A Novel Idea: Pre-Publishing

Douglas
Owen

We left off with after the draft. (See February issue.) Now you have a polished item, so what do you do? How does it work? Cover Art
There’s a lot of really bad cover art out there. If you want to laugh or cry, point your nose at the Goodreads group, Horrible Covers, or lousybookcovers.com. What you’ll find on these sites are some of the biggest examples of poor quality art work. Don’t get caught on it—I have some writer friends who appear on this site, don’t add to the shame.
Good cover art is like a resume, you are judged on it before the interview (the blurb on the back). Put a stunning face forward. Be the one that stands out with something amazing. Steer clear of the site Fiverr. There are a lot of hacks on the site just there to make a buck. And if you do use them, buyer beware. The site protects their bottom line and now says they will not refund a gig just because quality is poor. Don’t walk, run away from them.
There are a number of fantastic graphic artists out there who will do a cover for you at a good price. Make sure you go with a company who offers you choices, just make sure it is professional.
If you need feedback on a cover, you can request to join The Cover Critiquers on Facebook, just tell them Doug from InD’tale sent you. As a group, we help each other with cover art and feedback from the actual images, fonts, and blurbs. It’s a resource and everyone is fast in responding. Use resources you already have, like writer’s groups.
Traditional or Self-Published
At this time, you also need to decide about publishing. Traditional is nice if you can get in it, and self-publishing is growing, but which one will get your ultimate goal realized, noses in pages? It depends on how you approach each. Just a word of advice, if you self-publish the work, it is highly unlikely a traditional publisher will take it afterward.
I beat the whole traditional vs. self-publishing to death a number of months ago, so I’m not going to do so again. A traditionally published author holds a lot more glory, but self-publishing is becoming more streamlined. Just make sure you do a good job and it will be fine.
Once you’ve decided on which direction to go, a game plan needs to be formed.

Read the entire article in the March 2020 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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