100 sites for fiction writers: #47 - The Book Designer

This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career.

The Book Designer

I'll admit right here at the front I have a 20-year background as a publications designer, mainly newspapers with some work in magazines and other print periodicals. I loved it. Design was always one of my favorite aspects of the print world. I adored using graphic arts tools to design special covers, making them into a piece of art that still worked for readers without becoming so fancy and artsy as to be unreadable. Mixing type and art is a talent, and I like to think I was at least decent at it.

So a few years ago when I became a full-time fiction author, I was thinking I would never again utilize my publications design skills. How wrong I was.

For my self-published projects, I have to design the covers for my e-books and books. I also have to format the inside pages of my e-books and books. Sometimes I have to design a back cover. Then, for my fantasy works, I have to come up with maps.

To some that might sound like a lot of work. To me, that sounds like fun!

Don't get me wrong, because I love writing fiction, traveling to faraway lands and worlds where I get to work with some of the oddest characters imaginable this side of the Mos Eisley cantina. But I also love to sit down at a computer and start from scratch on a design project.

Not everyone loves design work, of course, and even those who do love it, or at least tolerate it, can find themselves without ideas from time to time. That's where a website like The Book Designer can come in handy.

The site is chock full of helpful articles about book and e-book design, such as "5 Great Fonts for Book Covers" and "How to Check Your Book Proof in 3 Simple Steps." There are sections on the site about Planning Your Book, Making Print Choices, Marketing Your Book and so much more than I can't list it all here.

If you have the funds and are the type of writer who wants to hire out your design work, you can even Hire Joel Friedlander, the man in charge of the site and the top dog at Marin Bookworks. For more, check out his Services. You might even want to consider purchasing Joel's book, A Self-Publisher's Companion.

Now you writers out there, don't you dare balk at design, because design is very important. Quite often it is quality design that catches a potential reader's eye, or good design that keeps a reader reading. Yes, loads of people say book covers have little to nothing to do with their reading choices, but they're fooling themselves. Think about all the times you did not pick up a book at a store or did not check into an e-book because the cover image was ugly or boring. Think about the times you wanted to set aside reading material because it was difficult to read because of the format or layout. Then realize that good design could have helped.

Design alone might not sell your books or e-books, but bad design surely will not help sales. Remember that.

Books read in 2011: No. 40 - Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

by Steven Erikson

Started: August 29
Finished: September 4

Notes: As this a shorter book from perhaps my favorite modern epic fantasy writer, I knew I had to read it. This is a collection of three short novels, all of which happen in the same world as the author's Malazan Books of the Fallen but is not technically part of the series.

Mini review: Quite the funny stories here. The author often has humor in his works, but this is the only one of which I'm aware where the entire tales are layered with humor. In many ways, I felt the writing here was stronger than the author's longer works, mainly because he didn't go on for long paragraphs and pages and pages about characters' personal philosophies and the like. Here it was mainly story and dialogue. Though I guess it helped I was already familiar with the main characters.

Books read in 2011: No. 39 - How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months

by John Locke

Started: August 28
Finished: August 31

Notes: Call me a sucker, but I thought I'd check out this popular indie author's e-book. To be honest, I don't expect to learn much new, but one never knows. I might pick up a few marketing ideas or somesuch.

Mini review: Life changing? No. But I do believe there are some solid ideas here from practical measures one could take to improve sales to more general notions on how to approach one's writing career. Most importantly, this helped to give me a few new ideas of my own, so I'll have to see how they work for me.

100 Sites for Fiction Writers: #46 - Fiction After 50

This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career.

Fiction After 50

If you are an older fiction writer, sometimes you might feel like you are being left out, or that you are behind the curve. So many writers nowadays are young, right? Well, not all of them. In fact, more and more people are finding time to write as they approach their retirement years, and many of them have something to say to today's reading audiences.

But if you happen to be feeling left out, do yourself a favor and check out the blog titled Fiction After 50.

Writers Janet and Ron Benrey are the moderators of the site, and they frequently post about concerns for all writers, but often about concerns specifically for older writers. For instance, they blog about such topics as "A Late-Bloomer Liability," studying whether or writers need to "keep up with the times" in the way they approach their fiction. Another post compares pros and cons of paper books versus e-books, titled "The Persistence of Paper."

The Benreys both have plenty of experience in the publishing field, including working as editors and her as an agent, so they are knowledgeable enough of what they are speaking. Of course they also use the site topromote their own e-books, but you don't have to be concerned because for the most part they keep that out of their blog posts.

New novel cover

Below is the tentative cover for my upcoming digital novel, Ghosts of the Asylum, planned for a Nov. 21, 2011, release. This cover is not set in stone, but it's the direction I'm wanting at the moment. I might keep it, might make some changes. We'll have to see how I feel about it in a couple of months.

100 sites for fiction writers: #45 - David Gaughran: Let's Get Digital

This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career.

David Gaughran: Let's Get Digital

There are a lot of writers out there suddenly trying to self publish their own works for e-books. There are also a lot of blogs out there about the very same topic. Unfortunately, most of them are crap, the e-books and the blogs.

There are exceptions, however, one such being the blog David Gaughran: Let's Get Digital. As you might guess, David Gaughran is the author of the blog as well as an independent e-book author. And "Let's Get Digital" is not only the partial title of his blog, but also the title to one of his e-books.

At it's most basic, Gaughran's blog is a semi-personal one with a focus upon his own experiences and his journey as an indie author. But along the way he provides lots of information and motivation.

For instance, he talks about everything that can be of interest to writers concerning the Digital Revolution, from articles on Royalties to thoughts about Short Stories, and considerably more. Beginning writers definitely should be paying attention.

And Gaughran goes beyond mere speculation, often becoming detailed, such as explaining about e-book Formatting or providing his own advice about book Covers. He also comments about e-book Pricing and Blogging.

If you are interested, you can keep up with David Gaughran through his Newsletter.

This is an author worth watching, and his advice seems quite practical, so I suggest paying attention to him.

100 sites for fiction writers: #44 - Query Shark

This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career.

Query Shark

To those who might not know, a query is a letter or e-mail from a writer to an editor, publisher or literary agent in which the writer is asking if the other might be interested in a particular piece of work the writer either has completed or is considering writing. That's the basics. Sometimes query letters are sent to other people than editors, publishers and agents, and sometimes such letters have a slightly different intent behind them.

Writers seeking professional publication often face having to write a query letter, and most writers hate it.

Why? Well, each writer is different, but many do not feel comfortable begging for another to consider their work, which is kind of what a query letter does.

Still, to be a writer, query letters will have to be written and sent off from time to time. Sometimes a lot of query letters.

To that end, the website Query Shark can be a writer's best friend.

Query Shark is a blog that focuses on how to write query letters. The main way it does this is by receiving query letters for fiction writing from the site's readers, then critiquing those query letters publicly on the site. This can be embarrassing, of course, for the writers of the query letters, but names are not used, and besides, the education provided is important. The critiques of the queries can become quite extensive, so there is a lot here for writers to learn.

Not all letters sent to the site are published and critiqued, so don't feel bad if you send something at it doesn't appear online. The author of the site writes that she specifically looks for query letters that bring up problems or situations which have not already been covered on the blog.

And speaking of the site's author, who does it happen to be? None other than literary agent Janet Reid, someone to whom it wouldn't hurt to listen.