What do you do when the idea puddle has dried up to a geometric webbing of cracks hard baked in the summer sun?
What happens when you sit down at your word processor and it find yourself deleting whole paragraphs nursing frustration because not a single idea is arriving fully formed, today?
What happens when you simply aren’t motivated to start something new and your WIP feels like you have written yourself into a corner and can’t even fake a way out?
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I’ve known more than one writer who denies the whole idea of Writer’s Block. They will advise you to push right past it. You can do it.
Then there are others who are glad to point out that maybe you just aren’t cut out to be a writer after all. If you can’t hear characters shouting into your ear or running away with the scene treating you as their own personal secretary.
I am not a person who multi-tasks so any project I am into generally takes all of my attention for as long as it takes.
I will close the computer and begin a crochet project and I usually go big when I do that. I will also set up a canvas and begin a painting project that usually takes weeks.
My third option involves finding writing prompts. I keep The Pocket Muse within arm’s reach of my keyboard.
If you're on the hunt for book cover makers, you're probably looking to DIY the cover for your book. But before we get into our recommendations, we'll start with a caveat: don’t make your own book cover if you can avoid it, unless you're a professional designer already.
I want to encourage you to check into the various book cover creators listed in the article above. Let's talk about it.
The image above, Cynetic Wolf won the Fiction Book Cover Award in April. I wish there were as many notes as to why it was a winner as there are on many of the other images on the page.
Remember back in the days of Dogpile and Netscape? Back when we used WordPerfect and FrontPage? The era when we thought Frames were cutting edge and having a web page open and automatically blare music at our visitors?
I admit I was guilty of some of it. Frames, were just too complicated so I avoided them, but others did not.
Looking into what to use or what to avoid with Book Covers keeps taking me back to the 90s and early 00s era of the World Wide Web.
From the article for Sunday's Chat --
As more authors opt for independent publishing routes, I'm getting more questions about secrets to good book design, production, and
layout.
Most people in book publishing believe that a cover is a book's No. 1 marketing tool.
The title should be big and easy to read.
Don't forget to review a thumbnail image of the cover.
Do not use any of the following fonts (anywhere!): Comic Sans or Papyrus.
No font explosions! (And avoid special styling.)
Do not use your own artwork, or your children's artwork, on the cover.
Do not use cheap clip art on your cover.
Do not stick an image inside a box on the cover.
Avoid gradients.
Avoid garish color combinations.
Finally: Don't design your own cover.
Bonus tip: No sunrise photos, no sunset photos, no ocean photos, no fluffy clouds.
