The Evolution of THE YELLOW BUG or: Why I Keep Fucking Around with this Story

Well, I'm not really fucking with the story of THE YELLOW BUG itself. I've mainly been fucking with the cover art and the e-book layout.

That's a nice way of saying I've been experimenting with it to:

1. Teach myself more stuff when it comes to being self-sufficient publishing my back catalogue of shit

2. Realize when something isn't working or sucks and correct it

3. Learn what's working and isn't working out there in e-book sales land.

So far, I've learned it's nice to be able to do this stuff on your own, especially with a previously published story you've already been paid for and it's also nice to be able to do it on your own and not throw money down the toilet on cover design, etc.

Now you might says, "Hey, it's not throwing money down the toilet."

Well, that would be true if sales were awesome but one thing I've learned in over a decade of playing with e-book publishing: those awesome days of badass sales are long gone. It's an oversaturated market. And unless you've got a name, a following, or great word-of-mouth, good luck standing out in that pile of shit known as self-publishing (which used to be called the pile of shit known as the slushpile).

And I'm not just knocking self-publishing. E-book sales from big publishers aren't great either. Haven't been for a while. Unless you've got a name, following, or great word-of-mouth.

This isn't me being negative. It's just reality. And I'm okay with it. I was there at the beginning and had my awesome sales years.  Now, Kindles and whatever competitor there is out there aren't shiny and new anymore. Hell, I'm willing to bet audiobooks are doing far better than e-books based solely on how popular podcasts are and the amount of money Amazon has sunk into promoting Audible.

But what the hell does this have to do with THE YELLOW BUG?

Eh, not much. Other than to point out it's not a new story nor a new e-book. Just a story of mine I'm fond of and think deserves more attention so I keep playing with the cover and such to see if it'll get any traction on its own one day.

But if it doesn't, like I said, I've already been paid for it so it's not like I've lost money on it.

When and where did I get paid?

Good question.

THE YELLO BUG first appeared in the professional anthology MADHOUSE by Dark Regions Press way back in 2016. It's a great book with a cool concept with a bunch of crazy stories by some badass writers.

I like to believe I'm one of them.

Anyway, since then it's only appeared as a stand alone e-book and only since mid-2021. I considered trying to get it reprinted but said, "What the hell?" and went the e-book route.

This was about the same time I discovered Canva and decided to learn the ropes of cover design and such.

Of course, I didn't want to pay for the PRO subscription so got good at using all the free stuff, which resulted in a shitty lame first cover attempt.

Yeah, that's a lot of "yellow". So much so you can barely read anything.

Well, that had to be fixed, of course, which lead to this:

Hey, you can read the title and my name now!

But it still sucked. At the same time, I completely lost track of THE YELLOW BUG and it's woeful cover because I started freelance writing fulltime. Which meant there was no room for fiction adventures whatsoever.

So, the cover remained. And so did my non-existent sales.

Then a few months ago, I discovered Midjourney and started playing with AI art and figured, "Hey, let's see if the AI thingy can put together a trippy cover with surreal shit and stuff in it.

Well, here's what the AI threw at me as some ideas:

Now personally, I kinda like them all.  But I'm also fucking weird and have always liked weird cover art. I almost went with the top left but asked the AI for more ideas.

It came back with the below and I dug it.  So much so I made it the cover.  But after a couple months, it's okay to wonder who the fuck wants to buy a book with this cover? The answer is no one and I can't fault them for it.

Yes, I dig it, but I'm a weird mofo. Also, I have to admit, the bug looks like some surreal hay demon coming out of a freshly mowed field. Not exactly the desert bug demon of the story.

Anyway, no one wanted to buy it. Which led me back to Midjourney's AI to do some more playing. I figured this time I'd better, you know, add some more realism to the cover other than a freaky yellow bug-thing. So, at the top of this post, and right below, is the latest attempt. I think it's more grounded but also has that bizarre, creepy feel with that big bug eye.

Maybe this cover will be the last, maybe not. The AI technology keeps improving and it's fun to play with so I can't guarantee this is it. However, I can say this one "fits" the story more than any others. So there's that.