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[Conkersbadfurday]

Had to "nudge" an agent with my manuscript and now I'm all stressed about it. It's been about six weeks but not a full eight and maybe I should have waited D:

But what if he forgot?

What if he doesn't remember me at all?

Also, rejection letters from shit I sent two + months ago -_- way to go guys. Emails were sub 500 words.

Good news is my test readers seem to like my current book even if I kinda don't. Apparently the prose isn't as shit as I thought.

EDIT:

He got back to me with a "I liked it but didn't love it" kind of post. That's 3/3 on those.

 

[aidan]

Fellow writers! In part to thank communities like this one, I've made my book, Tide of Shadows and Other Stories, free until the end of the month!

Get Tide of Shadows and Other Stories on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes.

 

[UCBooties]

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

 

[toddhunter]

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

Congrats! Best of luck with the publishing, you would hope the mention counts for something.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

Congrats! That's awesome news and this is absolutely the right place to post it. Good luck with the submission!

 

[FlowersisBritish]

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

Congrats! also this is definitely the place to mention this!!!

 

[Nudull]

Been in the middle of worldbuilding, a lot of worldbuilding, for a sci-fi story/series(? maybe?), and I'm so nervous about sharing. On the other hand, it's the most fun I've done with developing something in a good while.

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

Congrats!

 

[Mike M]

Other people's success

Spoiler

I am a petty, petty man.

 

[MC Safety]

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

Congratulations.

"Writers of the Future," though.

 

[aidan]

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I am excited and wanted to share:

My first submission to the Writer's of the Future contest from Galaxy Press, The Thousand Faces has been awarded an Honorable Mention for Q4 of 2015. I am disappointed that I did not win but proud to have the story recognized. I will be submitting the story for publication now and continuing to work on new projects, including the second book of my Three Sisters series.

Congrats! That's a great accomplishment.

 

[UCBooties]

"Writers of the Future," though.

Yeah, I know... They have some really good judges though.

 

[Crash Station]

Finally got the cover art for the third book! Been messing around with the font on my own and trying a bunch of different ones. What do you guys think? Is that font too much?

 

[aidan]

Finally got the cover art for the third book! Been messing around with the font on my own and trying a bunch of different ones. What do you guys think? Is that font too much?

Looks cool!

I think you might get a bit more drama if you used the shaky effect only on the word "distorted," however.

 

[Crash Station]

Looks cool!

I think you might get a bit more drama if you used the shaky effect only on the word "distorted," however.

Good idea! Will do that tomorrow.

I have to be honest... that font hurts my eyes. Not in a "that's ugly" sense, I mean that I literally can't look at it without feeling eye pain. :/

Good thing I didn't use that font for the whole book.

 

[Delio]

I have to be honest... that font hurts my eyes. Not in a "that's ugly" sense, I mean that I literally can't look at it without feeling eye pain. :/

I agree. Cant look at it for too long.

 

[phillipgessert]

Finally got the cover art for the third book! Been messing around with the font on my own and trying a bunch of different ones. What do you guys think? Is that font too much?

I think this may be the sort of thing that annoys people.

 

[Mike M]

Gonna echo the sentiment about the title art. It's difficult to read, there's a thematic argument to be made that it's more unfocused than distorted, and even with the effect it's a pretty plain-Jane typeface.

Googling "distortion typeface" yields a bunch of stuff that might work better, and even then I'd consider applying it only to "Distorted."

Don't let us get you down, though. This shit's hard.

 

[Carlisle]

Finally got the cover art for the third book! Been messing around with the font on my own and trying a bunch of different ones. What do you guys think? Is that font too much?

I love the effect you're going for with the font. But I can see where people are coming from about it being maybe a bit too much for the eyes. Maybe try something a little more subtle? If you don't mind, I mocked up a really quick and simple idea in photoshop. Feel free to do whatever you want with it, but I think it gets a similar feeling across without being quite as jarring.

Or if you wanted to go even subtler you could distort just the word Distorted.

 

[Crash Station]

I love the effect you're going for with the font. But I can see where people are coming from about it being maybe a bit too much for the eyes. Maybe try something a little more subtle? If you don't mind, I mocked up a really quick and simple idea in photoshop. Feel free to do whatever you want with it, but I think it gets a similar feeling across without being quite as jarring.

Or if you wanted to go even subtler you could distort just the word Distorted.

Damn, that looks great! Is there any way you could post each individual word with no white background?

Not sure how to do that with open letters like o though :/

If not, I'll just take Mike's suggestion and find another font to install.

 

[aidan]

Woot! This sale for my book has been doing wonders for its ranking on Amazon:

It's interesting how much of a mental barrier readers put between $2.99 and $0.99. Also, for perspective on how powerful Amazon is, I've sold as many copies there as I've given away for free on B&N, Kobo, and iTunes combined.

 

[Carlisle]

Damn, that looks great! Is there any way you could post each individual word with no white background?

Not sure how to do that with open letters like o though :/

If not, I'll just take Mike's suggestion and find another font to install.

Whoops, didn't see this until now. No problem there, here are the links. Wasn't sure if you wanted the "The" or "Facility" distorted, so I included both versions. Good luck!

http://abload.de/img/the179sp9.png
http://abload.de/img/the2q4s04.png
http://abload.de/img/distortedzasvd.png
http://abload.de/img/facility1qjs9m.png
http://abload.de/img/facility2hfssf.png

 

[Crash Station]

Whoops, didn't see this until now. No problem there, here are the links. Wasn't sure if you wanted the "The" or "Facility" distorted, so I included both versions. Good luck!

http://abload.de/img/the179sp9.png
http://abload.de/img/the2q4s04.png
http://abload.de/img/distortedzasvd.png
http://abload.de/img/facility1qjs9m.png
http://abload.de/img/facility2hfssf.png

Wow, thanks a lot!

Hate to ask you to do more work, but is there any way you can make the letters white? I don't think black is going to work with this background.

Edit: Nevermind, didn't realize I could just paint bucket it.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Have you ever had a dream that was strange or cool enough that you had to write it down because it might make for a good scene in a story down the road?

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Have you ever had a dream that was strange or cool enough that you had to write it down because it might make for a good scene in a story down the road?

All the time. It's wonderful until you go back to said idea and realize without dream logic that it's terrible/nonsensical

But some of them still make it into my stories. A rather dark dream inspired the climax to the book I'm currently working on. Tis a damn good climax too!

 

[Crash Station]

How does it look now?

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

You should always write down good ideas the moment you have them, in my opinion. It's super convenient to able to just browse back through a diary and find the stuff you know you wrote down, but completely forget about.

Now, if the same could be said for procrastination...

 

[aidan]

How does it look now?

"The" is the least important word in the title, yet the most prominent in the design. I'd think about stacking the three words, and perhaps increasing the size of the word "distorted" and maybe also "facility." There's a lot of negative space between the bottom of the title and the top of the door that you can use without losing the impact of the illustration.

 

[Nappuccino]

How does it look now?

Personally, I think "The" is much too large. You can use size to put emphasis on the important words . . . but "The" generally isn't one of them.

edit: Haha, dammit aidan. At least we agree

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

"The" is the least important word in the title, yet the most prominent in the design. I'd think about stacking the three words, and perhaps increasing the size of the word "distorted" and maybe also "facility." There's a lot of negative space between the bottom of the title and the top of the door that you can use without losing the impact of the illustration.

Going to second this (edit: third then). If you're going to all that length to distort your cover based on a single word (which we would assume is your theme), that word should be emphasised.

Imagine what would happen if you made 'facility' the largest and what we would then expect from your novel. A maze, maybe, but still mostly stuff relating to a facility, not it being distorted.

 

[Crash Station]

"The" is the least important word in the title, yet the most prominent in the design. I'd think about stacking the three words, and perhaps increasing the size of the word "distorted" and maybe also "facility." There's a lot of negative space between the bottom of the title and the top of the door that you can use without losing the impact of the illustration.

How does stacking work with Gimp? I know barely anything about image editing in general. I'm just scaling layers and messing around with the positioning.

I'd also rather not have the words intersect with the wall, since I want that to be something people focus on as well as the door.

Will increase the size of distorted and decrease the size of the. Definitely want to emphasize the former.

 

[aidan]

How does stacking work with Gimp? I know barely anything about image editing in general. I'm just scaling layers and messing around with the positioning.

Oh, sorry if I was unclear. I just meant positioning the words so that they're one on top of the other. Like this:

The
Distorted
Facility

I'd also rather not have the words intersect with the wall, since I want that to be something people focus on as well as the door.

The most important thing for a potential reader to focus on is the title of the book and the author's name. This is why an overwhelming number of books, outside of SF and Fantasy, feature creative typography, and huge lettering on their covers, or very subtle/small illustrations, a lot of white space, and the title/author name drawing all attention. Illustration is just window dressing.

Examples snagged from one of Amazon's gift guides:

This is doubly-important for eBook releases, which are often only browsed in situations where the cover is a small thumbnail and legibility of the typography is hugely important.

 

[Crash Station]

Oh, sorry if I was unclear. I just meant positioning the words so that they're one on top of the other. Like this:

The
Distorted
Facility

Ah, okay.

The most important thing for a potential reader to focus on is the title of the book and the author's name. This is why an overwhelming number of books, outside of SF and Fantasy, feature creative typography, and huge lettering on their covers, or very subtle/small illustrations, a lot of white space, and the title/author name drawing all attention. Illustration is just window dressing.

Alright then, I'll try it to see how it looks.

 

[Crash Station]

How does this look:

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

How does this look:

Much better, though honestly, I think you could do something a bit more fun with "Distorted." If nothing else, just stretch it vertically a bit so it's long and skinny, but damn if you could get it to look a bit drippy or something. A dropshadow might work too.

I do think it's close to where ti will be good, but just needs a little more play.

 

[Soulfire]

I agree with Conkers, much better, maybe distort distort more. I also think your name should be larger.
Covers are so hard, kudos to you for using gimp, I just use Canva and I'm limited because of it.

 

[Crash Station]

Much better, though honestly, I think you could do something a bit more fun with "Distorted." If nothing else, just stretch it vertically a bit so it's long and skinny, but damn if you could get it to look a bit drippy or something. A dropshadow might work too.

I do think it's close to where ti will be good, but just needs a little more play.

How's this:

 

[AngmarsKing701]

How's this:

It looks good. I like it.

However, I will add one suggestion. As this is your third book, I'd add, under your name, in smaller font, "author of x and x."

 

[FlowersisBritish]

I also think the latest iteration looks the best, also who did you get to do that cover art? It looks amazing.

 

[Crash Station]

It looks good. I like it.

However, I will add one suggestion. As this is your third book, I'd add, under your name, in smaller font, "author of x and x."

I feel like that should be reserved for authors that have sold more than 160 books. I know there are people that do it regardless, but it just feels arrogant to me, and I don't really think I have the right to be arrogant just yet.

I also think the latest iteration looks the best, also who did you get to do that cover art? It looks amazing.

Her name is Kylie Derby. She's someone my last cover artist recommended as she didn't have the time for it.

I contacted her through her Behance page.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I feel like that should be reserved for authors that have sold more than 160 books. I know there are people that do it regardless, but it just feels arrogant to me, and I don't really think I have the right to be arrogant just yet.

Gotta use your ad opportunities when you get them

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

How's this:

Much better! Solid cover man, and the artist did a good job too.

I agree with what the other two people said. Stretch it a little wider (and maybe taller to make up for it) and add your other works. Arrogant? Dude you're an author. God damn fuckin' right you're arrogant!

ANd damn be proud of what you've done with gimp. It ain't a shit program by any means, but it can be hard to work with and takes some learnin'.

 

[Crash Station]

I personally feel (going by the cover design that I see around me) 'distorted' should basically go from end to end, to seemingly 'leap off the page/ stretch into infinite' if you know the comics convention of breaking the frame to imply that. It also has the benefit of making your cover weird (you know, like the word 'distorted' implies), which means +2 seconds of interest, which is the difference between being able to sell or being ignored. Like Aidan said, your title should (in this age of ebooks) be readable in a thumbnail. Remember, that cover is there to sell, nothing more. It's similar to the 'Social Network' style, that is all hip these days.

I like Angmars's 'author of x and x' suggestion though. I was going to say that you don't have much brand loyalty yet, but putting that in there will instantly make it seem like you do. No offence intended btw, just thinking out loud here.
edit: it's not arrogance, it's a seal of quality (of whatever quality that author might possess that is). It's literally the first thing a publisher does, and that's why Angmars is right about it. You're not being a pretentious prick by wanting to sell your hard work.
I mean, they hell do you think EL James calls herself? "From the rich bitch who wrote some fanfiction comes another great book about jet skying" ? Of course not. It's "from the author of Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker" comes "All Outta Ink, featuring Jet Skies". Dibs on that made up title though.

How's this:

Second order of business! I'm having a ton of trouble with the blurb. This is what makes me think I've gotten rusty as I haven't written anything serious since January. This is a super WIP, but I want to know what you guys think of what I have so far:

Jack wakes up in an unfamiliar room with steel-plated walls. He has no memory of how he got there. In fact, he has no memories at all. Anxiety begins to creep in and he starts to panic when he notices the nine other people in the room. Amnesia aside, all are in the same situation as Jack.

As the group discusses the reason for their predicament, the wall opens up and a door appears. With nothing to lose, they enter the mysterious building that lies beyond. As they venture through the facility, the group quickly realizes nowhere is safe. When strange things begin to happen and people start dying, Jack can feel his grip on reality slipping further and further away.

Too stilted? Maybe too "listy" as well? Possibly unfocused? Never had this much trouble with the other two blurbs :/

Planning on releasing a week from today, so hope I can get it sorted out by then.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

How's this:





Second order of business! I'm having a ton of trouble with the blurb. This is what makes me think I've gotten rusty as I haven't written anything serious since January. This is a super WIP, but I want to know what you guys think of what I have so far:



Too stilted? Maybe too "listy" as well? Possibly unfocused? Never had this much trouble with the other two blurbs :/

Planning on releasing a week from today, so hope I can get it sorted out by then.

I like the new cover, though the text is showing its stretch marks. I imagine gimp doesn't work wtih that as well as photoshop, but it depends on how you did it. I do like the bigger "DISTORTED" though.

As to the summary, too listy might fit. There's something missing though I don't really know what. Hard to help when I only know that much from the story. Hopefully someone else has better insight.

 

[Crash Station]

So how does this sound for a blurb:

Jack wakes up in an unfamiliar gray room, his body sore and his memory gone. On one side, a black door that can't be opened. On the other, nine people just as confused as Jack. Before anyone can make sense of their situation, the wall opens up and another door appears. With nothing to lose, the group ventures out into the facility that lies beyond.

That was a mistake.

With no one to trust and people dying in mysterious ways, will Jack be able to hold onto his ever-dwindling grip on reality?

Bah, this is so frustrating.

 

[Mike M]

So how does this sound for a blurb:



Bah, this is so frustrating.

• If he has no memory, how does he know his name is Jack?
• The colors of the room and door are extraneous and unnecessary details for the blurb, even if they're somehow vital to the plot.
• The wall opens up and a second door appears, and that's the one they go through? So why bother telling us about the first one?

In general you're trying to sell us on the setup, but I think you're trending too much towards narrating the setup. The key points are that there are 10 people without memory who wake up and find themselves in a room, and when they're given the opportunity to exit they will wish that they hadn't.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

In general you're trying to sell us on the setup, but I think you're trending too much towards narrating the setup. The key points are that there are 10 people without memory who wake up and find themselves in a room, and when they're given the opportunity to exit they will wish that they hadn't.

On a side note, Mike have you decided on getting your editor certificate? Because damn, you would be a fantastic editor. The stuff above was great, well thought out, and pinpoint.

 

[Mike M]

On a side note, Mike have you decided on getting your editor certificate? Because damn, you would be a fantastic editor. The stuff above was great, well thought out, and pinpoint.

Yeah, I've all but decided to go through with it at this point, but I'll probably wait until spring quarter to get it moving. Life is a bit crazy lately.

 

[Crash Station]

• If he has no memory, how does he know his name is Jack?
• The colors of the room and door are extraneous and unnecessary details for the blurb, even if they're somehow vital to the plot.
• The wall opens up and a second door appears, and that's the one they go through? So why bother telling us about the first one?

In general you're trying to sell us on the setup, but I think you're trending too much towards narrating the setup. The key points are that there are 10 people without memory who wake up and find themselves in a room, and when they're given the opportunity to exit they will wish that they hadn't.

Not quite. Details are:

.Jack wakes up in a room with steel-plated walls, has amnesia.
.There are nine other people in the room. They do not have amnesia, but they don't know how they got there. One claims to be Jack's friend, which is how he found out his name in the first place.
.An entrance appears, leading to a facility, the main setting of the story.
.Strange, impossible things start happening.
.People start dying.
.Jack begins to question what is real and what isn't.

I need to find a way to combine these bullet points into a compelling and seamless description (minus a few details maybe).

Thanks for the feedback by the way.

 

[Crash Station]

Slightly different approach because fuck Jack and the first room! How's this:

Ten people wake up in a strange facility. None of them remember how they got there or why. With no means of figuring out their situation, they decide to explore the mysterious building.

That was a mistake.

When impossible things begin to happen, the group struggles to keep their grip on reality... and their lives.

Am I at least moving in the right direction? That ellipses at the end too dramatic/cheesy/edgy/whatever?