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New Workshop Starting In September…
Yes, Another One… Lifetime Subscribers to the online workshops have been in heaven lately, with a new workshop just about every month this spring and summer. And now another new one in September. (And I will be putting up on Teachable the September workshops shortly. And the October workshops as well.) We have done a Licensing 101 workshop that is offered every month. And then we added in a Publishing 101 workshop, also now offered every month. So continuing that series, we will start in September a COVERS 101 workshop. That’s right, for everyone too afraid to do their own covers, here is the workshop that will teach you how…
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Playing with Branding
My Cold Poker Gang Branding… Combined with Smith’s Monthly. Kind of fun how the branding goes across with the art, yet is very different. Just thought I would show how we are doing this. Allyson Longueira, the publisher at WMG Publishing, does the covers for my Cold Poker Gang series. It has a very distinctive look and she won’t let me mess with it. (grin) Besides, they sell and I really like them. But I do all the covers for my Smith’s Monthly issues, and Allyson and I need to find art that fits both brands when I am publishing a Cold Poker Gang novel in Smith’s Monthly. So here…
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Smith’s Monthly Covers
Working On Four Issues at a Time… And making great progress. First new issue will be out in March, #45 in the series, and after that one per month. Each one will be between 60,000 and 70,000 words of fiction. In the next week or so I will have 4 issues done and in copyediting process. Tonight, besides putting issues together, I worked on the covers and such. So thought I would show you some of them. They are trim size 7 x 10 and the black bar with the spine wraps to both the front and the back side. First #45, both wrap and epub cover. Then #46, #47,…
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Sometimes Just Fun
Keeping the Blog Streak Alive… Something like day 2,626 of blogs without a miss. So tonight, since I have been reading stories and such, I felt too tired to write much or post another chapter in the Trademark book, so figured I would just show you one of the covers from my Make 100 Paperbacks. Working my way right through them and having fun. So here is a new short story cover from issue three of Smith’s Monthly. Cover is front, back, and spine. I used the same art that was in the issue originally for the story. 5 x 8 inch trim. This one is the first story of…
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More Cover Information
Someone Asked… How long does it take me to do these covers? On the short story paperbacks, I use the same art I used when I first did the story, but the template is brand new and the art is sometimes interesting trying to make it fit. All the novels that represent the novel in Smith’s Monthly have been redone over the years, so I am using that new art for them. But I am going ahead at decent speed, so I decided to time how long it took me to do these new covers. It took exactly 15 minutes to put in the new art on Smith’s Monthly #2,…
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Even More Cover Fun
Ramping Back Up Smith’s Monthly… So as I learned InDesign again, I not only had to do short story covers, but I had to also do the far more complex covers and interior of Smith’s Monthly, since that magazine is finally ready to return in a few months. So in Issue #1 of Smith’s Monthly, way back, I put a book that became a prequel in my Seeder’s Universe. It had a pretty bad cover on it and I used the same awful artwork for the first issue of Smith’s Monthly. So practicing now, I wanted to start working my way through all the back issues of the magazine, using…
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More Cover Fun
Starting to Really Have Fun… As I expected I would once I got past the panic of learning a new version of InDesign. People told me it was very similar to the old one, but problem was it had been five years since I had done much on the old one, and my old memory just isn’t that good. But when I was up in Oregon a couple weeks ago, Josh showed me how to find help inside Adobe products and that has been a lifesaver a few times. And on top of that, I am feeling in control of the mass of my short fiction for the first time…
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Playing With Covers
For Make 100 Paperbacks And learning the new Indesign. Finally getting past the frustration stage of learning and into the “this is cool” stage. Thought I would show you one of the covers. I am starting from the very first story in Smith’s Monthly #1 (and yes, I will be redoing all the Smith’s Monthly issues as well in this crazy clean-up.) And I will be doing a lot of new and unpublished stories as well. On my wonderful spread sheet, I discovered that only four of the 37 stories in the first nine issues of Smith’s Monthly have been put out stand-alone and of those, only one was already…
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Allyson Is Back
And She Did Me A Great Cover… I am working on a second Cold Poker Gang mystery novel. I finished one that I haven’t even put in Kris’s typo finds on yet. That is called Heads Up. And I went right to the next Cold Poker Gang mystery called Ring Game. Well, before Allyson got sick, she had done me a cover for Heads Up. And since she is back and getting healthier by the moment, I found some art I thought would really fit Ring Game and she sent me a cover this morning. I love writing on a novel when I already have a great cover done. When…
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Cover Workshop Starts Wednesday!!
BRANDING SCIENCE FICTION COVERS WORKSHOP… Allyson Longueira, the publisher of WMG Publishing has offered to design a cover and help brand a science fiction series for a limited number of writers. For those of you who don’t know her, Allyson is an award-winning designer who also happens to have a masters degree in design. Over the years, Allyson helped writers with cover design in coast workshops here and for a short time we did a basic cover design workshop to help writers learn how to do covers. But this one-time short workshop on branding science fiction covers is different. Working with you, Allyson will design a brand for your books and give you…