Adventures in Cover Design

As most of you know, I have two writing careers. One is as traditionally published Emily Mah, who sells her science fiction and fantasy stories to magazines. The other is as indie published E.M. Tippetts, who is an experiment on my part to try my hand at all the different aspects of the publishing industry. Up until this point, I've always had my novel covers designed by professionals, but this week I've taken the plunge and put one of my own covers out there.

My bestselling book so far is Someone Else's Fairytale, and so I've been writing a sequel. I wanted to design a cover that would work as a template for all the books to come after it. So, here it is, the first cover I designed and put out there:

I debuted this cover on Wattpad, where Fairytale is a featured novel (as of Wednesday). I've since uploaded it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. The images are all stock art off Shutterstock. The leather texture is from Scrapgirls, as is the gold tone effect (I purchased a commercial licenses). The swirly patterns are royalty free brushes that my professional cover designer used, and my knowledge of how to put it all together comes from digital scrapbooking. Yes, really. That's how I learned to use Photoshop, from JessicaSprague.com and her online classes :-)

This first cover's gotten a positive response, so I put together a mockup for the second cover:

This is the book I'm working on right now. I debuted this cover on my site, (www.emtippetts.com) and people have been very positive. I need to make a few changes. I'm going to play with what word I put in the magnifying glass. Maybe "crime" or "police" might look better than just "ot cr". I also need to fix the title block. It's crooked, but nobody noticed that, right?

Now, I suppose I should tie this up with some intelligent, meaningful comment, but to be honest, I am so exhausted I can barely see straight! I launched the German edition of Fairytale, also on Wednesday, and have been writing over 2,000 words a day on Damsel, so as soon as I finish this post, I'm stumbling off to bed ;-)

Kickstarter campaign underway for the next E.M. Tippetts novel

As many of you know, I've got two writing careers. I've gone the traditional route as a science fiction and fantasy author and sell short stories to magazines, sub novels to agents and editors, and have been working on that for over a decade. Then last year I watched the indie movement get underway and really wanted to jump in an join the fun. So I revived my old chick lit pen name, E.M. Tippetts, and indie published two novels.

The rest, as they say, is history. Fans have been so incredibly supportive and I make a very respectable supplementary income from my novels. Now I'm in the final edits of my next project, and I'm turning again to my fans for some support. I would really like to get a Kirkus Indie review for this next project, so I've launched a Kickstarter campaign to cover the cost.

For those of you who don't know Kickstarter, it is a fantastic resource for independent artists of all stripes. This'll be my first campaign, but not the last, I hope!

 

You may be a writer if...

I know it's been ages since I've posted here. Since I'm too sleep deprived to think of anything intelligent to say, let's play this game instead. I think it was Josie Kilpack who said:

"... you know what a rejection letter sounds like going down the toilet"
"... you know what a rejection letter sounds like going down the garbage disposal"

Ones I thought of:

"...you've rewritten every Oscar winning movie ten times (even though you've only written the first third of your own novel)"
"...you still talk to the imaginary friend you've had since you were six"
"...you know exactly which pockets in your cargo pants can hold a trade paperback, which can hold a mass market paperback, and which can hold a netbook"

I'm sure you all can do better!

How to Feed the Starving Artist

I am a starving artist.

I mean that literally, because I am visiting my family's house on a personal writing retreat. Only I have food allergies and didn't think to pack food (the whole packing thing was a mess, since I managed to pack a dozen skirts and only two shirts *sigh*). And despite what a great time I'm having here, and the vast amount of writing I've gotten done, my stomach is constantly grumbling.

Which makes me think: What ways are we "starving artists" in our own lives? Seriously, as a writer we have to ingest certain things in order to maintain healthy writing. So here's a quiz. Go through and count up your points to see if you are a starving artist!

[1] How often do I read?
a.) I read 2+ books a week
b.) I read 1 book a week
c.) I read 1 book a month
d.) I only read a book because my brother bribes me with a crisp $5 bill

[2] What types of books do I read?
a.) I read books in or near my genre to keep up to date on what's trending in the market
b.) I read books in my age range, even if they aren't necessarily in my genre
c.) I read, but rarely in my genre or age range

[3] While I read...
a.) If the book is good, I evaluate how the author did it so I can learn
b.) I rarely ever read good books, I think about what I would do to avoid the same mistakes
c.) I forcibly turn off my internal editor and just enjoy the books I read
d.) I poke myself with a fork in the leg

[4] Critiques
a.) I have a critique group or multiple critique partners (who write both in the genre and in other genres)
b.) I have a couple of critique partners and we exchange our writing every now and then
c.) I only have a bunch of beta readers
d.) I don't let anyone read my writing. Ever. In fact, my last novel I buried in a hole in my backyard next to my dead cat.

[5] I keep up-to-date on the writing community by...
a.) reading Publisher's Weekly / SCBWI announcements
b.) reading agent or editor blog or following said people on twitter
c.) local writer's gossip
d.) taunting editors and agents on twitter until I become the latest news in the writing community

[6] If I choose to read blogs, I look at...
a.) agents and editors blogs (along with any of the following)
b.) published authors (along with any of the following)
c.) unpublished authors
d.) friends or family only. And then, only out of guilt because I know they'll bug me if I don't.

[7] When it comes to writing conferences...
a.) I try to attend at least one a year, and more if I can afford it
b.) While I can't make it to conferences, I've done a few local day workshops
c.) I don't make it to conferences or workshops, but I do some networking at local events such as book signings or blog parties
d.) I restrain myself from stalking the editors in the bathroom. Instead, I posted my first page in every stall.

Scoring
a.) +5 points
b.) +4 points
c.) +2 points
d.) -2 points

So how do you score? 

35 points: You are perfectly nourished -- go you!

32 - 34 points: You are a healthy individual, and though not quite perfect, you have a grasp on what you need to ingest in order to spew out good writing.

20 - 31 points: You my friend are in need of better nutrients. Maybe look at one or two things you can do that will give you better nourishment so you don't become a starving artist!

19 and under: You are not only a starving artist, but you are anorexic to the writing world. Look at answers A or B so you can get some meat on those bones!

Yeah, I know this quiz was pretty easy. But what I wanted was for you to be able to evaluate yourself based on your own goals and where you spend your time. While these are all nourishing to the writer's diet, I feel that the time spent on these activities shouldn't take away from your writing time. And for all those concerned readers, I am on my way out to the store right now to grab some food for my tummy.

So how did you score?? Or where can you improve??