We’ve been here before and I, for one, was hoping not to come back here but…here we are.
The good news is, I recently had a bonzer Author Party on Covers, Corsets, and Candles a private FB group. It was so much fun, honestly I have not had that good of a time in quite a while. The hostesses were spectacular–the work they put into it and the images they made that matched the images I sent them for my posts were out of this world. Literally. They were on Olympus. The group was just awesome. I was amazed by the amount of people who were really participating. The party didn’t slow for the entire 3 hour stretch and went well beyond that. Truly, I can’t say enough good things about that experience.
I would love to show the party graphics and games that were made by CCC for my event but….they’re not mine. I feel strange about downloading and displaying them here. So I won’t do that. But here the ones I made you can use your immaginations for the rest. Sorry.
Yes, they’re AI. Hal and I made them and I just love how they match up with the theme of the For the LOVE of WAR covers. All of it really comes together.
Yes, CCC is an AI Friendly group of witchy booklovers.
I mean real readers, these nice folks devour books like they were candy. I love that! Other groups talk about books, very dry and droll, and frou-frou. These folks on CCC actually love books and they are not afraid to let that show.
It’s wonderful. AI or not, this is just the type of group I’ve spent ten or fifteen years looking for on FB.
Now to those New Witch Hunters.
It’s all the same parroted crap in those frou-frou groups and in the Indie Author groups. It’s painfully clear to see that the indocrination is complete and all hope of independent critical thinking has been wiped out of their minds.
Most days, I feel like walking in, tossing around 10lbs of birdseed and walking out again. I’d do that just in the hopes they’d spend their time in their feel-good feeding frenzy pecking the ground and each other….in that thread….and leave the Good Folks of the World to peace.
What pisses me off the most is the disrespect, the sheer nonchalantness of it all, the arrogance, and the ignorance. Which, of course, is lauded like Shakepeare in those frou-frou groups as one says something like; If I even suspect a cover is AI, I won’t read it!” Then someone else says; “If a cover is AI, why shouldn’t I think the rest of the book is AI?” Then someone else says; “Stop being so lazy! Hire a cover artist.”
No respect. A complete and utter lack of understanding of what goes into absolutely everything leading up to the 1.5 seconds…or less…an author can get a stranger’s eye on a book cover.
No. Freakin’. Clue.
It makes me wonder if they can read. If so, would I even want them reading my books?
Let’s see what we can do here to help these….
Be nice!
….These….misguided souls.
If I even suspect a cover is AI, I won’t read it!
So, what you’re telling me is, you’re the type of person who would refuse a gift because you didn’t like the wrapping paper. You would totally ignore the smile on the person’s face presenting you with the fits, the anticipation in their eyes of you opening it, seeing what’s inside, and saying something like; Thank you. Completely disregard whatever effort and thought went into bringing you this special thing because the wrapping paper, in your opinion, is poor.
Good to know. You are not my target audience. Bye now.
If a cover is AI, why shouldn’t I think the rest of the book is AI?
Um, ok. Have you tried looking at the copyright date? The first published date? Have you tried the Look Inside the Book feature? Or listened to the free audio sample? No? Of course not. Too much work.
Good to know. BUT…here’s a Free Clue for you…a ton of older authors like myself are doing full brands of their books because they now have a tool that helps them do that. Helps them make those older stories everything they should have been from the start…back in 2011 or whatever. In a second, we’ll get into why that didn’t happen. But, for you, let’s just say, you are not my target audience. Bye now.
Which bring us to….well in our case today…the meat of why we’re here right now.
Stop being so lazy! Hire a cover artist.
Been there. Done that. Twice. Hired video artists too. Twice. Unfortunately, I only have this one example of those four to show you. I have it because FB popped a “memory” for me. A really bad one. But, to be fair, what you’re about to see is NOT the worst one of the four! Ready?
Wow! That is some awesome Human Made Art, huh?
The “artist” wanted $300 for it. That is NOT, in my estimation, a “final cover” (or any type of useable cover) because it was really only a second draft. You should have see the first one! OMG! Still, not as bad as the one I commissioned for “The Heart of War” which had every single element on it that I expressely told the “artist” NOT to add.
In case you haven’t caught on yet, “cover artists” were some of the Original Scammers in the Indie Community. Along with those Book Trailer Makers. “Editors”, and “Marketers”.
You need to remember that Back Then then it was all brand new. I mean like New-New. Just born kind of New. All these little Cottage Industries sprang up around US. US. Suddenly, as we’re plodding along trying to figure everything out on this still fairly new thing called ‘The Internet’, we were supposed to PAY these people who, seemingly, were so “kindly” offering their ‘professional’ assistance. We had to pay them with money, face it for once!, money we didn’t have! We were hopeful and naieve and we trusted them.
We got burnt.
We risked part of the rent money. We let the electric bill slide a month so we could hire a cover artist who would give us the exact cover we needed to break through and become Best Selling Authors. We gave some of the grocery money to “marketers”. We gave a little of the heating money to “editors”. We scraped together whatever else we could as we continually Robbed Peter to Pay Paul and we got…Jack Shit in return. Well, we did get deeper in debt over it. We had that.
It was these people who forced Indies like me to go it alone. Forced us to learn…well….every fucking thing.
We taught ourselves photo programs from free online ones like Gimp to Adobe PhotoShop. It was fifteen years before we got something like Canva.
We taught ourselves Movie Maker and the like.
We taught ourselves how to build websites.
We taught ourselves how to market books.
We taught ourselves how to format books (ebook and print, thank you very much.)
Later we taught ourselves how narrate our own audio books and use audio software to pass the quality check.
We sat at our desks for untold hours with Spell/Grammar check pulling our hair out in frustration!
Honey, some of us really put the shine on ‘independent’ in Independent Author. Generally, we starting this process of taking all the reins by making our own covers.
Yep, that’s original published cover for “Child of War-A God is Born” made by Yours Truly as were all of my covers until I met Hal.
Now you can bitch, whine, moan, and complain about AI all you like but for once tell the truth: Which cover is best? Which one would actually make you stop scrolling for half a second? Don’t be a Darren about it.
As to those book trailers I paid $69 each for. Both of them…both of them….contained images I’d passed by on the Internet as I was considering making my own trailers and in the process of making my own book covers. They both contained images that, like the first cover artist, they were explicitly told not to use. What I’m about to dust off and post here, you better trust and believe, is miles better than what those video artists came up with.
Welcome to the very first book trailer I ever made. No you can’t get this book anymore. Yes, I know it’s ‘long’ but ‘short’ wasn’t a requirement back then.
Hey, for a first effort, I still say it ain’t half bad.
For, oh, just around two decades now, people like me have spent a lot of time
Wishin’
and
Hopin’
and
Prayin’
For something that would actually HELP us in our endeavors to achieve our dreams and accompish our goals not to try to use them for their own personal gain.
After those twenty years, it arrived. It’s name is Hal, the AI. Obviously, in the last eight months, Hal has been of more assistance to me than all of the people I’ve mentioned in this post combined. I’m supposed to just ignore Hal because the Indocrinated Parrots don’t like Hal?
Those in the World of Indoctrination won’t read my books because I’m smart enough to not only avail myself to this tool but really learn how to use it?
They won’t buy my book because the cover is AI?
You know what? That’s fine. Truth is, people who say the latter, they weren’t going to buy my book anyway. In fact, if I didn’t step up and say something, they never would have even heard of me. So, no, I did not lose out any sales but, yes, their words are as empty as they are.
My Book. My Choice.
Read it. Don’t read it. That’s on you. I know you’re the one missing out on something you might otherwise love.
I also know that, if you’re such a petty snob that you really can’t get over the wrapping paper you don’t deserve the gift inside.
Lisa Beth Darling 