Psychedelia Gothique

It’s just as hard for visual artists to make a living these days as it is for writers. They’re faced with many of the same challenges: there are lots of good artists working for free or next to nothing in order to get their work out there and build a reputation; there are artists pumping out good work at a phenomenal rate; any images artists put on line could be lifted or altered and used without permission or regard to copyright by bloggers, tweeters, social media creators, writers, or other artists. These are just a few of the thousand reasons why it’s hard for visual artists to make a decent living. In order to do so, you have to specialize, and one area of specialization is book cover designer. I can’t even count all the sites devoted to cover designs. For self-publishing authors, there are an almost overwhelming number of options for where to get bookcovers. Finding Cover Art - Different Solutions for Everybody: If you have cash to invest, there are lots of brilliant a...

Modern media makes it so easy to publish a novel, I figure in a few years anyone who’s ever put pen to paper will be able to publish one if they have a mind to. Can’t spell? No problem, here’s a super duper spell checker that can translate into 145 languages and spell correctly in all of them. And clean up your grammar. Can’t come up with a story? Just enter a few ideas and the AI will come up with a story for you – one that’s never been told before. You’ll just need to tweak it and call it your own. Don’t know anything about typesetting? Well, organizations like Draft 2 Digital already have that figured out – right here, right now. Just go to their website, upload your story – include the cover you bought at the buy-a-cover site and presto, Pick a date and your book will be available from all the retailers, and it will cost you nothing but future royalties. Brilliant. Every aspect of the writer’s craft is becoming automated. Copy-editing and proof-reading software already ex...

As I enter the final stretch leading up to the launch of The Human Template , I find myself dropped into the same ocean of doubt and possibility that every other self-published writer faces.  The problem isn't lack of resources, because there is a growing number of resources - most of them useful to one degree or another. The trick is deciding which are the most useful, affordable, accessible, and reliable. Every one of them has drawbacks and advantages. It's hard to judge which way to turn, especially with the marketplace changing and evolving at every turn.  About two years ago I discovered Tim Grahl who is a book marketing guru with all kinds of credits under his belt and a very good overview of how to approach the marketplace with the best chance for success. His two books,  Your First 1,000 Copies  and  Book Launch Blueprint  have been sort of bibles for me as I come into this enterprise. His website,  https://booklaunch.com/ , contains the basic ...