C.B.’s Comments (group member since May 01, 2015)

C.B.’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

Lara wrote: "C.B. wrote: "As long as you avoid the marketing campaign about kicking Bald Eagles in the face, I think you will be fine!"

Not familiar with that one - I'll google it!"

Me either! I just made it up... but I need to google it now as well just to be sure.

My graphic designer senses are twitching here! I shall help as best as I can! (these are all opinions only!)

I don't think the darkened shapes below the title and author name are needed. This would be stronger without them. The title could also be bigger, so it stands out more.

The background isn't really working. It feels really out of place, and the tones are all off for sand (which I know had to be done for it to be more subtle)

Next, the font. That is Zapf Chancery. It is a font that comes standard with all computers, so it is usually best to not use it while designing. It also isn't great with 'kerning', and in all caps it tends to become hard to read.
I recommend ditching it, as it really isn't an interesting font overall.
www.fontsquirrel.com & www.dafont.com are good font resources. Try to look for something as quirky as the story, but avoid the fonts with millions of downloads or you could end up in the same boat of fonts everyone knows! :)

Somewhere along the line, the aspect ratio of the beefcake has been altered. He is slightly squished now.

Personally, I really like the image of the half of a cute reaper. It does have a certain Halloween costume charm going for it. (The scythe is plastic after all)

I think that, with some cute text, and a light background, that image alone could be really fun and more in line with this book blurb.

It really should be popping, and fun!

As for the blurb, (I decided to help a bit there as well) I think this may be the first time I have given this advice... I think there needs to be more of it. You have all the pieces already in your ideas.

I think it might also be beneficial to put this in a more active tense, so the reader feels like they are there during the blurb.

The first paragraph could do with some setting and context. Why does she dream of this, well the monsters outside could be a great reason.

A combining the second and third paragraphs would be useful. That should really be one sentence. ie.

When the usually agile girl trips in the darkness of an abandoned alleyway she is surprised to discover an alien. The alien is still breathing, but only barely.

Can this chance encounter set the course for an incredible adventure that just might lead Jendra to paradise?

I know the cover isn't the first phase, but that is what I am helping with! :)

It is a very small picture of the cover to try to judge, but in that I think it can help demonstrate what could be improved upon. :)

Your book title isn't legible at all. In an Amazon list, or in collection of books, readers will not even be able to see what your book is called. Some contrast would go a long way to help the title.

I looked at the larger version, and only then could I understand the artwork. In the small version it does look more like a man with a mustache and glasses looking through the keyhole. This would be the wrong impression, given who the book is supposed to appeal to. Zooming in on that cute art would certainly help clarity! It would also remove black space, which personally I think there is too much of.

With just a few moments of work, I think this cover could be greatly improved! It does have charm, you just need to show that.

Kindle Direct normalizes page count, at least if it is in a normal format. It can be a bit dis-concerning for sure.

Normally the KDP page count is bigger compared to word, at least I thought so.

My story:
My book needed to use the textbook creator so that the text and graphics stayed put. The page count was set. Kindle accepted what I told them.

I found out that books of similar word lengths had about double the normalized page count of my book because of this. (Mine was also hard to read because of this on some devices.)

Needless to say, the new version I released uses much smaller pages, and the page count is now double what it was on KDP.

I may have stumbled upon the new 'Short story gets more royalties' thing from Kindle's past that Amazon stomped out with price per page.

I dictated the amount of pages in my book. I get paid based on the number of pages I made, not what KDP decides the page count is.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but I might have broken Kindle.

As long as you avoid the marketing campaign about kicking Bald Eagles in the face, I think you will be fine!

April wrote: "I build my e-books (.mobi files) in Calibre, which is a free software program. Then you can send the .mobi file directly to your Kindle."

Yes, that would have been the smart thing to do. If you saw the layout of my book though you would know why that doesn't work! :D (In fact you can if you look at it in goodreads, there is a preview.

It has been such an ordeal getting it through to amazon and making it work. I am just glad when I downloaded it today it finally looks correct.

Apparently not everyone writes books full of boxes, upside down writing, glyphs, different text sizes, spreadsheets, and kitty diaries in them... for some reason.

G.G. wrote: "They sent me another email, repeating the same instructions but this time it worked without me having to do anything. YEAH!!!!!!"

That is great! 18th time's a charm!

Thanks GG, let me know how it turns out.

G.G. wrote: "I tried to be sleeky and deleted the book to get the new version from Amazon, but I forgot to remove it from my devices before I bought it back. The result? Amazon sent me the old version still.

T..."

In the one on Amazon I followed the instructions in the converter to mark chapters. So hopefully that makes it less awful.

Word of warning to everyone: Odd formatting your books makes it really hard to publish into an Ebook!

Christina wrote: "You can ask Amazon for the new version, GG. And CB, if you send them a message explaining that the formatting was changed for ease of use, they should do an automatic push to anyone who already got..."

I think I will do that option once I am sure this version is correct. :)

Ken wrote: "You can download a mobi free from Amazon Kindle Direct. On your bookshelf, click on "edit details" for your book. On that page, scroll to the bottom to the downloadable previewer, and

click on Download Book Preview File to download your book.

After it downloads click on "return to bookshelf" at the bottom and you're done."

The Bold bit is the part I can't do. I just don't see anything anywhere on the previewer or details page that allows me to download anything.

Christina wrote: "Free is worldwide whereas the countdown sales are US and UK."

Ooooh! You've just expanded my marking sweep tomorrow... three fold!

Ellison wrote: "On the publishing page "Edit Details" page, one of the previewer links lets you download a .mobi file (I thought I did this once).

Also, I bought my book through Amazon once and ended up only pay..."

The internet seems to agree with you, I however can only seem to make it open the preview or save the webpage for the preview. Not get the source file.

I know how my Grandmother feels now trying to work 'The Facebook'.

I think I will see if I can download it tomorrow for free, that's pretty soon anyways.

Christina wrote: "Um... Isn't it going to be free tomorrow as part of the book blast?"

It sure is!
...

I am not sure if I can download it though, it wasn't on sale last time because I don't live in the states, so I don't know if it will be free tomorrow.

I guess it isn't that long until I can check.

I have some printed books over there, sitting on that cardboard box for a surround system that I am too scared to throw away.
I could probably just send you one. You are pretty cool after all.

Does anyone know how I can download my own book?

I had to go though Kindle Direct Publishing with a textbook creator tool to get my book published on Amazon. I can't use the textbook file in a reader, because it is for Kindle Direct Publishing.

Does anyone know if I can download my own book on Amazon or in Kindle Direct Publishing?

Side Note: I don't want to pay for it.

Well sure. You told me to, so I entered!

CB Archer, Breakers of the Code.

But who would watch a movie called Snow White and the Seven Samurai?

Yes Tyler, you are almost there! Just a little trimming that needs to be done. Anything I was going to say VM actually already covered! VM - professional ninja blurber.

I did notice a lack of Space Crocodiles though, but I suppose a Malevolent Spiritual-Energy Prison Warden could work as well.