Monday Miscellany: Covers, Holidays & Birthday Shopping

Over the weekend, I came across this photographer and fell in love with his photos. Especially this portfolio. There was one photo in particular that caught my eye, so I emailed Rob Lang to ask about his stock prices for ebook covers up to 10,000 or 500,000 copies (vocabulary I learned from Dreamstime). Unfortunately, he was a bit outside of my price range for now, so I have him bookmarked for later use. I have another cowboy novel in the planning stages and I think I just may spring for one of his photos to use as a cover later this year when it's ready to go. He was quick to respond to email and his prices, despite being out of my range, were actually very reasonable. If you're looking for a good cowboy photo, he might be your man.

Anyway, I ended up finding a really excellent photo to use over on Dreamstime and the cover for the new cowboy WIP is ready to go. I'll post it later on today.

We celebrate Christmas in this house and we had a nice holiday. My daughter's gifts were all a huge hit. I'm really proud of keeping the number of them under control, too. She's one of two grandchildren on my side of the family and an only child in her own home, so the potential for things to get out of hand is really there. The adults here--my sister, my husband, and myself--seemed pretty pleased with their presents, too. I know I am. Do you want to know how boring I am? I was given the new Betty Crocker cookbook and I spent most of yesterday planning meals for the next two weeks featuring main dishes from it.

Today, I think we're venturing out for a bit. My husband's birthday is next week and so I think it's time to get his shopping out of the way since my mother will be here to visit in a few days and the rest of the week is full of doctor's appointments, airport runs, 24-hour-duty shifts, the New Year, finishing editing the new WIP, and lots of reading.

Oh, yes, lots of reading. Starting Wednesday, I'm giving up writing for however long it takes me to finish Witch in Wolf's Clothing by A. M. Belrose, and Supertech and Morgan's Choice by Greta van der Rol. Reading I can do with a house full of people. Writing I can't. I'm just dying to read Ms. van der Rol's other two books, too. I've held off long enough. I'm not looking forward to the empty feeling when I've finished them, but I am looking forward to starting To Die a Dry Death afterward. (Yep, still a fangirl.)

Self-Publishing: Cover Image Resources

If you're selling a book, it needs a cover. People like pictures. (Or paintings. Or crudely-drawn, suggestive sketches. Whatever.) If you're a talented visual artist--like my dad, who is a fantastic photographer; or my friend Kelsey, who is an amazing painter--then good for you! You don't need to hire an artist or buy stock photos. But if you're like me, stock photography websites are going to be your new best friends.

Freestockimages.net has a resource page with a list of free stock photo websites. The list is pretty good, complete with comments on content and quality.

I like Dreamstime.com the best. Specifically, I like their free photo section. These images are royalty-free and free for use online. They're also free for commercial use for up to 10,000 copies. The free images section is enormous. It's where I got my cover photo for The Cowboy Next Door and where I got the photos for the original mock-ups of Cass Gets Her Kicks. I love the place.

A genre-specific option is RomanceNovelCovers.com, where you can even get premade covers. I'm not sure I would ever use a premade cover, but it's nice to know that option is available. (I wanted to link you to the premade covers, but as of this writing, the site seems to be having some problems.)

RazzDazzStock.com is a stock photo website geared specifically toward the publishing industry. Like RNC, they also have premade covers.

Whichever site you use, even if you do a search on Google or Flickr or something, be sure that you read the terms of use. Give credit. Pay for the photo of necessary. (Industry standard seems to be about $10 for royalty-free use up to a certain number of copies sold.) Don't steal. Seriously. Not only is that bad manners, but you don't need a lawsuit on your hands.

Monday Miscellany

There is a blog post on homophones in the works. It might be too big for one post (I have kind of a short attention span) so it might end up as two, but it is in the works. It should be up tomorrow or Wednesday... I hope.

I am almost done editing the third of five pages of "Galena." It. Is. Taking. Forever. I'm the sort of writer who hates sending anything to a beta unless I feel like it's ready to be public. While this particular neurosis has served me very well in the past by making the work of my beta readers and editors relatively easy, the actual work that goes into it can get pretty stressful and intense. I know it will all be worth it.

Quick blogroll: Sirra the Editor posted Fundamental Advice For Every Writer and it should probably be required reading for anyone who hopes to make a living with their words; she also has this post about How Not To React To Negative Reviews and while I can't be certain that she was referring to the incident at BigAl's Books and Pals blog when he reviewed Jacqueline Howett's The Greek Seaman, it does exemplify her point; Stella Deleuze has this post on dialogue and this post on her policy of giving reviews, the first of which is very useful advice (especially if you're like me and hate dialogue) and the second of which is thought-provoking; and, finally, Chuck Wendig (who you may or may not realize I kind of have a writer's crush on) posted a new Search Term Bingo entry, and it's funny enough to make you shoot your drink out of your nose, so I suggest not drinking anything that might hurt.

While researching the romance and erotica market, I came across this site which has a ton of information on publishers, the market in general, and sales. I also came across this site, which hurts my eyes to read and has some posts I didn't really "get" but seemed kind of useful nonetheless. If you're looking for romance/erotica-specific stock photography, Razzle Dazzle Stock has a pretty decent collection and reasonable prices. They even have premade covers!