Supporting Indies: Lucky Blog Tour
MARKETING INDIE BOOKS (Part 2 of 5)
Welcome back to our Lucky Blog Tour. Yesterday, I introduced the first part of my reflections on writing and marketing indie books. If you haven’t read the post, I invite you to check the schedule on the Events page at 4willspublishing and click on the previous blog stop.
Today I want to share with you my ideas on – CREATING COVERS.
You know that old saying ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’, right? Well, the thing is – most people do that. Some people do that all the time.
In my defense, let me just make it clear that I know covers can be misleading. I know a beautiful cover image does not always mean the content is to our liking. On the other hand, a plain-looking picture on t
he cover of a book may hide a treasure inside its pages.
I know all that. However, I often wonder – why not combine an excellent story and a compelling cover. Does it seem easy enough for you? Well … it’s not that simple, actually. One must have a picture they can use. I mean, the author must have taken a useful picture himself/herself to avoid facing copyright issues. If they don’t have it, they need to find an image, with good quality resolution, and appropriate dimensions, at one of the many royalty-free stock image websites available in the Internet.
Does it still sound simple? If you’re an author, you know it isn’t. If you’re a reader, let me propose an exercise. Think about a book you’ve read. Any book. Think about it’s storyline and main characters. Forget its actual cover and go online searching for an image you think portraits that storyline and those characters. How long did it take you to find it?
Great. You have your image. But, is the picture royalty-free? Is it ready to be used on the cover of your book? Do you need to edit it? Do you need to include a title and the author’s name? How do you do that? How long will it take you to finish your cover?
Phew! I’m tired already. Aren’t you? I told you it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Now, if you’re a reader, you may now have a slight idea of what we have to go through to offer you a decent-looking cover. If you’re am author and want to know more about it, I’ll tell you about my personal experience.
Editing pictures can be tricky. I’ve tried using Photoshop many times without results that satisfied me. Don’t get me wrong – it is a great program. I can’t seem to master it, though. I found an excellent website for editing images which offers user-friendly features. Mainly for those users who, like me, are leaning towards the ‘Photoshop-dumb-users’ kind. If you want to check it out, it’s called Pickmonkey. My favorite source for royalty-free stock images is Big Stock Photo because they have variety, high-resolution quality, and fair prices.
That’s all for today. folks. Tune in tomorrow, at the next stop on Lucky Blog Tour, for my musings on formatting your eBook.
Liz Gavin
Author Bio:
When Liz Gavin was in Second Grade – just a couple of years ago, really – her teacher told her mother the little girl should start a diary because she needed an outlet for her active and vivid imagination. She was a talkative child who would disrupt the class by engaging her colleagues in endless conversations. She loved telling them the stories her grandfather used to tell her.
Apparently, the teacher wasn’t a big fan of those stories, and Liz’s mother bought her a diary. She happily wrote on it for a couple of months. Unable to see the appeal of writing for her own enjoyment only, she gave up on it. She missed the audience her friends provided her in class. She went back to disturbing her dear teacher’s class.
Since then, she has become a hungry reader. She will read anything and everything she can get her hands on – from the classics to erotica. That’s how she has become a writer of erotica and romance, as well.
As a young adult, she participated in a student exchange program and lived in New Orleans for six months. She fell in love with the city and its wonderful inhabitants. NOLA will always hold a special spot in Liz Gavin’s heart. Nowadays, living in Brazil, Liz’s creativity has improved many times because it’s such a vibrant, gorgeous and sexy country.
Welcome to her world of hot Alpha males and naughty, independent women. Add a touch of the paranormal in the presence of some wicked souls and you’ll get the picture.
Book & Contact Links:
Book link on Amazon =Â
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MS48JO0
My blog =Â elessarpublishing.blogspot.com
Twitter handle =Â @LizGavin_author
Facebook =Â www.facebook.com/liz.gavin.54
Email =Â lizgavin@elessarbooks.com
Thanks so much everyone for stopping by and supporting Liz! You guys are awesome! 🙂
Hello, Jan.
Thank you SO MUCH for visiting and sharing your knowledge on the matter. It’s reawarding for me to know I’ve done something right both with my covers and with this post. 🙂
Talk to you soon,
Liz
Trust me to come late to the party – D’oh!
Even if you know your way around Photoshop (I’m a graphic designer so I use it and other Adobe creative toys all the time) you can still have problems if the base/original image quality is poor. This is usually because the resolution (pixel size) is OK for screen viewing (about 72-96 dots per inch – dpi) when you usually need it to be at least 300 dpi for print quality so online image searches don’t always turn up suitable material even if they look right.
There are ways around this, but stock image outfits are definitely the go to place if you’re not skilled at image manipulation, because this always shows in your end result, which may turn out looking fairly amateurish. It’s good you make the point that ‘royalty free’ is not the same as free Liz 🙂 There are some good outfits out there, but watch out for the sharks who try to stick with over the odds fees – a word of mouth recommendation is worth it’s weight in gold!
Very informative post, Liz – I can relate! A friend created the cover of my first book. Then I decided to try my hand at the cover of my second book. Disaster! My friend bailed me out! I’m a very lucky guy! Thanks for hosting, Harmz!
Thank YOU, John for the visit and the thoughts. I surely can relate.
I’m sorry it took me so long to answer your post, though. My memory is failing me – I was sure I had done so. 🙂
Talk soon,
Liz
Great post Liz! I am definitely going to check out pickmonkey. I’ve found dreamtime good for royalty free images too and at a reasonable price. Beachfrontbroll.com also has video footage – it’s limited but completely free – great for making trailers.
Hi, Helen.
I’m getting older than I thought. I was sure I had replied to your post last week. I’m sorry I haven’t. 🙂
Thank YOU for the visit and the tips. I checked Beachfront B-Roll and it looks great. 🙂
See you around,
Liz
I had cover designers create the covers for my first three books, but I’m making the cover for my WIP myself. I also use Big Stock and Gimp, which I’ve heard is more complicated than Photoshop, but I’ve got the hang of the basics. Another idea might be to create a couple of covers and ask readers which one they like best. Great post, Liz. Thanks for hosting, Harmz.
Great info, Mims! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Thank, Michelle, for visiting us today.
Re the readers choosing the covers, I did that with Luck of the Irish and it was so rewarding. I had three slightly different covers (basic the colors/shape of the light effect. Fortunately, they chose MY favorite one. 😉
I’m thrilled to know you enjoyed this post. Bet you had a great time reading some of Harmony’s as well. She’s amazing.
Talk soon,
Liz
Harmony, my dear!
Thank you SO much for hosting this stop at your beautiful blog. I loved the picture you added to the post – thanks for that, as well. Such a delicate, friendly touch. But, then again, that’s no surprise coming from you, huh? 😉
I’m sure this will be another great stop today.
Talk soon,
Liz
Aww, thanks, Liz! 🙂 You are so, so, very welcome! It is a pleasure to have you stopping by my place 🙂 Very best of luck with your tour and your writing!
Good article and a fact. On one of my books, I tried using a cover offered by one service on another but when I blew it up to meet another sites criteria caused it to be distorted and unusable, so I know how tough it is to get a good cover. A.G.
Thanks for stopping by, AG! It certainly is a toughy getting those covers right in ALL their aspects! And folks do judge a book by its cover. Have a great week, AG! 🙂
Hello, AG.
Thank you a million for your visit. I’m happy you enjoyed my post and hope you had time to read some of Harmony’s as well. She’s brillant.
Talk soon,
Liz