C. Gockel's Blog, page 136
February 10, 2014
cgockel:
Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet appeared without...
Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet appeared without makeup VANITY FAIR.
Hollywood beauty Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet accepted an offer to play for the magazine Vanity Fair with the ” naked ” face .
Not every actress is ready to share photos without makeup , even on his page on Instagram, not that decorate its popular magazine photo spread . But Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet gladly accepted the offer of Vanity Fair and show your “real” person in the latest edition . Creator shooting began photographer Chuck Close , who made two portraits on Polaroid.
Stylists decided to make the whole emphasis on face actresses Scarlett therefore put on a simple gray knitted sweater , and Kate - black . The only decoration steel chains with miniature pendants .
So a few days ago I posted a picture of Suraj Sharma as a possible Bohdi Patel for I Bring the Fire. I haven’t posted an Amy, and the reason why is because no matter what star I choose, she’ll always be “too beautiful”. If I said “Scarlett Johannson” people would think Black Widow, not the very adorable young woman above.
Amy is described as being cute, but not particularly arresting. I think Amy, like a lot of us, is busy with other things. Also, she works with animals. I don’t think she has the inclination to do much more than a ponytail most days. She’d probably wear lip gloss, because she could put it on her lips without checking a mirror. She might wear mascara…but don’t think she’d think much about makeup.
February 9, 2014
The Math of Quiet Success
This is not a post telling you that you should self-publish. I don’t know you, and therefore I don’t know if you should self-publish. I don’t know if you like details. I don’t know if you are obs…
I hope for this someday.
February 8, 2014
I didn’t have Suraj Sharma in mind when I created Bohdi,...
I didn’t have Suraj Sharma in mind when I created Bohdi, but hmmm…
(I never have any celebrity in mind when I write, not even Tom Hiddleston when I wrote Loki—though I know a lot of fans imagine a ginger Tom H. in the role.)
February 7, 2014
herrlind:
Beginn des Weltunterganges - Loki breaks free from...
Beginn des Weltunterganges - Loki breaks free from his fetters at the beginning of Ragnarök and faces the snake that has tormented him
February 6, 2014
141 Reviews -- Thank You!
Last time I posted a thank you to my reviewers I Bring the Fire had just hit 110 reviews. I wanted to say thank you again at 140—but then another slipped in the door.
So at 141 Reviews I want to give a shout out to: Trinka, Bridget Drighton, Catherine DeWolf, Heather Harrison, sheila walsh, Kelly Martin, (the mysterious) Amazon Customer (Tallinn, Estland—is that a real place?), M. P. McDonald, Amazon Customer (Alabama, USA—been there!), lyn T., Amazon Customer (Birmingham, AL—yes, that’s where I was in Alabama!), Michele McQueen, lflanegan, Annie Jean Brewer, Merritt Funk “Merr”, L. Sheilds “Ariel Marie”, Fred Furr, Jim McGuire, Ben Hutchinson, Kim “music lover”, michele bentley, Jada Ryker “Author of the ‘Takes a Dare’ Series”, paul semo, T. Smith, and James A. Solomon “Builder”.
Catherine DeWolf, S. Gates “dora”, David in Houston, Annie Jean Brewer, Merrit Funk “Merr”, L. Shieolds, Fred Furr, till, V. Dobbs “pchemsurvivor”, Kat, mikeatnight, New 1, Ben Hutchison, Elizabeth Hazlewood, C. Biale, and paige, THANK YOU for your reviews of the other books in the series: Monsters, Chaos, and In the Balance. You let people know that it is safe to spend money on an unknown author, and that helps a lot!
FINALLY (whew!) Thank you to reviewers on Goodreads: S. Gates, Brandie, Sarah Wilson, Vanna, Caliea, Martha, Esther Byrt! And thanks to everyone there who left ratings there — Goodreads is a rough place to be a writer. :-P
This is the proposed cover smaller, and in B&W. All...
This is the proposed cover smaller, and in B&W. All important considerations for kindle browsers.
Okay, think the cover for part IV of I Bring the Fire is pretty...
Okay, think the cover for part IV of I Bring the Fire is pretty much ready to go. I guess I could try with more of a pink light behind “Fates”. I do want to make sure it shows up well in Black and White because a lot of readers don’t have color.
The rough blurb is below. I LOVE CRITIQUES!
The Leader that Controls Chaos Rules the Realms…
It’s been two years since Loki disappeared and Odin is desperate. To find the incarnation of Chaos, he sends Thor on a dangerous quest to Nornheim to consult the all-seeing Norns. But Thor needs the help of FBI Director Steve Rogers to do it.
Loki’s former lover, veterinarian Amy Lewis, is carrying all of Loki’s memories—but missing some of her own. Hoping to keep Loki from Odin’s machinations, she agrees to help Thor on his journey.
Bohdi Patel thinks Amy is kind of cute and smart, Thor is kind of scary, and that they are both crazy. But he needs to find his parents, and he’s been told the Norns will answer any question—for a price.
Amy and Bohdi are about to get into worlds of mischief and only one thing is certain…Steve is going to have a blizzard of paperwork after this.
Okay, think the cover is pretty much ready to go. I guess I...
Okay, think the cover is pretty much ready to go. I guess I could try with more of a pink light behind “Fates”. I do want to make sure it shows up well in Black and White because a lot of readers don’t have color.
The rough blurb is below. I LOVE CRITIQUES!
The Leader that Controls Chaos Rules the Realms…
It’s been two years since Loki disappeared and Odin is desperate. To find the incarnation of Chaos, he sends Thor on a dangerous quest to Nornheim to consult the all-seeing Norns. But Thor needs the help of FBI Director Steve Rogers to do it.
Loki’s former lover, veterinarian Amy Lewis, is carrying all of Loki’s memories—but missing some of her own. Hoping to keep Loki from Odin’s machinations, she agrees to help Thor on his journey.
Bohdi Patel thinks Amy is kind of cute and smart, Thor is kind of scary, and that they are both crazy. But he needs to find his parents, and he’s been told the Norns will answer any question—for a price.
Amy and Bohdi are about to get into worlds of mischief and only one thing is certain…Steve is going to have a blizzard of paperwork after this.
February 4, 2014
Don't Make Me Think! Have a Series? Make Sure Your Fans Know in a Single Glance
Recently I was reading a self-pubbed writer bemoaning that her series (and she has multiple series!) don’t sell well, despite good reviews, and the fact that she has been traditionally published in the past and has industry cred.
Series are usually the bread-and-butter of a self-published authors. I was curious, so I went to her author’s page on Amazon. I couldn’t find which of her 20 or so books were part of a series, and which were one-offs. I wondered, how many of her readers couldn’t find the next book in their favorite series either? How many clicked away in dismay, and how many sales were lost?
So here’s three tips—two easy—one hard, to make sure your fans know your series has continued.
1. Put the series name in the title—not just on your cover—in the actual metadata when you enter the title on Amazon. Your book cover is going to be postage stamped sized in the browser window until someone clicks on it. No one can read “Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Part II” on a postage stamp!
Make sure the title next to your book cover reads, “Life Sucks (Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Part I)”
2. Put the sequential number in the metadata. Don’t just put “A Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Story”—it’s frustrating to readers. Make sure it’s “Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Part 4.5”. You don’t want to frustrate readers, they’re your customers. Love them. Make things easy for them. Their lives hard, and they worked hard to spend the money and time to read your story.
3. Make your covers match! Anyone who has followed me for a while knows that this is something I, ahem, struggled with. (For a hilarious peek at my cover attempts check out my Goodreads page and the old editions there).
It can be hard to make covers match—and expensive! When I first started out, I did something as quickly and cheaply as I could. Was unhappy, so did something that took several days worth of work to produce.
When I hit Monsters, Part II in my series, I realized making an artistic masterpiece for all of my covers was going to bankrupt me in either time or money. So I simplified. I went to iStock and picked out some lovely background textures, and then used photoshop to superimpose images and Viking-themed patterns on top of those textures. What you see here is the result:
It’s obvious they all belong to the same series (though In the Balance is a novella, a story that had to be written, but wasn’t part of the original plan. I tried to use the slight variation in the theme to reflect that.)
To be honest, I could probably make the covers even simpler and cheaper and sell as well. But I’m pleased with them, and will continue the theme.
In the web design business we have a saying, “Don’t make me think!” Basically, it means that all interfaces should be as easy to use and intuitive as possible. Web designers who try to be “too cool” are really saying, “This is all about MY VISION of DESIGN and I don’t care about you!” I wonder, if when we make things difficult for readers, we are inadvertently saying, “My ART is so wonderful, it’s worth struggling to discover!”
…and that’s kind of horrible and narcissistic. It really should be the other way around. I am honored when anyone spends time and/or money to read my books, and I think I need to make sure it shows.
Stay tuned, in the future I’ll write a post on simple covers that sell.
