It's great to feel like an author!

There is no greater feeling than that of finally beginning to feel like an author after almost a decade of hard, almost impossible writing. I initially began to feel the first stirrings of being an author when I published my first book, End of the Road. I felt a tad more like one when I finally published the follow up, Cops Don't Run.

Now, when I look at the two books together with their amazing covers, I positively glow with pride.  It's great to feel like an author!!

Is your book cover speaking your language?

Home-made

When I first entered the epub world as an author, I did so on a shoe-string. In fact, I'd promised myself not to spend anything on my book until I began making money. So I did the book-cover myself and it was - on the whole - well received. I had no training in book-cover design, nor the programs needed to knock one up. But after a month of trial and error and $12 (for the photo), I came up with this:

Original home-made cover

Downloads

I liked it - it was, OK. I sold about 6 books per month. After six months of this I decided to give the book away. The downloads increased significantly - 7 copies per day for four months, on average. And then I decided to go pro.

 Pro

The real reason for finding an expert to do the cover was book two. I didn't have the patience to knock up the second cover, nor the skills to bring the pattern of book one across onto book two. The one thing I was worried about was the cost - as the first in the series this book was always going to be free.

Cover designer

I found Jan Marshall on Twitter, and found her to be helpful and flexible regarding payments. We agreed to use the original background, and before long she sent me a file containing several possibilities. After discussing our options she sent me another file containing amendments. The result was this:

Professionally designed cover

Downloads increase

I uploaded the new cover in the final week of May 2013. Downloads increased immediately, averaging 20 per day (more than double the original quantity). Then on Sunday 9th May, something crazy happened. Over 220 downloads occurred. This continued into Monday, resulting in 600 downloads in the first 10 days of May (more than the preceding 3 months added together.)

Reason

I have possibly tracked this sudden surge to a website that promoted my book that day. It listed '5 good ebooks for free'. It has a following of over 100,000. I'm not sure the surge can be traced back to this posting but I have no other ideas at the moment. Whatever the reason for the surge in downloads, I am sure it is down to the new-look cover. With a doubling in downloads, I'm sure this cover has been picked up and promoted, which wouldn't have happened with the original, amateur version.

Book two

With book two close to release, I can now sit back and get on with the writing whilst Jan focuses on designing the new cover, which I'm sure will look as good as the first one. In the meantime, here are the two covers side by side. Can you spot the amateur? Is yours easily identifiable as an amateur, or can it hold its own up there with the professionals? What do you think? I'd love to hear from you.

The Rozzers!

Yes, that's what I have decided to call this cop series, The Rozzers. I love the name...

And this is the ebook cover I have designed for it. At the bottom of the blog you will also find a banner for the book, linking you through to my Smashwords' profile. It's all coming together nicely now!

I'm looking forward to my epub summer!

Latest ebook cover attempt

A.

B.

A, B or C?

A.

B.

C.

Final cover for End of the Road?

Number 1

End of the Road is a short (true) story and will be my first ever epublish attempt. It is being done on a budget, so this little cover (number 1) was created by myself in about 45 minutes. Good enough? What do you think?

(Updates from the comments made - thanks!)

No 2. I've added the 'copter to help with the perspective. It is a military tale set in the centre of the UK's principal military training area. My name has also been darkened, reflecting the colour of the sky...

With No 3 I've coloured and wonkied the text. The red is more dominant and picks out the red horizon, and the yellow in my name reflects that of the sunset.

No 4 has a silver heading, which looks really nice, and No 5 has the heli' moved across slightly...

(I can't seem to organise these images in the way I want to - thanks Blogger!)

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Original image, from
http://yaymicro.com/search.action?search.photographer=yorkman

2012 and my absence (ebook covers too)

A.

It's now three weeks into the new year and I haven't been a part of it yet! My absence from Twitter has been noted, my blog is gathering dust and I'm losing ground on selling my product - brand Diem!

My writings haven't been as neglected though, I did force myself to do two sittings and managed to push out 3000 words.

I have also been playing around with - and agonising over - my first ebook cover design. Now this is a totally new area for me. I love doing it - I just don't know my way around the programs and end up just hitting buttons to see what happens.

The cover is for a true-life short, about an horrific accident on a deserted road late at night, resulting in some deep soul-searching and an unexpected decision to later become a cop.

B. 

 Cover B was my first pleasing result, I liked the image and the car lights but wasn't completely happy with it. I do like the sense of foreboding, of danger. What's just over the rise ahead? Where is that car going and what's going to happen to it? Something's not right though. I've been getting some helpful feedback through Twitter and need to do some amendments to it (see first attempt at C below, although I don't like the lower font, and prefer the red/grain effect of B).

C.

Tonight I tried something completely different - cover A. It is much more simpler, has a nice combination of colours and less clutter. It is also easy to read as a thumbnail. The more I look at it, the more I like it. I have just enthusiastically showed it to my nearest and dearest who proclaimed, 'Yeah, it's alright...' Now there's a positive sign if ever there was one! In fact, I am beginning to feel that it doesn't convey the same feelings as B does. It might actually be more suited to my first full novel - Filthy Gorgeous/Filthy. In that book a guy takes a road trip which has a hidden surprise which lands him in jail, and in the sights of the local drug cartel. Had been worried about how to come up with an idea for that one...

Now, you might advise me to pay a pro to do this but I can't! My idea is that this little series of five short cop stories will cost absolutely nothing to produce, so one sale is a profit! Any profits that do come from it will go to the editing (and possibly pro cover) for Filthy.

And just for comparison, I've added the original pic!

(This is the original image for A - amazing to see what
an amateur can achieve with nearly nothing!)

D.

E.

F. (I really like this for rmy novel!)

Original Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Making up your own ebook covers, is it possible?

I'm an artistic kind of guy and fairly capable with the old computer but I certainly didn't have a clue where to start at making my own ebook cover. Somebody suggested I try Gimp Imaging Software, which is free. The only problem with such programmes is finding the time to learn how to use them.

But tonight I was too tired to write, so I thought I'd mess about with the programme a bit. This effort below took me about an hour to knock up. Be fair, it's a first attempt and I have never used Gimp before!

My first ebook?

Yes, I know it is too wide and doesn't conform to any ebook standards blah blah blah but hey, it looks OK for a complete novice's first attempt, doesn't it?

Then on the 2nd night I came up with this...

What do you think?

2nd attempt