Month: April 2012

Book Cover Basics Part II by Shevi Arnold

Author, Journalist & Artist Shevi Arnold
Author, Journalist & Artist Shevi Arnold

Last week, we featured an article which received a lot of attention: Book Cover Basics. This week, author, journalist and artist Shevi Arnold has picked up the baton and is going to smack you with it. Without further ado…Shevi Arnold.

So you’ve written a book, and you’ve decided to indie publish. Great. I’m sure you already know that your book will need a cover.

I was a journalist for 12 years, and for seven of those years I was a newspaper and magazine illustrator and editorial cartoonist. My editors paid me hundreds of dollars to design covers, and I’ve professionally designed close to 100 of them.

What’s that you say? You’d rather do it yourself? Right… Because what would a trained and experienced cover designer know that you don’t? Continue reading “Book Cover Basics Part II by Shevi Arnold”

A little help from my friends…

Ahhh, Easter is over. I have a sugar hangover that would fell a mortal man. I looked into the innocent eyes of my three year old daughter and tried to explain why a bunny would bring her candy in the middle of the night (she asked, she’s a sharp one). Strange thing, that. I don’t know how many times I have told the child not to take candy from strangers…but, it’s OK if it comes from a giant rabbit who breaks into your house in the middle of the night. Hmmm. I think she is humoring us. And it is a dangerous message. Almost as much as Disney (Copyright, all rights reserved, appropriate trademarks and kow-towing implied…please don’t sue us) convincing my daughter that “poison” makes you fall into a beautiful, peaceful sleep until a handsome chap on a horse comes and kisses you and you wake up and fall in love. Thanks capital D Disney. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, my head hurts, much like it did when I woke up in an alley with the taste of Robotussin in my mouth and no pants only to find out months later I had “co-written” a book. Collaboration. That’s what I want to talk about.

Continue reading “A little help from my friends…”

Indies Unlimited Enters the Independent Book Blogger Awards

IBBAYou can vote for Indies Unlimited to win the Publishing Industry category in the Independent Book Blogger Awards starting Tuesday, April 10th, and ending Monday, April 23rd.

Now I know a lot of you are thinking, “Doesn’t Indies Unlimited win the highly prestigious and totally made-up Stevie awards every year? When will it ever be enough?”

This is true. We do win the Stevie every year, and though it is early in the season, I’m hearing good buzz and figure we’re probably a shoe-in again this year. This is largely due to the high-quality content provided and the fact that we are the only blog eligible for the Stevie—but mostly due to the high-quality content.

Still, I suppose it would be nice to receive recognition from elsewhere. Plus, I want Brooks to win that trip to New York so she can finally shove Donald Trump’s love-child in his face.

So, if you feel the same way I do (and who doesn’t), just click here to see our entry and to vote!  As always, I thank you for your support.

Vote here.

Navigating the Facebook Timeline

By now most of you have probably seen the new Facebook timeline. As a developer I’ve been using it for the past several months and have long since gotten used to it, though it did take some time to figure out a few of the settings. The most annoying of which is that Facebook would like to share everything with everyone. Big Brother would be proud.

In this Tutorial Tuesday post we’re going to guide you through the timeline settings, and in the process show you how to avoid posting something that you might not want to share with the public. Why you would post it on Facebook in the first place is a question you will have to answer for yourself.  Continue reading “Navigating the Facebook Timeline”