This is another cover I did for Melange Books. š
Stock from Dreamstime:
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-serious-preteen-boy-image21381697
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-misty-fjords-national-monument-alaska-usa-image780119
All other images are my own. Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4.0.
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Client Work, Photo Illustration
This is a book cover I recently completed for Melange Books. This one is for their anthro/furry line of books. š It’s slated to be released this November.
Stock from Dreamstime was used for the tiger and person walking, the rest of the photography used was my own. Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4.0.
As a side note, I’m testing out the ability to schedule posts, so we’ll see if this works. š
Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration
This is a book cover I did for Melange Books. I did use one stock image, the face. The rest of the pictures are my own. This is the first fantasy/romance/erotica based cover I’ve done.
At the moment it isn’t yet released, but you can find it at Melange Book’s main website when it is: http://www.melange-books.com
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures
So, as Isaac and I get closer to finishing Distant Horizon (and thus starting querying), I’ve been doing reading on how marketing of a book is done, both for trade and self-publishing. After all, both are looking for readership, right? I found a few interesting tidbits I thought I’d share.
One is the article at the link below. It talks about how marketing is done of a book in the trade publishing world, and points out some good tips that could probably also be used if you’re self-publishing, too. It talks about the importance of marketing as a way to gain publicity, but that marketing doesn’t always equate to publicity. It’s that word-of-mouth you want, when you get other people promoting your book without your asking. Needless to say, I thought it was an informative read:
http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-dont-we-throw-some-money-at-it-like.html
Another interesting idea I came upon was the idea of offering signed prints of your book cover (if it’s one that looks really good)Ā for the first people who buy your book off Amazon and show you a receipt. Found this at Madame Guillotine’s blog, here:Ā http://madameguillotine.org.uk/
Of course, ARC (advanced reader copies) are also a good idea, and it looks like Goodreads contests may be a good way to get publicity for them. The hope, of course, is that they’ll read your book and leave a review, and maybe, just maybe, recommend t to a friend. š
Also, another neat blog (not so much on marketing, but on publishing) I found is called The Intern: http://internspills.blogspot.com/
Thought I’d share that, too. Anyways, that’s all I’ve got for you at the moment. š
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing
GreatĀ news! I’ve just started offering premade covers on my facebook page. šĀ PricesĀ will vary, depending on the difficulty level of the cover. Please keep in mind that the font, color of font, and placement can be changed depending on your book. Also, minor adjustments can be made with regard to overall color cast of the image, blurring, etc. Feel free to ask if your interested in one of these covers. š
Recognize it? (From banner above) This is one of the coversĀ available to be purchased, and happens to be a wrap-around cover. (Can also be done as a front cover). Great for fantasy or sci-fi, and especially young adult. š
Premades: http://www.facebook.com/sbibbphoto
Custom Designed Covers: https://sbibb.wordpress.com/book-cover-design-services/
Main Website: http://www.sbibbphoto.com
So, if there’s anything you’re looking to see, just ask. I’m going to continue uploading more covers over time, and hopefully get some new ones created soon. š
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing
Wow, it’s been a busy week. One of the (many) reasons for this is graduation. That’s right, I can now say I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Photography, with a minor in creative writing. What does that mean? Makes it easier for me write my credentials on website. And IĀ now have an actual album portfolio (a metal cover with leather binding and metallic pages, if you’re curious to know the details). I also have my Honor’s College Project, the “1000 Words” book.
But the real reason I wanted to bring this up was because of a few important things that I took from college. One thing is the importance of passing on knowledge. In an ideal world, education would be free, and passed on without having to pay for it. One great thing about the internet. It’s also a reason that I’m trying to keep my blog updated. I’m trying to focus on the self-publishing business and book cover design, as well as photo illustration. And I’m trying to post something useful when I do, so that there’s at least some tidbit of helpful information to pass on.
Which is why, if you have a question, feel free to ask. I may not know the answer, but if I do, or if I have ideas, I’ll try to help out. It’s why I’ve posted a list of blogs on the side of this blog that may proove useful to you. Yes, I’m trying to promote my business, but I also do want to be helpful.
Anyways, for my little note about promotion today, this is the flier I made to promote “1000 Words.” I don’t really expect it to bring much notice, but then, I didn’t write “1000 Words” to be a popular book. It started out as a portfolio to showcase my book cover designs, but hopefully it’s entertaining, too. But I included the picture in the flier, for recognition, listedĀ where it could be found and the prices, and said a little bit about it, both genres and what it is. I tried to make it bold and readable. We’ll see if it gets noticed or not. š
Up Next:
1. Try to find a “real” job (that is, something to pay rent until I get this book cover business going)
2. Edit Distant Horizon, my YA novel I’m hoping to traditionally publish
3. Write novella one of the “Socks” novellas (more on that soon)
4. Work on premade covers to offer (more on that soon)
5. See about doing interviews with various self-published author to get the other side of the publishing business.
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Life, Photo Illustration, Writing
Updated the blog’s header so it fits my photo illustration business better. I’m worried it might be a little dark, so let me know how it appears in your browser, especially if there’s any readability issues. Anyways, any thoughts on the change?
Meanwhile, I’m working on trying to promote my business. I’m starting to contact various small publishers and presses to see if anyone could use my services, but I suspect that could take a lot more e-mails and time. Of course, I’m trying to keep my Flickr, DeviantArt, and Facebook accounts up to date, though most of it is the same as what you see on the blog.
One method of promotion I’m trying to use is making the gallery folders of my DeviantArt account serve as miniature portfolios. One actually does contain all the spreads found in my print portfolio.
Book Cover Examples: http://sbibb.deviantart.com/gallery/33403924
Portfolio: http://sbibb.deviantart.com/gallery/36792724
Meantime, I’m trying to think of other ways to help promote my work. Have any of you found success in certain types of promotion?
Yesterday I read an article on authors and the swag they use to promote thier books. If you’re at all interested in promotion or self-promotion, it’s worth a read: http://limecello.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/on-author-promo-swag/
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Photo Illustration, Writing
These pictures are ones I did for Meg and Joe’s photoshoot, of which the theme was “masquerade.” I’d like to thank Meg for providing the dresses she wore during this photoshoot, and Cherise for providing Joe’s hat. I had the masks and created the cloak that Joe wore. (Thanks, Christina, for finding the buttons that give it the masquerade look). The cloak got sewn together about an hour and a half before the shoot, right after making a trip to the nearest antique store/thrift shop. Very handy for photoshoots. Anyways, this was a fun shoot, shot at Culp park and indoors. Unfortunately, the outdoors shoot didn’t come out as sharp, but it had some really neat images, especially since we ended up playing with a “Western meets Eastern” aspect to it. š
Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157629563875308/show/
Ā 
Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration, Portrait
The last ā1000 Wordsā short story, Socks, is now available on Smashwords. Itās young adult themed, mostly sci-fi romance with a hint of a dystopian background. I say a hint because theyāre never actually in a dystopian society, but it was in the back of my mind when I wrote it. Needless to say, I had an interesting time working on the cover. It didnāt like me.
First of all, I wanted a pair of socks on the cover, one of the elements in the story. So I decided to make it plain and simple, aiming for something like the cover of Matched. Only, if you think about it, that cover isnāt really simple. Clean, yes. Not simple. (Awesome book, by the way, if you like dystopias and romance).
So I did up a pair of socks to look like the ones in the story, threw it on a white background, used a grungy text in watermelon pink to match the coloring. Too plain (as you can see below).
Ā 
So then I decide to do a soft background, one with an industrial or city look and a grungy texture over it. Ah-ha! Awesome! I showed it to a few peopleā¦ who pointed out that socks would do nothing to sell the story, especially considering that it was pinkā¦ and looked nothing like a dystopia. (Nevermind that at this point I realized the story isnāt dystopia. Itās sci-fi, maybe post-apocalyptic, but not dystopia). I was disappointed, since I thought the cover was well doneā¦ until someone else pointed out that it looked like a childrenās book.
Wellā¦ rats.
As you can see belowā¦ it doesnāt fit the market.
Ā 
So I tried again. Borrowed from the background, grabbed a couple pictures of people, did some more tweakingā¦ and hated the cover. Didnāt look right, wasnāt going well at all, and I needed to be formatting the print version of ā1000 Words,ā not fiddling with covers.
Ā 
Finally, I tried again. I borrowed the original background and softened it. Found a picture of a girl in my stock, tried to give it that sci-fi dystopia look. Made it kind of ambiguous. Image was kind of soft, so I played with that more in my favor. Added textā¦ no socks this time, and didnāt make it pink. Played on the gray, grungy look. Liked the title being center, and added a bar running behind it.
Ā 
I actually like this cover. Now the only problem is that it looks military sci-fi/dystopianā¦ when the story is sci-fi romance (in a post-apocalyptic world). *Sigh.* Well, it works for the point of showing cover art, but if I had more time, Iād try again. Maybe a couple teens laying back on a grassy hill, overlooking the destruction of the city. A nice, opening scene. And in the gray sky, āSocksā would be written in the clouds.
Why didnāt I think of this three days ago? Now I know I need to get more couple stock photos.
So there you have it. The process behind the cover art for Socks. What did I learn? You can make a cover you like, but if it doesnāt look the genre, youāre still going to have problems.
Read Sockfor free on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/154150
Up next: Iām working on revamping sbibbphoto.com, where Iāll split it into two sections. One will be for āreal worldā photography, while the other will be for book covers and illustrations. Also, Iāll soon be announcing the release date for the print version of ā1000 Words,ā and Iām currently in the process of formatting it for an eBook.
Filed under Book Covers, Writing
Originally titled āStuck at Twilight,ā Four-Way Stop was supposed to be about a guy who comes to a stoplight, then realizes all four lights are red. He waits around, then finally decides to run the lightsā¦ only to find himself stuck in the crossway of another dimension.
Instead, Four-Way Stop turned into some literary/horror mix, about a man whose choices lead him directly to a four-way stop. Maybe later Iāll write the original idea as a short story, or maybe not. Now that Iāve completed the short stories for 1000 Words (and I have the print book formatted, too!), Iām going to be quite happy to return my focus to my young adult novel Iām working on, Distant Horizon (youāll probably hear more about that in future posts, when I run out of things to say about 1000 Words).
The cover for Four-Way Stop was probably one of the easiest for me to complete, even though it was one of the fastest I had to finish. I knew from the start that I wanted to have a red stoplight play a prominent feature in the image. Better yet, it needed to be gray, and preferably have rows of corn or wheat, as well as a road running through it.
So I searched through my personal stock imagery, and found an amalgamation of images to put together. A road, tall grass, a red stop-light (knew I had to have that picture somewhereā¦) and a weird tire-texture that I motioned blurred for the rain. Put it together, and by itself, it looked horrible. This is where textures came in handy. Since it was supposed to be rainy, I added a bit of cloud texture to give it a foggy look. Blurred the background, since who can see in heavy rain? Added the rain texture and tinkered with the effect. Finally chose the image of the girl, and blurred out the side of the face as part of the story. Made it look ghostly, changed the color to a stormy green.
Gotta admit, I was pretty happy with the result.
Anyways, I then worked on adding the text. I wanted to play with text placement, and conveying the idea of a stoplight. I also wanted āStopā to be in red, and play a prominent feature. Thus I placed the texture into the corner, all nice and small. It did show the background, but it didnāt really look like a title. So I made it larger, and while Iām not happy that it obscured the background as much as it did, I am happy about the placement, now.
Below is the background image, as well as the final book cover.
Ā 
You can find Four-Way Stop, a literary/horror short story, for free on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/153784
In the meantime, if youāre curious about the statistics for the project as a whole, Dreamkeeper is in the lead with 122 downloads, easily surpassing The Carrier, which has been up a week longer, and stands at 102 downloads. Itās possible that people are downloading in multiple versions, or not reading them, but still, I found it interesting to see. Iāve gotten a couple more reviews on the stories (mostly good, yay!), but Dreamkeeper has none at this point in time.
Aside from the short I just did upload, Shafted Dreams has a measly 19 downloads, and no reviews. I do wonder whether this is because of the cover or the blurb, since everything else is between 30-70 downloads.
After this, I only have one more 1000 Words short story to upload, Socks, and Iāll have a little bit to talk about its cover, as well. The final short story, dubbed ā1000 Wordsā for the title of the anthology, will only be available in the eBook and print anthology versions. Iām not quite sure what Iāll sell the print version at, but the eBook version will likely cost $2.99. I donāt expect a lot of sells, especially since I donāt have any marketing plans in place for it, however, I think itās nice to offer something for those who want to ācontribute to the author.ā
Meanwhile, the print version of 1000 Words is in the proofing stage (to be printed as soon as possible, in order to get in turned in on time), but Iām fairly happy with it. Reminds me that I actually enjoy formatting print books. Of course, the next step is the eBook, which means seeing how to implement special text as well as embedding images into the file.
Let me know if you have questions, Iād be happy to answer them. š
Filed under Book Covers, Writing
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 