Possible new cover for my Gone World series.

UPDATE: I decided to use one cover for the whole series and it's not this one, I'll use it for something else. The new cover for the gone series will be this one:

This weekend I played a little with Gimp and Inkscape. I made a new cover for my Gone World series. The old one I think wasn't bad, but it obviously wasn't good enough to generate enough sales.

I made this one this weekend. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to use this one or make another one. Tell me what you think.

Did some retouching:

Book Cover: Damnation (Maiden-At-Arms Series)

I like making book covers with Gimp. Having a tight, very tight budget I can't pay a digital artist to make covers so I have to do it myself. All available cash I have I put into editing my stories. It's the one thing I can't adequately do myself. Any follower of my blog would know by now I'm no grammar genius.

Anyways this is my most recent made book cover. I did something different and tried make it more fantasy and less horror. Also I tried to give it a feminine touch.

I love Gimp, it takes a while to get proficient in it, but once you are you can make beautiful things with it.

*Update (Changed the author name color + BG color change)

Book Covers

Having made many book covers I can now say that I'm getting there where I feel I'm getting proficient at it. With this knowledge I've decided to make a new cover for an e-book I released a long time ago. The current one wasn't doing it for me, nor was it generating much sales. I can't only fault the cover for this because the blurb is also atrocious. I'll have to renew that one too.

I think a good book cover can attract readers to your book and in doing so generate more sales. If after seeing the terrific cover the reader still did not buy your book, then it's left to the blurb to tempt them into pressing the buy button. If after your wonderful cover and blurb the reader still hesitates then it's the sample that will sway them to buy.

Reading the story is often the last step a reader makes before buying a book. That is why it's important to have a stunning cover, so you get the chance that a reader will contemplate your story.

And now back to my cover; this is the current one:

And this is the new one:

As you can see I increased the size of my name. The idea is to brand my name and make it recognizable, the more people see it the more likely it will stick in their head, and if someone happen to like my writing they'll much easier find my other work .I also changed to a more apt font for the genre. And I used a picture that depicts the story a little better.

Now I'm curious if the changes indeed will get me more sales, time will tell.


*Did some more additional tiny adjustments.

Been Busy

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog. I've been busy with work (day job) , writing and publishing (my other work). I've not published anything new but I've been thinking a lot and writing a lot. I have -need to count- I've got 6 short stories finished, 2 are right now at an editor scheduled to be edited somewhere in august, another one I just got back from editing, I've one story I previously published opted at another editor to be line edited (it has some spelling/grammar issues).

I've thought a lot about publishing, with a lot of thanks to Dean Wesley Smith and his blog-posts (this one and that one)for guiding my trail of thought in the right direction. Writers often forget that they are running a one man production business. They often forget they are producing books which they try to sell. To do this and make a living it's essential to act like it's the business it is.

I'm faulty of this myself by lacking in producing enough (write more stories) and sell at a price I could make a living. I priced my work at $0.99 cent and gave a lot away for free with little return on my investment. I don't mind to give my work free to those following my work, but it should not be the main concern. My main concern should be to earn a profit so I can stay writing and have the income to improve my work (pay for more extensive edits).

I recently did something I should have done a long time ago. I made a compact business plan. I calculated what it cost me to produce a short story in initial monetary investment and time invested calculated in monetary value. I came up with a substantial amount that made me realize that the price-point I'm selling is totally unrealistic for any sane business to sell at that wants to thrive doing so. I decided from now on to sell my short stories for $2.99, but only after I've had it professionally edited. I believe myself only then justified to sell it for that price. Sure it will delay me publishing my work from coming, but I can then guarantee a certain quality to my work. It will then rest to readers if they'll like my work enough to buy it. (I hope so :D )

Another thing I've been doing is making book covers for my stories. I've been on fire lately crapping them out like I ate a laxative. They may not be perfect but I like them a lot. I'm showcasing them under here:

Made myself a website

Yes I did it. I finally, finally, after years trying and wanting, finished making a website, and in my biased opinion it looks great, terrific, just pure awesomeness. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me. Tell me how great it look. www.alexrosaria.com

But please don't shatter my delusions, illusions, or whatever the high is I feel about making a website. Nah just comment the truth if you so desire. I'll scream, cry, pull my hair if other despise my website, but in my eyes it will stay awesome.

A website is an ongoing process, I'll have to keep polishing the content, and keep adding more to it, and increase its functionality. What is new to me is to make a website search engine friendly, but I'm learning how to do that. Finding out how to make a website took most of the time making it, and It was great process, despite the now and then frustration encountering a bug or not knowing how to do something.

I might make more websites, I only have to think about what. Any idea's?

Ebook cover for my upcomming short story

I want to show of my just created ebook cover for the short story I'm writing. Took me a few hours to make. It was fun doing, playing around with GIMP.

I've meed some alternative versions with blurbs added. The second version is the one with the long blurb above the title and short blurb below my author name.

The third version is with the short blurb above the title and the long blurb under my author name.

The forth version is the one with both blurbs above the title and the author name a bit lower positioned.



I would love to have comments on which version you think the best. With or without blurbs, and if blurbs which one.