How Important is the Cover?

McClure's new cover art

This week, a wonderful friend and fellow 4RV Publishing author, Beverly Stowe McClure revealed the cover art for her new middle grade book soon to be released. The picture tells me the story is about a young girl, basketball, and maybe a problem with ego. Aidana WillowRaven produced the cover for Star of the Team. I love it. I'm intrigued. It's a winner in my mind.

This big cover reveal got me to thinking.
How important is the illustration on your book cover?

Many faithful readers follow writers they love, but what about buying from a new author? Polls suggest that the first thing to catch our eye about a book is the cover. If the cover looks interesting, we pick up the book, read the back cover, and if still interested, read the first paragraph or two.

4RV Publishing released my debut YA novel a year and a half ago. Long before it did, I learned the importance of team work. Authors create stories. Editors read, correct, strengthen, and clarify the author's words. Then comes the illustrator. 4RV asked Aidana WillowRaven to create a cover for my book, Victoria and the Ghost. WillowRaven asked me questions about the main character's personal appearance. She asked about the setting and wanted to know important symbols in the story.

The Cover of my book

My fifteen-year-old main character wore shorts and flip-flops with her light brown hair loose and always blowing into her face. The ghost brought strange happenings to the setting of Clara Cemetery, in North Texas. (A real place.) One main happening involves a disappearing hopscotch drawing.

Ms. WillowRaven came up with Victoria praying over a hopscotch with trees and a church in the background. The picture tells the reader something is strange about this place.



A book's illustrator is listed on the copyright page of the book, but how often do they get recognition for their work? Yet, their creation helps authors sell books.

My advice to new and old authors is work well with your illustrator. Give her enough detail to see what you see. If you disagree with the arrangement or something in the drawing, speak up and explain. Work as a team to come up with a winning cover. It's important.

Let me leave you with two other book covers, one a new adult A Shadow in the Past,  by Melanie Robertson King, and Prairie Dog Cowboy, a YA book by Vivian Zabel.

                              

Think about what you see in these covers. What do you expect? What do you like about these 4 covers? What do you dislike? Think of your own work. Do the covers represent the story?

I would love your feedback. Lastly, we need to recognize our illustrators for work well done. Thank you, Aidana WillowRaven. Thanks to all the team at 4RV Publishing.

Happy Birthday 4RV Publishing

          Five years ago this month, we filed the papers to become 4RV Publishing LLC. During these five years, we have released over 100 books, have had seventy-five authors under contract. Illustrators came and went, and we had excellent ones. Thankfully, some of the best have stayed with us.

        According to what I read and what has been told to me and to others, we have a good reputation for publishing great books, quality books. Our authors and illustrators have been praised by many outside the company. Our editors have helped our books improve from the first manuscripts submitted to ready-to-print. We have an expert heading our art department, and a top of the line head of the editorial department.

         Some of our books have won awards: Confessions of a Former Rock Queen by Kirk Bjornsgaard took the Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction; Trockle by Holly Jahangiri took first in the Heartland Children's Book Award; Midnight Hours by Vivian Zabel placed first in the Heartland Fiction category, and her Prairie Dog Cowboy took first in the Young Adult category; Porcupine's Seeds by Viji Chary received the Mom's Choice Award; My Cat by Tony LoPresti received Certificate of Excellence in the category of Books for Children from CWA; Time Pullers by Horton Deakins was a finalist in the Science Fiction category in US Best Books; Walking Through Walls by Karen Cioffi was named a silver medal winner by Children's Literary Classics. I may have missed some of our awards, and if I have, I hope someone reminds me.

          4RV has done well for the first five years of its existence, thanks to a talented and hard-working staff, good writers and illustrators, and the readers who spread the word. 

4RV Publishing 
4RV Book Store  

 

Is haggling on illustration/design fees ethical or fair?

by Aidana WillowRaven

Personally, I can see both sides on this subject, and have been on the receiving end of an author or publisher wanting my services, but for an exorbitant amount less than my regular fees. It's stressful, it's aggravating, but I try to understand that people can't always afford what they want, especially in relation to their book ... their baby ... so I can see why they try to get a lesser rate, but is it fair?

After all, I bargain shop. I buy used books, I buy clothes at thrift stores, I rummage the bargain bins. But would I walk up to the counter and haggle over a price? Not unless the product was damaged in some way, but still of use, would I feel justified in doing so.

On my freelance blog, today, I shared a YouTube video I saw on Google+ this morning that exemplifies this growing trend of authors/publishers (really this could relate to so many other professions), wanting high quality service, but don't feel they should have to pay for it. Naturally, it got me to thinking how I could share the metaphors on that video, here.

Is it fair to go on Twitter or Facebook, seeking professional editing, or artistic services, but only offer compensation way below livable standards? Is it right to ask anybody, in any profession, just because they are a small company or a freelancer, to work for less?

I see this all the time as Art Director for 4RV, too. People expect us to accept their manuscript, do all the editing, art, and prep to publish it, market and promote their book, then complain that their royalty isn't high enough or that the cost of buying personal copies at wholesale (for those that wish to sell at a show, or something), is too high, or that they didn't get enough free copies with their contract, while feeling totally OK with the fact that he company is footing all the bills. They don't even want to edit thoroughly or help promote on behalf of their own books!

To make it even more of an injustice, the requester wants high quality. They like your work! It grabbed their attention over all the other work they examined. But wait, they want that level of work and expertise for half or a third of what you charge, even though you already charge eight times less than the accepted standard due to a tough economy and growing competition with people who will work for ridiculously low rates.

What are we doing to our own industries if we agree? But if we don't agree, how do we feed our kids? Pay our rent?

I am sharing the video again, here. It really puts things in perspective, but it's also funny. Maybe if you're one of those people who have performed a shake down on an artist or editor, and relied on their desperation to make a living weighing more than their getting paid their worth, then maybe putting it in a different light will help you curb that tendency.

Enjoy:

 

 

 

 

Aidana WillowRaven

Art Director & VP of Operations
4RV Publishing

Promotion: Media kits - why and how

by Vivian Zabel 

          Many people read or hear about media or press kits but don't know why one is needed or how to put one together. Since every author and illustrator should have a media kit, let's discuss why and then what should be included.

First of all, a few reasons why a media kit is needed:

1.  Many review sources request a media kit as well as a copy or two of the book to be considered.

2.  Often conferences and book festivals ask for a media kit for speaker and attendee publicity.

3.  Publicists need information for promoting an author or illustrator.

4.  Anytime an author or illustrator seek publicity through news media, radio, or television, the hosting entity would want a media kit.

5.  Libraries, schools, and bookstores often publicize visiting authors and/or illustrators. Providing them with a media kit helps them help promote. 

          Those are five reasons, but others exist. One important reason to have a media kit is the need to appear professional. Material can be presented physically or online as a PDF.

How to prepare a media kit:

         

            A media kit helps present needed materials for publicity. One can be assembled online or in a two pocket folder. A kit should include the following items:

 1.  a photograph of the author

 2.  reviews and summaries of books by the author and any news releases available

 3.  image of book cover

 4.  information about the book(s) being promoted with this kit

 5.  a writing resumé for the author

 6.  a bio of the author

 7.  any possible writing awards can be listed separately or included in the resumé.

            My hard copy media kit has a CD envelope (with the transparent window) on the front with a photograph. The window is facing the reader. The envelope is glued across the bottom of the envelope and about two thirds up each side. The flap can then be opened and closed so the photo can be removed and replaced.

            I put my name at the top of the front of the folder, printed in large font and in blue on a strip of neatly cut paper. Any color may be used, but the label needs to be large enough to read and be easily read.

            My online media kit has all the needed items in one folder.

            Anytime I need to provide information for media publicity, I can hand deliver or mail the kit. If the media source prefers an attachment emailed, I can attached any portions of the kit needed for that source. I have a PDF that includes all necessary components that can be sent as an email attachment.

          Anyone who would like to receive a PDF of what I included in my media kit, please email me or leave your email in a comment below.

Is Your Online Portfolio Overwhelming?

by Aidana WillowRaven

Back in art school (I won't be going into how long ago THAT was ... lol), it was repeatedly drilled into our impressionable minds to keep our portfolio neat, clean, and ready to show off at a moment's notice. We were taught that too many images, especially if we worked in various genres and mediums, vs. a set 'look' or style, could confuse the viewer. And the last thing you want to do, when showing your work to a prospective employer or client, is to confuse them. You want them to know, without a doubt, that you are the artist that they just have to have doing their project.

The trick is enticing them with enough to convince them without going overboard. So where do you draw the line?

Well, in the olden days ... we used a physical portfolio. The came in various sizes and had the option of holding anywhere from 6 to 100 pages. We were coached to keep portfolios between 12-24 images of any one genre or style, and to also consider having different folios for different styles. That way, if the potential client is a clothing designer, you don't waste her time and yours by flipping through children's book illustrations, but you show her a full portfolio of your best fashion illustrations.

With the accessibility of the internet, the opportunities for artists have skyrocketed. We no longer need to mail in our portfolios, requiring that we have several copies on hand of each. We no longer need to request our work to be hopefully returned after review, and pray they use our prepaid postage and honorably send it back. An artist without an online portfolio these days does not really want to have his/her work seen. Having an online portfolio is essential.

But we run into a new dilemma. It's so easy to upload images when there is no consideration of space or consciousness of physical 'pages,' to over 'fill' a portfolio.

I recently noticed I had fallen into that trap. I had a gallery page on my site that held almost all of my professional work. Almost everything I had in print. 

Problem ... I've got over 100 books, not counting magazines and websites, with my work in them in print.

I am one of those artists who works in several genres, in several styles, and in several mediums. I pride myself in my diversity. But when I started getting comments like 'You're such a prolific artist,' and 'Wow, I don't know where to start,' I knew I had to go old school and tidy up my portfolio ... my online portfolio. I had to look at my work objectively and select only key pieces -- not all of them -- regardless of how much I had a personal attachment to them. Check out how my gallery page used to look:

I only should showcase my best work (we all have those old works where we go, 'Boy, I've improved' ... lol) and the styles I want my potential clients to see, not everything I've done.  If you notice, the left column was kid's books and illos, the second column was originals and promo pieces, the third column was novels, and the right column was logos and banners. All on one page. What you don't see is how long this stretched on ... lol. I just kept adding to the top of the pile. Here's the link so you can get the real idea of just how congested this got (I kept the link active just for ya'll to see): http://willowravenback-up.weebly.com/gallery.html

I also had to evaluate who would be looking at what. Since I work in so many genres, am I wasting someone's time or misleading them into thinking I can't deliver what they want, because they are overwhelmed with children's art when they are seeking high fantasy or graphic art? I had to compartmentalize my portfolio. Effectively create several folios, just like back in the day, but on my website. That way, when clients pop in, they know just where to go for the type of genre they may want to hire me to do. 

Here's a screen shot of my new main page:

 My old main page was full of quotes, links, a video folio, and widgets (http://willowravenback-up.weebly.com/). I moved my 'follow me' widgets and other non-art stuff to the bottom and kept the page minimal and neat. It's not what I want people to see first. The art had to come first. You see above that there are five clear categories, or portfolios, to choose from. That's it. I deliberately made myself stick to as few a number as possible. I had to really evaluate 'what I do.'

I made each image that represents a portfolio a link to the pages that hold that genre. I also included the links in the drop down menu for those pages. As one follows to the genre of choice, he will find either small to medium sized examples of the work, with links to full sized examples, or find a subcategory page (let's look at the Children's - YA Illustration page, where you'd find such a page):

As you can see, I sub-divided this category into three parts. That way, if the client or publisher is looking for a picture book artist, they know where to look and are not distracted by my middle grade line art. This also allows me to show 24-24 images of just that type of art, rather than trying to show 12-24 images of all three types together.

Say we choose to go to the Tween - Young Adult page and we see:

Right now, I only have eight images, but they are solid works, and the viewer isn't distracted by everything else I've done. I still end up showing off a lot of my work this way. But now it's much more targeted to the audience.

The sub pages and enlarged example pages are not listed in the navigation bar. Again, I don't want to overwhelm the viewer with choices. I want to herd them, gently, to the areas I want them to travel. As I've often seen editors tell authors, less is more.

Lastly, I wanted to create a sense of my work, as a whole, and wanted something to introduce people to my art, a welcome page of sorts. So, I linked my URL, to a 'portal' page, which I have opening up with my latest piece.

So in conclusion ...

Your online portfolio needs to be treated like your physical portfolio. You don't want too little, too much, or work that just isn't up to your current standard. You don't want to muddy the waters with too many quotes, link, or bells and whistles. Make sure your audience know how and where to reach you, and can be able to communicate their wants by your showing them what you have to offer in the best possible way.

For those that wish to check out the new site in action, follow my link: http://willowraven.weebly.com/.

Aidana WillowRaven

Art Director & VP of Operations
4RV Publishing

Promotion - good or bad

by Vivian Zabel

          Authors and illustrators, even publishers, need positive promotion, which means promotional items that appear tasteful and professional: website, blog, bookmarks, business cards, book trailers, biography, media kit. In fact major publishers require that all promotional material be approved by them, even if the author or illustrator pays for or provides the items.

          Does that mean we must hire a professional to do our items? Not necessarily. I've designed business cards for 4RV and for myself. I've designed bookmarks. I used templates for my blog, the 4RV newsletter blog, the websites for the company and for me and my books. Yet, they look professional.

          Some of our illustrators and writers have learned to do professional looking book trailers, but sadly not everyone who has attempted one has been successful at producing a good one. Do I know how to create a book trailer? No, but I've been successful with slide shows which could be adapted to trailers, if I knew how to add music. I studied and practiced to make those slide shows, and some I would never show anyone -- too amateurish.

          I'm going to break down the list of promotional possibilities over the next several weeks and give information needed with each one. I'll begin with the one I haven't conquered, but I still know what is needed to be included. I'll cover book trailers first, beginning next Thursday.

          Please join me, and we'll learn together. After all, every item we put out for public display not only impacts you or me as an author or as an illustrator, but also spotlights 4RV Publishing. We want all of us to look good, to look professional.

Vivian Zabel