Jason A. Cheek's Blog, page 16
January 11, 2015
the creation process for the design of the cover for destiny, part three
There are only two more images to discuss before this series of cover discussions is finished, today’s picture which is one more rough draft and then the finished cover. This might seem like a drawn out process, but when you’re putting your money on the line and you’re trying to communicate your ideas to have someone make the vision you have come to life. It takes a lot of work.
The entire writing process, start to finish, is a work of patience and dedication. From what I’ve researched the average time it takes for a professional Fantasy/Sci-Fi writer to complete a novel is anywhere between six months to a year. That isn’t to production. It can easily be another year or two getting all of the contracts, book cover designs and marketing completed, making the overall process take closer to three years and that is for writers who have a publishing house behind them, an agent and are doing this for a living full time.
Indie Writers on the other hand usually have a full time job that is not writing, they have no agent or publishing house behind them and until they have gone through the entire process they are learning the ropes of the industry by themselves. Usually this is done online in-between writing their novel, working their full time job and trying to have family time and friends. There is no publishing house editor or print finisher helping us correct the mistakes to our manuscripts, there is no design department assisting with our graphic design nor is there a marketing team helping us get the word of our story out to people around the world. This is something every Indie Writer must on their own. It’s quite a daunting process, never less many of us push out some pretty amazing work. For myself, the process took a year and a half of focused dedicated work to complete book one and will be possibly longer than that for my second book to be completed. From what I’ve heard that’s amazingly fast for a new writer.
Sorry for going off on a tangent there, but these things are important to remember when it comes to finishing up your novel. This is especially important when it comes to your most important marketing tool, which is your book’s cover. This is the reason I’m spending so much time on explaining this whole process.
Leo sent me the image back below in response to all of our conversations. While I thought it the image was almost there and I liked the tweaking Leo did with the rearrangement of some of the Minotaurs. There were several aspects we of the image that I still felt needed to be tweaked. The lead Minotaur’s axe was a good idea and might have worked for the final product. I was of two minds about this, but I liked it that the bull had a double-headed battle axe in his hand. Also the motion itself was more interesting and took him out of the previous posing stance. I mean who poses in a battle? The Minotaur towards the middle left was turned around, which I liked. Unfortunately his stance looked wrong for this battle scene. I felt like he would be charging forward swinging back his battle axe to strike and not just standing there. Leo said he had to be careful to not make everything look too posed, but he generally liked my ideas and would work on the image.
Typically this would have meant there would have been one more final image for me to approve before he completed the design, but Leo chose to take this and run. I point this out because if you were dealing with your own artist, the next image would have pulled in the changes you requested. You would approve those changes and pay half the cost of the design up front and then your artist should complete the finished work. That would have been the typical situation. Luckily for me, Leo is a great artist with an amazing feel for design and we communicate well. I think he was just as excited about the image as I was since he knocked it out before getting my final approval, but it worked so no complaints on my side. Don’t think that the cover design is finished there. I’ll share what I like to do in my cover that I think gives it a little bit something extra, but it something you have to work out with your artist. I’ll explain that and show the final image in the next blog post, but for now here is the last in-between rough draft Leo and I shared before the final image was created.
The entire writing process, start to finish, is a work of patience and dedication. From what I’ve researched the average time it takes for a professional Fantasy/Sci-Fi writer to complete a novel is anywhere between six months to a year. That isn’t to production. It can easily be another year or two getting all of the contracts, book cover designs and marketing completed, making the overall process take closer to three years and that is for writers who have a publishing house behind them, an agent and are doing this for a living full time.
Indie Writers on the other hand usually have a full time job that is not writing, they have no agent or publishing house behind them and until they have gone through the entire process they are learning the ropes of the industry by themselves. Usually this is done online in-between writing their novel, working their full time job and trying to have family time and friends. There is no publishing house editor or print finisher helping us correct the mistakes to our manuscripts, there is no design department assisting with our graphic design nor is there a marketing team helping us get the word of our story out to people around the world. This is something every Indie Writer must on their own. It’s quite a daunting process, never less many of us push out some pretty amazing work. For myself, the process took a year and a half of focused dedicated work to complete book one and will be possibly longer than that for my second book to be completed. From what I’ve heard that’s amazingly fast for a new writer.
Sorry for going off on a tangent there, but these things are important to remember when it comes to finishing up your novel. This is especially important when it comes to your most important marketing tool, which is your book’s cover. This is the reason I’m spending so much time on explaining this whole process.
Leo sent me the image back below in response to all of our conversations. While I thought it the image was almost there and I liked the tweaking Leo did with the rearrangement of some of the Minotaurs. There were several aspects we of the image that I still felt needed to be tweaked. The lead Minotaur’s axe was a good idea and might have worked for the final product. I was of two minds about this, but I liked it that the bull had a double-headed battle axe in his hand. Also the motion itself was more interesting and took him out of the previous posing stance. I mean who poses in a battle? The Minotaur towards the middle left was turned around, which I liked. Unfortunately his stance looked wrong for this battle scene. I felt like he would be charging forward swinging back his battle axe to strike and not just standing there. Leo said he had to be careful to not make everything look too posed, but he generally liked my ideas and would work on the image.
Typically this would have meant there would have been one more final image for me to approve before he completed the design, but Leo chose to take this and run. I point this out because if you were dealing with your own artist, the next image would have pulled in the changes you requested. You would approve those changes and pay half the cost of the design up front and then your artist should complete the finished work. That would have been the typical situation. Luckily for me, Leo is a great artist with an amazing feel for design and we communicate well. I think he was just as excited about the image as I was since he knocked it out before getting my final approval, but it worked so no complaints on my side. Don’t think that the cover design is finished there. I’ll share what I like to do in my cover that I think gives it a little bit something extra, but it something you have to work out with your artist. I’ll explain that and show the final image in the next blog post, but for now here is the last in-between rough draft Leo and I shared before the final image was created.
January 8, 2015
The creation process for the design of the cover for destiny, part two
As you all know, I’m a big fan of Fantasy and Sci-fi in general. I’m always collecting images that I think are cool. Over the years I’ve collected probably close to ten thousand images ranging from D&D to Starwars. I spend a lot of time rotating through these images as I write, which always helps to get ideas for new stories churning in my head. So, whenever I start thinking about creating a cover, I immediately go to some of the artwork I love best.
The initial concept idea I had for Destiny’s book cover came from two works of digital art that Ukitakumuki created in the Warhammer 40k universe. Due to copy write issues I’ll just post the links here for your viewing pleasure here: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Last-Chapter-190222071 and http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Black-Library-Armageddon-381592220 But I would recommend checking them out for the discussion of the blog post and well just because they are awesome pictures. Even though the themes are Sci-fi based, I was pretty sure they could be re-created into something that worked for my urban fantasy novel.
What I liked best about both pictures is the sense of action, power and movement. It images feel like they were taken in during the battle. The presence that the power-armored marines have is visually palpable. I figured this idea would help bring Destiny’s cover to life if Leo could capture this same feeling in these images.
Just to give you a brief background on the scene: A small group of Marines and Minotaurs are battling for their lives against a horde of scourge and demons. You’ll have to read the book to know how this comes about and of course how it ends, but I’m really proud how I was able to work this whole scene into the storyline. He fit the rundown of weapons and armament I’d asked him to include into the scene. He also did a great job showing fully geared combat marines along with the female marine in the center of the action. I wanted her uniform to be slightly different. I wanted her to have the vibe of a feminine heroine, but at the same time in a uniform that made sense and befitted a female marine.
Now remember at this point the image is supposed to look indistinct. The main objective at this point between you and the artist is to get the general figures and over all scene into place with something that you both agree on the image layout and the cost. When Leo sent me back this first image, the one I posted in part one of this blog series, I thought the initial rough sketch looked great. Leo did an excellent job creating the general feel of a cavern and the layout of the characters that I wanted. I gave specific ideas of what I was thinking would look good, but he knows I’m open to him building the scene in a way he thinks is visually pleasing. An example is that I wanted one Minotaur falling back with one of his arms cut off and another running up with a shield and spike, but it didn’t fit within the space of the overall scene. Not to mention there is only so much room on the cover of a book. You want people to actually be able to see the scene. The wraparound he designed helps to get that fully scene feeling, but what’s most important is the front face of the cover. Leo wasn’t sure if he liked the scared marine in the very front bottom left of the picture and wanted to remove him, but he’d included it since it was in his initial rough draft.
I made some suggestions to Leo for him to tweak: First, I wanted the center Minotaur facing directly head on like the leader in the primary image I was asking him to emulate. (Aka this image: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Last-Chapter-190222071 ) Second, I wanted the female marine in the front to look more determined and scared and not that they were kicking ass. Also, I wasn’t thrilled with her firing two assault rifles at the same time, since she’s not Rambo or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I asked that Leo change one of the rifles to a pistol and have the clip kicking out like in this image: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Black-Library-Armageddon-381592220 . Lastly, I wanted to keep the scared marine in the bottom left, but I wanted both hands clutching the gun and for him to look terrified.
Leo and I shot a few several emails back and forth about a couple design features. He was afraid the overall image would look too static with some of my recommended changes. Melee weapons are static in pictures like this, while firing weapons give more feel of the overall action taking place. It was important to me for the Minotaur to be a central character on the cover along with the female marine. Partly because they are central characters and partly because you rarely see Minotaurs in anything except Tauren videos and pictures from World of Warcraft, which is sad really since they are so cool. I mean who doesn’t love a massive Tauren warrior wielding double-headed battleaxes? I also gave him a sample idea of how I pictured the attacking Scourge, here is a link to the image: http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Namcoi-Bandai-And-Flagship-Studios-Partner-With-Dark-Horse-Comics-For-Hellgate-London-Comic-Book-2.jpg It’s from Mel Odom’s London Hellgate series. A series I highly recommend. Reading Mel Odom’s work really gets the imagination going and I loved the pictures in the graphic novel for the series, really amazing art work. While the Scourge are different, I figured this was an excellent base image to use in communicating some of the specific feel I wanted for the Scourge.
Anyway, it’s my book so I get to decide on the format … at least to a point. Below you’ll find the second rough draft from Leo for Destiny’s cover. Yes, it’s still supposed to look crappy like this.
The initial concept idea I had for Destiny’s book cover came from two works of digital art that Ukitakumuki created in the Warhammer 40k universe. Due to copy write issues I’ll just post the links here for your viewing pleasure here: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Last-Chapter-190222071 and http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Black-Library-Armageddon-381592220 But I would recommend checking them out for the discussion of the blog post and well just because they are awesome pictures. Even though the themes are Sci-fi based, I was pretty sure they could be re-created into something that worked for my urban fantasy novel.
What I liked best about both pictures is the sense of action, power and movement. It images feel like they were taken in during the battle. The presence that the power-armored marines have is visually palpable. I figured this idea would help bring Destiny’s cover to life if Leo could capture this same feeling in these images.
Just to give you a brief background on the scene: A small group of Marines and Minotaurs are battling for their lives against a horde of scourge and demons. You’ll have to read the book to know how this comes about and of course how it ends, but I’m really proud how I was able to work this whole scene into the storyline. He fit the rundown of weapons and armament I’d asked him to include into the scene. He also did a great job showing fully geared combat marines along with the female marine in the center of the action. I wanted her uniform to be slightly different. I wanted her to have the vibe of a feminine heroine, but at the same time in a uniform that made sense and befitted a female marine.
Now remember at this point the image is supposed to look indistinct. The main objective at this point between you and the artist is to get the general figures and over all scene into place with something that you both agree on the image layout and the cost. When Leo sent me back this first image, the one I posted in part one of this blog series, I thought the initial rough sketch looked great. Leo did an excellent job creating the general feel of a cavern and the layout of the characters that I wanted. I gave specific ideas of what I was thinking would look good, but he knows I’m open to him building the scene in a way he thinks is visually pleasing. An example is that I wanted one Minotaur falling back with one of his arms cut off and another running up with a shield and spike, but it didn’t fit within the space of the overall scene. Not to mention there is only so much room on the cover of a book. You want people to actually be able to see the scene. The wraparound he designed helps to get that fully scene feeling, but what’s most important is the front face of the cover. Leo wasn’t sure if he liked the scared marine in the very front bottom left of the picture and wanted to remove him, but he’d included it since it was in his initial rough draft.
I made some suggestions to Leo for him to tweak: First, I wanted the center Minotaur facing directly head on like the leader in the primary image I was asking him to emulate. (Aka this image: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Last-Chapter-190222071 ) Second, I wanted the female marine in the front to look more determined and scared and not that they were kicking ass. Also, I wasn’t thrilled with her firing two assault rifles at the same time, since she’s not Rambo or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I asked that Leo change one of the rifles to a pistol and have the clip kicking out like in this image: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Black-Library-Armageddon-381592220 . Lastly, I wanted to keep the scared marine in the bottom left, but I wanted both hands clutching the gun and for him to look terrified.
Leo and I shot a few several emails back and forth about a couple design features. He was afraid the overall image would look too static with some of my recommended changes. Melee weapons are static in pictures like this, while firing weapons give more feel of the overall action taking place. It was important to me for the Minotaur to be a central character on the cover along with the female marine. Partly because they are central characters and partly because you rarely see Minotaurs in anything except Tauren videos and pictures from World of Warcraft, which is sad really since they are so cool. I mean who doesn’t love a massive Tauren warrior wielding double-headed battleaxes? I also gave him a sample idea of how I pictured the attacking Scourge, here is a link to the image: http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Namcoi-Bandai-And-Flagship-Studios-Partner-With-Dark-Horse-Comics-For-Hellgate-London-Comic-Book-2.jpg It’s from Mel Odom’s London Hellgate series. A series I highly recommend. Reading Mel Odom’s work really gets the imagination going and I loved the pictures in the graphic novel for the series, really amazing art work. While the Scourge are different, I figured this was an excellent base image to use in communicating some of the specific feel I wanted for the Scourge.
Anyway, it’s my book so I get to decide on the format … at least to a point. Below you’ll find the second rough draft from Leo for Destiny’s cover. Yes, it’s still supposed to look crappy like this.
January 6, 2015
The creation process for the design of the cover for destiny, part one
This is going to be a several part blog post about the design process for the cover artwork. I want to walk through the entire process from start to finish showing how a cover concept is brought to life with an artist. At the end of the series I’ll post the finished cover for Destiny that Leo Black just finished creating.
Although for some this might seem obvious, I found that many friends and colleagues that I shared the entire design process with were shocked to see the draft concept designs that lead to the finished design. There was definitely a disconnect somewhere along the way, which is why I thought this series of blog posts discussing the entire process would be helpful for writers designing their cover art.
The most important first step in beginning this process is to know what you want your design to be. There is no way for you to communicate your own idea if you do not have a solid concept of what you want designed. Without a solid idea you’re just going to cause confusion between you and the artist you have chosen to create your design.
The next important step is finding an artist that you know currently creates digital designs of the style that you want to have depicting your books cover. Not every artist is going to have a compatible art style. If you’re looking for anime characters, find an artist who has good examples of their current works. Make sure they are of the quality you want for your cover. Don’t be upset if you go to an anime designer and they can’t do the picture perfect realistic movie shot that you want. I had several friends and family members point me to artists they thought did great work, but up seeing examples of their art work I realized they didn’t fit the level of detail and style that I wanted. So, knowing the style you want for book cover work is extremely important to the successful completion of the entire project.
Another important addition to this step is making sure that you have a solid idea of the current cover designs out there that popular artists in your category are using. You need to know the market of your own genre. As a reader, you know what attracts your eye to a book. Use this critical eye in your own design. You want to make sure your finished product looks professional and will stand out in the sea of book covers.
As an indie writer, there are many areas that we are behind the curve ball, so to speak, when going up against professional writers with the support of a traditional book publisher, but this is one of the few areas we can possible excel over the traditional publisher. Authors working through traditional publishers do not have control over their full design process for their cover art. Instead, some executive in an office gets a brief summary of the story and has one of their people do three quick design concepts and sends it to the author for them to choose which they want to go with. We as indie writers have the ability to actually design our own cover to represent what we think best fits our story.
Unfortunately many indie writers do not use this opening to the best of their ability. It’s understandable. In a way, indie writers are betting against themselves, putting money into a project that they’ve already spent a year or two working on with no promise of getting compensation or guarantee that they will make their money back on their investment. That’s not saying that many of us do not do this for the love of writing, but there is a financial consideration to consider.
Although I cannot post original image I was using as a concept idea for my own cover, I will try to find the artwork on Diviantart.com and post it in the next blog post. Now remember, this first image is just the concept that will be used for the finished design. It's supposed to look crappy like this.
Although for some this might seem obvious, I found that many friends and colleagues that I shared the entire design process with were shocked to see the draft concept designs that lead to the finished design. There was definitely a disconnect somewhere along the way, which is why I thought this series of blog posts discussing the entire process would be helpful for writers designing their cover art.
The most important first step in beginning this process is to know what you want your design to be. There is no way for you to communicate your own idea if you do not have a solid concept of what you want designed. Without a solid idea you’re just going to cause confusion between you and the artist you have chosen to create your design.
The next important step is finding an artist that you know currently creates digital designs of the style that you want to have depicting your books cover. Not every artist is going to have a compatible art style. If you’re looking for anime characters, find an artist who has good examples of their current works. Make sure they are of the quality you want for your cover. Don’t be upset if you go to an anime designer and they can’t do the picture perfect realistic movie shot that you want. I had several friends and family members point me to artists they thought did great work, but up seeing examples of their art work I realized they didn’t fit the level of detail and style that I wanted. So, knowing the style you want for book cover work is extremely important to the successful completion of the entire project.
Another important addition to this step is making sure that you have a solid idea of the current cover designs out there that popular artists in your category are using. You need to know the market of your own genre. As a reader, you know what attracts your eye to a book. Use this critical eye in your own design. You want to make sure your finished product looks professional and will stand out in the sea of book covers.
As an indie writer, there are many areas that we are behind the curve ball, so to speak, when going up against professional writers with the support of a traditional book publisher, but this is one of the few areas we can possible excel over the traditional publisher. Authors working through traditional publishers do not have control over their full design process for their cover art. Instead, some executive in an office gets a brief summary of the story and has one of their people do three quick design concepts and sends it to the author for them to choose which they want to go with. We as indie writers have the ability to actually design our own cover to represent what we think best fits our story.
Unfortunately many indie writers do not use this opening to the best of their ability. It’s understandable. In a way, indie writers are betting against themselves, putting money into a project that they’ve already spent a year or two working on with no promise of getting compensation or guarantee that they will make their money back on their investment. That’s not saying that many of us do not do this for the love of writing, but there is a financial consideration to consider.
Although I cannot post original image I was using as a concept idea for my own cover, I will try to find the artwork on Diviantart.com and post it in the next blog post. Now remember, this first image is just the concept that will be used for the finished design. It's supposed to look crappy like this.
December 31, 2014
Happy New Year for 2015!
Another quick post for 2014. Family time is taking up most of my time the last few days, but that’s how the holidays go. I’ll get back to my normal blog posts starting 2015. For now I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
We are having a modern day Raclette for our company, a Swiss tradition that has made its way throughout Europe. Basically cheese and meats with onions and peppers, you can find more information about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year’s celebration.
We are having a modern day Raclette for our company, a Swiss tradition that has made its way throughout Europe. Basically cheese and meats with onions and peppers, you can find more information about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year’s celebration.
December 27, 2014
How do you handle an attack from another author?
Unfortunately this is something that occurs more often than most new writers would think, or then again maybe I’m just naive to a point. For myself, I take my hat off to anyone who can go through the entire process and get their novel completed. Coming up with a story and getting it onto paper (aka a word processor) is by itself is a personal accomplishment, but the entire process of bringing that work to print is something that is truly amazing and for many of us the completion of a personal goal in our lives.
To put your work out there and see people enjoying your story is one of the most incredible feelings I’ve ever felt. Another cool aspect of writing is the other authors that you meet while doing events. Many of the fellow writers I have met have been really fun people to get to know. Fantasy and Sci-Fi writers share so many of the same interests that hanging out and chatting as a group is a blast. While this is wonderful and helps to encourage many of us to continue putting in the huge amount of effort that is required to continuing producing our stories for little if any actual monetary returns, there are those that would bash their fellow indie writers. Sometimes this comes from a simple desire to put other writers down in the belief that doing so will help their books become more popular, while other times it’s a simple desire to be king of the hill. Whatever the desire is that drives these authors; you will at some time be a target of these types of writers.
From all of my research into this subject and my conversations with other more experienced writers. The recommended way to deal with negative reviews is to not reply back, but if you do decide to reply back I recommend staying as professional and non-defensive as possible. Also as an author it is important to get positive and negative feedback from people who enjoy reading the genre that you’ve decided to write in. Although that being said, not everyone is going to be a fan. Still I believe it helps to listen to what’s being said so you can determine how to make your writing even better. Sometimes it’s a simple as grammar or word usage, while at other times it’s the flow or consistency of your story. All of which are important to get feedback on. There will also be those readers who do not appreciate your concept or find something about your subject matter that they don’t agree with or cannot accept. Again this will be something that you will need to determine if this is something you want to work on improving or not. You will never write something that everyone will love. There will always be something about your story that some people find offensive or disagreeable. And you know what? That’s okay. If you wrote a story that no one could complain about then you’d probably have a very boring story that no one would particularly want to read.
While this advice works well with normal readers that for some reason do not like your story, this is much more difficult to do when you have fellow writers purposely trying to tear apart your book or take away your authenticity as a writer. Instead of being part of doing business as a writer, these peers who want to drag you down have suddenly made it personal. Although there are many different options available, it’s hard to know which method is the best approach.
One scary truth is that just being an indie writer breaking into the writing scene is enough to piss off some semi-professional and professional writers. Sometimes it’s a competitive issue, while other times these writers believe you’re just junking up the options out there for readers and taking away from their ability to continue to make the money that they want to make. At the same time, I do not believe this is every professional writer. Going to Youtube.com alone will show you many successful writers who try to give back to the writing community. At the same time, there are some small groups of writers who do target their competition to try to knock them down.
Unfortunately the nasty writers who subscribe to this ideology know how best to hurt your novel and damage your image as a writer. A good example of this is my current run-in with Stephen Blackmoore, which sadly enough I’m still trying to decide how best to deal with. I had never heard of his books before now, although I had a couple friends who know his novels as soon as I mentioned his name. I found out about this writer when I had a nasty one star review left on my book called Flight. The review was specifically worded to attack the validity of my reviews and my authenticity as a writer. There was little to no specifics about plot line or concepts discussed, but that my good reviews were faked. Giving “one star” is another way to get people to see your negative review and to purposely drag down the overall rating of your book.
I didn’t recognize the name Stephen Blackmoore, but I did recognize the attempt for what it was; a direct attack from a fellow writer. Unsurprisingly enough, I wasn’t the only target writer. Brondt Kamffer and Rosemary Fryth were on the same hit list. Brondt Kamffer actually had two books out of the same series that was targeted. All three of us were basically given the same carbon copy message. Google is a wonderful tool. One search on the name Stephen Blackmoore brought up who this individual was and the numerous books that the author had written. Instead of hunting down each of his books and leaving a similar nasty review, which is easy enough to do. I decided to take the higher road and simply link who he was in the review’s comments, discussed how sad it is when writers attack their peers and asked readers interested in my own story to simply make up their own mind as to the quality of my book and writing. Interestingly enough, the profile’s name was instantly changed to KM and I was immediately attacked even further. These additional comments I promptly ignored, taking them as I would a normal negative review. Everything I wanted to say was already said in the first comment. What more was there to add?
A twist to the situation that I wasn’t expecting was receiving an email directly from the author Stephen Blackmoore. He was cordial enough expressing is dislike for writers who participate in such actions and swearing that he was not a part of this attack. Kind words said in private, but none the less I am left in the quandary of what to believe. The evidence seems simple enough. Although it is possible some reader was using Stephen Blackmoore’s name, but if that was the case then why instantly change the Amazon Profile name before contacting me? Is my personal blog so wide read that Stephen Blackmoore was immediately aware of my posting about the situation? I would like to believe Mr. Blackmoore is innocent in all of this, but to be perfectly honest the evidence doesn’t quite fit. I can only list the facts as they occurred and let you, the reader and fellow authors, decide for yourselves.
Bad controversy is something that most writers do not want to be associated with. Although in some situations controversy can increase book sales, I believe the message of a simple blog can sometimes shed light on the nasty practices of some writers in the community that they would rather remain hidden.
Is this the best way to handle writers who try to attack you personally? To blog about their misdeeds after you discover their shenanigans? I’ll let you know as the story develops. To simply get a group of friends together to leave nasty reviews on the other writers’ books feels wrong to me. In my mind there can be no winners in such a situation, only a loosing situation for everyone concerned.
Maybe simply ignoring the review like what is normally recommended would have been the highest possible approach, but for better or worse that was beyond me at this time. I do believe people should be called to account for their misdeeds in one way or another by their own community.
Lastly, I hope this helps those of you who run into similar situations. As always I try to share my own experiences in the hopes that it will help those of you facing similar situations.
To put your work out there and see people enjoying your story is one of the most incredible feelings I’ve ever felt. Another cool aspect of writing is the other authors that you meet while doing events. Many of the fellow writers I have met have been really fun people to get to know. Fantasy and Sci-Fi writers share so many of the same interests that hanging out and chatting as a group is a blast. While this is wonderful and helps to encourage many of us to continue putting in the huge amount of effort that is required to continuing producing our stories for little if any actual monetary returns, there are those that would bash their fellow indie writers. Sometimes this comes from a simple desire to put other writers down in the belief that doing so will help their books become more popular, while other times it’s a simple desire to be king of the hill. Whatever the desire is that drives these authors; you will at some time be a target of these types of writers.
From all of my research into this subject and my conversations with other more experienced writers. The recommended way to deal with negative reviews is to not reply back, but if you do decide to reply back I recommend staying as professional and non-defensive as possible. Also as an author it is important to get positive and negative feedback from people who enjoy reading the genre that you’ve decided to write in. Although that being said, not everyone is going to be a fan. Still I believe it helps to listen to what’s being said so you can determine how to make your writing even better. Sometimes it’s a simple as grammar or word usage, while at other times it’s the flow or consistency of your story. All of which are important to get feedback on. There will also be those readers who do not appreciate your concept or find something about your subject matter that they don’t agree with or cannot accept. Again this will be something that you will need to determine if this is something you want to work on improving or not. You will never write something that everyone will love. There will always be something about your story that some people find offensive or disagreeable. And you know what? That’s okay. If you wrote a story that no one could complain about then you’d probably have a very boring story that no one would particularly want to read.
While this advice works well with normal readers that for some reason do not like your story, this is much more difficult to do when you have fellow writers purposely trying to tear apart your book or take away your authenticity as a writer. Instead of being part of doing business as a writer, these peers who want to drag you down have suddenly made it personal. Although there are many different options available, it’s hard to know which method is the best approach.
One scary truth is that just being an indie writer breaking into the writing scene is enough to piss off some semi-professional and professional writers. Sometimes it’s a competitive issue, while other times these writers believe you’re just junking up the options out there for readers and taking away from their ability to continue to make the money that they want to make. At the same time, I do not believe this is every professional writer. Going to Youtube.com alone will show you many successful writers who try to give back to the writing community. At the same time, there are some small groups of writers who do target their competition to try to knock them down.
Unfortunately the nasty writers who subscribe to this ideology know how best to hurt your novel and damage your image as a writer. A good example of this is my current run-in with Stephen Blackmoore, which sadly enough I’m still trying to decide how best to deal with. I had never heard of his books before now, although I had a couple friends who know his novels as soon as I mentioned his name. I found out about this writer when I had a nasty one star review left on my book called Flight. The review was specifically worded to attack the validity of my reviews and my authenticity as a writer. There was little to no specifics about plot line or concepts discussed, but that my good reviews were faked. Giving “one star” is another way to get people to see your negative review and to purposely drag down the overall rating of your book.
I didn’t recognize the name Stephen Blackmoore, but I did recognize the attempt for what it was; a direct attack from a fellow writer. Unsurprisingly enough, I wasn’t the only target writer. Brondt Kamffer and Rosemary Fryth were on the same hit list. Brondt Kamffer actually had two books out of the same series that was targeted. All three of us were basically given the same carbon copy message. Google is a wonderful tool. One search on the name Stephen Blackmoore brought up who this individual was and the numerous books that the author had written. Instead of hunting down each of his books and leaving a similar nasty review, which is easy enough to do. I decided to take the higher road and simply link who he was in the review’s comments, discussed how sad it is when writers attack their peers and asked readers interested in my own story to simply make up their own mind as to the quality of my book and writing. Interestingly enough, the profile’s name was instantly changed to KM and I was immediately attacked even further. These additional comments I promptly ignored, taking them as I would a normal negative review. Everything I wanted to say was already said in the first comment. What more was there to add?
A twist to the situation that I wasn’t expecting was receiving an email directly from the author Stephen Blackmoore. He was cordial enough expressing is dislike for writers who participate in such actions and swearing that he was not a part of this attack. Kind words said in private, but none the less I am left in the quandary of what to believe. The evidence seems simple enough. Although it is possible some reader was using Stephen Blackmoore’s name, but if that was the case then why instantly change the Amazon Profile name before contacting me? Is my personal blog so wide read that Stephen Blackmoore was immediately aware of my posting about the situation? I would like to believe Mr. Blackmoore is innocent in all of this, but to be perfectly honest the evidence doesn’t quite fit. I can only list the facts as they occurred and let you, the reader and fellow authors, decide for yourselves.
Bad controversy is something that most writers do not want to be associated with. Although in some situations controversy can increase book sales, I believe the message of a simple blog can sometimes shed light on the nasty practices of some writers in the community that they would rather remain hidden.
Is this the best way to handle writers who try to attack you personally? To blog about their misdeeds after you discover their shenanigans? I’ll let you know as the story develops. To simply get a group of friends together to leave nasty reviews on the other writers’ books feels wrong to me. In my mind there can be no winners in such a situation, only a loosing situation for everyone concerned.
Maybe simply ignoring the review like what is normally recommended would have been the highest possible approach, but for better or worse that was beyond me at this time. I do believe people should be called to account for their misdeeds in one way or another by their own community.
Lastly, I hope this helps those of you who run into similar situations. As always I try to share my own experiences in the hopes that it will help those of you facing similar situations.
December 24, 2014
Just a quick wish for everyone to have a happy holiday
I have two weeks off while my wife’s family is visiting from Poland, so we are hosting Christmas at our home. Being American, it’s neat to be a part of the traditional Polish celebrations that make up the holiday season. It’s definitely an experience. We combine the holiday, blending in my American traditions with my wife’s Polish traditions, which makes the season fun for everyone and a little different. I was debating on baking a ham or making a turkey, but decided to do a ham for Christmas and a turkey for the New Year. I have a pretty tasty recipe that I do whenever I cook a turkey that everyone seems to love. The Europeans always get a kick seeing a twenty-two pound bird sitting on the table and are always surprised at how tasty and juicy the meat tastes.
Kanchen, one of my four-footed boys, is recovering from knee surgery. He blew out a knee following some scent he ran across with his brother when we were out walking through the woods just before the start of the holidays. He’s doing much better now that the stitches have come out, but still has some pain he’s dealing with.
I was busy for the first couple days of my vacation baking up a storm. Everyone loves American cookies and I did up five batches for the holidays and then helped my wife make a tiramisu from scratch. The home-made tiramisu is my favorite though.
My time at cooking wasn’t finished since everyone loves to have an American style breakfast with bacon, home-style potatoes with cheesy scrambled eggs and stuffed French toast. I mean there are still a lot of dinners to be made with having seven people visiting, but that’s pretty easy. It pretty much gives me a good week before I have to really focus on cooking again, which will be a stuffed turkey. That means I’ll get some good writing time in. At least I’m managing to do that off and on since my Polish isn’t very good. It gives me some time to chill out while my wife visits with her sister’s family.
Anyway, this is just a quick post. I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday however you and your family celebrate this time of year. Make sure to enjoy this special time of year with family, friends and the spirit of giving.
Kanchen, one of my four-footed boys, is recovering from knee surgery. He blew out a knee following some scent he ran across with his brother when we were out walking through the woods just before the start of the holidays. He’s doing much better now that the stitches have come out, but still has some pain he’s dealing with.
I was busy for the first couple days of my vacation baking up a storm. Everyone loves American cookies and I did up five batches for the holidays and then helped my wife make a tiramisu from scratch. The home-made tiramisu is my favorite though.
My time at cooking wasn’t finished since everyone loves to have an American style breakfast with bacon, home-style potatoes with cheesy scrambled eggs and stuffed French toast. I mean there are still a lot of dinners to be made with having seven people visiting, but that’s pretty easy. It pretty much gives me a good week before I have to really focus on cooking again, which will be a stuffed turkey. That means I’ll get some good writing time in. At least I’m managing to do that off and on since my Polish isn’t very good. It gives me some time to chill out while my wife visits with her sister’s family.
Anyway, this is just a quick post. I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday however you and your family celebrate this time of year. Make sure to enjoy this special time of year with family, friends and the spirit of giving.
December 20, 2014
A quick cover update for destiny, book two, and a word on the negative side of writing a good story
I don’t want to give too much away just yet, but the cover for Destiny is looking good. Leo really has done an amazing job getting the gist of what I wanted designed and is now putting his own twist on the vision. I’ll be doing a write-up on the progression of this cover once it’s finished. Hopefully it will help those of you new to the process in getting your own designs from conception to print. Now I just need to get the last part of the story finished.
I did go ahead and write out the specifics of the last part of the story. Also, I got some help from a few friends on giving me some feedback on the romance part I just finished writing. So far it sounds like I hit it right. I really thought long and hard on everything Elliott Kay had to say on the subject. I don’t know if the man ever shared out the information he put in the email he sent me on his blog or not, but it was some of the best information ever for writing romance/erotica. Not to mention we had some good commensuration on the authors that give indie writers a hard time.
I’ve been getting pretty good at taking criticism on my writing. No writer likes to get their work banged up, but good author listens because they know hearing the good and the bad is the only way they are going to learn how to write better. To be honest, I have learned a lot from both reviews I’ve received. But every once in a while you’ll get an author who sees an indie writer doing well for themselves and then for whatever reason decides to just to a nasty review.
Typically I would say it usually comes down to having their book doing badly, but I’m sure that’s not always the case. I would say I expect that’s what twisted author Stephen Blackmoore’s panties, my most recent critic. You’ve got to love someone who in the header of their post says “To counter all the fake reviews” then starts out with “This story isn’t terrible, but” had to give it a one star. He ends the post review by putting in a spoiler on top of that. Unfortunately, no matter how many paid reviews you have, there is nothing you can do about someone just being nasty. I will say it’s one of the few nasty reviews I’ve replied to. I try to stay above such things. It’s what every experienced writer suggests, but this was the first time I’ve replied to one of these post. So Mr. Blackmoore has that distinction, at least with me. I keep it light and asked readers to leave their own review after reading the story, while pointing out the lack of self interest by pointing people reading reviews to Mr. Blackmoore’s author web page on Amazon. Still it’s a nasty cheap trick to do to a fellow writer.
Maybe that means people are starting to take notice of me, since Flight is still selling and doing well. The last time I had several bad reviews come in at once was when Flight hit number 23 on the top 100 list for Amazon’s fantasy superheroes category. Again it was from a batch of four fellow indie writers whose books had fallen in the rankings of their prospective categories. I can only assume they were upset that Flight was doing well, while their books were not. Still, I find attitudes like that hard to fathom. To me it just doesn’t make any since to bash another writer just because your own book isn’t doing well.
Anyway, for those of you starting out, such actions will be a fact of life if you have any success in writing. Maybe in some ways that means you’re on the right track, but it helps to be emotionally prepared in advance. It’s the dark side of writing a good story. As always, thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
I did go ahead and write out the specifics of the last part of the story. Also, I got some help from a few friends on giving me some feedback on the romance part I just finished writing. So far it sounds like I hit it right. I really thought long and hard on everything Elliott Kay had to say on the subject. I don’t know if the man ever shared out the information he put in the email he sent me on his blog or not, but it was some of the best information ever for writing romance/erotica. Not to mention we had some good commensuration on the authors that give indie writers a hard time.
I’ve been getting pretty good at taking criticism on my writing. No writer likes to get their work banged up, but good author listens because they know hearing the good and the bad is the only way they are going to learn how to write better. To be honest, I have learned a lot from both reviews I’ve received. But every once in a while you’ll get an author who sees an indie writer doing well for themselves and then for whatever reason decides to just to a nasty review.
Typically I would say it usually comes down to having their book doing badly, but I’m sure that’s not always the case. I would say I expect that’s what twisted author Stephen Blackmoore’s panties, my most recent critic. You’ve got to love someone who in the header of their post says “To counter all the fake reviews” then starts out with “This story isn’t terrible, but” had to give it a one star. He ends the post review by putting in a spoiler on top of that. Unfortunately, no matter how many paid reviews you have, there is nothing you can do about someone just being nasty. I will say it’s one of the few nasty reviews I’ve replied to. I try to stay above such things. It’s what every experienced writer suggests, but this was the first time I’ve replied to one of these post. So Mr. Blackmoore has that distinction, at least with me. I keep it light and asked readers to leave their own review after reading the story, while pointing out the lack of self interest by pointing people reading reviews to Mr. Blackmoore’s author web page on Amazon. Still it’s a nasty cheap trick to do to a fellow writer.
Maybe that means people are starting to take notice of me, since Flight is still selling and doing well. The last time I had several bad reviews come in at once was when Flight hit number 23 on the top 100 list for Amazon’s fantasy superheroes category. Again it was from a batch of four fellow indie writers whose books had fallen in the rankings of their prospective categories. I can only assume they were upset that Flight was doing well, while their books were not. Still, I find attitudes like that hard to fathom. To me it just doesn’t make any since to bash another writer just because your own book isn’t doing well.
Anyway, for those of you starting out, such actions will be a fact of life if you have any success in writing. Maybe in some ways that means you’re on the right track, but it helps to be emotionally prepared in advance. It’s the dark side of writing a good story. As always, thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
December 16, 2014
how to find and communicate your thoughts to the artist doing your book cover part two
Coming up with a “cover idea” is not the easiest thing to do. In my mind, you need to find a cover that conveys the idea of your story or shows an action scene. The idea should be something that is eye catching. A book cover is a writer’s first means of advertising to their prospective audience. It should be something that catches a reader’s eyes and making them want to pick up your book to read the back cover, which is the secondary primary means of advertising for an author. (Wow, that whole back cover blurb should be my next blog series of discussions, but for now let’s keep the focus on the cover art.) The last part of this direct advertising is your front cover blurb and your sample pages from your novel.
In my opinion, there is nothing more important than your cover when it comes to your initial advertising. Getting someone to notice your book as a new writer and to actually check out what your story is about is the hardest part of advertising. I would go so far as to say that 80% to 90% of the people that decide to pick up your book due to the cover will probably choose to purchase your book if they like the back blurb about the story. What gets readers to get this far is the actual cover that catches their eyes.
Now for already famous writers this is not as important, but for us indie writers it is. We don’t already have a following of readers who want to check out our work, so we need to advertise and get people to notice our great story.
Now that we have an idea just how important the cover for your book, we can discuss the next part of the process. Before you can communicate your cover idea to your artist, you as the writer need to have a solid idea of what you want for the cover of your book. Sounds easy, right? Wrong, the whole process of coming up with a concept that rocks and then communicating that concept to your artist is extremely difficult. Also, you only have several tries with the artist you’re working with before they are going to say something like: We need to go with one of the concepts we’ve come up with or you’re going to need to pay me for all of the art work that you keep asking for. Also, covers are expensive and none of us have extra money to just throw away. Hell, as a new writer we are already gambling that all of the money we are spending now to get the book published in the first place is actually going to get enough of a return to pay for the initial cost of publishing our book, let alone actually make anything extra on top of that.
Once you have this mental picture of what you want your cover to be, you need to find a way to communicate this idea to the artist you’ve found. I do this in two different ways. First, I pull as many images that I can to convey the idea of what I’m thinking. I would post the file here that I use to do this, but with all of the focus on posting other people’s images illegally, I’ll just discuss the file I used to convey my thoughts instead. There are just way too many images to hunt down each artist to get permissions for this blog post. In the document I used to communicate with my artist I focused on several types of images. The first was the color pallet that I was looking for. I had several images that gave the impression of blowing snow with a bluish tinge to the scene. I also discussed the feeling I wanted to convey in the background of the picture. The second focus I had was on the art style I was looking for in the main characters. I was going for an anime with a slightly realistic look for the characters. I had a couple faces concepts that I wanted, but nothing exact. I had several pictures showing young women that were wolf-like in appearance. I wanted Starfire to look not quite human and to be a partial twin to the werewolf girl, Frostbrand, who is placed on the other side of Startüm. I had several pictures of the style of werewolf I was looking for. I also wanted the werewolf in question to look feminine and child-like. A tough request I’m sure, which Leo really kicked butt doing. Last, I had pictures of the armor style I wanted for the Startüm and the swords I wanted used.
Although I had specific ideas of what I wanted, I also left things loose for the artist’s own interpretation. I wanted to make sure I went with what the artist wanted to do to a point too. I did make some mistakes. I wish I had put Startüm as younger and with blonde hair to go better with the description within the pages of the book, but at the same time I really loved how the character on the cover looked Wolfish. It made me not want to change the image from what Leo came up with in that way.
You can see the progression of the images from Leo. The first one was almost exactly what I was looking for. The only thing I didn’t like was the body language and the stance of the main character in Leo’s first try. Also, I wanted the character to look slightly more muscular and more aggressive. In the second try that Leo did I thought he hit this exactly, which is what I told him to go with. I wasn’t sure where the flame for Starfire should go. I initially had an idea that she was fiery all over, but I didn’t like the look in the first picture. Leo put it to her hand instead, which I thought came out great.
I’ll post information for the cover for Destiny and I hope this discussion helps those of you who are going through this process for the first time.
In my opinion, there is nothing more important than your cover when it comes to your initial advertising. Getting someone to notice your book as a new writer and to actually check out what your story is about is the hardest part of advertising. I would go so far as to say that 80% to 90% of the people that decide to pick up your book due to the cover will probably choose to purchase your book if they like the back blurb about the story. What gets readers to get this far is the actual cover that catches their eyes.
Now for already famous writers this is not as important, but for us indie writers it is. We don’t already have a following of readers who want to check out our work, so we need to advertise and get people to notice our great story.
Now that we have an idea just how important the cover for your book, we can discuss the next part of the process. Before you can communicate your cover idea to your artist, you as the writer need to have a solid idea of what you want for the cover of your book. Sounds easy, right? Wrong, the whole process of coming up with a concept that rocks and then communicating that concept to your artist is extremely difficult. Also, you only have several tries with the artist you’re working with before they are going to say something like: We need to go with one of the concepts we’ve come up with or you’re going to need to pay me for all of the art work that you keep asking for. Also, covers are expensive and none of us have extra money to just throw away. Hell, as a new writer we are already gambling that all of the money we are spending now to get the book published in the first place is actually going to get enough of a return to pay for the initial cost of publishing our book, let alone actually make anything extra on top of that.
Once you have this mental picture of what you want your cover to be, you need to find a way to communicate this idea to the artist you’ve found. I do this in two different ways. First, I pull as many images that I can to convey the idea of what I’m thinking. I would post the file here that I use to do this, but with all of the focus on posting other people’s images illegally, I’ll just discuss the file I used to convey my thoughts instead. There are just way too many images to hunt down each artist to get permissions for this blog post. In the document I used to communicate with my artist I focused on several types of images. The first was the color pallet that I was looking for. I had several images that gave the impression of blowing snow with a bluish tinge to the scene. I also discussed the feeling I wanted to convey in the background of the picture. The second focus I had was on the art style I was looking for in the main characters. I was going for an anime with a slightly realistic look for the characters. I had a couple faces concepts that I wanted, but nothing exact. I had several pictures showing young women that were wolf-like in appearance. I wanted Starfire to look not quite human and to be a partial twin to the werewolf girl, Frostbrand, who is placed on the other side of Startüm. I had several pictures of the style of werewolf I was looking for. I also wanted the werewolf in question to look feminine and child-like. A tough request I’m sure, which Leo really kicked butt doing. Last, I had pictures of the armor style I wanted for the Startüm and the swords I wanted used.
Although I had specific ideas of what I wanted, I also left things loose for the artist’s own interpretation. I wanted to make sure I went with what the artist wanted to do to a point too. I did make some mistakes. I wish I had put Startüm as younger and with blonde hair to go better with the description within the pages of the book, but at the same time I really loved how the character on the cover looked Wolfish. It made me not want to change the image from what Leo came up with in that way.
You can see the progression of the images from Leo. The first one was almost exactly what I was looking for. The only thing I didn’t like was the body language and the stance of the main character in Leo’s first try. Also, I wanted the character to look slightly more muscular and more aggressive. In the second try that Leo did I thought he hit this exactly, which is what I told him to go with. I wasn’t sure where the flame for Starfire should go. I initially had an idea that she was fiery all over, but I didn’t like the look in the first picture. Leo put it to her hand instead, which I thought came out great.
I’ll post information for the cover for Destiny and I hope this discussion helps those of you who are going through this process for the first time.
December 12, 2014
how to find and communicate your thoughts to the artist doing your book cover part one
There is a lot that goes into finding an artist to do the cover for your book. One of the first things I tried to do was to get an idea of the going rates for digital art work for book covers. When I looked at this a year ago the price range started at around $300/400 and up. This is the cost for a single character with background art. Having more than two or more characters and the price goes up dramatically. If you want a full battle scene and you’re starting to talk about special pricing.
This cost should cover the fonts for the front, back cover and sleeve. If you do it this way you really need to be prepared ahead of time. You want to make sure you have your name, the text for the back cover and the title completed exactly the way you want it and in the size for the book you’ll be using. I just want to point out that I don’t recommend doing it this way … except for making sure that the artist gives you a copy in the picture for the size of book you plan to use for your createspace cover. (I’m using createspace because it’s what I use for my physical book size. If you’re using another printer then you need to make sure your picture reduces properly to the size you need it to be. Most printers want a “print ready” cover. If your artist doesn’t do this for you then you will need to do the final processing on your own, which can be tough to do.) I went ahead and chose to do the fonts myself. Leo did do a title and name for me on the front, but left the image open so that I could change it around if I wanted to, which I did end up doing several times before I got it to where I felt it was right.
Finding an artist was extremely difficult. I searched through several different web sites like Diviantart.com, but the best web site for finding artists was Diviantart from my experiences. I also searched for the artists that did the covers for some of the book I love to read. Lastly, I found several graphic artist web sites. Even after all of that it wasn’t easy to find someone I wanted to work with. Out of the artists I made a list of that I liked their art style and wanted to have them do the book cover, I had to find one willing to do the work.
Out of the first fifteen to twenty artists I tried, one guy answered back and said sorry but he doesn’t work with individuals, only firms. That was because so many writers had tried to cheat him out of his money for doing the art work. He wasn’t nasty about it, but just explaining what he’d been through.
This prompted more research on my part once again. I got an idea for the normal process. Come up with a concept, have a graphic artist sketch out an idea, come to an agreement on the idea, pay half up front and pay the last half upon completion. Then I searched for some more artists. This time I got lucky and actually received three responses back. They all had good artwork and were nice and professional to talk with. The first response came from Leo Black, second from Mike Gauss, and a third named Ventrue. I also had an angle on some Chinese and Korean artists, but they were a little too sexual for what I was looking for on my cover. As you know I ended up going with Leo. Good choice I think, just check out the cover for Book One, Flight.
My next post will be communicating the ideas you have to the graphic artist you’ve chosen.
This cost should cover the fonts for the front, back cover and sleeve. If you do it this way you really need to be prepared ahead of time. You want to make sure you have your name, the text for the back cover and the title completed exactly the way you want it and in the size for the book you’ll be using. I just want to point out that I don’t recommend doing it this way … except for making sure that the artist gives you a copy in the picture for the size of book you plan to use for your createspace cover. (I’m using createspace because it’s what I use for my physical book size. If you’re using another printer then you need to make sure your picture reduces properly to the size you need it to be. Most printers want a “print ready” cover. If your artist doesn’t do this for you then you will need to do the final processing on your own, which can be tough to do.) I went ahead and chose to do the fonts myself. Leo did do a title and name for me on the front, but left the image open so that I could change it around if I wanted to, which I did end up doing several times before I got it to where I felt it was right.
Finding an artist was extremely difficult. I searched through several different web sites like Diviantart.com, but the best web site for finding artists was Diviantart from my experiences. I also searched for the artists that did the covers for some of the book I love to read. Lastly, I found several graphic artist web sites. Even after all of that it wasn’t easy to find someone I wanted to work with. Out of the artists I made a list of that I liked their art style and wanted to have them do the book cover, I had to find one willing to do the work.
Out of the first fifteen to twenty artists I tried, one guy answered back and said sorry but he doesn’t work with individuals, only firms. That was because so many writers had tried to cheat him out of his money for doing the art work. He wasn’t nasty about it, but just explaining what he’d been through.
This prompted more research on my part once again. I got an idea for the normal process. Come up with a concept, have a graphic artist sketch out an idea, come to an agreement on the idea, pay half up front and pay the last half upon completion. Then I searched for some more artists. This time I got lucky and actually received three responses back. They all had good artwork and were nice and professional to talk with. The first response came from Leo Black, second from Mike Gauss, and a third named Ventrue. I also had an angle on some Chinese and Korean artists, but they were a little too sexual for what I was looking for on my cover. As you know I ended up going with Leo. Good choice I think, just check out the cover for Book One, Flight.
My next post will be communicating the ideas you have to the graphic artist you’ve chosen.
how to find and communicate your your thoughts to the artist doing your book cover part one
There is a lot that goes into finding an artist to do the cover for your book. One of the first things I tried to do was to get an idea of the going rates for digital art work for book covers. When I looked at this a year ago the price range started at around $300/400 and up. This is the cost for a single character with background art. Having more than two or more characters and the price goes up dramatically. If you want a full battle scene and you’re starting to talk about special pricing.
This cost should cover the fonts for the front, back cover and sleeve. If you do it this way you really need to be prepared ahead of time. You want to make sure you have your name, the text for the back cover and the title completed exactly the way you want it and in the size for the book you’ll be using. I just want to point out that I don’t recommend doing it this way … except for making sure that the artist gives you a copy in the picture for the size of book you plan to use for your createspace cover. (I’m using createspace because it’s what I use for my physical book size. If you’re using another printer then you need to make sure your picture reduces properly to the size you need it to be. Most printers want a “print ready” cover. If your artist doesn’t do this for you then you will need to do the final processing on your own, which can be tough to do.) I went ahead and chose to do the fonts myself. Leo did do a title and name for me on the front, but left the image open so that I could change it around if I wanted to, which I did end up doing several times before I got it to where I felt it was right.
Finding an artist was extremely difficult. I searched through several different web sites like Diviantart.com, but the best web site for finding artists was Diviantart from my experiences. I also searched for the artists that did the covers for some of the book I love to read. Lastly, I found several graphic artist web sites. Even after all of that it wasn’t easy to find someone I wanted to work with. Out of the artists I made a list of that I liked their art style and wanted to have them do the book cover, I had to find one willing to do the work.
Out of the first fifteen to twenty artists I tried, one guy answered back and said sorry but he doesn’t work with individuals, only firms. That was because so many writers had tried to cheat him out of his money for doing the art work. He wasn’t nasty about it, but just explaining what he’d been through.
This prompted more research on my part once again. I got an idea for the normal process. Come up with a concept, have a graphic artist sketch out an idea, come to an agreement on the idea, pay half up front and pay the last half upon completion. Then I searched for some more artists. This time I got lucky and actually received three responses back. They all had good artwork and were nice and professional to talk with. The first response came from Leo Black, second from Mike Gauss, and a third named Ventrue. I also had an angle on some Chinese and Korean artists, but they were a little too sexual for what I was looking for on my cover. As you know I ended up going with Leo. Good choice I think, just check out the cover for Book One, Flight.
My next post will be communicating the ideas you have to the graphic artist you’ve chosen.
This cost should cover the fonts for the front, back cover and sleeve. If you do it this way you really need to be prepared ahead of time. You want to make sure you have your name, the text for the back cover and the title completed exactly the way you want it and in the size for the book you’ll be using. I just want to point out that I don’t recommend doing it this way … except for making sure that the artist gives you a copy in the picture for the size of book you plan to use for your createspace cover. (I’m using createspace because it’s what I use for my physical book size. If you’re using another printer then you need to make sure your picture reduces properly to the size you need it to be. Most printers want a “print ready” cover. If your artist doesn’t do this for you then you will need to do the final processing on your own, which can be tough to do.) I went ahead and chose to do the fonts myself. Leo did do a title and name for me on the front, but left the image open so that I could change it around if I wanted to, which I did end up doing several times before I got it to where I felt it was right.
Finding an artist was extremely difficult. I searched through several different web sites like Diviantart.com, but the best web site for finding artists was Diviantart from my experiences. I also searched for the artists that did the covers for some of the book I love to read. Lastly, I found several graphic artist web sites. Even after all of that it wasn’t easy to find someone I wanted to work with. Out of the artists I made a list of that I liked their art style and wanted to have them do the book cover, I had to find one willing to do the work.
Out of the first fifteen to twenty artists I tried, one guy answered back and said sorry but he doesn’t work with individuals, only firms. That was because so many writers had tried to cheat him out of his money for doing the art work. He wasn’t nasty about it, but just explaining what he’d been through.
This prompted more research on my part once again. I got an idea for the normal process. Come up with a concept, have a graphic artist sketch out an idea, come to an agreement on the idea, pay half up front and pay the last half upon completion. Then I searched for some more artists. This time I got lucky and actually received three responses back. They all had good artwork and were nice and professional to talk with. The first response came from Leo Black, second from Mike Gauss, and a third named Ventrue. I also had an angle on some Chinese and Korean artists, but they were a little too sexual for what I was looking for on my cover. As you know I ended up going with Leo. Good choice I think, just check out the cover for Book One, Flight.
My next post will be communicating the ideas you have to the graphic artist you’ve chosen.
