For Want Of A Book Cover

Should a writer sit on a story or publish and be damned?

The theory is that an independent writer/publisher should know the genre, concept and the title of a work-in-progress so as to brief a designer of a cover for delivery at the same time that the text emerges from its final edits. That’s the theory.

Version 1 from Fiverr

The reality is that storylines can erupt from anywhere and produce a work of varying lengths, sometimes in short order. The Paintings is a case in point.

I was about to start the third in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy when a chance exchange with an artist friend dropped the idea for The Paintings, fully formed, into my arms. It was always going to be a novella, and they don’t take long to write, do they? And it didn’t. But that left me without a cover, and almost three months to a previously booked date with my cover designer of choice. What to do?

If Photoshop, Paint and Gimp are merely words without meaning, then you need a third party to produce a cover, and time should be spent on Amazon’s pages to gain an idea of what is expected within your chosen genre. Pink and fluffy with a curly font might be suitable for Chicklit, but it won’t sell a Supernatural.

After my own trials failed miserably I decided to try Fiverr – the website where time and skills can be purchased for US$5 a job. I chose a digital designer and gave her the brief. I paid extra to give her more leeway, and for the princely sum of $10.50 (£7.03) received a very reasonable starter cover. I wasn’t convinced over the blank canvas on the easel, so superimposed my own for atmosphere, and the novella was published as an ebook.

Version 2: Art By Karri

This week the appointment with my chosen cover designer rolled in and we discussed possibilities through a series of drafts, eventually settling on this one.

That it has more class is a certainty. Its design also fulfils the mood and content of the story that the Fiverr cover never would.

It's always better to engage a professional designer as you're paying for their skills, experience, and the hours spent not just working on the cover itself, but on the time spent finding elements that contribute to the design. This cover is an amalgam of three separate elements, not including the text.

Using a professional designer also brings side benefits. This ebook cover came in two sizes with an accompanying Facebook header and, for publicity purposes, two .png files showing the picture as a horizontal and vertical print book.

Professional book cover designers come neither cheap nor fast. Art by Karri currently runs a six month waiting list; there again, she has won awards for her work. I am also aware that some writers have extremely tight budgets. If it's a choice between an editor and a cover artist, pay for the editor, especially on the first few books; you're learning your trade, and words are your trade. Using Fiverr for a cover might be a stop-gap, but briefing one, or more, Fiverr designers is financially do-able for anyone.

Was I happy to use the starter cover instead of waiting for the final? Yes, I was. And I would do so again if I found myself in the same position. I promoted the novella on its original launch, and I now have a decent hook for promotion on its re-launch.

Did I mention The Paintings is a supernatural mystery about an art assessor who finds herself working in a surreal environment? No? Then please follow this link - THE PAINTINGS. :)

Greens *Proposing* Copyright Carnage

There have been angry responses on Twitter, discussion on Facebook and comments on news media articles to the Green Party's proposed overhaul of Copyright, particularly its stating that it wants to cut the copyright period to 14 years (it is unclear whether this is from the inception of the copyright, or from the death of its creator). For an overview, and picked for ease, see items in the Telegraph and in the Guardian, and on the website of the Society of Authors.

Currently, copyright in the intellectual property of the written word, and other (if not all) creative endeavours, is 70 years after the death of the author/creator.

After hearing the outcry, some members of the Green Party seem to be distancing themselves, saying that what follows is not policy and is only for consideration and part of a set of long-term aims which are subject to change.

Rubbish. What follows is copy and pasted from its POLICY PAGE http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ec.html
I have changed the font to green to separate it from my own text.

Intellectual Property

Background

EC1000 The term intellectual property covers a number of different areas, such as cultural products (see EC1011 below), software, physical inventions, drugs and natural entities protected by different means such as copyright, patents and trademarks. There are differences within and between these areas, and there can be no single intellectual property policy. The crucial balance in policy is between ensuring that there is adequate funding and incentive for innovation for socially and environmentally valuable activity and encouraging the widest possible sharing of these rights, which are public goods.

Policy

EC1010 Our general presumption is to encourage the Green value of greater sharing and to make it more difficult to obtain patents and similar forms of protection than at present. Specific policies are below.
EC1011 On cultural products (literature, music, film, paintings etc), our general policy is to expand the area of cultural activity, that is ways that culture can be consumed, produced, and shared, reduce the role of the market and encourage smaller and more local cultural enterprise (see CMS200 onwards). Specifically we will

1. introduce a Citizen’s Income (see EC730), which will allow many more people to participate in cultural creation;
2. introduce generally shorter copyright terms, with a usual maximum of 14 years;
3. legalise peer to peer copying where it is not done as a business;
4. liberalise ‘fair use’ policies to operate outside the academic environment, and allow greater development from existing copyright material; and make it impossible to patent broad software and cultural ideas.

There is more to this section, in a long document which can also be downloaded as a pdf, all under the heading "Policy [logo] Green Party". However, don't expect to be able to find this document from its Homepage, or by clicking on its page links. Yes, it is buried.

And does it matter whether it is "policy" or an "aim"? The result for creatives is the same. As I key in this text other writers are fighting the UK government's insistence that it can do nothing to halt the EU VAT debacle. That came into being after "thorough and rigorous consultation", which in reality meant that the micro businesses it is putting or has put out of business since it came online January 2015 found out about it 6 weeks prior to introduction. So do you, dear reader, believe that the same won't happen here? It is, after all, an "aim" strong enough to have been debated and refined in-party and uploaded onto its website under "policy" - all seemingly without thought of or clarification from the very people this will impact. Deja vu.

Also, note above, item "c. legalise peer to peer copying where it is not done as a business;" Is there not one person in its party which owns an income-generating business? Peer-to-peer copying of digital material is the biggest pirate BUSINESS there is. If it wasn't for the content being pirated, none of the income-generating advertisements, to say nothing of the malware/phishing operations integral to many of such sites, would exist.

As you might expect, if you are still with me at this point, as a novelist this will, impact on me. In fact, if the 14 year copyright rule was currently in force I might as well walk into the sea. I answered a comment on Facebook and set the same out here:

A case in point is my Beneath The Shining Mountains (squandered by its original mainstream publisher which kept the publishing rights for 7 years ie half the term the Greens want). It got a new lease of life with ebook self-publishing after I'd wrested back my rights, and is still my biggest seller in the USA. However, it would fall foul of this copyright "aim", being longer than 14 years from first publication. Not only could anyone take my content and put it out under their own name with no redress to me, but any TV, video, gamer or mainstream moviemaker could produce not just an audio-visual rendition of it without my name appearing anywhere, but could also sell that product to any number of distributors, including TV channels people pay to see, and license all manner of merchandising world-wide... all of which they and their intermediaries get paid for, but without me - the originator -  receiving a brass farthing.

Wouldn't happen? Many years ago an American friend of mine wrote a novel set during the time of the American Civil War. It was taken by a mainstream publisher, but like most novels did very little in the way of making a commercial splash. When she got her rights back the novel was offered to a small e-publishing house, taken up by a small independent movie-maker, and... And who knows? It is currently in post-production.

There have been people saying pirating in all its forms is endemic and so what is the point of any type of copyright? Burglary is endemic. Should it, therefore, be made legal? People have collisions in cars every day. Should collisions be made legal, if not mandatory, where anyone can cause serious injury/death/destruction of property/deprivation of livelihood and not face any form of reparation? 

Allow anyone, especially a political party, enough rope and they will hang you before, as the saying goes, they hang themselves.

Wednesday Writing Prompts + Editing Posts

Don't be fooled by the above date. This page works as a handy Index for writing craft posts. Currently there are two sections: Writing Prompts; What To Look For While Editing.  Doubtless more will follow.

Writing Prompts

Working from 'first lines' with discussions on what to look for and how to extrapolate:
WPrompt #1 : WPrompt #2 : WPrompt #3 : WPrompt #4 : WPrompt #5

WPrompt #6 :   One idea is never one idea
WPrompt #7 :   How and where to find your own ideas
WPrompt #8 :   Building a character from the inside out, not a stereotype from the outside in
WPrompt #9 :   Beware - Naming imbues with life
WPrompt #10 : Show and Tell - examples
WPrompt #11 : Show and Tell - considering the senses - smell
WPrompt #12 : Theme - writing to, or recognising an inherent theme
WPrompt #13 : Detail - how much is too much?
WPrompt #14 : Show and Tell - considering the senses - sound
WPrompt #15 : Elements - a full story exercise
WPrompt #16 : Using an image to kickstart fiction

This and much more is covered in Reading A Writer's Mind. Check its Amazon page for a full list of its Contents page.

~~~~~~~~ 

What To Look For While Editing

During the post-writing process of Pilgrims of the Pool, the final novel in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, I wrote a series of posts covering the editing process (currently still being added to). Check them out here:

Editing-1: What does editing actually mean?
Editing-2: The Structural Edit

Editing-3: The Content Edit

Editing-4: The Line Edit
Editing-5: Line Edit Update - how long??
Editing-6: Beta Readers
Editing-7: Metadata
Editing-8: Beyond Beta Readers

IndieReCon 2015 - Free Writers' Conference

Writers' conferences can be expensive to attend and expensive to reach. Not any more. Check out IndieRecon 2015 going global 15-17th April, timed to interact with the London Book Fair where it is part of the Fringe Festival.

Started in 2013 to raise awareness that there was more on offer than just the contracting mainstream publishing route, 10,000 attendees signed on - free - to interact with its content. In 2014 that number rose to 25,000. This year organisers are expecting to see double that.

And there's little wonder as there's something for everyone - see EVENTS.

Set that alarm clock and be inspired.