Dealbreakers: Yes, we judge your book by its cover

I hear, “My friend designed my book cover,” or “I designed my book cover using MS Word, what do you think?”

As someone who’s been immersed in the media industry since she first crawled out of her Spur waiter apron, I *cringe* when I hear these words.

Thing is, you can have written the Best Book Eva, but if the cover makes me feel too embarrassed to be seen within a twenty metre radius of your voluminous tome, then, Houston, we have a problem.

There’s that wonderful adage about not judging books by their covers but we all know that’s a stinking pile of camel turds. Your book’s cover will be the first thing that catches a person’s eye, and I’m going to make you very sad by saying that the first time people see your book cover it will most likely be a teeny-tiny thumbnail-sized image on a vendor’s website and not in prime shelf position in a swanky bookstore. So it becomes even more critical to design with that in mind even before you start having a thromby over what you want on your cover.

A cover doesn’t tell the entire story in one picture, it communicates the essence or theme of your novel. For instance (and excuse me while I gag) there’s a reason why a large percentage of African literature dressed up for the international market will have a glorious sunset with thorn trees in the background. It screams Africa. Even if the novel only has something vaguely to do with the bushveld. The publisher wants to immediately tell a potential reader that LOOK HERE IS A BOOK ABOUT AFRICA.

It sucks. But it is industry standard.

Think about the recent explosion of GrimDark fantasy. How many of those covers have a Bloke in a Cloak on the front cover. Or romance and erotica covers that have the prerequisite headless male torso?

A book cover gives you *seconds* to snag a reader’s attention. If they’re already attuned to a specific genre and your cover’s style matches, chances are better that they’ll bother to read the blurb. (Pay attention, I may repeat this later on because it's fucking important.)

But I’m going to digress a moment. Bear with me. With the advent of modern technology getting all spiffy like, I’ve seen an alarming increase of the use of CGI modelling for the people used on covers. My word: DO NOT DO IT.

NO CGI. NO. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT.

Why? I promise you, it looks like shit. Really. It looks like crap. It makes your novel look like a bad video game from the late 1990s. Don’t believe me? Just feast your eyes on this hot mess. Then thank me for talking you out of it.

But let’s get back to style, shall we, because that’s the catch. Every genre, be it a thriller, a whodunnit, military SF, romance or YA dystopias, has a range of styles in cover art that will appear within a genre. Your romance novels tend to have photo-manipulated images featuring torsos, wolves etc to give a quick, dirty hint that we’re dealing with a ménage à trois vs. shifter romances. Fantasy novels tend to have one or two heroic figures (and of late, the near-ubiquitous a Bloke in a Cloak) in a near-realistic illustrative style. Literary novels often feature stylised illustrations related to the theme of the novel. Colour is important too – bright, primary colours often feature in children’s books while horror novels may go for plenty of dark tones with flashes of lurid red to catch the eye.

Effective nonverbal communication encapsulated in your (hopefully) awesome cover art might mean the difference between a potential reader continuing with their desultory scan of a selection of works vs. them slowing down to read the blurb and check out the reviews of your novel. A cover that differs from its brethren in horribad way, will reflect your novel in a poor light. (Well, if the cover looks like it was shat out by a goat with chronic diarrhoea, the writing can’t be much better, amiright?)

If you’re an indie author, it’s even more important that your cover matches the standards of its traditionally published brethren. At a glance, your book must appear no different. Which means you need to take a good stab at emulating the style of illustration and typographical treatment of your competitors (who often have considerable budgets). And that will extend not only to the style of the artwork and design, but also to the subject matter.

If you’re writing about a kick-ass heroine with a magic sword, chances are extremely high that you’re going to have a sexy, bad-ass lady on the front cover standing in some epic pose with a drawn blade on a cliff. The artwork must scream EPIC in big letters. Likewise, if you’re writing a sweet romance, you will in all likelihood opt for a fully clothed couple looking all lovey-dovey comped into some sort of pastel-shaded landscape. With doves. And pretty flowers.

Okay. Enough of that. [Stomps on fairies]

Resist the temptation to try show the entire story or a key scene from the novel (unless it's a shit-hot key scene that just yodels cinematic oomph – like omigod they're all gonna get eaten by that there dragon). At best, you’re aiming for is mood and theme, and the image on the front cover may not necessarily even take place in the novel. You may even opt to go for something completely abstract – for instance an Indiana Jones-style adventure thriller might have a map and an ancient artefact on the cover, with the typography. The two items already communicate the essence of what the novel is about without having to resort to using human figures.

Not quite sure what you want? LOOK at a dozen books that are similar to what yours is. See what they share in common. Figure out what you’ll need to match it.

At the very basic, you need a) an image, b) a graphic designer with experience in book cover design. (Later on you may get kinky enough to hire your own photographer and creative director, mkay?)

Now, where do you get your images?

First of all, let’s talk about where you DON’T get your images. If you want to get yourself into a world of trouble, you’ll download and use images off Google willy nilly. This is stealing. Don’t do it. You really, really don’t want to taint your name in this reputation-based business by stealing another artist’s hard work. DON'T BE A DICK, IOW.

If you need visuals, you can purchase the rights to use royalty-free images from sites such as iStock, Shutterstock or Adobe. And it’s really not that expensive. One image can cost anywhere from $30 upwards. These sites will have photos, illustrations and vector graphics – so if it’s something you need for a comped image or that you’re happy to use ready made, there’s a lot to look through.

If you decide to go with an illustrator, there are loads of really talented people you can find on sites like Behance or deviantArt. Take time to browse and be sure when you eventually engage with them that their art matches your final vision closely.

When you negotiate, set your terms. Some artists may want a 50% upfront with balance paid on sign-off. Do discuss a kill fee. This protects both of you in case things don’t work out so you don’t feel obliged to pay for something that doesn’t work and the artist still has some compensation for their time. Provide your artist with a comprehensive brief – so this is a full description of characters, poses. Supply examples of the cover art you’re trying to emulate, the mood. Even pictures of clothing, people who resemble your characters, backgrounds, props – all this is gold for your artist and will help them meet your vision halfway. Make sure to tell your artist what size you require – I usually brief in at A4 for 300dpi but comic book artists I’ve spoken to will work at about A4 at 600dpi. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the terms too well – suffice to say that we’re talking about page size and the amount of dots per inch (resolution) of image. You don’t want small images on your cover that look blurry and pixelated. Oh, and discuss a deadline. That's important too.

Once you have your final, signed-off image, be it a photo manipulation, photo or illustration, you’ll go speak to your graphic designer (though some graphic designers do offer photo manipulation services, so be sure to ask). You’ll brief them thoroughly too, showing them examples of those other book covers you’re trying to outshine. You'll also take a gander at their creative portfolio to be sure that they'll be up to the task. You’ll talk to them about the end product and supply them with the technical specifications for the print and ebook covers (which you should be able to get from your vendor’s site). You’ll make damned sure that they have all the information they need so that all you’ll need to do is upload that file without any complications. But as you would with an illustrator, for the love of dog, find a professional who has the right equipment and experience for the work. Don’t ask your cousin’s boyfriend or your best friend’s neighbour who allegedly knows a thing or two about CorelDRAW.

I said CorelDRAW. Ugh.

You want a professional-looking cover. This means you’re playing publisher and taking the financial risk for a product that looks awesome. Unfortunately this does mean you’ll need to spend money. Don’t cut corners.

And, unless you’re actually already employed in the media industry with years and years of experience with the relevant apps, don’t try to do it yourself. Therein lies only pain, unless you can be completely honest about your attempts and invest hours and hours until you get the fucking thing right. (And let’s be honest, most folks won’t be able to tell when their design is shit.)

So my advice here is SPEND THE FUCKING MONEY. Get it done properly, by professionals. The first time.

My experiences with small presses have been mixed. Most small presses with which I’ve published have skimped on design, and if you look at my earlier book covers, it tells. A great illustration looks like shit when the typography is half-arsed. Yet every time I coughed up the dough or pulled in favours with the right people, I ended up with something awesome. (Though I’m really fortunate that my lovely husband is a shit-hot designer, and occasionally I can twist his arm to get him to help me out with cover art.)

What this means from here on in is that I’m no longer going to put myself at the mercy of others. I am ready to drop hundreds of dollars to pay the right artists to get the job done so I don’t end up cringing when I see my older books.

You owe it to yourself to avoid your novel from showing up on this Tumblr.

And if you’re looking for help with your book cover, feel free to contact me at nerine@helicopterdesign.co.za. Chat to me about what you need, what your budget is, and I’m happy to advise and quote, and put you in touch with illustrators and photographers, and have my lovely husband design something super awesome for you. I won't break your piggy bank. And I won't sugarcoat my opinion either.

A small selection of our work...

Illustration & design, Thomas Dorman

Image retouching & design, Thomas Dorman

Image retouching & design, Thomas Dorman

Image retouching & design, Thomas Dorman

Photography & image manipulation,
Thomas Dorman

                  

Image manipulation & design,
Thomas Dorman

Playing the Long Game #writerslife

A question I sometimes get is, “Oh, wow, you’ve written so many books. You must have made lots of money.”

At which point, I laugh and laugh … and then whimper slightly. Authors are not rich. Those who are, are the exception, not the rule.

Let’s say it again: Rich authors are the exception, not the rule. Now, write that in nice red ink and stick it above your workspace.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I ended up in an email exchange with John Everson. We were both hanging around the same Yahoo list during the mid-2000s, when FB was merely a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg's eye, and I remember being terribly impressed with the fact that he’d been published and where he was at the start of what appeared to be a promising career. He still warned me that it’s a lot of hard work without any guarantees, and I thought, “Yup, I’m up for this. I’ll make it. I'm awesome. The sun shines out of my arse.”

Yet here I am. I’ve published a bunch of books. None of them are best-sellers, and I make more money editing other people’s work than with my own writing.

But what do we mean by successful author? What do we mean when we say we’ve “made it”?

Good questions.

If you’re doing this under the assumption that you’re going to earn wads of cash, you might do better simply investing in guaranteed schemes or buying property. Publishing novels is a lot like gambling. Actually, who’m I kidding? It is gambling. You simply cannot guarantee whether readers will glomp onto your work. No one could predict that Harry Potter, Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, The Hunger Games or even adult colouring books would be the phenomena that they’ve turned out to be. But they are.

Hundreds of authors have tried to follow in these footsteps, to varying degrees of success. And I predict, that by the time the majority of those attempting to ride the coattails of the success stories get their novels out there, the wave will have passed.

(There’s a reason why I don’t write YA dystopias. Though I do admit that the genre itself has been surprisingly resilient despite me watching out for the Next Big Thing to take off.)

If you’re talking about financial success, then you need to write the more popular genres. Which means you’re going to look at erotic romance, crime/mystery, religious/inspirational, and fantasy … with horror lagging behind all of these… And it means you’ll have to immerse yourself in the genre you want to write so that you’re aware of the tropes. Readers are not stupid. They can tell the moment an author’s heart is not in the genre they’re writing and, nope, they’re not going to buy it if your offering is a lukewarm spinoff.

Some of the hardest-working authors I’ve ever met write in the erotic romance genre. These folks write a book every 2-3 months, with 6-8 releases a year in what is a highly competitive market with a huge turnover of newly published works every week. Their readers are voracious, and yet if an author misses a step, their name quickly sinks to the bottom of the pile. The ones who earn six-digit figures put in eight or more hours a day of writing, revising and promotion. It’s a huge industry, and frankly, I have to be honest with myself, I don’t have the stamina for it. I don’t have the love of this particular genre to push myself in this direction. The successful authors treat this with the same seriousness that they do any nine-to-five career. I don’t want this on the off-chance that I might make a financial “success” of it.

And yet ... Work ethic and talent most certainly help, but they’re no guarantee.

If you’re writing because you want people to tell you how amazeballs your stories are, think again. It’s easy to publish a novel these days. But getting people to read your work is difficult. Then getting them to leave reviews or ratings (those all-important algorithms Amazon loves so much before your book starts showing up in any promotion) is even more difficult. It simply doesn’t occur to many readers that they should leave reviews. Or they’re just not in the mood. Or they have better things to do. Your books don’t accimagically sell themselves, and only a select few (or incredibly savvy) ever make it onto the shelves of brick-and-mortar stores.

(Here’s a hint: go look at the SFF section at your local bookshop. Notice something? Yeah, it’s still mostly the same old names we’ve seen there for the past 10-20 years… The Hobbs, the GRRMs, the Tolkiens, the Jordans, the Canavans…)

The likelihood of you getting your small press or self-published book onto the shelves of your local bookstore are slim to none. Most of your sales will be from your ebooks. Which folks will only buy if they happen to stumble onto the book via a review or a mention on social media.

So, why are you writing?

I’ll tell you why I write. Maybe my story will resonate (and I'd love to hear yours – leave a comment below in the comments section). I’m playing the long game. I’ve decided I don’t want to wait until I become famous to write the kinds of books I enjoy reading. Unfortunately, many of my literary heroes are not runaway mainstream successes. By the same measure, the stories I tell are not mainstream. My readership is niche, but I love that niche – of rich, nuanced and slowly unfolding fantasy where there the conflict is often subtle and it’s not immediately possible to tell who’s the antagonist. I look to the writings of Storm Constantine, Neil Gaiman, Robin Hobb, Ursula Le Guin, Poppy Z Brite, CJ Cherryh and numerous others, and I express myself in a synthesis of what I love about their styles. Some of these authors you may have heard of. Others, perhaps not. But whether you have, doesn’t matter to me.

The point is I have stories I want to tell. I am a storyteller.

My rewards are subtle: It’s when one of my literary heroes tells me that she loves my voice. Or when I’ve read at an event, and a young boy walks up to me and tells me that my writing reminds him of Neil Gaiman’s. Or it’s when a reader writes to tell me that I made her forget to milk her goats. Or, it's that flash of inspiration when I pause in what I'm doing to daydream on a new idea then see its potential.

I write my own worlds, but I also write fiction that I cannot sell; my fanfiction often gives me so much pleasure because the response I have from readers is immediate and passionate. And for the same reasons, I read the fics of others, and I experience the same enthusiasm for our favourite worlds.

And my original fiction meets the fanfiction halfway, because I’ve written for existing intellectual properties in an official capacity, and it’s been awesome and financially rewarding.

I will close by sharing also that I’ve learnt to value my writing. I don’t submit to just any market that is out there. I don’t often give away my works for free. I always craft to my utmost ability then submit to the best markets. And, if for whatever reason these works doesn’t sell, I’ll later compile them into an anthology or release via my Patreon page. I aim high, for quality, not quantity.

I don’t make my living writing, though there are some opportunities that do pay well. Life is short, nasty and brutish, and I want to enjoy my writing while I’m alive. It’s not so much a stress of if a story will be published, but rather when, and how. If I value my art, and don’t sell it short, it means that there’s a better chance that others may cherish it too.

Am I a success? If you mean by am I writing the stories that I love reading, then my resounding answer is yes. I am a success.

Bio: After surviving a decade in the trenches of newspaper publishing, where she fought against the abuse of the English language, Nerine Dorman is now a freelance editor and designer who is passionate about words that not only sound good, but look damned good too. She’s also written a few books. You can stalk her on Twitter or, even better, support her authorly aspirations via Patreon. If you’re feeling particularly brave, and would like to inquire about her editing rates, you can email her at nerinedorman@gmail.com 

Six of the Best with Dean M Drinkel #horror

Dean M Drinkel is no stranger to those of you who're regular followers of this blog. He's the brain behind The Demonologia Biblica and The Bestarium Vocabulum, where two of my stories appear. (Go get them, they're absolutely fabulous if you're a fan of speculative fiction in a themed collection.) 

So, Dean, welcome to my world! What were some of your highlights from 2013? And a big thank you for dropping by.



2013 was quite a good year for me really; we saw the publication of The Demonologia Biblica and The Bestiarum Vocabulum anthologies (both through Western Legends Press); Cities Of Death (Static Movement); my own short collection Within A Forest Dark (Dark Continents); I contributed short stories for Joe Mynhardt’s Fear The Reaper (Crystal Lake) and to the Horror Society’s Best Of collection. I also won “Best Action Screenplay” for a short I wrote (Splinter) at the Monaco International Film Festival in December. Finally, I was interviewed by a French property magazine about my short stories as well as a MASSIVE horror magazine which will be seeing publication in early 2014 and which I have to thank the multi-talented Barbie Wilde for arranging.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?

2014 is already shaping up nicely – I have a final anthology for Western Legends; Phobophobias (Dark Continents – a sequel to the very successful 2011 Phobophobia); Demonology (Static Movement); Kneeling In The Silver Light (The Alchemy Press). I am also working on a horror / thriller screenplay with a friend of mine (Scott Richardson) as well as a couple of other projects I’d like to bring off the back-burner. They’ve been gestating for too long now.

What's the most important lesson you've learnt in the publishing business over the past few years? 

Wow. Great question. I guess that operating in the indie / small press markets what is really important is that everyone concerned has to pimp, promote, publicize the project they’re involved with otherwise it’s going to flounder. As you know, I like compiling / editing big anthos – maybe as many as 26 / 27 per book – that takes a lot of work to put together but I do find the end result very rewarding – however, to get those sales (and / or reviews) EVERYONE has to promote and not sit back resting on their laurels thinking that someone else is going to do it for them. You do sometimes have to make a right royal pain of yourself because there are so many indie / small presses fighting for sales / their place in the market.

From a personal point of view, I’ve certainly learnt to have a thick skin. Working with so many authors, I also have to deal with all their egos / eccentricities ha ha. I always say though, leave your egos at the door – mine is big enough for all of us!

What's the biggest mistake newbie writers can make? 

Writers need to remember that writing a story is only the start of it – once a story’s been accepted into an antho that’s when the hard work really starts. My anthos, whilst invite only (on the whole), I use trusted writers where I know I’m going to receive a good end product but I do try to bring in some fresh blood when I can. On the whole I’ve been lucky in that the stories that have been submitted are of a high standard. I’ve heard of other editors / compilers who have had to deal with half finished / unfinished / unformatted / unedited stories. Touch wood, I’ve been okay to date. My advice is simple – always submit high-quality work and follow whatever submission guidelines have been set down i.e. if it’s a horror antho don’t send in a romance etc. I guess also, be prepared to take criticism – it’s not said just for the fun of it – there’s always a reason – we all become better writers if we can take that on board!

What are the top three books on your TBR list for 2014, and why?

First up is the second volume of Philip Dwyer’s brilliant biography of Napoleon entitled Citizen Emperor: Napoleon In Power 1799 – 1815. This is both for pleasure but also for research as I have been working on a film script / play about Napoleon and this has proved invaluable. Next up is Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast – I’ve never been a great Hemingway fan (yeah, I know – SACRILEGE!) but am starting to warm to him – again, whilst reading this for pleasure, it is part of another Parisian project I’m currently scoping out.  I’ve just finished an excellent book about Paris by John Baxter called The Most Beautiful Walk In the World - Paris is very important to me and I base a lot of my stories there now, so would highly recommend this book! For my third choice, I’d say that anything new by Clive Barker would be on my list for 2014 – I keep hearing rumours that we’re going to see some new ‘horror’ stories from him, so I’ll leave a space free for him – Clive has been a massive influence on me so will always clear the decks for him always! I’m currently reading the French language version of The Hellbound Heart.

Which of your stories would you turn into a movie, and who would you cast in the lead role? And, for that matter, who would you have as director? And score? 

In some of the anthos / collections I’ve appeared in, I’ve written several stories which refer to a mysterious organisation set in Paris (natch!) called The Sixteenth Chapel. This itself was a misquote made by Justin Bieber when he was on the David Letterman Show. He meant to say the Sistine Chapel! As well as everything else, I’ve been sketching out a feature film which deals with this sinister cult head-on. It would be a proper down and dirty horror film – written and directed by myself (I’ve made a number of shorts – several of which have screened at Cannes and full length plays which have been staged in London and the South East of England –now it’s time to step up to the plate and direct a feature!), it would be in French and as such, for my lead, I’d have the very brilliant young actor Vincent Rottiers (Renoir, I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive, In The Beginning, The World Belongs To Us etc etc) as my main protagonist. Vincent’s starting to make a real name for himself and has been nominated for some prestigious acting awards. Yeah, if a producer was to knock at my door now with a bag full of cash then this would be the film I’d make. For a score, I really love Christopher Young’s work but perhaps I’d go down the route of using lots of European / Scandinavian musicians – I know quite a few! Also, in 2012 I also won a screenplay award in Monaco – that script was called Bright Yellow Gun which was named after a Throwing Muses song – I’ve always promised Kristin Hersh that I’d work with her so perhaps this would be that opportunity.

Thanks Nerine for posting me some interesting questions so soon after the Christmas / New Year period! A brilliant 2014 to you and your readers.

All the best

Dean

More about me can be found at: http://deanmdrinkelauthor.blogspot.co.uk/