How to Thrive as a Writer in a Capitalist Dystopia by Russell Nohelty

Full disclosure: I backed the Kickstarter for this book, and even though I have a fair amount of negative things to say, I don't regret it. I found it to be an educational read.

thrive: verb (used without object)

1. to prosper; be fortunate or successful. Synonyms: advance
2. to grow or develop vigorously; flourish.
   The children thrived in the country.

Russell Nohelty is a successful writer, and he wants to share what he's learned about marketing with you. But after reading this book, I've come to the conclusion that "thriving" is not what this book is about. It's about how to survive as a writer in a capitalist dystopia.

survive: to get along or remain healthy, happy, and unaffected in spite of some occurrence.

She's surviving after the divorce.

After reading through all of the health issues (both mental and physical) that Nohelty shares with the reader, his suggestion not to strive for happiness in order to avoid falling into negativity, and the constant drumbeat of how exhausted he is from promoting his brand (blog posts, interviews, podcasts, strategizing his advertizing budget, evaluating what promotions are working, etc.) leads me to believe that he's deluding himself into thinking he's thriving; he's merely surviving.

But "survive" isn't as marketable a word as "thrive." And it's clear to me after reading this book, that Nohelty knows marketing.

And that's where this book has value. Right from the start, Nohelty gives his readers a reality bath. If you have any illusions about your chances of success after publishing your book, then he will wash those illusions away. Once he's done that, he works hard for you to accept things as they are. It's not your fault. Capitalism is a rough system with many evils; it's difficult to conduct commerce in such a system, but it's what we have to deal with. Nohelty doesn't want authors to let the system damage their mental health.

Once that's out of the way, he shares his business experience, matters of personal health, his experiences with social media, makes suggestions about automating your workflow, explains arbitrage, agonizes over the size of his mailing list, crunches the numbers on advertizing ROI, drowns you in marketing philosophy, and tries to get you to focus on what works for you. There's even a clever bit about author archetypes which he and his partner have dubbed "biomes." There's plenty more, but it can be repetitive at times and rambling, and I found myself wanting him to get on with it. But he has to get it all out there because he's trying to make a point and, IMO, he's burning the candle at both ends.

There's a workbook—emphasis on work—that goes with this book that could prove useful. But if you need a guide you can sign up for the service that he and a fellow successful marketer have devised. Nohelty goes into some detail about that in the book, and it stuck in my craw. I don't fault him for monetizing his experience, but I do feel like he's trying to upsell anyone who bought this book. And I don't really appreciate that, but hey, we live in a capitalist dystopia, so it's all fair game.

So if you're an indie writer, should you pick this up? If you've got a routine that you're happy with, then no. If you're content with your writing as a fun hobby, then also no. But if you've got at least three books under your belt, you've sold less than 100 copies (like 99% of us), and you're looking to find out what may or may not be required of you to grow your brand, then yes. It's a sobering look at one man's efforts (one who already had experience with sales and marketing) to grow his brand. Maybe you'll find something in it that works for you.

And Mr. Nohelty, if you're reading this, H.P. Lovecraft never lived in Los Angeles, much less had a salon there.

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Problems With Draft2Digital

I had every intention to get my latest novel, Gateway To Empire, published in other ebook formats besides the Kindle, but those plans have gone awry. Previously, I used Smashwords to publish all of these myriad other ebook formats, but they were purchased by Draft2Digital (D2D). I discovered that they use a different formatting program than Smashwords.

I attempted to get this done in February, but I struggled to get the D2D software to properly format my manuscript. After weeks of frustration, I decided to take a break. Days turned to weeks turned to months. My attempts this month to try again have met with failure.

In the help section FAQ, here's what I found:

If I format my file myself, will it look exactly the same when you convert it?
No. Ebooks are a reflowable format that allows the reader a lot of flexibility in how they consume content. Draft2Digital's automated conversion process will strip out things that force formatting to be one exact way—embedded fonts, extra line breaks, empty pages, footnotes, or anything the system considers unnecessary to the final file.

I'm not trying to do anything fancy. I just want to get paragraphs to align, a particular quote to be indented, and the information pages (ISBN page, Other books by..., etc.) to line up. So I'm at a loss. I guess I'll keep pounding my head against the D2D wall.

The thing is: I really wanted to get all of the ebook formats set up so that when I contact indie book reviewers I can offer them copies in any format they might want. But now, I can't.

If anyone has any suggestions for alternatives to D2D, please let me know in the comments.

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On the Importance of Book Covers

The 2021 Self-Published Science-Fiction Competition just finished. Check out the top ten covers. A lot of WOW!

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The Pros and Cons of the Publishing Industry

Over at the Independent Publishing Magazine, guest blogger Andrew Deen outlines the pros and cons of traditional and self-publishing. Thorough yet succinct, it's a must read for every writer about to embark on the road to publishing their work.

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Amazon Now Offering Hardcover for Indie Publishers

In case you haven't heard, Amazon is now offering hardcovers for indie-published books. Now Amazon isn't the first to market (Lightning Source and IngramSpark have offered it for several years), but since Amazon is the biggest printer of indie work, it's a big deal.

You can read the FAQ for yourself here. But if you don't have time, here's the tl;dr version:

Indie publishers will not be getting a dust jacket like traditionally published hardcover books. Amazon is offering a "case laminate" cover. That means the artwork will be printed directly on the bookcover. If you're unfamiliar with what that looks like, check out IngramSpark's video on their jacketed case laminate offering, something Amazon isn't offering.

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Goodreads Has a Problem With Trolls and Extortion

I just learned about this today. In a nutshell, indie authors with a high visibility on social media—particularly those with progressive politics—are being targetted by extortionists. Typical message:

"EITHER YOU TAKE CARE OF OUR NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS WITH YOUR WALLET OR WE'LL RUIN YOUR AUTHOR CAREER. PAY US OR DISAPPEAR FROM GOODREADS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD."

Failure to comply with these demands results in authors getting slammed with hundreds of one-star reviews on Goodreads. The company is typically slow in its corrective actions.

All indie authors know how difficult it is to get readers to check out their work. It means putting yourself out there on social media (the introvert's equivalent of smelling sweaty socks) to get the public's attention. Many authors choose to discuss topics of personal interest to them. And if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, doing so puts a target on your back. As their audience grows, the trolls take notice.

Amazon used to have a sock puppet problem, but then it found ways to restrict reviews to verified accounts by simply making use of data it already had (verified contact info, purchasing history, etc.). Since Amazon owns Goodreads and offers potential readers easy to access links to buy said book, you would think that they would make every effort to ensure that the number one social media site for books was free of crippling attacks on their revenue stream.

Thanks to Monica for bringing this to my attention.

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Cover Story - David Drazul

I started a discussion on the topic of book covers on this blog eight years ago. I was disappointed that many indie authors were put in the position to sell their stories with sub-par book covers. Budgets tend to be tight unless the author's household income makes covering living expenses a breeze. Finding an affordable cover of decent quality can be tough. I asked several indie authors what route they took to get their covers and presented their stories here. I dug up affordable book cover designers and shared them with readers of this blog.

Today, I'm sharing my story. I'll try to keep it short.

When I finally gave up on traditional publishing as an avenue for my first novel, I searched for affordable graphic designers but couldn't find any. I was looking at $2,000—a non-starter. The pre-made covers available at the time didn't convey anything relatable to the story. I posted to an RPG messageboard I was active on at the time and found a guy who was eager to jumpstart his illustrator career. I got what I wanted for one-tenth the price.

I loved it when it was made, but I'll admit that, a decade later, it looks dated. Image design and editing software has improved so much. Textures and lighting are more realistic. You name it: It's improved.

As I've struggled to finish writing the sequel, I hoped that redoing the cover for Armistice Day might light a fire under my ass. Spoiler alert: It hasn't. Even beyond the pandemic, the rioting, and toxic politics, I've had my share of personal tragedy which has weighed heavily upon me. I decided to find a new cover anyway.

I've seen a ton of wonderful art on Pinterest and DeviantArt. I didn't want to commission a new piece, but rather wanted to pay someone for their existing art. Again, working with a somewhat limited budget. I approached one artist but was ignored. I looked through Shutterstock to see if I could find some images to purchase for a graphic designer to synthesize into something greater than the sum of its parts. No dice there. But one day while perusing through the pre-designed images over at goonwrite.com, I found it.

The original artwork is by Tithi Luadthong and was posted to Shutterstock. And the full image has been utilized as a wraparound design on the print version. It was great working with James again (He did the cover for my short story collection). I've got that old feeling of cover love again! I mean, what's not to love about a fully licensed piece of fabulous original artwork as the cover for my book?

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Should Book Reviewers be Paid for Promoting Your Book?

Over on the Tenka International blog, Michael Norton wrote a post entitled "Book Reviewers Don’t Charge Enough, And Why You Under-Appreciate Them". In it, he explains the importance of book reviews in promoting one's work. While on the surface that seems like a no-brainer, he emphasizes the importance of book review blogs and how they help to spread the message about your book.

Book reviewers are the people who take the time to set up a website and cultivate a dedicated audience. They are under-appreciated by most independent authors, because most writers have no idea how to effectively market their work, and thus fail to see book reviewers as what they are: hubs, trusted by pre-established audiences, that directly influence awareness and conventional opinion of a writer’s work.

Norton then attacks the idea that book reviewers should be giving it away for free.

Many reviewers read and write for free, under the insecure belief that admitting that they’re professional critics detracts from their credibility—but I think this is the wrong mentality. As written: time and energy are resources that reviewers deserve to be paid for, especially if that reviewer is going to be a critical factor in determining whether or not a writer’s work sinks or swims in the market.

He acknowledges that there will be charlatans, but we all know that they already exist. But he emphasizes that if a reviewer is completely honest and transparent, then there's no reason why one shouldn't proceed in this direction.

Paid reviews are still controversial. The members of the Podler Staff debated it via email a few years ago, ultimately deciding not to do it. And a few years before that, Podler wrestled with the idea of doing it. He later rescinded that decision, but the dissenters on his staff had already quit.

Besides the complications brought up by money versus integrity, there's the problem with indie author budgets. Indie authors typically don't have a lot of money to spend on their book—although some don't spend anything. The smart author will hire an editor to proofread her work and a designer to handle her cover. Even if she finds affordable options, she's likely to spend a few hundred dollars (typically more) on those two. Coming up with money for marketing, whether it be for banner ads or book reviews, may be asking too much. As most indie authors sell less than a hundred copies of their book, getting that return on their investment may be a tall order.

From a reviewer's perspective, I appreciate Norton's acknowledgement for what we do. In just a few years, I've seen many a "labor of love" run its course. The blogosphere is littered with dead book review blogs. People burn out. The demands of family and work and other real world matters take priority. Free books are wonderful, but you can't redeem them for diapers or use them to pay the electric bill. Of course, only a select few might be able to review enough books to make any sort of living from it. I'm not one of those people. Still, I wonder if some kind of hybrid system could be achieved.

I think that the Self-Publishing Review has a good system in place. They offer a variety of packages based on one's budget. From my perspective it looks like a lot of work, but it seems to be working for them.

What if this blog offered "fast track" book reviews? I admit that we're slow; we're down to one book per month. It might go a little faster if I didn't take on 500+ page behemoths. But if I were to be paid to review books, then I'd have justification to spend my whole day reading. I do that now with proofreading and editing. The turnaround time would be vastly improved: 4-8 hours/day reading instead of 1. We'd churn out a lot more book reviews. For those not willing to pay, I'd leave the free option open, but they'd have to wait the usual month or so for their review.

But what about integrity? No one complains about The New York Times reviewers. Is it because they're paid by the newspaper and not by the publisher? Probably. In general, we don't like to give out bad reviews. We pre-screen books, hence the first three chapters request. Books that have major grammatical and structural issues automatically get rejected. That wouldn't change. We only read books in genres we like; I wouldn't start reading paranormal romance novels even if you paid me. We point out the flaws, and we'd have to still do that. Ultimately, you would have to decide if we retained our integrity.

We have no immediate plans to adopt a paid reviews program. This is just me thinking out loud. After 5+ years, I'm burning out on reviewing indie books (my traditionally published TBR pile is now too big and I've missed out on a lot of good books), and I know others here have as well (Note the shrinking "current contributor" list). We can't seem to attract new reviewers despite our flexible rules. Why join someone else's blog when you can start your own? We've had people do both, which I see as a value add. Maybe a cash incentive is in order. Or is it a slippery slope? I don't know. I do know that there's a good chance that we're going to go on long term hiatus, and based on other blogs that have done that...well, they tend to make that hiatus permanent.

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Image Credit: boydlogan.wordpress.com

Cover Story - Michael John Grist

Sometimes, for whatever reason, the vision an author has for their book cover fails to connect with the targeted audience. Michael John Grist takes us through the process of the cover creation process for Mr. Ruins. Much like what he did to his protagonist, Grist had to tear down his idea for the book cover and rebuild it.

Mr. Ruins originally had a cover I poured all my ideas into, but people thought it looked like a bunch of worms sitting on an eyeball. :(. It wasn’t meant to be that. So now I’m talking about the glorious misadventures I had on the path to make it, what it became, why it didn’t work, and the new design that has replaced it.

To read more and see the previous incarnations of the cover, please visit his website.

New Feature: Author News

I may be opening up a can of worms here, but I want to try something new.

If you're an author whose work has been reviewed by us, we'd like to do a little more for you. Typically, our relationship with authors ends after we review their work. Some authors like our reviews and stay in touch with us, even if there is little reason beyond hoping we'll review their next book.

We want to do something more. Promoting indie authors is tough. Very few get the recognition they deserve. Some get more than they deserve, but that's another topic entirely. So let's work on that author promotion stuff. If you have something newsworthy to share, let us know. What do I mean by newsworthy? Yeah, I'd better clarify that. What might seem important to you might not be important to us. So I'm going to list what we do consider newsworthy.

Here's what you can share with us:

• Awards and nominations for awards. Real ones. Not those awards that you can buy: "Send us $20 to be entered in our contest! Surprise! You won!" While it doesn't have to be a prestigious as a Philip K Dick Award, it should be legit. Yes, we consider unsolicited "book of the month" (or year) nods from bloggers acceptable. Include a link with this news.
  
  
• Author Appearances. These should be of the in-person variety. Blog tours don't count. If you're going to be somewhere (book signing, book fair, etc.) with the intention of having your book signed or you're guest lecturing or answering questions, let us know. Be sure to include the where and when. No, hanging out at Starbucks doesn't count. It has to be official. We'll need a link or a picture of a flyer. For example, "Abigail Author will be at the Arkham Library signing copies of her latest release: Sleeping With Pomegranates."
  
  
• New Releases. Publishing something new? Let us know. This is separate from the submission process. We might be closed. You might not want us to review another book of yours. We might not be interested, or the reviewer who read your book might not be available. We can pass the information along to interested readers even if we can't take you up on the opportunity to review your next book. Send us a short blurb along with the release date and where readers can go for more information.

We DON'T want routine stuff like sales, new versions of old books, free giveaways, personal news, sales milestones, a list of your blog posts, links to other reviews, website updates, marketing hype, and so on. This is targeted towards promoting authors, not publishers. We don't want publishers telling us about all the books they're promoting each month. The only exceptions are for those authors whose work we've actually reviewed. If XYZ publishing sent us a book from Abigail Author, we'll accept news from them on her behalf. That goes for PR firms too.

We reserve the right to reject anything that we deem sketchy or doesn't fit in with our idea of the above definitions.

The plan is to promote author news once a month. But we'll change the frequency as we see fit. Plan your announcements accordingly. If you have something coming up on February 1st and you send it to us January 31st, you'll have to wait until we get around to it. Put Author News in the subject line so that we can filter it accordingly.

If this unleashes a tsunami of email, we'll shut it down. There's only so much we can do.

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Blog It and They Will Come

Last week I received an email from a reputable indie publishing blogger inviting me to a webinar where I could learn how to double my sales from a successful indie author. It sounded too good to be true, but since this was a reputable indie publishing blogger, I decided to give it a shot.

The webinar was packed full of writers, and many went around introducing themselves and where they were from. Judging from the introductions, many were either new writers working on their first book or veterans struggling with limited sales of their first book or two. You can put me in the latter category.

The successful indie author hosted the webinar and (surprise) primarily spent his time plugging his new book, which featured ways that indie authors everywhere could double their sales. He started off relating what he did and gave case studies demonstrating how so-and-so applied the techniques from the book and saw their sales blossom. But every example he gave involved a non-fiction author. And our successful host was a non-fiction author as well. I complained in the audience chat that all we were seeing were non-fiction examples. Anyone with a clue about publishing knows that selling non-fiction is completely different from selling fiction. Several other attendees agreed with me.

People buy non-fiction for a very specific purpose, and it can be anything. You can look up books on shade gardening in New England, building websites for mobile devices, Theodore Roosevelt's childhood years at Oyster Bay, or meatball recipes. People buy fiction just to be entertained, but the specifics are limited. It typically isn't anything more than "alien invasion sci-fi", assuming that "sci-fi" isn't as far down the genre tree as one can go. Nobody looks for "alien invaders from Barnard's Star with trilateral symmetry who choose Africa as ground zero". And even if they wanted to, they couldn't as that level of detail in sub-categories doesn't exist.

I'm not sure how much of the webinar I can relate here without trampling on someone's copyright, but I'll try anyway. One major suggestion was to convert readers into fans. The thinking was to sell product to the fans like how projects on Kickstarter offer tiers of rewards to people who donate more money to their projects. It's an interesting idea, provided you already have a readership, and someone willing to spend $50 on your 3D printed figurine of the half-elf heroine from your epic fantasy.

Fortunately for successful non-fiction indie author, he already had a readership when he applied this method. I consider that an unfair advantage. Indie fiction authors want to know what they can do to make their first paranormal romance novel, for example, stand out from the thousands of other paranormal romance novels. How does one build that initial readership?

The suggestions for fiction authors were limited. We're supposed to give away short stories for free on our website, and we should blog about the writing process.

That was it.

Don't sell your short stories to zines, give them away for free on your website. But the real kicker was: Blog it and they will come. Because people looking for books to read really want to just read the random thoughts of some random person.

Now blogging has been incredibly successful for some people, though they tend to be journalists and pundits. John Scalzi sold his first book to Tor because one of its editors read his blog (He didn't even have to bother with the indie scene). But how many of these success stories are out there? And why was that gentleman reading that blog in the first place? There has to be some sort of connection to the blogger and his/her readership. But if I had a dollar for every blogger that fizzled out, or never got past a dozen readers (like my old blog), I could pay off my mortgage (and then some).

I don't have an answer for you. I'm certainly not a best-selling author. I'd say keep trying your hand at social media. Make sure your work has been edited and hire a professional to create your cover. Whether you view it as art or product, it's important that you produce your best work. One option to try is to keep writing. Maybe if you have enough books out there, someone will stumble into one and it'll start a chain reaction.

Anyone who's found a technique that works should feel free to share it in the comments. Please, share it. Though we've hoped and tried, book reviews aren't enough to help your fellow indie authors (there might be a couple exceptions). We don't mind you plugging your success, so long as you don't try to sell us a book claiming that it will make us successful, cure baldness, have us waking up every day feeling rejuvenated, or help us lose ten pounds without dieting or exercise.

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Smashwords Studies Its Sales

For those who don't already know, Smashwords is an all-in-one platform for authors to publish and distribute their e-books. It has its pros and cons for both writers and readers, which I don't have the time to go into right now, but it is very popular in the indie community.

Authors who publish with them are able to track their sales and story sample downloads to gauge how well their works are faring on Smashwords. There's also aggregate reports of daily sales on other platforms that Smashwords distributes your work. But last year, Smashwords began collating all of that data to see if any patterns can be discerned from it or if its random noise.

Every indie author should read the findings for themselves. The data regarding price point, title length, length of book, and sales are definitely very interesting and something to be taken into account when an author publishes their work.

Anyone wishing to discuss it in the comments section, please go ahead! I've always had a fascination with statistics, which is all about finding patterns in what appears to be just random numbers. But I don't have anyone to talk to about this study. That's where you come in. :)

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Cover Story - Libby Cone

One thing that an indie author has to be is resourceful. Book covers can be expensive and sometimes you just don't have the money to splurge, especially when you're publishing a short story for 99¢. Libby Cone explains how public domain artwork and graphic design shareware can be an indie author's best friends.

I have designed the covers (if you can call them that) for all my Kindle books and short stories. I hired a designer I found on LinkedIn to execute my idea for the self-published paperback edition of War on the Margins. She did a very good job.

When I published the Kindle edition of Flesh and Grass I used a Dutch painting that I thought was in the public domain. When I found out it wasn't, I obtained a public domain painting.

I did the "cover" for "Quantum Fashionistas" using GimP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), but had to redo it when I realized its definition wasn't high enough. GimP is somewhat daunting, but I eventually figured out how I did it the first time and produced a reasonable facsimile!

Libby Cone's works can be found on Amazon.

Cover Story - Adam Copeland

April 2020 Update: Adam's website is down or gone so no links from this article to his site are going to work.

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When hunting for an illustrator, the Web is often the best option for an indie author. Online galleries are the most convenient place to check out an artist's work. Adam Copeland realized that freelance artists are in the same boat as indie authors. They're unknowns looking to make their mark. Working together is a win-win for both parties.

When it came time to choose a cover for my book I perused DeviantArt.com, looking for artwork that was similar to what I had in mind. I found it, and made sure the artist was someone who was good, but not a professional (i.e., didn't make his living from his art). I emailed him and asked if he would be willing to be paid to make cover art for me. He was thrilled that someone wanted to offer money for his hobby and agreed.

My original concept, however, was still very complex, time consuming, and expensive, so we compromised on a simpler version. The result is the art I have now, which I've had nothing but compliments on. I've had comments such as "unique" and "iconic" and "eye catching."

I've also contracted a local artist to make images for a book trailer (you can see it on my website). That guy is a very talented up and coming recent college grad whom I met through a mutual friend. Again he wasn't a "professional" and his cost was significantly affordable for the quality I got. I blogged about the process we went through in creating my trailer which you can also find on my website.

The movie trailer can be a great marketing tool for an indie author. Here are Adam's blog posts about his experience:

• The First Steps
• A Focus on Individual Image Creation
• Part 2.5 – Music
• Story Boarding and Finish

On Adam's website, you'll find a list of places where you can purchase Echoes of Avalon and read excerpts from the book.

Cover Story - Thomas Carpenter

In his search for an illustrator, sci-fi author Thomas Carpenter found one much closer than he thought. He graciously shared his book cover experience with us and offers some advice to other indie authors.

Initially I hired out cover design to a friend that did work similar to book design. The first covers he made for The Digital Sea and The Godhead Machine were passable, but not exciting at all. After he made those, I asked him to do the cover for my YA dystopia novel called Gamers. Unfortunately, we didn't see eye-to-eye on the design process. He hadn't read the book and didn't understand the YA market, so I fired him. In the meantime, my wife had purchased Photoshop with the idea that eventually she could make covers. Once I fired the other guy, I asked her to go for it (she'd done a short story cover by this time, which was a good starter cover). We'd walked the bookstores and studied covers for a while so we know want we wanted.

The only problem was that we were about to leave for a few weeks and the book had been waiting for two months for the cover, so in a forty hour period, she made the cover to Gamers from scratch. It's still one of my favorites. After that, I realized she could do it and, except for my anthology series and a few early short stories, she's been doing all my covers. She's also gone back and redone the covers to The Digital Sea and The Godhead Machine. I couldn't be happier, plus the savings on an in-house cover designer is huge.


Having said that, we both know that for a different type of book, like a fantasy series, we might have to hire a designer who can create art from scratch, which we know will be more money, but a cover really has to match the feel of the book.

And is price a factor? Not if you get the right cover. The thing to remember is that the book will be owned by you for your lifetime plus seventy years. Even a $500 cover will pay for itself over that time period.

To see more Carpenter book cover revisions, click here. You can check out all of Tom's books on Amazon or visit his website for other bookstores.

Amazon Links to Works Featured Here:
Gamers
The Digital Sea
The Godhead Machine

Cover Story - M. Terry Green

M. Terry Green is one of those authors fortunate enough to have graphic design skills. However, she learned that the path to cover creation can be a tortuous one. She was generous enough to provide us with a history of her Techno-Shaman series book covers.

Hired an Illustrator

First Novel - For the first book in my urban fantasy series, I hired an illustrator who did a great job and I was thrilled. She created the raw artwork by painting in Photoshop and then I put the cover together using Photoshop and Illustrator (I have some background in graphic design). Although I liked the cover (in fact, it’s still my favorite), I did receive some negative feedback from reviewers (which wasn’t specific).

Second Novel - Prior to releasing the second novel, I wasn’t yet convinced I needed to change the first cover and so went back to the illustrator who had done it and asked for artwork for the second book. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visualize my protagonist in quite the same way. We called it quits after a few iterations and I paid her for her time and thanked her for her hard work. At that point, I decided to start from scratch on both covers and design them myself.

Drew Them Myself

I Can’t Draw - Unfortunately, I don’t have the artistic chops to either draw or paint. My graphic design skills are relegated to digital work that’s mostly line art. So, the first thing I tried to do was create a line art version of my protagonist. Because it’s a series, I hunted stock photo sites for a reference model who bore some resemblance to my character and who was available in different poses. I did find a model at iStockphoto and contacted the photographer in Romania for a color version of one shot in particular. She got back to me quickly (she was just about to go on maternity leave!), uploaded the photograph, and I purchased it from the stock site.

Line Art Misfire - But, my fantasy protagonist is a young woman with blindingly white hair. That’s not a tweak or a filter that can be done in Photoshop. So, I set about rendering her in Illustrator. I was pleased with the end result (after creating over 1,000 paths to do it) but then decided I didn’t like it on the cover (!). I know from previous graphic design work that I sometimes have to see a concept through to the end before I can tell if it’s going to work or not. So, after an intense weekend with Illustrator, I went back to square one.

The Competition - I collected urban fantasy series covers in an effort to understand what the rest of the genre was doing. You might expect that this should have been my first step and yet I knew that the protagonist I had created (a techno-shaman) was going to be at odds with most urban fantasy leads, in that she’s not a kick-ass, bare-midriff, crossbow-toting babe. Instead, I focused on how books in a series are linked by design motifs, colors and fonts. Because I wasn’t happy with an illustrated white-haired protagonist, couldn’t find stock photos that could be manipulated to portray one (let alone in multiple poses with regular street clothes), I decided to forgo the protagonist entirely and concentrate on objects in the stories.

Objects - Although I liked the tripartite division of the original cover, I abandoned it in effort to get something that’d look better at a thumbnail size. I decided to keep the reference to the urban skyline and added specific objects related to the story plus a dose of design elements that refer to shamanism. I was glad to have two covers that I could use for the first and second novels, though I wasn’t thrilled with them. Again, the response was tepid to negative.

I Wanted an Illustrator

I Was Sick of Designing - By the time the third novel was close to being done, I had decided yet again to go with an illustrator. I wanted to be hands-off with the graphics and let them worry about the motifs and models. I cruised deviantART and found photo-manipulators and illustrators whose work I liked and who were entirely out of my price range. Most of what I liked was more than I wanted to spend and the work that I could afford looked like something I might be able to do myself. Even so, I found the work of some the artists that I ran across so extraordinary that I decided to spend some money.

What to Tell Them - My first step in hiring an illustrator was writing a description of what I wanted–and I was stumped. I don’t expect artists to read all three books in my series to understand what the cover needs to be. I thought I ought to at least be able to do that. And yet, I didn’t have a clue about the essential visual elements that would tell a prospective reader what they’d encounter inside the book. In hindsight, I think the object-style covers failed in this respect and my inability to describe the necessary look and feel to my initial illustrator is one reason we were never able to settle on a look in our second effort together. In terms of instructions, I tried to distill the common visuals in each each story: my protagonist, the use of high-tech goggles, lightning, an urban setting, and action. I also surveyed covers again for examples to which I could point, concentrating on the growing number of independently published urban fantasy covers. Frequently, I was able to discover who did the artwork (discussed about in writer forums, thanked in acknowledgements or a blog, found independently by Googling book cover artists and seeing their portfolios). I found that other indies were running into the same problems I faced: urban fantasy covers are dominated by photo-manipulation; it’s hard to find the same models in different poses; the photos that fit the bill are getting used repeatedly. I was back to designing my own.

Me Again

In my second survey of covers above, I made a few new general observations: indie covers in a series change little from book to book; human faces and figures are obscured, cropped tightly, or silhouetted; the quality of indie book covers is on a dramatic rise; traditional publishing covers are still clearly identifiable through their use of dedicated photo shoots and models. My final versions of the covers employ several of my specific findings for my genre: a textured background to imply the grunge of urban fantasy a primary unifying visual (the goggles) a secondary unifying visual (lightning) the same fonts (including a custom letter to hint at shamanism) the same layout (author name up top, snippet of a review, unique visual within the goggles, title as big as it can be, name of the series at the bottom) a change in color for each book a varying silhouette of my protagonist Although only one reviewer has mentioned liking the new covers, that’s an improvement. In terms of graphic design, I played to my own strengths by colorizing stock photos, using two-dimensional art in multiple layers, and keeping it simple–a big help in making sure the covers worked at the thumbnail size. At this point, I can say I’m satisfied and able to create new covers relatively quickly and easily. And that’s important because all I really want to do is write. All three novels are available for purchase with the latest covers. Go through Terry's website to select your preferred book format or store.

Cover Story - Rob Steiner

A great book cover inspires readers to ask the question the book seeks to answer. Since my design skills scream “amateur” (to put it kindly), I hired professionals to design great covers for two books I will publish in 2013. I think both designers did a fantastic job conveying the question of each book, and it was a pleasure to work with them both.

ZERVAKAN

ZERVAKAN is a fantasy novel set in a world with 19th century technology -- steam engines, guns, telegraphs -- where two magical bands of light suddenly appear in the sky one night, spanning the horizons like rings around the planet. A scientist and a priest must discover the mystery behind the rings before their world is consumed by an evil they're not ready to fight.

Given the setting, I wanted a cover with a 19th century feel, but one that said "fantasy" and not "historical."

TJ Lomas brought my vision to life. He found an old photograph and added two bands of magical light on the horizons. He added color to the bands so they stood out. It's simple, but elegant. It grabs your attention and makes you ask, "What's with those two bands of light?"

ZERVAKAN will be released in January 2013, but you can read the "pre-published" version on Quarkfolio.com.

UMBRA CORPS

UMBRA CORPS (a working title) is an alternate history/sci-fi novel about a Roman Republic that survives its true-life fall and reaches the stars. A star ship crew of rogues must help the 12-year-old Consular Heir escape Rome with the terrifying secret behind the Republic's god-like technology.

For this cover, I worked with professional illustrator Stone Perales. My idea was to combine something iconically Roman with an anachronism that told readers it was alternate history.

The result: Mark Antony holding a musket while looking down on his Legions as they sack Rome.

Stone did a wonderful job capturing the ethereal look on Antony's face and the subtle detailing of his armor. My hope is that readers will see the cover and think, "Why is that ancient Roman soldier holding a musket? I've got to read this book to find out!"

UMBRA CORPS will be released in 2013.

Cover Story

You can't judge a book by its cover.

While that statement is generally true in the figurative sense, when it comes to actual books we readers really do judge books by their covers. Despite all the lofty talk about literature being a form of art, the hardcore truth is that it is primarily a form of entertainment. The publisher, whether corporate behemoth or indie author, has to convince people that reading the book will entertain them. How do they do that? By capturing your eye with an appealing cover.

Which of the following covers looks more interesting? There is no right answer. Some might prefer the simplicity of text. Others are drawn in by the illustrated cover of a scientist at work in his lab. I prefer the illustrated cover and I suspect most people do too. It offers a glimpse into the story. While The Time Machine is a sci-fi classic known to a great deal of people alive today, there will always be a new audience that has never read the work. It is up to the publisher to find a way to lure in these potential readers.

While publishing companies have a staff, formulas, and focus groups for determining what will work for a cover, the indie author doesn't. He/She has to figure out on their own what they should put on the cover of their book. Sure, they can simply stick to the textual Title and Author cover, but that really doesn't grab most people. Images grab eyeballs. We're a visual species. It doesn't matter if it's cars, houses, or clothes. If it looks dull (or crappy) to us, we're not going to buy it.

There's also a matter of budget. Indie authors don't have the deep pockets that publishing companies do. Some authors can and will spend whatever it takes to ensure their vision is met, but plenty have to find a way to optimize quality versus cost. We can't all afford a Mercedes.

The sad truth is that throwing a book on Amazon isn't a guarantee to a best seller. It's safe to say that 99% of indie published books struggle to sell more than 100 copies (a great deal sell less). Self-publishing can become an expensive hobby. If one's work doesn't break even, it can be hard to justify the expense. We've seen plenty of submissions here at the New Podler where authors spent nothing on their book covers and it showed! That's not to say one has to spend thousands of dollars for a good cover, but when authors sacrifice quality (whether by covers or editing) they shoot themselves in the foot. Would you buy a car that looked like it had been built by a four-year old? Would you spend $500,000 on a house with holes in the roof, broken windows, and leaking pipes?

Setting cost aside, the book cover has to be something that grabs a reader's attention. While I feel that it should be something that captures the essence of the book's contents, plenty of covers are just a mish mash of random images which may or may not have anything to do with the story. I could start a discussion of the marketing science behind book covers but that's beyond the scope of this post and my intent. Instead, we're going to have a series of posts over the next couple of weeks about how some indie authors have approached crafting covers for their books. Consider this the introduction.

Authors In This Series:
Thomas Carpenter
Libby Cone
Adam Copeland
M. Terry Green
Rob Steiner

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DED

Kickstart Your Next Novel

While printers like Lulu and CreateSpace have made it possible to create physical copies of an author's work without money from the author (they recoup the costs of printing each book as it is sold), there's more to self-publishing than just printing a book.

Before indie authors send their manuscript off to the printer, they need to hire an editor to proofread their work and an illustrator to design a cover. As an indie book reviewer, I've seen my share of bad covers and poorly edited works. While there are readers who don't care about the finished product (so long as it costs 99 cents), they are in the minority. Too many writers feel that they can self-edit and illustrate. Those that can do both well are rare (I am not in this select group). For me, nothing really detracts from the reading experience like a manuscript riddled with typos.

I sympathize with my fellow self-published writers. I have my own experience with the cost of self-publishing. As I was concerned about the quality of my finished work, I hired an editor and an illustrator. While these are costs I have yet to recoup, if I had to do it all over again, I'd still spend the money on both of them.

While making a living as a writer is a dream, I'd really like to just break even at this point. There are many other indie authors in the same boat. Let's face it, many of us have a limited budget to work with. Paying illustrators and editors means more start up costs and delays that break even point. It's tempting to cut corners and spend as little money as possible on them, or forgo utilizing their services entirely; but that's a mistake. Just like plumbers and electricians, their skills are essential and they deserve to be paid for their time and effort. Fortunately, there's a new way for writers to pay for these costs: investors.



Kickstarter is a company that allows writers, artists, inventors and businessmen to pitch their ideas to the general public and find investors (for detailed background info and tips read this Wired article). If an author can make a compelling pitch, they might be able to convince some people to assist in the cost of preparing their novel for publication.

Our very own Rob Steiner is attempting to secure funding for his novel, Umbra Corps, via Kickstarter. Here's his pitch:



If you visit his Kickstarter page, you'll see how much money Rob is hoping to raise and what "thank you gifts" you'll receive from him based on the amount of your investment.

Afterwards, check out how other authors are pitching their projects and consider utilizing Kickstarter for your next work. Be sure to let your friends and readers know what you're trying to do by posting to your blog or Facebook or even tweeting. You never know who believes in you enough to help publish your next book!

Stigma Erased

It is done.

The stigma of self-publishing has been slowly subsiding for the last couple of years, but this year its demise has accelerated. And today I can say with certainty that it doesn't mean a damn thing anymore.

Amanda Hocking, Jeremy Robinson and Zoe Winters are just a few authors that have had tremendous success with indie sales. A couple of months ago, Ms. Hocking used her indie success to land a deal with a big publisher. Apparently, they didn't mind how she sold her books. Joe Konrath, a successful traditionally published author, went indie and has had tremendous success. Barry Eisler, another best-selling traditionally published author, spurned a deal from St. Martin's Press to go indie.

And the names keep coming.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that indie author John Locke sold 1 million ebooks on the Kindle in 2011. Take a few seconds to absorb that one. 1 million. That's hundreds of thousands of people who didn't care one iota that this guy published his books on his own without an agent or a big publishing house to back him.

Wired UK reported today that J.K. Rowling is going to self-publish the Harry Potter series. In essence, indie publishing has been blessed as acceptable by one of the most successful authors of all time.

Traditional publishing purists may continue to sneer with contempt at indie authors, but they can pretty much go stuff themselves because no one cares anymore. Readers don't care how books come to market so long as they're entertained. They don't need any self-appointed "gatekeepers" (nannies of literature, if you will) to tell them what's OK to read because the Readers can figure it out on their own. Or they'll ask their friends. Or they'll read reviews on blogs or booksellers' sites. Readers want to read what they want to read! And that's all that matters.