I'm going to self publish!

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There's a reason that commercial book covers rarely use script type families.

The other problem is that the text isn't anti-aliased, and the colors make it hard to distinguish type from image--this would be partially corrected by better layering I expect, and creating the cover and backcover copy in Illustrator before bringing it over to Photoshop.

I suspect you want a sort of historica look; I'd suggest something like Trajan or Baskerville instead of a script face. Trajan is used on a lot of movie posters and title screens so that might a positive subliminal effect on readers.

You absolutely want your cover--and your name--to be distinguishable.

I can't read either.
 

K. Taylor

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I can read your avatar, but I'm also using a huge monitor. In the smaller thumbnail on Amazon the swirly text would be harder to read. E-book covers have to be approached differently because you want thumbnail visibility.
 

Celeste Carrara

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I'm using a Toshiba laptop, running Windows, Firefox, and so on.

It doesn't matter that you can read everything clearly, because you already know what it says and you're not one of your own potential readers. The point that I can't and that Kriven is also having trouble (and I agree about the "F") means that some of your potential readers won't be able to read that title either. And as Kriven has already pointed out, you don't use separate images as your thumbnails on Amazon: you use the cover image.

You must also address the issue about font licensing, before you go any further.

ETA: I've looked at your website and I'm afraid the cover for your other novel is no better. I strongly recommend that you get your designer to rework the typesetting for both covers. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I hope you'd rather be given the chance to address these problems than only hear positive comments.

I don't think you are being negative! If now 3 people have said they can't read it, then it's worth me looking into!

So, I did and personally I can read it fine but took your advice, because you're right, I already know what it says, of course I can read it lol!

My "designer" (AKA my husband) will work on it tonight. He can change the font easily and use coloring that shows up clearer over the colors on the cover.

I have a few print copies here and they look great. But I can see on Amazon how the thumbnails can't be read clearly. Honestly I assumed people, like myself included don't read the titles off the thumbnail, you read it in the text next to it. I guess I should want it to be clear on the thumbnail and I have to admit I never really thought about that!

On a side note, I went to Amazon and looked at thumbnails to books in my genre and I gotta say, I couldn't read most of the titles off the thumbnails! I can't believe I've never noticed something like this before!
 

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Ideally you want your title and author-name to be easily readable in the thumbnails, and also for the thumbnail to look significantly different to all the other books out there so that it's instantly recognisable, while also being similar enough to the other books in your genre so that your readers can identify it for what it is.

And yes, it's complicated and confusing but that's what publishing is like.
 

robertbevan

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Ok, how's that avatar? :D

i actually really liked the font you had before.

i agree, though, that at least the tagline and your name would have been too small in a thumbnail. that didn't occur to me before when i complemented your cover. i think they're big enough now.

but yeah, i'd like to see the cover you've got now side by side against one with the font you were using before for the title.
 

Celeste Carrara

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i actually really liked the font you had before.

i agree, though, that at least the tagline and your name would have been too small in a thumbnail. that didn't occur to me before when i complemented your cover. i think they're big enough now.

but yeah, i'd like to see the cover you've got now side by side against one with the font you were using before for the title.

If you go to my website on the home page you can see the old cover and the new one in the Goodreads app. My husband is working on changing the covers on the site so it'll only be up for a few more minutes.

I loved the original font too! But, it is much easier to read now, especially on Amazon & B&N so that's what's most important.
 

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I use a 17" laptop and usually use 125% to view websites with text because it's easier for me to read. At 125% I could read the title, but could not figure out some of the words until I increased it to 150% (because of the swirly font, which I loved, but does not make an easy-to-read title). Most people view at 100%, which would make the first cover text unreadable.

Glad you made the change. It's very clear now.
 
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Much better, Celeste. Great!
 

Celeste Carrara

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Hi everyone. I am just popping in to post my progress so far and recap my experiences so far.

On May 9th I uploaded 2 books for sale on Amazon and B&N. One is my novel Give Me Forever, the other is a novelette Give Me Your Trust.

I have done zero promotion for my novelette and have just focused on my novel at this time.

Here are the things I've done to promote Give Me Forever:

Joined Twitter and created a Facebook page. On Twitter I have posted about my book (announcing its release and the contest for a free copy), I've tweeted with other authors, and have only a handful of followers. (16 to be exact) I'm not really good with Twitter and personally am not really comfortable with it. On Facebook I'm a little more active but only have about 9 likes so far.

I started a blog and that has gotten some traffic, a couple of followers but hasn't really taken off. I'll admit, I'm not on top of it as I should be.

I joined Goodreads and this has really worked well for me. I've joined in groups with readers of the genre I write and have met a lot of great people! I've done a giveaway promoton on there and it will be over on June 9th. I am offering 2 copies of my novel for free that I had printed out through lulu just for this promo. Currently I have close to 300 people that have entered the contest. I have 60 people that have the novel on their "to read" list and I also have 5 people with my novelette on their "to read" list. I was also able to promote my book within these groups which helped me gain interest in my novel & novelette.



The best news is I had a blogger from Goodreads contact me for free copies of my book and a promise to review them. I took a leap of faith and gifted her the ebooks on Amazon and it actually paid off! She loved them both. Gave me 5 stars and a review on Goodreads, Amazon, and her blog! Her blog is strictly for reviews of books in my genre.

I have gotten other reviews from readers too! All 5 stars which was mind blowing for me!! One was on Goodreads, the other on Amazon and one on B&N. Hopefully this will help with my sales.

My stats for the month of May:
Give Me Forever: Sold 11 copies (10 on Amazon 1 on B&N)
Give Me Your Trust: Sold 3 copies (2 on Amazon 1 on B&N)
Both have reviews on Goodreads, B&N, and Amazon

I'm hoping that once the Goodreads Giveaway contest is over my sales will increase. I know that doesn't always happen, but I'm hoping it does! Trying to keep a positive outlook ;-)

I'm very happy with my results so far. I went into this hoping that I would have just 1 person read my book and like it, lol. I have 3 more books in the works (2 novels, one novella) so I'm trying to focus more on writing right now. I'm going to leave the marketing to my husband who is dying to have at it! :)
 

Rob Lopez

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Looking good so far. Congratulations Celeste.:)
 

Celeste Carrara

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Thanks Rebekkah!

My Goodreads Giveaway Promo ended last night. I had 682 people enter and offered 2 copies for Free. I'm hopeful the winners will leave a review.

Currently I have 117 people with the book on their "to read" shelf. I'm wondering if those numbers will decline. I'm also really curious to see if my sales will increase now that the contest is over. Only time will tell!

I've had the co-founder from bloggerdise.com contact me to feature my book on this site. Does anyone here have any experience with them or know anything about them? I'm trying to research them now before I respond.

I've gotten another review on Goodreads for both books. I'm pretty sure it's the same person who left a review on Amazon. I have to say I love Goodreads and it's been such a great tool for me.

I also wanted to add that my family has no idea that I write and that I've self pubbed a book, so I'm really proud that my reviews are from strangers lol!!! :D
 

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Good progress, Celeste. Keep in mind that this takes time to build up some fans and readers. Check out Book Blogs to both announce and describe your book and also list your blog. I use Gather a bit, and some other large writing groups who have announcement threads. FB and Twitter help. Always announce any new blog post at our Have You Blogged Today? at AW Cripes, I think that's the thread.

Anyway good luck and forge on!

tri
 

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I've gotten another review on Goodreads for both books. I'm pretty sure it's the same person who left a review on Amazon. I have to say I love Goodreads and it's been such a great tool for me.

Celeste,
Thanks for posting your experiences. I'm like you. I don't get the twitterverse and I'm not exactly thrilled about Facebook. I think I'm going to look for groups to join on GoodReads. I do like their site.
 

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I've peeled anoopbal's question about Vervante, and the responses to it, out of this thread and have moved them into a thread of their own, in BR&BC.

As you were.
 

Celeste Carrara

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Wow, I can't believe its been about a month since I last popsted!!

Life has gotten in the way of my writing and promoting :(

A few updates:

May sales:
B&N: sold one copy of each book
Kindle: Sold 12 copies of novel, 2 copies of novelette

June sales:
B&N: sold 2 copies of novelette
Kindle: sold 2 copies of novel

July sales:
B&N: sold 1 copy of novel
Kindle: sold 1 copy of novel and 1 copy of novelette

As you can see, no progress but I have to take blame for that. I have been absent from most of the sites I visit and lagged on my blog posts. FB & Twitter have not been updated as much as it should be either. I have done nothing to promote my books.

Things are about to change! Now that my personal stuff is cleared up I am going to focus on promotion and finishing the novella I've started. I got some good work done on the novella yesterday. I've posted a new blog post, did some tweets and FB posts & today researching some blogs to offer my novel for review.

As I've mentioned before my family (aside from my husband & kids and my younger sister) had no idea about my writing and self publishing a book. So, I have started to "come out of the closet". I started with my toughest critic, my mother! I sat her down and told her & I had a printed copy to show her but forbid her to read it lol. She was surprised, in a good way but did ask how sexual did I get. I was honest and told her and she responded that she didn't want to read it but she was so very proud of me. That felt great! She wanted to know about the story, minus the sex and I showed her my website too and she just loved everything. I was very happy with her interest and support.

I called my older sister and told her too & she was excited and proud and can't wait to read it. She read an exerpt and thought it was great and gushed all over me, it was awesome!

Then I told my dad. His respeonse was unexpected. I thought he would be happy for me but not make a big deal. He went crazy! He called all his friends and his brother to brag his daughter was an author! lol I showed him the printed copy of the book and he was blown away. Again I told him he was not allowed to read it & I explained why. He agreed but asked me questions about everything and bought a copy on Amazon right away for his girlfriend. (that explains one of my June sales) It was also emotional and really special for him to see my pen name because it is a family name from his side and he actually teared up about it!

I may be an adult but it still feels great when your parents are proud of something you did ;)

Now, Goodreads. I see that about 111 people have my novel on their "to read" list and 3 people have the novelette on their list. I only have 3 reviews for each on Goodreads but they are all 5 stars. The two copies that were sent out to readers for free for the promo have not put up reviews yet. That's disappointing but there's nothing I can do about it. I really doubt they will put up a review at this point.

So, I will forge on and keep writing and looking for ways to get my books out there. :)
 

robertbevan

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i envy the competence you seem to be going about all of this with. i'm still too intimidated and confused by goodreads to try to figure out what i'm supposed to do with it.

that's awesome about your parents. mine know i've written a book, but i don't think either of them have any interest in reading it. the subject matter is of zero interest to them and i gave them a warning about all the swearing. they're still happy for me every time i call them up to tell them i made a sale.

congratulations on your current level of success, and here's to hoping it snowballs from here.
 

Rob Lopez

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You'll have to do what the CIA does and give them a copy with the offending parts blacked out!:tongue

Great reactions from the folks. I wonder how I'd react if my daughter told me she'd written a novel?

I'd probably read it anyway and call her at strange hours of the night to point out typos.:evil

When I get a printed copy I might tell my parents, but until then I'll keep quiet about it - too much explaining to do if there's nothing to hand over.
 

Celeste Carrara

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Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted here! I actualy took a break to concentrate on my writing. But I'm back and I want to update you all on what's been going on.

I stopped coming to sites like this one, ignored Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter for awhile in order to focus on my writing. Family things got in the way but as of today my new book is DONE!!! It's a novella, 20,700 words and it's the 3rd installement to my Paranormal City series. It was suppose to be a short story then snowballed but I'm glad it did. I'm really happy with it. So now I'm getting it ready to self publish.

When I took my break from social media I had minimal sales of my books. I don't have the exact figures in front of me but they were sad. Maybe 6 sales in Aug, Sept, Oct combined.

As for Goodreads, 105 people have my 1st book on their "to read list" and 2 people have my 2nd book on their list. I didn't notice any sales after the free giveaway. About 2 weeks ago I got a review from one of the winners. No written review, just 2 stars. I'll admit, it hurt & I snooped to look to see the reviewers books they have read and rated. I felt so much better! lol She doesn't read books in my genre and gave my all time favorite book, Jane Eyre 2 stars. I felt I was in good company ;-)

Before I get into what I've been doing this month to get my books out there, I have to talk about an expo I went to. It was the Self Publishing Book Expo in NYC. I wasn't going to go but I'm so happy I did. I learned a lot and met some great people. It was well worth it. What the most important thing I got from the experience was confidence! I know a lot more than I give myself credit for and have already done a lot of the "right" things. I had made business cards to hand out and I got so many compliments on them! I was able to talk with successful authors & editors & companies and sat in seminars and learned so much. I even helped some hopeful authors! I loved it so much I'm thinking about attending other conventions next year.

I was inspired so much after the expo and laid out a plan for myself and put the plan into play this month.

First thing was getting my books available in as many places as possible. My books can now be found on Kobo and allromance.com as well as Amazon & B&N. I am working on adding them to the itunes store this weekend. Next I started using a site called hootsuite for social media. I can monitor my Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages all in one place and schedule posts for the day all in one shot! It's great and I love it and it's making the social media thing so much easier for me. I also now have a Pinterest page and Instagram. I got back in to socializing on Goodreads and had a book review blogger contact me to do a review within 2 days of being back on there. Oh the best thing I did was HIRE AN EDITOR!! She is amazing and the perfect fit for me!!

I have to talk about allromance.com! Within 2 days of uploading my books I have had 5 sales of the 2nd book and 2 sales of my 1st. I'm really happy about that!

I'm currently writing a short story with one of the minor characters from my series. The plan is to offer that for free in hopes it will bring attention to the books I have for sale. First I will get my novella up for sale & get all 3 books on the iBooks store then put the short story out there. I'm realy happy and excited to see what my efforts will bring :)

Oh, and I can't forget to mention I have started another novel, book 4 in my series.

I still haven't told my extended family & friends about my books but that day will come! ;-)
 
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