Where Did Things Go So Wrong?!?

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by bashfulbanshee

@Steven

That's a good idea. It would be nice to hire a cover artist, but if you don't have the resources for it, it shouldn't be expensive to do yourself. Perhaps you could do a few basic "drafts" of some new covers, put it up on forums like here and ask which one works the best, and then use that one. We're not all graphic designers, but some simple changes or change in composition could make a cover go from "meh" to "pretty good."

There's actually a forum member here somewhere that has helped out a little with covers.

I can't remember if he's a professional giving friendly advice, an amateur giving friendly advice etc...

I'll see if I can find a reference somewhere.

Regards
Caleb

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by carld

A free download from a willing provider is not a lost sale, it's a gift from author to reader. A stolen ebook is something else entirely.

What difference does it make who uploads it? It is either there to be downloaded or it isn't. People deciding whether to download it or not certainly won't care who put it there.

[caleb72]

OK - found it. But it doesn't look like this member is active anymore.

He did post some advice - looks like he's not professional but apparently has worked on covers for his own publishing house?

Here's just a couple of pointers for everyone, and what I've learned since starting to do covers (some tips from a non-artist such as myself that'll give your covers some pizzaz!)

1. No serif fonts. They very rarely look good and are quite old-fashioned (this goes double for bevels and any of those text auto-effects you'll get in popular photo programs.)

2. The cover image must be colourful, or have a dominant colour (this helps it stand out in amongst a lot of other covers).

3. DON'T just slap a font on top of a picture that is near to what your story is about. You took time and effort to write a novel, now take a while to come up with a nice cover (although, I don't do this at all. It usually takes me fifteen minutes for a cover because I'm like an excited child when I get an idea).

4. TEXTURE, TEXTURE, TEXTURE. Layers of paper textures and grunge textures and canvas textures all over what you're doing, then play with blends until something pops out at you and screams COVER!

5. Go symbolic. Don't try and tell your whole story on the cover. Pick out an element or two that can represent your story in a visually eye-catching way. Get a good tagline on there to entice the reader (when they look closer).

6. Do it cheap. If you're an indie you won't have the budget for photoshop or illustrator or any of that. I use all free software (both free as in money and as in freedom to tinker) such as The Gimp and Inkscape on a free operating system (UbuntU)

7. Play to your audience's expectations. If you're writing horror, grunge up your cover, a thriller, you better have something on there that'll draw in a thriller crowd and so on. Again, the big sin with covers is just slapping some text over a picture. It will GUARANTEE a large portion of your potential audience will just skip reading you.

I'll link to the thread that had this discussion because at least it was people talking about covers and the impact of covers etc...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...68#post1073368

Regards
Caleb

[carld]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

What difference does it make who uploads it? It is either there to be downloaded or it isn't. People deciding whether to download it or not certainly won't care who put it there.

Because one is a gift the other is a theft.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

In the case of your 12 year old daughter, assuming her prints changed enough to make the scanner reject her all she'd have to do is go back to an original passord and re-enter her current fingerprints. Same for adding you as a second or third user's prints. Same if you somehow delete your fingerprints. Easy peasy. Keep in mind that we are talking about an alternate identity verication system.

What would stop people from sharing their ebook password with their 50 billion Faceache friends? Surely to make it secure you would need to incorporate some form of DNA testing as well as fingerprint/password.

Maybe each ebook reader could have something like diabetics use to test their blood, and then compare the readings with a central DNA database that stores everyone's DNA profile.

But then people might start sending each other blood samples through the post, so obviously there would need to be some additional form of security to counter that. Maybe some sort of facial recognition software using a camera built into the front of the ebook reader. That would also stop people from handing the reader to someone else after they have authorised a book.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I'll link to the thread that had this discussion because at least it was people talking about covers and the impact of covers etc...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...68#post1073368

Regards
Caleb

I'd like to add to that list do not use Poser to generate your covers! It looks godawful! Yes, even when you use it!

http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl...&aqi=&aql=&oq=

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I'm trying to keep an open mind here, despite a lot of negative comments and criticism. To be honest, I've heard little that has encouraged me to keep at this, especially given the prevalent attitude that I am damaged, insane, evil and not worth helping... which, considering the intended nature of this thread, has surprised me. The outright negativity in even the nicest comments is incredible in here... and for the record, they're not all from me.

Advertising this thread in the piracy one was a mistake. If you had just quietly posted it in here, anyone who is likely to have anything useful to say would still see it and it wouldn't have been hijacked by the "Steve is evil, grab your pitchforks" posts.

That would be a good example of the "think before you post" advice. It was entirely predictable.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by carld

Because one is a gift the other is a theft.

But the people deciding whether to download it or not won't know (or care) which it is.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

But the people deciding whether to download it or not won't know (or care) which it is.

In many cases they will by following a simple precept.

"If it's too good to be true, then it probably is."

(of course as you point out, they may not care, but that is a failure of ethics, character, and society)

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by kennyc

In many cases they will by following a simple precept.

"If it's too good to be true, then it probably is."

(of course as you point out, they may not care, but that is a failure of ethics, character, and society)

I'm talking about unknown writers using piracy as a form of promotion to reach readers they wouldn't otherwise reach. Obviously you would need to use other routes to reach people who are differently ethical, which was why I asked a while ago about where non-pirates look for free fiction.

You can't make money without an audience, so finding an audience has to take priority. And like it or not, a lot of your potential audience is on the pirate sites.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

.
You can't make money without an audience, so finding an audience has to take priority. And like it or not, a lot of your potential audience is on the pirate sites.

I would agree with the first part, but not the second.

Sure. The exposure is part of marketing and can be useful, but I disagree that the pirate sites are a "lot of your potential audience" -- sure part of it but....

[carld]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

But the people deciding whether to download it or not won't know (or care) which it is.

They may not care, but I don't believe that they don't know what they're doing. I've been online since before there was an internet. I've never downloaded anything where I didn't know if it was legal or not.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by carld

They may not care, but I don't believe that they don't know what they're doing. I've been online since before there was an internet. I've never downloaded anything where I didn't know if it was legal or not.

I got 18 warez points (like the karma here, I think?) for a short story I put on one site. I doubt I would have got those if they knew I was just pimping my own stuff.

[Barcey]

1) The advise I see all the time from successful people in the arts is "If you're doing this for the money quit now. There's very few people making money. Do it because you have to." It doesn't matter if you're a writer, actor, painter or musician, the same rule applies. There are more people that have to do it then there is money.

2) You're running a small business and when you're posting in sites like this you are presenting your business brand. It's not being two faced to filter strong opinions out.

3) Focus on what you can change and set aside things you can't.

4) Focus on the positive. I believe there are more opportunities now then there have ever been. More people will succeed then ever before.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I would agree with the first part, but not the second.

Sure. The exposure is part of marketing and can be useful, but I disagree that the pirate sites are a "lot of your potential audience" -- sure part of it but....

There was some independent research a while ago that concluded that people who download unauthorised content spend 4 times as much on legitimate content as people who only consume from legal sources.

File collectors aren't going to buy anything, and neither are freeloaders. So that just leaves the people who download to try things out, see if they like them. So for the average for all downloaders to be 4 times as much, either the tryers are a much larger percentage than you would expect, or they buy a lot more than 4 times as much and that figure is dragged down by all the people who buy nothing.

Either way, it is a section of the market that is certainly worth going after. I don't get this idea that people reading it for free as an alternative to not reading it at all is a bad thing. And people who just collect files and never do anything with them? Even less to worry about.