Brian Jackson's Blog, page 2
June 9, 2011
Create a Professional Looking Book Cover on Windows 7 for $18.50
This post explains how you can create a professional looking cover for your self-published book using the Paint program, a free tool that comes bundled with Windows 7, and at the cost of only $18.50 for cover art. Keep reading for detailed instructions.
1 Buy Your Cover Art
This is the part where your $18.50 comes into play. Right up front 
. But don't worry, it's also the funnest part (according to my wife, Melanie).
Go to the website http://www.istockphoto.com and shop for a cover image that you like and that represents the topic of your book. Search using keywords to find just the right image. You pay with credits which cost $1.54 a shot. Look for an image that costs no more than 12 credits. Also, try to find an image that is as close as possible to 1280 pixels by 854 pixels (book shaped).
Now, go create an iStockPhoto account, buy the least number of credits you can (e.g. 12 credits for $18.50), then buy the cover image you want.
Download the cover image to the Pictures directory of your PC. Retain the original file name and append the subject of the image to the end of the name.
P.S. When searching for a cover image, be thinking of where on the cover you might put the book title and author name. Light letters on dark areas or dark letters on light areas work best.
2 Start the Paint Program
Paint is a free graphics program that comes bundled with Windows 7. We'll be using this program to create our eBook cover.
To start the Paint program, left click the Start button and select Paint from the menu. If Paint is not displayed in the menu, enter "Paint" into the search box and invoke the program from the resulting menu.
3 Open Your Cover Art
Left click on that weird looking icon to the left of the Home menu at the top left of the Paint window to open tne File menu. From the File menu, left click on the Open menu item. The Open window should be displaying your Pictures library. Scroll down until you find the image you just bought and downloaded. Double click on the image to open it.
4 Zoom Your Image
Odds are that your image is so large that you can't see the entire thing in your Paint window. Left Click on the View menu and then the menu item Zoom out until you can see the entire image.
5 Resize Your Image
Now we're going to make the image the right height, 1280 pixels.
Left click on the Home menu and then left click Resize in the Image category. Within the Resize and Skew window, left click the Pixels radio button. Now, enter the Vertical pixel height of 1280 in the text box supplied. Left click the OK button to resize the image.
6 Save Your Image
At this point, we want to save our work in progress. Left click the funny icon to the left of Home and select Save As and JPEG Image. In the Save As window, name your image after the book it will be used for (e.g. knaveOfHearts).
7 Title Your Image
Before titling your image, let's set a text color so we're sure we'll see what we type. Left click the Home menu, then click Color 1 in the Color category. Now, choose a color to the right that you'll be able to see (e.g. white on a dark background image or black on a light background image).
Now we're going to place the title of the book over the image.
Left click on the Text tool (the bold capital A in the Tools category). Now, left click in the image approximately where you'd like your title to appear. Type your title. Don't worry about how it looks or where it is yet, we'll be fixing that next. You can enter carriage returns to display your title on multiple lines.
8 Customize the Title
First, select the text you just typed so that we can modify it. Do this by placing the cursor at the start of the text, holding down the left mouse button, and dragging the curor over the text. Once the text is all selected (has a light blue background), you're ready to customize it.
With the text selected, use the Text Tools to change the font, size, attributes, and color of the text to your liking. White and black are the best text colors since they stand out the best, while red looks like blood .
Once you're done customizing the text, left click on the text box and drag your mouse to position the text box where you want it. Click on the little boxes hanging on the text box to change the boxes size.
Use all of the above techniques to resize and position your title on the cover. Remember to leave room for the author name. Try to make the title as big as possible to that it can be seen in thumbnails of your book cover.
When you're done manipulating the title, click anywere on the image outside the text box to nail it to the image.
9 Add the Author Name
Follow the same process outlined above to create and position the author name over the image. In most cases, the author name is smaller than the title, but you're in control, so you decide.
10 Save Your Finished Book Cover
Your cover should be done and looking fine.
Left click on the funny icon to the left of the Home menu and select Save to save your finished cover.
That's it. You're cover is ready to be displayed on your web site or used to publish your book at Amazon, B&N, SmashWords, and CreateSpace.
June 7, 2011
Sideloading Your Kindle or Nook
Sideloading is a term that someone at Barnes & Noble came up with to describe the process of downloading books to your Nook eBook reader via your PC. A similar process can be applied to sideloading a Kindle. You can sideload purchased eBooks from SmashWords, free classics from Gutenberg Press, or eBooks that have been emailed to you as attachments.
The following are the steps to follow to sideload your Kindle or Nook (where appropriate, I note differences between the two devices).
1 Select the Correct File Type
Before downloading, be sure that you have found the correct file type for your device. Kindles require MOBI formatted files that typically end with the .mobi extension. Nooks require ePub formatted files that end with the .epub extension. Both devices also support PDF files with a .pdf extension.
When downloading from Smashwords or Gutenberg, select the correct file type from those listed. The same is true when selecting from email attachments. Be sure you have the right file type before you proceed.
2 Plug Your Device Into Your PC
You know that power cable that came with your Kindle/Nook, well it's actually a USB cable with a wall adapter plugged onto one end. Simply remove the wall adapter and use the cable to attach your Kindle/Nook to your PC.
There. That was easy, wasn't it?
3 Save Your eBook File…
3.1 Left click on the file name or button to begin the download.
3.2 Left click on the "Download Attachment" button, if you see one, then left click "Save" in the "File Download" window.
4 … To Your Kindle/Nook
When attached to your PC, your Kindle/Nook becomes a removable drive to which you can save files. Follow these steps to complete your sideload.
4.1 Left click the "Computer" or "My Computer" button in the lower left had portion of the screen (you may need to scroll down to see it). You may have to do this multiple times before your Kindle/Nook appears as a sideloading destination.
4.2 Double click your "Kindle" or "Nook" drive as the save destination.
4.3 Left click on "documents" on the Kindle and "My Documents" on the Nook as the destination folder for the sideload.
4.4 Click the "Save" button in the "Save As" window to complete your sideload.
5 Read Your New Book
After you unplug your Kindle/Nook from your PC, your books should be available. Note that it will appear in the "My Documents" section of your Nook.
June 2, 2011
Self-publishing 101: Step 1: Where to Publish
In previous posts I've addressed when to self-publish. The answer to that question would be an emphatic "Now!" What to publish is equally obvious. Publish anything (e.g. short story or novel) that you think will sell. In this post I'm going to address where to publish since there are several options available.
Publish at the following locations, one location at a time, in the order specified.
SmashWords
SmashWords provides a web interface for submitting books formatted as Microsoft Word documents to a piece of software called the meatgrinder. This software reformats the document into multiple formats readable by the most common eReaders including the Kindle and the Nook. In addition to selling your book in their own store front, Smashwords also distributes your books to Amazon, B&N, Apple, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and a handful of other locations for sale at those sites.
The problem is that SmashWords only pays quarterly, and at that they only pay on what the publisher reports quarterly. For that reason, I recommend that you publish via the most popular sites, Amazon and B&N directly in addition to publishing at SmashWords.
Amazon's KDP
Amazon is by far the most popular site at which I publish. It's the one thousand pound gorilla standing in the corner. To conquer Amazon is to rule the world.
Amazon offers the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) web interface which can be used to upload books and cover art for sale on the Amazon web site.
Publish at Amazon directly using KDP instead of depending on SmashWords distribution for up to the minute sales results and monthly royalty payments. Amazon is just too important to not publish there directly.
B&N's PubIt
http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com
Another popular site, although my sales at B&N have come nowhere near my Amazon sales. Use the PubIt web interface to publish your work at B&N rather than depending upon SmashWords distribution.
createSpace
CreateSpace is a Print on Demand (PoD) provider that actually prints hardcopies of your books for each customer purchasing a copy. PoD books are usually kinda expensive, but you should push your novel here as well simply to cover the customers who have yet to buy an eReader. I usually keep the prices of my PoD books low, making only cents a copy to keep the customer's cost low.
That's it. Publish in four locations and you're done. Coming up, I'll explain how to format your Word documents for publication at SmashWords.
eBook Cover Art
This is a very simple topic that is often made overly complex by most publications. It doesn't take a professional to make a professional looking book cover.
1 Buy It
Go to http://www.istockPhoto.com and buy an image large enough to cover a 1280×853 pixel cover. Don't pay more than $12 or so for an image. It's alright to resize the image a little to what you need. Small to medium should do the trick. Note that you have to buy credits that you redeem for images. Buy the least number of credits and buy a great but simple, full page image.
2 Label It
Use a simple editing tool to put a readable title and author on the cover you just bought. I use a free graphics tool called The GIMP (more on GIMP later).
That's it. You're now done with your professional looking cover. Did I tell you this was going to be easy, or what?
See Knave of Hearts by Melanie Jackson for a simple cover example. Think you can do that? Good. Let's move on…
Why I Self-Publish
After years of trying to get into print via the New York publishers, I gave up. And I'll have to admit that it was only years that I spent— two, exactly. It soon became obvious that I wasn't going to make it. I was at the end of a very long line of worthy authors. So, what was I to do?
Stop writing? Not possible. Stop having readers. What's the point? Make money? Why not?
I started to self publish. In the meantime, while waiting for New York to respond, I made enough money to supplant a career spent penned up like a veal in a cubicle in the Silicon Valley writing technical documentation.
What follows are some reasons you might consider self publishing yourself rather than following the traditional publishing model of going after a publisher.
1 Publishers Provide Little Bang for the Buck
Winnowing out rejects, editing, providing a cover, production, distribution, and advertising. What more can a traditional publisher do? For years, traditional, hardcopy publishers have had a stranglehold on the publishing industry, deciding what gets published and what does not. Actually, it's worse than that. Six major publishers, with a handful of editors each, were deciding what America was going to read. That's because everything was in hardcopy and the publishers owned the presses and the distribution channels. Well, thankfully, that is no longer the case.
With the advent of eBook publication, publishers have lost their stranglehold on the two key elements which could not previously be circumvented by the self publisher. Namely, production and distribution. Now the self published author can produce digital media and distribute via Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, SmashWords, and Create Space (note: the last is actually hardcopy). The rest of the traditional publisher's services can be easily replaced.
By who?
By you.
This blog will teach you how to avoid publishers so that you don't get winnowed out, find an editor for your work, create a simple, cheap yet effective cover, distribute via the big self publishing sites, and advertise using your own internet connections. Sound good? Keep reading…
2 Speed of Publishing
Another big benefit to self publishing is the speed and regularity with which you can release material. Most publishers will release one of your books one or two times a year. If you're a writer like me, I guarantee that you can produce material faster than that.
So, since I wanted to publish on my schedule instead of New York's, I decided to self publish.
3 Freedom
How about the freedom to write what you want to write rather than what you have to write. Nough said, I'm movin' on.
4 Control
I like having access to up to the minute sales figures and being paid monthly. I don't trust someone I don't even know to relay entirely accurate sales figures. I don't like having to depend on a publisher's art department to sink or float my book. I like to set my own release dates.
I guess I just like being in control.
June 1, 2011
eBook Pricing
Ever wonder why eBooks are sold at certain prices? The following is a short explanation of eBook pricing.
Free This price is only available to self-publishers on Smashwords. Amazon and Barnes & Nobel set a minimum price of $0.99 on self-published books. Free books are offered by true publishers to lure customers into reading the first book of a series or a new author.
$0.99 This is the minimum price that a self-published author can set for a book. The price is used for the same luring purpose as Free. The problem with this price is that the author makes very little money since Amazon and Barnes & Noble only offer a 35% royalties on books priced under $2.99.
$2.99 This is the minimum price at which an author gets full royalties of 70%. That's $2.07 an eBook as opposed to $0.35 for a $0.99 eBook. You've probably seen a lot of books priced at $2.99.
Other Other prices are used by publishers to sell books by the most popular authors who can actually generate sales. Of course, much of the money is probably going to support the expensive New York publisher.
I hope this helps to explain why you commonly see certain eBook prices (especially in the self-publishing realm).
Do New York Publishers Have Anything to Offer?
Under the traditional, print book publishing model, the big six New York publishers have had a strangle hold on the industry. They've decide what gets published and when. Of course, they do provide services such as production and distribution. But at the same time, they provide limited advertising to midlist authors and pay them very little.
Now eBooks are beginning to dominate the publishing industry.
So, the question is posed: at a time when individuals can publish and distribute their own eBooks via reputable dealers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and SmashWords, is there any reason to submit your work to a New York publisher?
Probably the biggest benefit the New York publisher provides to the reader is winnowing the chaff from the wheat. Let's face it, there are a lot of bad books out there. Unfortunately, their resources are so limited that New York also ends up winnowing viable product along with the chaff because publishing the work might be risky or simply because the author is new.
The reason that publishers had a stranglehold on book publishing was because they controlled production and distribution. And it cost a lot of money to produce a paper book, store it in your warehouse, and ship it to stores and customers. This wasn't something an individual could do for themselves.
This is not the case with eBook publishing. Production can be entirely in the hands of the author. Simple tools and Web based interfaces support the author through the creation of cover art, publication of the book, and distribution via the major eBook stores in the industry. It's even possible to find a relatively inexpensive editor to correct your work.
So, what's left for New York to provide to justify their hefty salaries. In a word, nothing. Expect them to wither on the vine and drop off as Dorchestor Publishing is in the process of doing.
There. I hope I've at least got you thinking about self-publishing. Keep your eye out for additional material related to self-publishing and writing.
Introducing A Modern Day Publisher
For those of you who don't know me, which probably includes everyone reading this blog, I'd like to say a few introductory words about my background.
I'm a self-published eBook writer. At the same time, I publish my wife's eBooks. Melanie has proven to be a much more popular author. After a decade spent publishing via a New York author, she jumped ship to join me and our little venture has been incredibly successful.
This all began 10 months ago when I got bored and decided to publish my backlist of books that had been rejected by various publishers. Soon after I started, Melanie's publisher, Dorchester Press, started going under. Melanie found herself without a publisher. I jumped in to become her new publisher, and here we are.
So, the majority of my posts will probably have something to do with writing and publishing.
This is the start of a new month. Both Melanie and I are working on new eBooks having released two new books last month.
I strongly urge anyone interested in writing to self-publish. Hopefully as you read this blog, you'll begin to understand why.
Well, that's it for now. More tomorrow.
November 4, 2010
Writer's Block and Blogging
But then, when you've hit the wall, there's always your blog waiting to be updated.
The motivating factor to having a blog is that I hate updating my blog even more than I hate working on the middle of a novel. Does anybody even read these things? Is there anybody out there?
I tell you what, the first person to send an email to brianjjaxn@yahoo.com saying that they read this blog post gets a free eBook of their choice (one of mine ;-).
There. I've done it. I updated my blog. Now, back to my writer's block (Sigh).
October 27, 2010
Self-Publishing and Getting Paid
Add to that the fact that First Son seems to have run its course causing October to be a less than stellar month.
It's time to get product out there. Fortunately, Melanie is almost finished with the fourth Chloe Boston book, I'm halfway through my next M/M Romance book, and Melanie sent and official letter to Dorchester asking for a reversion of rights on three of her early books. That means we should have some material coming out soon.
In addition, we're still waiting for The Book of Dreams Series to catch on. We've sold very few books in the series. Once/If it catches on, we should see it and the Chloe Boston Series carry us for a few months.
Happy Halloween all.
