Caleb is Here!!!
Frank’s friend, Caleb, who has been part of the family for years, is visiting for two weeks and we are having a blast!
Complaints About Lulu Are Spilling Onto Lulu’s Own Twitter Page
We’ve previously covered the numerous complaints posted about Lulu.com to their own forums by their own authors. The complaints are about customer service, quality, costs, and much more, including the fact that it’s difficult for authors to get a response out of them.
But, savvy Lulu authors have figured out how to bypass regular email. They’re posting complaints directly to Lulu’s Twitter account. Here are a few snippets posted just in the past two weeks…
An Extremely Professional and Talented Cover Designer
In the July 25 edition of WritersWeekly, someone asked you how your covers could be so inexpensive and what he’d get for his money. My answer??? A GREAT cover. When I self-published the first edition of my book, I paid a “professional” cover designer $2000. I told her EXACTLY what I wanted in terms of fonts, images, etc., and trusted she would put it all together into something great. When she seemed to misunderstand, I actually found some photos and put together a “sample” in Photoshop. She absolutely refused to give me ANYTHING like what I wanted–finally coming up with a Picasso-esque mess that I would have been embarrassed to use. She claimed she had created a cover and, despite the fact that I couldn’t use it, she got paid in full.
My son took my “sample”–tweaked it in Illustrator–and that’s the cover I finally used on the book.
For the second edition, I went with BookLocker.com and Todd did my cover. I sent him the cover of the first edition and told him what I’d like (essentially, the same thing I told the original designer). He came up with exactly what I wanted on the first try! In about two days! We tweaked the colors a bit and he even found me a couple of images that I loved for next to nothing.
So, to the guy who asked the question…what you will get (from BookLocker) is an extremely professional and talented cover designer who should be making a LOT more…but I’m sure glad he works for BookLocker!
Thanks,
Judy Yero
Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
See examples of BookLocker’s cover HERE.
Click on each cover to see the entire cover (front, back and spine).
Todd’s covers are only $200 because we send him so much business. Of course, we pass that savings on to authors. 🙂
Why Your Blog Needs a Media Kit – Jennifer Brown Banks
“Can you tell me how much it costs to take out an ad at your site?” asked a publisher in Arizona back in April.
Unfortunately, like many bloggers who blog as a labor of love, I never gave serious consideration to earning pay for my say. Not until then.
Should I Try to Land a Literary Agent?
I recently collaborated with a much-published and widely read author to edit one of her pending publications. We discussed my literary life, too. She indicates I should get an agent to market my newest manuscript. What do you think?
Selling Books Abroad – Eric D. Goodman
We were planning a vacation to (and travel story on) Spain anyway. Adding a book event to the visit was a great way of mixing business with pleasure – and it proved to be an effective way to sell books and create some buzz with a new readership.
I Like Grass (in my yard!)
It seems all we’ve done since we moved into our new (circa. 1969 – so it’s new to US) home in Florida is spend money on repairs. Now that the leaky part of the roof is fixed and the plumbing no longer backs up, we’re getting some work done on the outside…
Who Gets Your Book(s) When You Die? – Yet Another Case of Heirs Fighting Over an Author’s Copyrights
Ug! It happened again! We were contacted last week by a woman claiming to be the daughter of one of our authors. After logging into his author account, she posted a note, saying he’d died last month and she wanted his future royalty checks mailed to her. I checked the author’s contract and – UH OH. In the beneficiary clause, the author had assigned his copyrights, control of his author account, and all future royalties to someone else (a female friend / associate), not to his daughter.
Letters To The Editor For August 8th
I read your News from the Home Office in this week’s WritersWeekly. I’ve noticed a lot of people have stopped using social media during the Olympics so that they don’t get any spoilers. I guess the same should happen with online news, too!
Dawn Colclasure
https://dawncolclasureblog.blogspot.com/
365 TIPS FOR WRITERS: Inspiration, Writing Prompts and Beat the Block Tips to Turbo Charge Your Creativity
BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents
TOTALLY SCARED: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses (with Martha Jette)
Marketing 101 for Freelance Writers – Lisa Evans
Prior to becoming a freelance writer, I had a career in marketing. Managing campaign schedules, building brands and doing competitive analyses filled my nine to five workday. When I made the switch to freelance writing, I thought I would ditch marketing vocabulary such as “target audience”, “brand development”, “ROI” and “customer relations” at the door. Instead, I have come to discover that the tools I honed as a marketing professional have enhanced my success as a freelance writer. Here are some ways I have used these marketing terms to build my business.