Benjamin Descovich

Epic Fantasy Author

Dragon Choir

Get you Hands on the Hoard!

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Sign up to snatch a share of the Hoard!
Sign up for your share of the treasure!

Dragon Choir Newsletter Out Now!

Here is a sneak peek inside…

Win a free copy of Dragon Choir
for you and a friend!

6 ebooks to giveaway this November from Smashwords.

Entry Details:

Step 1. Both you and a friend sign up for the Dragon Choir Newsletter.

Step 2. Contact me listing both your email addresses and answer this easy question. “Which ebook reader do you use?”

Hint… Multiple entries welcome. One entry for each different pair that sign up and answer the question. Increase your chances the more friends you pair with.

Winners will be announced in the December Newsletter.

Dragon Choir has shipped!

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Over the last week I have been ironing out formatting and distribution kinks, but now I can safely say that my baby has been released into the wild. Be among the first to get your hands on Dragon Choir; the action packed, tightly woven, epic fantasy spectacular you’ve been dying to read.

Dragon Choir is available through the following distribution networks.

Smashwords

Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon.com.au, or any other Amazon.

Kobo

Apple iBooks

Oyster

Barnes & Noble

Scribd

txtr

 

Smashwords have a great website for new Authors. Check them out if you haven’t already!

Invisible backstory adds flavour

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There are swaths of information a writer of sci-fi and fantasy builds up via world building that is in addition to data a writer of general fiction might accumulate. All fiction writers build up a large bulk of character, setting and prop outlines and many other documents that are interesting in themselves.
A novel provides such a small glimpse of an imaginary world. The characters portrayed in Dragon Choir are only a few of the interesting individuals roaming the world of Oranica. I have enough fodder for a few lifetimes of stories from this diverse magical world.
I have gone far back in the worlds history to explain its creation and how the different humanoid and fantasy species came to exist alongside humans. I found that when you go far enough into a a fantasy world’s past you are writing science fiction. Everything that happens in Dragon Choir has been calculated and accounted for according to the rules of the unique magical system and the context of those who wield it. The fantasy creatures have an evolutionary and biological context for their behaviour. The humanoid species have a bit more depth with the addition of cultural and historical frames of reference. The two great cities of Jando and Calimska were founded by people from very different geographic, cultural and political origins and evolved magical cultures that have opposing taboos. How can opposing magical cultures be reconciled when they clash? Dragon Choir has many layers that are subtly applied and will flavour all of the books in the series.

Alpha Readers

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Alpha readers are integral to the success of any manuscript. They are much loved by writers, yet amongst all the fanfare of best sellers, are rarely given the credit they are due.
Every book ever published had a draft that was awful, a second draft that was bad and any number of revisions that gradually improved the quality from painful to pleasant. The alpha reader is a stoic individual with a lifetime of reading under their belt, an eye for narrative flow and a stomach strong enough to endure the errors the writer still may have missed. Not everyone is cut out for this.
A writer gets tunnel vision and is, in the end, a cripple to their own creation. Perhaps not all writers suffer in this way, but this one certainly does. I know all my story’s secrets and every character in detail. I find it difficult to know what a reader with fresh eyes will experience when reading it.
An alpha reader is the steady hand that guides me through the remaining issues with the story. An alpha reader will not shy away from giving the writer a well deserved flurry of red ink if the story goes off track. Alpha readers are not the people who will gush at your work to bolster your self esteem even if it is terrible. Sorry Mum! You’ll have to wait until later to read it.
Alpha readers recreate their reading experience; positive and negative. This insight is invaluable for a writer to polish the manuscript where needed and strengthen the delivery of the narrative.
If you are very lucky you will have one or two pedantic proofers amongst your team of alpha readers. They will find all those little errors that others may have glossed over as they read with the pulse of the story. They will challenge you on many issues and make your story all the better for it. If a writer can’t fix the issues in the manuscript they need to suck it up and kill the elements that don’t work. Hopefully, all major flaws have been eliminated through the drafts and revisions before the alpha reader gets your manuscript.
Never, ever, ever send a first draft (or in my case a second, third or fourth draft) to an alpha reader. Do not punish your alpha reader with an unfinished product. There will always be a few mistakes, but you should have fixed every issue you can find with your manuscript before you let anyone read it. Drafts are never close to this level of readiness. Don’t waste your alpha readers time, it is hard work even when the manuscript is well worked. They only have fresh eyes once, so make it count; make it worth their effort.

I dedicate this post to my first line of defence.
The amazing!
The spectacular!
Alpha Readers!!!! (Insert applause and fanfare here.)

Kristin, Amy, Paul & Jane and Bob.

You are the bee’s knees.
Thank you for all your wonderful effort.

Cover Art with a Marketing Budget of Zero.

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In an ideal world a writer’s manuscript is chosen for publication and a team of gifted specialists develop your manuscript into a marketable book. Publishing houses generally have departments for editorial, marketing, distribution, production, sales, legal, and creative just as a bare minimum. If you want to be an indie author you have to manage the publication process yourself.

The book cover is an integral feature of publication. It is thrust in the reader’s face immediately and is responsible for the big first impression.

The ebook cover is a thumbnail chance that someone will click on your book over a million others. An new indie with no other titles under their belt is merely a blip in the digital realm.  If that blip is your first chance that someone looked at your ebook, it had better be presentable. By presentable I mean that the title should be readable, applicable and interesting to the genre it is written for. It should stand out to the eye because of the clarity of the image not because it looks badly done. It has to be good enough to lure a click. Only then will your potential reader have the opportunity to get a look at your synopsis.

I cannot compete with the amazing artwork and cover designs seen on professionally worked covers. I’m not gifted in graphic design, fine art or anything in between. I also have a pre-launch budget of zero for my first novel Dragon Choir. What to do?

Well after scouring the web for clues I have found a solution. An ebook cover can be produced with open source software without any impact on your budget. I used Microsoft PowerPoint (which I already owned) as a simple and familiar program to create the core of my cover design. If you don’t own the Microsoft product, use an open source product, I would recommend Apache OpenOffice Impress. It has similar functionality and is user friendly too. I also used a brilliant graphics program called Gimp. It is also free and very powerful in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. I am not one of the someones.

I got around that though. Tutorials.

The web has thousands of tutorials that will take you through both simple and complicated tasks to manipulate images to your liking. I found YouTube tutorials very helpful. For amateurs like me, actual creation of new art was not on the menu. I only managed tutorials which manipulated existing images and turned them into something new. After following several tutorials for Gimp I discovered a method to create a fire swirl. You can see this on my cover design.

DRAGONCHOIR COVER

The basic process I followed to create my ebook cover is below.

  1. Source or Create the image you want to feature on you cover. Save it as a .jpg
  2. Open a new page in PowerPoint or Impress.
  3. Adjust the size of the page to 42.3cm wide x 63.5cm high. (1600 pixels wide x 2400 pixels high)
  4. Change the background colour to suit.
  5. Add a text box for your title.
  6. Add a text box for your name.
  7. Insert your image.
  8. Shuffle them around and fiddle with the font until you have it looking presentable.
  9. Save the file as an image (.jpg) rather than a slide presentation.
  10. Get feedback on the design.

Here are some important things to consider for an ebook cover.

  • It needs to match the genre you are writing for and appeal to your potential readers.
  • It needs to stand out as one thumbnail amongst many many others. Make sure it catches the eye and can be read, even when it is small. Compare yours to other ebooks.
  • The pixel count described above is important. Ebook distributors will expect high resolution covers. There is nothing worse than pixelation on your book cover.

There are alternatives for indies with cash to spend.

  • Outsource the cover design to a professional. Google “ebook cover design” and choose a designer that will suit your budget.
  • If you want to make your own cover but can’t make your own image, buy the digital rights to artwork you would like to have on your cover. There are many stock image resellers online. Once you have the image you want, use the process above to fit it into your cover design.

Does my design compare to one professionally done? No. I don’t think so. It is clean though, with high resolution and it draws the eye with bright colour and a distinct image. I am hoping that it will be different. Perhaps that will help it stand out (in a good way) when compared to book covers with brilliant artwork of glorious warriors, ruthless rogues and arcane magic.

If I go indie with an ebook I would upgrade my cover to a more professional design once my book earns enough to do so. For now though, it will serve.