When I first got published, I was involved in an extremely small fashion. Quite simply, for both The Pequawket Valley News, where I was published almost weekly in their poetry section (which they called The North Country Bard), and for the original short story version of "Night of the Tiger", which appeared in the August 1989 Playgirl Magazine's Fantasy Forum section as "Tanya - My Bodyguard", I just wrote the piece, sent it in or dropped it off and there it was in print a short time later. Playgirl was my first experience with editors, as they changed Tanya from living in a Winnebago to a condo, but otherwise, it was my words. My concept.
Before I actually finished "Night of the Tiger", I was already starting to learn marketing, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time. I learned HTML programming from a tutorial, and using what I learned, I put together a web site to showcase my own previously published poems as well as those from some of the friends I had make in a chat room. As with the poems and short story, I sent the romance novel I had finished off to publishers, and when it was accepted by ebooksonthe.net, I put up a page about the book, including an introductory first few chapters. I didn't know about programs like Photoshop, so my first attempt at a cover when the thumbnail cover from Connie Foster and Fannie Glass pixilated when enlarged basically wasn't that great.
As I'm finishing what is to be my third published novel, I'm hearing rumblings about this cover vs the other two. Seems that, by insisting that this one is going to be more artistic and more "my baby" than the last two covers, I've opened a whole new can of worms. The prior covers are being called "amatuerish", among other ruder things that I won't share here. Prior covers that I thought much more eye catching were put down by my former publisher and, if they'd had their way, my last published work would have been put out with a cover that was much less "artsy" than the one I finally got them to agree to - under duress.
Needless to say, I'm taking the comments about all three covers to heart, and as I'm learning marketing techniques that I'm hoping will boost sales, I'm also learning another new program in tutorials that will help me to present a concept to the art director for the new publishing company I'm going through so that we can work together to make better covers for future works.
So, going back to something I learned from a co-worker many moons ago, I'm still learning so I don't get stupid. I have to admit that, with the right tutorials and a little help from those who've used this program, it's actually kind of fun.
What would be my advice to others looking to publish their work?
Don't just sit back and let the so-called "professionals" have too much power over your baby.
Your work is like your blood, sweat and tears. Don't let someone else who only sees it as a means of padding their own pocket do things that you don't approve of.
Learn things that will allow you to have more creative power and will allow you to go to your publisher with "I was thinking more of something like this" should they try to cheapen your work with a shabby cover.
For myself, that means learning what to do with covers along with the art director of the current publisher, bouncing ideas back and forth that are resulting in something we can both be proud to claim. Now if only the Photoshop Elements 12 tutorials could also tell me whether or not these new covers will help boost the marketing strategies I started learning before the release of "The Tiger's Cub".......
Before I actually finished "Night of the Tiger", I was already starting to learn marketing, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time. I learned HTML programming from a tutorial, and using what I learned, I put together a web site to showcase my own previously published poems as well as those from some of the friends I had make in a chat room. As with the poems and short story, I sent the romance novel I had finished off to publishers, and when it was accepted by ebooksonthe.net, I put up a page about the book, including an introductory first few chapters. I didn't know about programs like Photoshop, so my first attempt at a cover when the thumbnail cover from Connie Foster and Fannie Glass pixilated when enlarged basically wasn't that great.
As I'm finishing what is to be my third published novel, I'm hearing rumblings about this cover vs the other two. Seems that, by insisting that this one is going to be more artistic and more "my baby" than the last two covers, I've opened a whole new can of worms. The prior covers are being called "amatuerish", among other ruder things that I won't share here. Prior covers that I thought much more eye catching were put down by my former publisher and, if they'd had their way, my last published work would have been put out with a cover that was much less "artsy" than the one I finally got them to agree to - under duress.
Needless to say, I'm taking the comments about all three covers to heart, and as I'm learning marketing techniques that I'm hoping will boost sales, I'm also learning another new program in tutorials that will help me to present a concept to the art director for the new publishing company I'm going through so that we can work together to make better covers for future works.
So, going back to something I learned from a co-worker many moons ago, I'm still learning so I don't get stupid. I have to admit that, with the right tutorials and a little help from those who've used this program, it's actually kind of fun.
What would be my advice to others looking to publish their work?
Don't just sit back and let the so-called "professionals" have too much power over your baby.
Your work is like your blood, sweat and tears. Don't let someone else who only sees it as a means of padding their own pocket do things that you don't approve of.
Learn things that will allow you to have more creative power and will allow you to go to your publisher with "I was thinking more of something like this" should they try to cheapen your work with a shabby cover.
For myself, that means learning what to do with covers along with the art director of the current publisher, bouncing ideas back and forth that are resulting in something we can both be proud to claim. Now if only the Photoshop Elements 12 tutorials could also tell me whether or not these new covers will help boost the marketing strategies I started learning before the release of "The Tiger's Cub".......
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