Woo!

Nov. 25th, 2024 11:40 am
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Another romantasy premade book cover up on Etsy! And it's not muddy-dark like so many of the ones I see online are! Which might be a mistake if that's what sells! Wheeeeee!

And I screwed up my wrist--left, thankfully, as I'm right-handed--yesterday making over half a gallon of béchamel sauce for lasagna for our friend gathering next Saturday. I dislike the texture of ricotta and prefer the variant that uses béchamel instead, and needed to make A LOT. My right arm got tired of whisking as I was doing the slowly-pour-milk-into-the-flour-and-butter-mixture thing, so I swapped to my left. Which was apparently the wrong thing to do. Not that I knew anything about that immediately. My left---argh this wrist brace keeps hitting the control key and the windows key--my left wrist was tired, and I had to very quickly call for backup from [personal profile] myrialux instead. But I woke up this morning with something on the outer edge of my wrist hurting when I do things like HOLD MY PHONE or APPLY PRESSURE WITH MY RING FINGER (as I apparently do when allcapsing). [personal profile] myrialux hunted up one of our wrist braces for me, and I have been finding out what movements hurt.

Hopefully it'll get better shortly as I would love to make deviled eggs for Saturday, my favorite finger food. Lasagnas (yes, 3--two 9x13" pans and one 8x8" when it became clear there was too much Stuff to fit into 2 pans) are in the freezer to be defrosted ahead of time and baked, there are plans afoot for Caesar salad, as we've got a recipe we know to be good, and friends are bringing other things.

We used this recipe, which is meant to be a shortcut, faking a Bolognese sauce with jarred marinara, and zhuzhed it up with fresh herbs, a can of Mutti pizza sauce to round out the marinara (it wanted 4 32-oz jars and our store carries 24-oz jars) and one of those small bottles of red wine you can get in 4-packs. Yum! Add the béchamel, Parmesan, and two pounds of cubed mozzarella because we couldn't find the Cuisinart to round it out and I think it'll be good.

How do you misplace a Cuisinart? No idea. We don't remember tossing it (it's a little bit busted and we do plan to replace it), but apparently it was packed...somewhere? And maybe not unpacked yet? We're down to just a few boxes and thought we already got all the ones that were labeled "kitchen" but who knows?
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In posting here about my premade covers over on Etsy (for SEO purposes).

I've been spending the past couple of months running ads on Etsy and making covers to see what people like, as calculated by visits and favorites. And using a plugin that I subscribed to for a year to analyze whatever stats it can grab from public Etsy stuff. Which is not TOTALLY accurate but at least gives me a rough idea of what might sell.

Also, I've joined the Etsy Black Friday sale, in which you'll get 30% off if you spend over $100. I have CUNNINGLY PRICED most of my ebook covers at $99 to tempt buyers into adding on a paperback or hardcover that way. Woo. (If it's over $99, it should be a full wrap cover already created. I also have a variety of prices in order to see what price points appeal and are workable for me, although I haven't sold enough to have any real data. :D

Anyway, here's a list of new premade covers. Apologies in advance for the terribly SEO-centric titles, but these days it's all about the ~Algorithm~ and Etsy has some specific things it responds to when grabbing listings and presenting them as search results. And honestly not that many people are judging by the few characters of the title visible in the search listings; they're looking at the picture. (Some of them have "No AI" in the title, just to see if that attracts people or not. None of them are made with AI.) You're getting the full glory of the titles because I'm hoping search engine spiders will pick them up.

In chronological order, from the oldest to the most recent.

Full wrap Regency Christmas cover, in an illustrated style:
Premade Book Cover: Christmas Regency Romance with an illustrated couple embracing under mistletoe. Customizable. No AI.

Regency Christmas ebook cover with the usual photomontage.
Premade Ebook Cover: Christmas Regency Romance with a lord and lady in front of a Christmas tree. Customizable. No AI.

Mystery or thriller full wrap cover:
Premade Thriller or Mystery Book Cover. Suspense, mystery or action. Ebook and paperback. Customizable.

Mystery/thriller/spy ebook cover:
Premade Book Cover: Thriller, Mystery or Spy Ebook Cover | Suspense | Action | Customizable

Historical Christmas romance (yes, you can tell what my biggest sellers have been to date)
Premade Book Cover: Christmas Historical Romance with a lord and lady in front of a Christmas tree. Customizable. No AI.

For a bit of a change, some rendered crowns as transparent PNGs to plop onto your characters' or photo clients' heads.
Royal crowns for queen or princess. Digital overlay PNG. Fantasy, Medieval, Historical, Romance, Magical. Instant download.

What is this? A Regency romance cover that isn't Christmas??? I disbelieve.
Premade Book Cover: Romance Regency / Historical / Victorian / Romantasy A woman standing in front of an atmospheric morning landscape

Then I branched out into romantasy and dark romance. Here we have my currently Most Popular (as judged by favorites) cover. It has never had a different title, so I'm judging this a Success for Etsy searches and am pretty much using the formula for the others. Sorry!
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy & Dark Romance | Fairy Tale | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Ethereal Atmospheric Design for Young Adults

These next two were an experiment to see if I could replicate the uncanny valley feel of AI images using 3D renders and the type of post-processing in Photoshop that turns people's skin plastic. Visually, I succeeded, I think. Are the covers popular? Not that much, mostly because if you've got a person's face on the cover it's got to match the author's mental image of their character so it's a harder sell. But I proved the concept, so they fulfilled their purpose.
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy & Dark Romance | Fairy Tale | Elf | Fantasy | Ethereal Atmospheric Design
and
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy & New Adult | Fairy Tale + Dark Romance | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Atmospheric Ethereal Design for Young Adults

Back to the formula of the popular one above, with flowers and a sword this time.
Premade Book Cover: Romantasy | Fantasy | Flowers & Sword | Dark Romance | Aesthetic | Atmospheric | Ethereal

I wanted to try to picture a rose frozen in ice. I did it, stood back and went "Um...yeah that's absolutely the cover of a spicy romance, not a sweet one." (If you ever wonder if the entendre on the cover of a romance is accidental...no, they know damn well that it's there.)
Premade Book Cover: Romantasy | Dark Romance & Fantasy | YA | Young Adult | Aesthetic | Atmospheric | Frost and Ice

Replicating the popular one without copying it exactly.
Premade Book Cover | Dark Romance | Romantasy & Fairy Tale | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Ethereal Atmospheric Design for Young Adults

And the one I finished today, a more flat illustrated look. I learned how to make seamless patterns in Photoshop with this one!
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy | Fairy Tale & Dark Romance | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Atmospheric Custom Design for Young Adults

If you ever wanted to know what my most popular items are, they're these, digital backdrops of Santa's toy workshop. I got the most sales during the height of the pandemic as professional Santas and grandparents wanted appropriate Zoom backgrounds for calls with kids, and then a few sales at the end of each year since as photographers professional and amateur wanted backdrops to composite their subjects into for holiday photos.

Digital Background - Santa's Toy Workshop Christmas Scene, Festive Holiday Backdrop for Photography, Instant Download

Digital Backdrop - Santa's Workshop Christmas Scene, Festive Photography Background, Winter Wonderland Backdrop
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I've got 3 new Christmas-themed romance premade covers up on my Etsy shop now, two Regency and one contemporary. (Note: if you have an urge to crit them,please read my previous post first. Thanks.)

A premade Christmas cover of a Regency couple sitting in front of a fireplace.

A premade cover for a Christmas-themed Regency romance in which our noble couple is inexplicably standing outside their manor house in a snowstorm!*

And finally, a contemporary Christmas romance with a couple sitting in front of a fireplace with a Christmas ornament and a vast amount of green.

* Stock photos in historical winter clothing are difficult to find, and my quick research into other covers shows that nobody actually cares very much: the background is Symbolism and not Actual Illustration [tm].

I should really write a bunch more text here so that ~The Algorithm~ believes this is a substantial article with good information that people will want to read and thus rank it higher--well, assuming that any discussion of ~The Algorithm~ doesn't immediately rank links on that page lower--but we all know that y'all are mostly here for cat pictures and not text. So thus you are rewarded by cat pictures below the cut.

Cat pics for those who read through the post )
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Victoria Janssen's Finding Refuge, book 1 of her F/F cozy science fiction trilogy, is free through July 4th on your ebook platform of choice. This is a promo because the more action-adventure prequel is going live July 1st.

I did the covers, and quite enjoyed it. I got to create a space elevator for the new one. :D
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Ninefox Gambit RPG cover reveal (Locus Magazine) - art by MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Text via [personal profile] yhlee (see below for bonus image):

NINEFOX GAMBIT RPG is a tabletop roleplaying game of heresy and hard choices set in the tyrannical interstellar empire known as the Hexarchate.

YOU belong to one of the Hexarchate’s six factions. YOU are entangled with a regime that can change the very laws of physics—at the cost of human sacrifice.

Will you…

- CONFRONT your leaders, at the risk of being labeled a heretic and hunted down?
- CHANGE the system from within, despite the chance that you’ll be crushed by it instead?
- COLLABORATE to preserve what you can, at the cost of your principles?

Assimilation is a fate worse than death.

Designed by Yoon Ha Lee and based on his Hugo-nominated Machineries of Empire space opera series. Included are three starter scenarios by Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent and, with Alyc C. Helms as M. A. Carrick, the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy.


Due out in October 2023.

- Preorder the ebook (Android Press, epub). (Note from [personal profile] yhlee: the page says "Buy now," but I am informed this is in fact a preorder.)
- Preorder the print version (Android Press).




OK now for the BONUS IMAGE. Go look at the version on the Locus website first, please.

Story here: my first concept, since the game was less an action-adventure thing and more a cerebral RPG, and because I felt the six* playable factions ought to each be represented on the cover, was to have the characters sitting around a table debating The Plan (whatever The Plan was for that particular scenario). That really didn't work out, although it was fun working out the poses and expressions for each of the faction members, and when [personal profile] yhlee and I decided to go for a different approach for the full illustration, as a surprise for [personal profile] yhlee I added a few appropriate props to the table...

* Liozh erasure, yes, but they're included in the index if you really want to play one.

Cut for the ALTERNATE IMAGE plus PROPS )
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I trust you guys will soon figure out why I'm promo-ing this announcement here. ;)



The Ninefox Gambit RPG cover reveal is coming June 5 at Locus Magazine. Preorders will open June 5 as well at Android Press.

NINEFOX GAMBIT RPG is a tabletop roleplaying game of heresy and hard choices set in the tyrannical interstellar empire known as the Hexarchate.

YOU belong to one of the Hexarchate’s six factions. YOU are entangled with a regime that can change the very laws of physics—at the cost of human sacrifice.

Will you…

CONFRONT your leaders, at the risk of being labeled a heretic and hunted down?

CHANGE the system from within, despite the chance that you’ll be crushed by it instead?

COLLABORATE to preserve what you can, at the cost of your principles?

Assimilation is a fate worse than death.

Designed by Yoon Ha Lee and based on his Hugo-nominated Machineries of Empire space opera series. Included are three starter scenarios by Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent and, with Alyc C. Helms as M. A. Carrick, the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy.
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[personal profile] yhlee has released his pandemic project: Brain Games for Blocked Writers (link to the announcement on his blog, with where to get it), a book of tips for unblocking writers. I did the cover for it:



If you're interested in a little bit of how it came to be designed...Read more... )
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You know, sometimes you're sitting there making an epic flying wolf with lightning coming out of its eyes and you just have to say "This is my life now, huh." XD (In TOTALLY UNRELATED news, look for a new Zoe Chant coming soon!)

I also say this when I'm looking through thousands of pictures of shirtless men, a job somebody's got to do.
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Wolf shifter romance, this time, a full three covers. Hey, let's add some SEO: Paranormal romance wolf shifter series premade covers.

This blog is, oddly enough, my most prominent thing on the Googles and links from here get a bit more oomph than links from anywhere else I own or control. XD Anyway! Hopefully someone wants covers for a trilogy featuring the same couple, because that's apparently a trending thing now!

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