26 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(2 replies, posted in Fantasy World Builders)

I don't think there exists a POD service that does all those things. B&N have a POD for hardcover books, but it's for vanity projects and they don't even sell them through their own site. The only other POD hardcover service I know of is Lightning Source, who distribute to Ingram and Amazon. Apparently they're also 10x more of a pain in the butt than Createspace, though.

Getting your best bang for your buck will probably involve commissioning cover art/formatting/editing from third party sources. People who can give your project personal attention, not something overpriced and outsourced to artists and editors who care more about getting paid by the POD than doing a good job. As long as you select your sources wisely, you will get much more personal attention on your work.

Authorhouse (aka Author Solutions) is a vanity press scam, like PublishAmerica and their ilk, that was somehow bought by Penguin. Which they're going to regret once this lawsuit is through. Stay away from them. Always check Writer Beware or Predators and Editors if anything looks fishy.

E-books are very simple to create yourself once you know what you're doing. Again, there are outside sources you can pay to format your ebooks if you want to go that route. Uploading to KDP is so simple I'm not sure why you would need help from another party.

TL;DR, you're likely not going to find a catch-all service to do everything you require. At least not one that does a good job.

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27 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Basic)

I've published two novels that are humorous fantasy. Off to send you an email...

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28 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(11 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

This is the guide I use to create MOBI files using Word and Calibre:

http://www.klerotica.com/?p=114

Since I'm now used to the process, I can create an ebook in about 10-15 minutes. Alternatively, you can upload your Word file to www.draft2digital.com, just far enough into the process where they convert it to mobi and epub. Then you can download it for free.

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29 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(19 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Generally speaking, I think it would be a bit tough to handle. Not because of any posted content, but because the majority of pre-teens are not mature enough to deal with the type of criticism they would receive here. Worst thing that could happen is a kid could have a bad reaction to a critique that resulted in them never doing any creative writing again. As fickle as kids are, they might swear off writing and never look back.

If they want to write, this is the point in their lives where they should be exercising their imaginations, coming up with ideas, absorbing inspirations, and trying to write what they want without worrying about adhering to writing rules or dealing with criticism that, while constructive to an adult, could damage the drive of a young person. They should not touch critique groups or self-publishing until they have the maturity to handle it. The first time I posted writing to any kind of online critique group was when I was sixteen, and I found the criticism tough to handle THEN. I can only imagine what would have happened if I had the Internet when I was twelve. I probably would have been scared off from writing forever.

Not to say that I agree with the extremist positive reinforcement philosophy that has crept into our society, but that really is the age of encouragement. Not the age where young writers need to be beaten down with criticism. Let the kids be kids. There will be plenty of time for fine-tuning later on if this turns out to be something they want to do.

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30 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(10 replies, posted in Fantasy World Builders)

My first novel, The Adventure Tournament, had three POV shifts in Chapter 20. All within the same day. I think it's the only time I've ever had that many, as I've usually stuck to two per chapter.

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31 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(20 replies, posted in Fantasy World Builders)

I just came across this artist. She is a design student who is self-admittedly undercharging for her services as she is still learning and wants to develop a strong portfolio. Her custom covers start at $50 for ebook and $80 for print and she works with a variety of genres.

http://www.ambercovers.com

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32 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(20 replies, posted in Fantasy World Builders)

Karin Rita Gastreich wrote:

Which brings up another point about covers - if you're running a series, the covers have to tie together somehow. So choose that first design carefully, as you might be stuck with the same concept for a while. When I wrote 'Eolyn', I didn't plan on writing a sequel, much less two. So the first cover was put together without any thought given to the overall 'cover design arc' (so to speak) for the series.

You're right. This is a form of branding. That's why it took me a long time to pick an artist, because I knew I would be working with them for a while, through all five books. After the cover of the first book established the 'look' of the series, I resolved to keep the same font on the title and name, except for the last word of the title to give each one something unique, as well as the positioning of the title and author name. Along with the image being in the same art style, it means the books are immediately recognizable as being part of the same series.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't use a famous painting as my cover because I would want people to associate the image with my story, rather than associating the story with the image. Using a painting whose idea spawned from someone else's imagination and is intended to show some other event or story wouldn't feel like it truly 'fit' my book. Though perhaps using the painting as an inspiration for the cover might work out.

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33 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(20 replies, posted in Fantasy World Builders)

The Writer's Cafe at kboards.com is a good resource for finding artists, editors, and formatters. They have a "Yellow Pages" thread for author services, and providers are allowed their own thread to advertise their services. That's how I found Keith. I would recommend researching as many artists as possible to be sure their style is the right fit for your story. Here are a few others whose artwork I enjoy:

Laura Gomez: http://peipp.deviantart.com (did the cover/back for the aforementioned Babyface Fire)
Brad Faunfelter: http://www.bfillustration.com/index.html
Ebook Launch: http://ebooklaunch.com/ebook-cover-design/
Jamie Noble: http://thenobleartist.com/
Mike Gauss: http://helmuttt.deviantart.com/
Craig Spearing: www.craigspearing.com
Tom Edwards: http://tomedwardsconcepts.deviantart.com/

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34 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(20 replies, posted in Fantasy World Builders)

In my particular case, the cover for A Sense of Sacrifice, and the others in the series, was done by Keith Draws (keithdraws.wordpress.com). I normally wait until the book is finished before I commission the cover, but Keith runs a special around the holidays, so I got this one for $250. The normal price would have been $650.

Fantasy is a genre that often demands illustration, rather than photo manipulation, because you can't find stock photos of things that don't exist like dragons, goblins, etc. So covers are going to be a bit more expensive in general because of the time it can take the artist to complete an illustration.

One thing I recommend, which I did when I needed a new artist for Babyface Fire, was use the Deviantart forums. They have a section where you can post job offers. I got about 35 replies. After sorting through the chaff, which consisted of those who didn't draw in a style that matched the first book, people who didn't even have any examples of art in the genre, and just plain bad artists, I was left with three or four on my shortlist. The artist I chose only charged $200 for the illustration. I actually ended up paying $350, because I also commissioned an illustration for the paperback's back cover, which she gave me a $50 discount on since I was commissioning multiple images. So there's another piece of advice: if you need more than the cover art, always ask if they'll discount if you order multiple illustrations.

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35 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

That article is about Kindle Unlimited, which has nothing to do with sales and royalties. Unlimited is a program where your book is made free to borrow for Unlimited subscribers, and authors are paid for the borrows by the number of overall borrows vs. the money Amazon pays into the program in a given month ($6,000,000 / 4,000,000 borrows = $1.50 per borrow, for example).

You're enrolled into Unlimited if you choose Select for a book, and you have to be exclusive to Amazon for the duration that you're in the program. But Select is optional. You can still sell on Amazon through KDP and put the book on other platforms as well.

If you're doing well on other platforms, I would not use Select. It's too big a gamble to throw away those full sales royalties in the hope that you get enough borrows to make up for the lost revenue. I currently have The Law of Eight series in Select, but I will probably leave once I get the third book out. That way I can put Book 1 on other platforms, force Amazon to price match it to free, and drive sales to the rest of the series that way.

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36 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I'll add my appreciation as well. I really love the in-line review system, since I can now simply highlight text and type whatever is on my mind and continue with my reading, rather than copying, scrolling down to the review box, pasting, trying to remember what I was going to say in the first place, then trying to find where I left off in the story, having taken myself completely out of it. Or conversely reading the whole thing, then trying to go back and look for the problem areas. I think it's making my reviews much more thorough and helpful.

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37 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

They're Createspace partners who sell books whose authors have chosen the Expanded Distribution option. Any sales and royalties should eventually show up on your Createspace account.

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38 Reply by Nicholas Andrews

(12 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

MrsPiddles wrote:

Use CreateSpace as an editing tool!
Just a suggestion, but with my first book, I actually uploaded a draft and printed a copy to see what it would look like. Made for supreme easy editing! I used a larger font and double spaced, and then ordered a proof, but didn't click the button to make the book go live. When I made a ton of corrections and changes I uploaded it again and ordered another proof. Soooooo much cheaper than going to an office supply with a thumb drive and having the book printed out and bound. And it's easier to read the book the way a reader would. My copy of about 180 pages cost about $6.50 or something like that, including shipping. Be sure and get your $10 personalized ISBN so it will show you as the publisher instead of CreateSpace.

This helped back when I published my first novel too. I went through my first proof with a pen in hand and made a ton of notes on things that needed fixed, and this was even after I had done extensive editing on the computer and took into account all the reviews from when I posted it here.

The personalized ISBN is more of a vanity thing to me. I paid for it for my first couple of books, but I don't anymore. As cool as it was seeing my own publishing name on the Amazon page, the listed publisher has no bearing on anything and 99% of my sales are via Kindle anyway, and ebooks don't require an ISBN. I figure that's $10 more I could put toward the book cover or something.

I also wanted to chime in that Amazon owns Createspace. So even though Createspace prints the books and Amazon ships them, they're all the same entity.

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