Creating an Ebook Cover that Captures Attention

On the left is the cover design I just did for my book that is about to be published; Payback, Volume One.
If you absolutely convinced you cannot create your own book cover you can hire someone to do it for you for a relatively inexpensive fee. You can find cover designers on google or you can save money and do it yourself for free. Yes, free with the use of an open source program called Gimp. You can download this program that does just about everything you can do with Photoshop here: 
http://www.gimp.org
I am assuming you are familiar with Photoshop and have some knowledge of how to use it for this article. If you don't you can always learn by trying to mess around with the controls on a photo and reading the extensive documentation on the Gimp website, but for this article I am going to write it for those who know their way around at least enough to follow the directions here. 
First you are going to need a photo that is copyright free and is available to use for reproduction. You want to make sure that the photo or photos you choose are not under copyright protection or you can be sued by the photographer. There are photos are on services like Photobucket and Flickr and if the user has not protected them with a copyright they are free to use. If you don't feel comfortable or find what you need there you can also find a stock photo company that has free photos or a website with them. There are plenty of options. If you want you can also take the photos yourself or paint a cover. It all depends on your skill level as an artist.
The first thing you want to do is research. Take a look at your favorite book distributor and the covers on bestselling books. It depends what kind of genre your book is. Take a look at the best selling book in your genre and for example we'll talk about romance books. My wife is a big romance book reader and I've never read one. She buys all of her books based on the cover and gets mad if the cover does not live up to the story. She loves it when the guy on the front is good looking and built like an action movie star. She doesn't tell me this but I assume he must be attractive as well. (duh!) So we need to look at these covers adn see if you can find an image like that. You also want to look at the type, the words and how it's laid out.
Once you find the image you have to make sure that it's high resolution. For distribution on most publisher's websites such as Amazon, Apple, and other ebook distributors the minimum size for a cover is 1,660 x 2,400 pixels. The resolution is 72 DPI. Don't bother making it any higher because the reslolution does not go any higher for an ebook reader or computer screen. The size is rather large so you do need an image with a high resolution that will enlarge to that size. If you use an image that is smaller it will look fuzzy at full size. 
Once you find the image you need open it in Gimp. Next you want to open a new image that is RGB and 72 DPI. Switch back to the image you are using for the background of your cover. Copy the image, go to your new image with nothing on it and under the edit menu you want to press paste into. Your image should look good at full size so zoom in to make sure. Next, position your image to the right position on the page. If you want you can also put a color or gradient or pattern behind it. If that's the case you will want to create a new layer first and put it behind the image.

Next you want to choose a font for your title. You most likely want something that is easy to read when it is reduced to a small image. Choose a block letter and a lot of titles are san-serif. If you need fonts do a search for free ones. There are many great fonts you can download. Don't try to get to cute. Just choose something that looks good and then choose a color. You want a color that looks good against your background. If you look at the cover above, for example, the orange title stands out great against the gray sky in the photo. Next you want to add your name as the author. This should be a different size and font, possibly a different color. Don't try and get to fancy with the information you put on the cover or you may get rejected by certain distributors. Don't try and put hyperlinks or offer free CD's or anything like that. Just look at the examples of book covers and try to do something similar to that. You might want to show a printed copy to a friend to see what they think. Don't tell them you designed it at first. Just see what they think, if it catches their eye or not. If not maybe go back and add some special effects to the type if necessary or change the color of a type or maybe plug in a different image. Sometimes I like to do two or three different images and pick from those to find the best one. Good luck and happy designing!

Henry Miller's 11 Commandments

In the early-1930s, as he wrote what would become his first published novel — the hugely influential Tropic of Cancer — Henry Miller wrote a list of 11 commandments, to be followed by himself. I think that it is simple, yet very useful. I use a lot of the advice myself. One of the things I am constantly trying to stop myself from doing is working on one thing until finished. I tend to edit myself as I write. I'm sure you've done it. The problem is you never actually finish. Every rough draft is probably going to be crap. I doubt even Henry had a rough draft that was ready to be published. I've found that getting the work down really tends to not mess with the flow of the idea.A few nights ago I had an idea about a genius kid who gets beat up in school and has a really cruddy home life and then goes on to become a very powerful computer guy and spends his time obsessed with revenge against all the people who messed with him. Had I not got it down I might not have the story that I like so much. The other rules really do ring true as well. I highly recommend them. I will be adding more advice soon. 

(Source: Henry Miller on Writing Image: Henry Miller, c.1950, courtesy ofAnswers.)

COMMANDMENTS

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring."
3. Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5. When you can't create you can work.
6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
8. Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you arewriting.
11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

Practice Makes Perfect

People ask me all the time how I learned how to draw or where I learned how to write. I was blessed with a creative mind, but I do believe that we all were. Of course there are those who are better at some things than others, but like anything else it just takes practice. How much practice? Well, that's something I can't tell you. It just depends if you are trying to reproduce a DaVinci or write the perfect novel or you just want to be able to draw Mickey Mouse and write a decent story. My suggestion is to practice every day. If you want to learn to draw better keep a sketch pad with you wherever you go. If you want to write better keep a notebook with you and maybe a camera too. With cell phones the way they are you are pretty set for writing.
One of the tools for drawing that I always liked is an instruction book on drawing body parts or an anatomy book. If you want you can just look at your own hand. Try doing several drawings of your hand in different positions, holding objects, and then move on to your feet or somebody's else's body parts. If you are fortunate enough to have significant other who might pose for you - first assure them it's for the sake of art and then enjoy. It will improve your drawing and maybe your life as well.
If you don't know what a still life is it's drawing things that you set up. It can be an old boot, a fishing pole, a floppy hat, flowers or anything you have laying around the house. It doesn't matter as long as they have an interesting shape and texture. Then you take your time drawing the items with pencil. Try to make them as realistic as possible and try different texture techniques and be aware of shadows to make the two-dimensional come to life.

For better writing you want to jot down all the ideas for a plot that come into my mind. You never know when lightning will strike so be prepared. If you have a crazy dream and you think it's important write it down. Paper is fairly cheap so don't worry if you don't use it. You can always throw it away. If you aren't sure how to develop an idea into a story just start thinking about something you have read about or something in your own life. Some of the best stories come from real life. In fact the show Law and Order takes most of it's stories from real life news.
If you are looking for more inspiration for a story reading the news is a great way to find inspiration. There are a lot of strange stories if you hunt. Perhaps you want to get an RSS feed and search for certain things like murder or other things you may want to write about. Remember, practice, practice, practice.

Inspiration for Writer's Block

what is creative thinking

To get your creative juices flowing think of yourself as Van Gogh about to paint a masterpiece or Shakespeare about to write a legendary play. It can be done and although it's not easy you should focus on just doing it and getting it done. Don't let any distractions bother you. Turn off your phone, your television and just write or paint or whatever your creative mind wants to create. Don't stop to correct yourself, don't look for tips, don't worry what anyone thinks, just finish it. You can always go back later and correct it.

Here are some websites with inspirational images and thoughts to get you going:

This image is truly inspirational to say the least. It may inspire many thoughts:

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/290/c/1/betrayal_by_aegis_strife-d5i2j40.jpg

This website has a lot of links to things that could give you the idea for a great story.Take a look around and check out the entire site because it will be well  wroth it.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/wtf

This site is even named "Inspiration for Writers" and it's chocked full of some great tools:

http://www.inspirationforwriters.com/

Check back here again and I will continue to give you more inspirational sites and I might just throw in some fun sites I've found just to make it interesting. I plan to also post some of my short stories for you along with some writer tips and art tips as well. I hope you stay with me while I keep posting and sign up for updates. Keep in mind that I am disabled and I can't promise you that my health will always allow for me to keep updating the blog, but for now I am good to go. 

Sometimes I don't feel like writing and other times I do, but it's hard to get the creative juices flowing. I have a list of bookmarks that help me get ideas. Sometimes I just pick a subject and do some research to see if I want to write about it. On occasion I just get a whole story to pop up in my head, but most times I need some sort of inspiration. It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I don't know if that's true, but obviously it's wrong to copy another artist's work no matter what form of art you are creating. However, there is nothing wrong with reading a book and thinking about doing something similar or in the same genre. As long as nobody can tell what inspired the piece of work then you should have nothing to worry about. In todays' day and age with the internet, big screen televisions, movies and magazines we are constantly being bombarded with sensory overload when it comes to ideas, still there are times when you need a jump start to your brain.