Writers in the Storm

by Melinda VanLone

We've spent quite a bit of time on various blogs here at WITS talking about what makes a good cover for your genre, and about why you should invest in one. Now that you're convinced you need one, what's the next step?

If you're reading this, I assume it's because you're not a graphic designer and you are in the position of having to hire one to do a cover for you. You are probably wondering how much a book cover costs. If that's you, then keep in mind the old saying you get what you pay for.

That doesn't mean you can't get a fantastic, effective cover for an affordable price. It just means that more of the work might fall on your shoulders. Below are examples of how you can make book covers more affordable.

Pre-Made Covers

Price range: approximately $29-$149
Advantages: Low cost, Low customization, Low Service.

In general, pre-made covers are a "what you see is what you get" proposition, with the only customization being the title and author name. Don't count on even being able to change the font, much less any of the artwork. These covers are low cost because the designer doesn't have to spend an hour tweaking it to fit your specifications. That said, it's possible to get a fantastic cover this way.

There are plenty of great designers making pre-made covers. The trick is to keep in mind what works for your genre and choose accordingly. The burden is on you, not the designer, to find the artwork that conveys your story in the right way.

Be sure to check that the cover you've selected is "exclusive," meaning it won't ever be sold to anyone else, and check to see if the price you pay includes a print cover as well as ebook. If it doesn't, be sure to ask how much extra the print version will cost you unless you have no intention of ever offering a printed version of your book.

One place to find pre-made covers is TheBookCoverDesigner.com, but there are many others out there. Some designers offer this in addition to other services.

This pre-made cover features both a background and a model that are readily available at several stock photography sites, along with a little photoshop grunge, none of which can be altered. The only thing that will change once your purchase is the title and the author name.

Semi-Custom Cover 

Price range: approximately $150-$600+
Advantages: Medium cost, Medium customization, Medium Service.

The majority of book cover designers fall into this category. These designers use photography from various stock sites (see my previous blog post for a list of good ones), and their Photoshop skills to create your cover. As you can imagine, the skill set varies wildly from designer to designer, which is why the price range is so large.

This type of design includes the following:

• Designer will create artwork based on input you give them regarding your story.
• They usually charge a flat fee.
• Often includes 1-2 rounds of edits after the initial concept is delivered.

Note: Be sure to get the price for the print wrap included in your quote.

At the lower price points in this range, the designer might be fresh out of school and trying to build a portfolio, or someone just entering the field who is trying to get a stable of work built up quickly.

At the higher end, they might have expertise in Photoshop and design, plus years of experience backing it up. They might have marketing skills to offer as well, and will help steer you toward the right kind of cover for your genre.

A semi-custom cover gives you the opportunity to have a fairly custom look for a lower price than one might expect. However, the designer will most likely use a stock model or background that has been used on hundreds of other covers. While there's a lot of stock images out there, the number of suitable models for book covers is surprisingly limited per genre once you start looking for the urban fantasy girl or the beefcake guy. The designers on the higher side of this category are skilled at taking a stock image and twisting it in such a way as to disguise the fact that your girl has been on a hundred other covers in the last month. 

One of the best ways to find a designer in this category is word of mouth. Look for covers that you like and check the copyright page to see if they've credited the designer, or contact the author if they haven't.

Other options to find designers:

• Ask around on various Facebook author groups, or among your author friends. 
• BookCoverCorner.com is one place among many that offer this service.
• Browse websites like 99Designs.com where you can list your project and have designers compete for your business.  

This Stronger Than Magic cover features both a model and a background readily available on stock sites, along with a custom logo in the background and Photoshop special effects on the logo, the girl and the water. This cover was fully designed and customized, but did not include a photoshoot.

Custom Cover

Price range: $599+
Advantages: High cost, High customization, High Service

A fully custom cover involves a photographer, a model (or two or three), and/or hand-drawn artwork, digital or otherwise, that can't be duplicated by anyone else.

These designs might use some stock photography for parts of the background, but the model will be one hired specifically for your cover. The shots obtained won't be used on any other cover, meaning the face that represents your story or series will be unique. Often they use their own personal photography for the background as well, or if they don't, they blend stock images in such a way that no one will ever know it was stock.

This cover for Raegan Reid - Rifter features a model located through my author newsletter, and included a trip to Atlanta in order to do a photoshoot with her, along with Photoshop work for special effects and background blending.

These one-of-a-kind covers are usually priced accordingly. That said, often a designer will negotiate costs if you are working on a series, and therefore will need more than one cover with the same general theme. One photoshoot of a model can go a long way, so the price per cover often comes down. BookCoverCorner.com (full disclosure - it's yours truly) is one place that offers a fully custom cover.

Final Thoughts

You can find quality covers at every price point with enough research. The real question is how much control do you want to have, and how unique would you like your cover to be?

How did you get your existing book covers? What did you like and dislike about the process? Do you have questions for Melinda, or tips to share? Post them down in the comments!

About Melinda

Melinda VanLone writes urban fantasy, freelances as a graphic designer, and dabbles in photography. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and furbabies.

When she's not playing with her imaginary friends, you can find Melinda playing World of Warcraft, wandering aimlessly through the streets taking photos, or hovered over coffee in Starbucks.

Her elementary fantasy series, House of Xannon, begins with Stronger Than Magic. For more information on covers, visit BookCoverCorner.com.

Top Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay

byJulie Glover

Writing process is a topic of ongoing conversation among writers, whether just starting or multi-published. Plenty of books and articles have been written and workshops and webinars held to suggest this writing process or that one, claiming it’s The Way It’s Done.

While savvy writers out there reject the one-size-fits-all message, we still have certain presumptions that we mostly swallow. One of these can be summarized as…

Write First, Edit Later

There’s no end to the advice to simply turn off your inner editor and vomit words onto the page. Just get the story down!

Consider these quotes from some truly great authors:

"Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down." ~ John Steinbeck

"Don't cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn't mean to write, leave it.) Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. (Don't even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.) Lose control. Don't think. Don't get logical. Go for the jugular." ~ Natalie Goldberg

"Simply refuse to look at anything you have written until the last page is done. Period." ~ James Frey

"Don’t get it right, just get it written." ~ James Thurber

"Write the first draft as if you’re out for a spontaneous night with a devastatingly handsome man you met abroad. Run wild, take chances, and don’t even consider the possibility that you’re making the wrong choice. Just go for it." ~ Christine J. Schmidt

Obviously, this works for many, or even most, writers. Too often, we don’t know enough about our plot and characters, and the first draft is our opportunity to discover, explore, learn, and hone our story.

If that process works for you, embrace it.

But Is It True for Everyone?

W. Somerset Maugham presumably said, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

We don’t all write the same, and a process that turns out one writer’s best work could be the death of another’s work. Let’s look at four reasons why editing as you go is a terrific idea for some authors.

1. Get the Foundation Solid

You may be writing along and reach a point in the novel where you feel unmotivated, stuck, or that something’s just off. Perhaps you can’t put your finger on it, but something isn’t working the way it should.

We talk about story structure because we understand that a novel needs a decent foundation to hold up well. That includes a plot without holes, a strong character arc, a compelling antagonist, and much more. But whether you plotted or pantsed this far, you might have a kink in your structure and continuing to write scenes would be like adding more stories onto a tilted house.

Going back and fixing the problem, or editing as you go, could keep your story from needing a total renovation later.

2. Close the Pop-up Window

“Turn off your inner editor,” they say. But what if you realize something should be fixed in the last act, the last scene, or the last page and not doing so means your inner editor keeps reminding you?

Your “I need to fix that” may not go away with a note in the margin. Rather, for some it's like a pop-up window on a website that you can't get to close. It just keeps popping up.

However, if you went back and edited in the moment, your mind could settle, your inner editor could chill, and you could write forward more effectively.

3. Revise While You Reorient

Not everyone remembers where they left off writing. Some writers read what they wrote the day before, or longer, to reorient themselves. And it can be efficient to revise right then what needs changing.

Of course you don’t want to perfectly polish words that won’t end up in the final draft. But you might add setting, viscerals, character details, etc. as you go over your previous scenes and prepare for your next writing session.

4. Fix It Before You Forget It

What happens when a fresh idea comes to you about a scene you’ve already written? In the “write now, edit later” paradigm, you'd jot a note somewhere and add it in the second draft. But if you're me, you'll have forgotten just what you were thinking by the time you read that rough note.

Rather than writing a long note your forgetful self will later understand, you may as well just fix the scene. If you wait too long, you could lose that brilliant thread and be unable to weave it into the story.

Should You Edit as You Go?

I don’t know if it’s better for you to plunge straight through a first draft or edit as you go. But I previously wasted time trying to use a writing process that didn’t work for me, and I want other writers to feel free to do what works for them.

Moreover, some successful authors do edit as they go! Here are a few more quotes to consider:

“It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and write it sentence by sentence—no first draft. I can’t write five words but that I can change seven.” ~ Dorothy Parker

“I’ve been a rolling-reviser since my earliest writing, back in the Jurassic Era before computers and word processors….It is part of my process because my backbrain simply will not cooperate if it isn’t really, really sure that what I have already written is a solid foundation for whatever is currently at the leading edge of the story.”  ~ Patricia C. Wrede

“Before I start to write, the night before—I mean, when I finish work at the end of the day, I go over the pages, the page that I’ve done that day, and I mark it up. And I mark it up and leave it until the morning, and then I make the corrections in the morning, which gives me a way to start the day…” ~ Joan Didion

“By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times.” ~ Roald Dahl

Whatever process you adopt, you should get the book done. This post does not give you permission to spend fifteen years piddling, polishing, and perfecting a novel when you know you need to finish already. But I remain in defense of editing as you go as a perfectly acceptable process and truly valuable for many writers.

Do you write first and edit later, or do you edit as you go? Why or why not?

About Julie

Julie Glover writes mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart® and is now on sale! When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit her website here and also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Sources:

• “103 Bracing Quotes to Propel You Through Your First Draft.” Writingeekery, December 27, 2017
• “12 Contemporary Writers on How They Revise.” Literary Hub, April 15, 2019
• “20 Great Writers on the Art of Revision.” Flavorwire, January 8, 2013.

by Fae Rowen

We all make hundreds of decisions every day, whether it’s to go one more day without washing our hair or deciding what we're going to read. Most of those decisions are routine and unremarkable. But I bet you can remember a seemingly unremarkable decision that had a big impact on your life.

This is true of your characters as well. There are important decisions that can affect the entirety of your character's life. Four particular areas carry a lot of power in guiding your main character through the story: motivation, backstory, conflict and character arc.

Decisions that show motivation

What if... In the beginning of your book your character makes an unpopular decision. We'll say it’s to quit school. Your reader may not agree. It's even better if your reader doesn't agree. You can get them to change their minds and their hearts.

If you show the why of how much, how long your character has wanted to do this very important thing, you build the motivation that will guide your story.

Maybe your character wants to join the military because of her brother’s service and questions around his death, or start a business, or volunteer with elders. Perhaps you show how much she loves art and working with artists. Maybe she paints “on the side” but it is a secret she’s never revealed. Perhaps you show how her love of her grandmother and listening to her grandmother’s stories has filled her heart with her family.

Whatever you choose, pick something that speaks to your characters overall motivation.

Decisions that reveal backstory

What if your character’s parents’ marriage was bad? As in a society father who flagrantly cheated on the character's mother? Backstory like this explains his reticence to become engaged. And if he finds out about a pre-nup that was very negative for his mother, won't it make sense for him to resist when his father pressures him to get a pre-nup of his own?

I bet you can think of lots of possibilities for a short backstory scene that will reveal a character’s reticence or determination about something.

Decisions that cause conflict

Your female lead comes downstairs for a family dinner, wearing green. Not her favorite color, but why are her parents livid? Because the dinner is in honor of a knight whom they are hoping will ask for her hand. His coat of arms is red. His enemy’s is green.

You got it. She doesn’t want to marry the man her parents want her to. She may or may not have feelings for the “green knight.” Whatever the reasons, conflict is sure to ensue.

Decisions that show character arc

In PRISM 2: Rebellion (available for pre-order July 1), the hero, Jericho, is the son of the wealthiest and most powerful man on Earth. Over the course of the two books you see his perception change from wanting to make his first billion by the time he’s twenty-five to recognizing his father’s deceit and disregard for planet Earth and the people under his care.

Jericho has fallen for O’Neill, his pilot and bodyguard on Prism. His decision to marry her is problematic because she cannot leave the prison world. He considered travelling back and forth from Earth, but it is a six-month round trip that he’s already made once.

When Jericho decides he can't bear not seeing O'Neill every day, his inheritance, his privilege, his way of life no longer matter. His entire character arc changes with that decision. Now he is more concerned that he has no skills suited to surviving on a planet that's awaiting a mercenary invasion financed by his father. And no matter what, he isn’t leaving O’Neill.

Are you struggling to show motivation, backstory, backstory, or character arc? Are you trying to come up with a decision your character needs to make to move your story forward? Share it down in the comments so our WITS readers can help you get writing again!

About Fae

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

P.R.I.S.M., Fae's debut book, a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, and love is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Fae's second book in the series will be available for pre-order on July 1, 2020.