures of, talk about.  While the child we were caring for didn’t die, he was as good as gone and it was just too painful to keep thinking about him.  Everything he did, touched, said, played with, it needed to be taken over by a happier moment. God made that happen.

When my mother was killed I went through every stage of grief and guilt possible.  But it was her death, the longing to be nearer to her that opened my heart to God. It was her spirit within me that gave me the strength to face the trials ahead and it is her memory that lives on within me that guides my good deeds and actions towards always desiring to do the right thing.

So when the door closes, when the marching band doesn’t arrive in time to announce the new blessing, close your eyes and open your hearts to the blessings that will appear if you only give them a chance to.

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Give credit where credit is due

Great discoveries and improvements invariable involve the cooperation of many minds.  I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself. – Alexander Graham Bell

AMEN!

I feel the same way!  I work very hard on the Hamilton Troll books. Look at the (short) list of what I do just for Hamilton Troll in the blog post “Enthusiasm…” When I am not running my website business I am writing, marketing and researching constantly. I put every spare minute into what I do, what I create… my success will be because of all of the hard work I have put in.  But the credit – that goes to my illustrators.

When I wrote the first Hamilton Troll poem in 1992 that’s all it was – a poem.  I never even dreamed it would become a children’s book, or a series.  It was Leigh Klug who put that adorable face of Hamilton Troll in front of me. It was she who inspired this entire enterprise.  Yes I saw the potential. Yes, I wrote the stories. Yes I put it together, published it, marketed it, etc. But without her, there would be no Hamilton Troll!  There would be no face to adore, no characters to fall in love with…

And Carol Bryant – without her, there would be no world for Hamilton and his friends to explore.  Carol is the one who has made each additional book a reality.  There is no way I could have created the rest of the books with computer graphics – I just didn’t have the time or talent.  My talents lie in the computer keyboard and mouse, definitely not on the end of a pencil, pen or paintbrush.

It is the illustrations from the two of them that has allowed me to create such a colorfully intricate website, such enthralling flyers, such eye-catching ads. So in the words of Alexander Graham Bell; I may have ‘blazed the trail’ in regards to the Hamilton Troll series, but ‘the credit is due’ to my talented team of illustrators, ‘rather than myself’.

Thank you ladies for continuing to believe in this series

and providing these amazing designs!

 

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Left Brain or Right Brain – Which One Are You?

[image error]

Left Brain:

Decisive
Logical
Accurate
Analytical
Reason
Practical
Strategic
Control
Scientific
Realistic

Right Brain:

Intuition
Love
Poetry
Freedom
Passionate
Vivid
Creative
Yearning
Peace
Artistic

Cute picture right? Funny. Eye Opening.  I definitely think they left out quite a few words for either side but they couldn’t list them all – it would be too busy for the left brainers to want to read and too chaotic for the right brainers to enjoy.

Which one are you?  If I had to pick just one I’d say Right Brain but I use quite a bit of my Left Brain too!  Of course who doesn’t?

Obviously with my graphic and website design business and as an author I have the creativity, imagination, and passion to advance, but again with that I have the decisive, practical control to get the job done and NOT outsource the work.  Who’s heard the phrase “If you want the job done, do it yourself” because I know I say it all the time.

Of course it is the left ‘realistic’ brain that realized I needed to hire illustrators and the right ‘peaceful’ brain that decided to work from a home office rather than in an office park.  It is the logical me that knows just what I am capable of and the passionate me that pushes the limits and learns new things to keep up and progress forward.

I’ve always told my clients, “If I don’t know how to do it, I will figure it out.” Isn’t that considered logical as well as passionate?  Heck I’d even go with strategically creative… otherwise I may loose a potential project.

I found this as well:

The Right Brain

The right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the right side of the brain include:

·         Recognizing faces

·         Expressing emotions

·         Music

·         Reading emotions

·         Color

·         Images

·         Intuition

·         Creativity

The Left Brain

The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language and analytical thinking. The left-brain is often described as being better at:

·         Language

·         Logic

·         Critical thinking

·         Numbers

·         Reasoning

Of course I can’t recognize faces but I am good with emotion – and I am not good with languages but I am good with numbers.  Personally, I think there is not a split, one or the other, theory debunked. But there are definitely those out there that tend to lean to one side or another.

So… which are you?  Do you walk the line or lean against the fence?

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