Hello my Freaky Darlings,
So … I have some bitter sweet news to share. As of the 31st of August the rights for my novels, Shadows and Requiem in E Sharp, as well as my two novellas, Oasis and Burning, revert back to me.
It’s been a rough decision but given the current economic crunch in publishing and the fact that I’m a complete control freak, it just makes more sense for me to take all my books and self-publish them.
It just means that I’ve got a lot of work ahead and I have to figure out the smartest way of doing it. Hopefully the books won’t be off the virtual sales shelves for too long while I figure out how I want to re-brand myself and my books. But that’s also one of the bonuses of being indie, I can change things when I need to and as the industry evolves and changes. Being indie means I can be more fluid in my decision making process.
I’m also having to redesign the covers for Shadows, Oasis, and Burning since I don’t own the rights to those covers.
I have however been having a little fun playing around with a few ideas for the covers and would like your opinions.
Here’s what I’ve come up with for Oasis:
And for Shadows:
I must admit I am having trouble with the design for Burning. I can’t seem to find just the right image for it. But this is what I have come up with for it so far, but this is probably not what I’ll be sticking with.
The cover for Requiem will stay the same, because I do own the rights for it and I just love that cover too much to part with it.
The plan of action is to release them as ebooks on Amazon and Draft 2 Digital to begin with and then once I’ve wrapped my head around formatting the paperback version I’ll be putting Shadows and Requiem back in print via Createspace and their expanded distribution. Burning and Oasis will only be released as ebooks for $0.99 cents. That’s part of the fun with novellas and novelettes, you can make them really cheap and still make money. Also one of the perks of being an indie author is I can make them much cheaper because I don’t have to split any of the profits.
I was told over the weekend that my branding sucks. That I need to look at making my covers have a more branded look. And I thought about that last year as well, but the thing is then I would also have to redo the cover for Fury and Requiem and I have to say I’m not quite ready to let go of the covers for either of them. For one thing I’ve only just released Fury, plus the cover is a beautiful work of art, and I’m not in any rush to let it go. So for the foreseeable future I’m sticking with the different covers for my stand-alone books, but for the planned series – now that’s a whole other story (which I still have to think about).
So … please let me know what you think of the new covers. Pretty please with a cherry on top!
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*** Edit***
So … after comments and thoughts I went back to the drawing board for Burning and have back with this:
I know there are still some people who don’t think it’s that fabulous, but you know what? I quite like it!
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Not a fan of the ‘Burning’ cover, if I’m being honest but the other two have got my eye
Don’t worry. Already back at the drawing-board working on a new cover for Burning. Thanks!!
I’m no expert, so take this with a grain of objectivity.
Find someone whose books appear well-branded in your eyes and and study them. One author might use the same font for every title, and the same font for their name, with a common layout that appears again and again, all that sort of thing. On my own books, the background is almost invariably black and the text white. That has a lot to do with the stock photos I purchase for about seven bucks each.
If you have good pull-quotes or a good blurb from a famous author, put it on there.
I do no Photoshop image-blending because I don’t have the program or the expertise. Your own skill level is a big factor. You can buy custom fonts and use them over and over again, for your name for example. Time is an issue. I’ve probably never spent more than two or two and a half hours at most, to create a cover. Your time is definitely worth something. On some covers, I wish I had the time to do it over. A couple of years ago, I went through all of my covers and just tried to *improve* them. Whenever I tried to use red on a cover, it often looked fine in my photo program, and yet it bled when seen on a website. The edges of the letters were all fuzzy and indistinct.
Don’t expect any magic bullets (in terms of sales) and maybe try and have a little fun with it.
Thanks Louis! Your advice is always great and appreciated.