BookBrush Review

Hi all!

It's been a while since I last did a review of something that helps my writing so I thought I would write another one. This time I'm reviewing BookBrush, a tool that you can use to make gorgeous images for your book.

I mainly use the custom creator part of BookBrush. I mainly use it for StoryOrigin headers and to make up my advent calendar visuals. They have a plethora of stock images you can use to make these visuals, which I think makes everything look better. You can add effects and stickers to your images as well to make up promo material as well.

If you don't want to create your own, there is the option of using templates that have been designed by the community. You simply pick the book cover you want to add to the images and you can download several in one go! I've used this a few times for a few promo bits. I like the variety of templates and you can search by genre or by what kind of promotion you're running. Sometimes I just like to upload my cover just to see what these materials look like!

I've created a few QR codes on here as well and I've found it incredibly easy. There are also book trailers which I've made up for the Elemental Dragons series. Unfortunately I haven't found a good use for these yet, but hopefully one day I can find somewhere to post them.

One part that has been recently added is the ability to have a book cover made for you. I haven't tried out this service but I'm sure it's as high quality as the other aspects of BookBrush. I did have a video call to chat about it when it first came about but I didn't go with them as they didn't have any example covers at the time. Now that they've been established and designed a few I'm thinking of having another look.

That's it for this week! What do you think of BookBrush? Let me know in the comments. See you next week. 

PS; don’t foget to check out these book bundles:

Finished Fantasy and Sci-Fi Series Prequels

A Box Set of Young Adult Magic

Elemental Dragons Stickers

Hi all! 

I thought I'd show off all the stickers that I've had designed for the Elemental Dragons series. You might recognise some of the designs already but I wanted to show off some of the newer ones! 

Aqueous. 

Aqueous is my favourite dragon from the series and he was the first to get a sticker. I got them a couple years ago and there aren't many left from the original batch now. I love the design and the way the stickers shine. 

He's also available as a circle sticker, but I prefer this one.

Damayanti. 

The simplest of the stickers, but I absolutely love it. They're nice and thick and they stick really well. Damayanti's design is perfect and I love the position the artist chose to draw her in. 

Like Aqueous, she's also available as a circle sticker. 

Drea. 

This was the last sticker that I had done. I love how she sparkles and I think it shows off her design really well. I don't think she's like this sticker if she saw it though, it doesn't show off her toughness enough! 

Drea is also available as a circle sticker. 

I'd love to be able to set up a shop so I could start selling them but at the moment I'm not sure where to start. I want to focus on setting up a Patreon for this year and then I'm hoping to get a shop set up. The stickers will also be offered as rewards to those who sign up to my Patreon at certain tiers. It's something that I would love to do in the future, once I have more time and a better idea of how to do it. I'd love to see people with merch from my books. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out this Sci-Fi bundle:

SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS THAT KNOCK YOU OUT JUNE 1ST -- JULY 1ST

The First Elemental Dragons Bookmark

Hi all! 

Last week I promised to show off a new piece of merchandise to you. If you haven't guessed from the title, it's a bookmark! 

This one has been designed for Blood and Water, to match the colour scheme of the cover. The design was made by Blink Marketing and they also printed the bookmarks for me as well. 

I've used one as a practice and I like the size and feel of the bookmark. I've added tassels as well because I like something extra that sticks out so you don't accidentally open the wrong page. The tassels come in a range of colours and I've added them to about half of the bookmarks so far. I think I will keep it this way so people have the option of a tassel if they want one. 

I will be running a giveaway for these bookmarks, one on social media and one for my newsletter subscribers. If you want two chances of winning, you can sign up to my newsletter here: Newsletter

In the future I would like to have bookmarks made for each of my books. I thought about doing them in order but I will instead leave it to my mailing list subscribers to choose which one they want to see next. I'm going to get some colourful gel pens as well so I can sign them if that's what people want! 

Eventually I would like to sell these, signed or unsigned, in a shop that I plan to open. They would be available on their own or hopefully in little packs that include a signed book. I'm still working out the logistics of this, so keep an eye out! 

You can follow my Twitter, @jess_a_turnbull, so you can enter the giveaway. I'll be posting it later next week. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS: last chance to pick up the books in this bundle!

New Year, New Monsters 3: From the Darkness

My Book Merchandise

Hi all!

This week I’m going to talk about what merchandise there is for my books and what I plan to do with it in the future. At the moment everything is based on the Elemental Dragons series, though I hope to expand this to my other books in the future.

The picture above displays all the merchandise so far:

• Pins of Aqueous and Drea (Top Row)

• Round stickers of Aqueous, Drea and Damayanti (Bottom Row)

• Holographic sticker of Aqueous (Left Middle)

• Die cute sticker of Damayanti (Right Middle)

• Bookplate (Middle)

I’m having a giveaway of everything pictured for my newsletter subscribers at the moment, I’ll send another email about it in a week’s time. If you want to enter, just sign up to my newsletter before next week and wait for that email: Newsletter. You’ll get access to three (with more coming in the future) FREE enovellas.

With book merchandise, I really want to know what you want. You’re my reader, and your opinion matters. If you want to help me decide what merch you want to see next, you can take this survey. It takes two minutes and it would be a massive help: Merch Survey.

In the future I would like to create a shop so you can get your hands on some of the merch outside of giveaways. I’ve been looking at options but haven’t decided anything concrete yet. One thing I’ll most likely offer is a ‘Signed Book Bundle’ which includes a signed paperback copy of one of my books and stickers.

The next piece of merch that I’m going to get done are bookmarks for each of my books. After stickers and pins this seems like what people want the most so I’ll be looking into the design and making of these.

Another way that I’m thinking of offering merch is through Patreon. I have been thinking of creating a Patreon for a while and have ideas for what I would offer. One thing would be I would write a book exclusively for Patreon until it’s finished and then publish it alongside my other books. This would not be a book in any of my series, but a standalone that I want to write. I’ve mentioned in a post previously about wanting to write about the Teumessian Fox and Laelaps. The book would be around the length of my current books, around 75K-80K words and updated weekly. Those who subscribe to a higher tier would get stickers and other merch as well.

I will probably make another blog post talking about my plan for Patreon and a shop in the future, so for now the only way to get your hands on merch is through giveaways. I’ll probably do more in the future, including when Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana, comes out in October!

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week.

PS; looking for some Sci-Fi books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle:

Science Fiction September

Elemental Dragons Pins!

Hi all,

This week I have some exciting news to share with you - Elemental Dragons is now in pin form!

As you can see from the above picture, both Aqueous and Drea have now been transformed into wearable pins! I’m going to do a giveaway of these two in my newsletter next month, so if you want a chance of winning make sure you sign up here: Newsletter.

As well as pins and stickers I have plans to do merchandise in other forms as well. If you want to help decide what I should make, you can take the survey here: Merch Survey.

I’m hoping at some point to make a shop where I can make all this merch available to you. As well as pins and stickers, I’ll also be doing signed paperback books! Once I have the logistics of this sorted out I’ll try and make it a reality, though it might take a while.

Another thing that I’ve been thinking of for a while now is creating a Patreon. With this, I’ll post chapters of an exclusive book that I’ve been working on. Again, this might take a while to come to fruition but I would really like to make it a reality. The book would be a YA Fantasy book centred on Greek Mythology. Most notably, Laelaps and the Teumessian fox. They will be sent back to Earth when a disaster occurs and the Gods are nowhere to be found. By day they transform into humans and by night they are back in canine forms.

If you like the sound of a Patreon, make sure you tell me in the survey! Along with chapters of that book I’ll also be doing other things, such as polls and a monthly writing prompt decided by my Patrons. There will also be rewards!

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

PS; don’t forget to check out these bundles, you might just find your new favourite author!

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

August Fantasy Giveaway

Characters in my Book Posters

Hi all,

This week I thought I’d talk about the characters that are portrayed in my book posters. I commission an artist to draw a character for the poster with each book I publish and I intend to keep doing it in the future!

Let’s start with Elemental Dragons:

Blood and Water - Aqueous

Art by - stevcelazarevsk

As Aqueous is the companion of the main character, Hazel, it only makes sense that he is the dragon on the poster! I also chose him because of the title - as he is an important water dragon in the books.

Venom and Earth - Winter

Art by - ivanterribly2

Winter is one of the main antagonist dragons in the series and I knew that she would be perfect for the poster of Venom and Earth. As an earth dragon, she fits the title and I couldn’t think of a better dragon to represent the book.

Glass and Ice - Damayanti

Art by - Danielle English

This book focuses more on Braith and her attachment to Draca and Hazel’s ‘natural’ element so I knew I wanted to use an ice dragon. Damayanti was the obvious choice. I also love her design so I wanted to see her in art form.

Cinder and Fire - Drea

Art by - toodlingart

Although Drea is a dual elemental there wasn’t another fire dragon that I wanted to use for this poster. She’s using her secondary element, fire, but her companion mostly uses fire so I thought it would make more sense for her to use that element. It turned out to be the right choice as I love how fierce she looks!

Mute - Original Wendigo

Art by - lorenzouccheddu

Although I could have used Hanne’s wendigo form for this poster I thought it would be best to use the wendigo that hunts the characters throughout the book. I also really wanted to see the design in art form as I love the branches sprouting out of its back!

Years - Mother Earth

Art by - chimerahh

Mother Earth was the only non-human choice that I had for this poster and I love how she turned out. She doesn’t appear in the book very much but she still has a deep impact on Cheyenne so to have her on the poster was the most fitting.

I would go into detail about what future posters would look like but I think that would spoil too much! I have already planned three out of four of the Celestial Plague posters, the first of which I’m hoping to get designed this month. As for other books, you’ll have to wait and see!

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week.

PS; looking for some new Sci-Fi and Fantasy books to read? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Science Fiction Giveaway

Young Adult Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Taking to the Sky This Easter

The Ivybridge Bookshop Book Signing Event

Hi all,

As I said in my last blog post, I attended a book signing event at The Ivybridge Bookshop! There were twenty-eight authors in total who attended, listed here:

Margaret Arnold

Charles Becker

Sue Blackmore

T P Fielden

Biku Ghosh

Alan Grant

Trevor Griffiths

Eleanor Halton

Adam Hart-Davis

Kathryn Harries

Judith Hasell

Alison Huntingford

Kevin Jefferys

Mary McClarey

Laurence McPartlin

Julian Mitchell

Jenny Moore

Pip Payne

Tony Rea

John Simes

Ewen Southby-Tailyour

Julian Stockwin

Clive Venables

Veryan Williams-Wynn

Jane Whittington

Anne Willingale

And of course, me!

The poster for the event

There were quite a lit of people in the shop itself, which made it quite nerve wracking. I was one of the last to talk about my book, and read a short excerpt from Blood and Water about Aqueous hatching. It was fun to hear about other authors talking about their books and how they've sold. A lot of the authors based their books in the Devon area of the UK, often in the crime or mystery genre. I was one of the few that wrote Young Adult Fantasy.

I bought three books while I was there, which I have added to my to be read pile! My boyfriend, who came along to support me, ended up buying a book too!

A collection of photos from the event, courtesy of The Ivybridge Bookshop

Unfortunately, none of my books sold while I was there. I also brought along holographic stickers of Aqueous, a dragon character from my books, but no-one had any of those either. In total, I sold no books and didn't sign any either. It's disappointing, but I'm still glad that I did it. While waiting to read I was getting anxious, and when I spoke to the audience my hands were shaking so much that I had to cut my excerpt short. Still, it's good experience for if I get invited to one of these events again. It was nice to speak to other authors about their journeys in writing and see all of their books on display in one place.

You can check out the books by local authors here (includes the complete Elemental Dragons series!): Ivybridge and South Devon Authors

There are currently four of each of the Elemental Dragons books in stock, so if you want to buy my books and support a bookshop I would recommend getting them from the link above! I will also being doing a giveaway of some holographic stickers… So keep an eye out for that too!

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! For an idea of next week's blog post, keep an eye on my social media... See you next week!

PS; looking for some free books? Check out the amazing ones in this bundle!

High Summer: August Fantasy & Science Fiction Giveaway

My Bookplate Design

Hi all!

This week I'm going to show you my new bookplates! If you're unsure of what a bookplate is, it's a sticker that you can put in a book to signify ownership or hold a signature from the author. In this case, I will be using them to sign and send to people who want signed copies of books. It will be my first official author merchandise, apart from my books, that is!

Without further ado, here it is:

I struggled for a while with the design, as I wanted something that represented me and my books. I considered a dragon, but I'm not planning on limiting myself to fantasy books. I also thought of a snow leopard, like the one used in my logo, but decided against that too. Eventually I picked a cat, as I think that represents me and my books best. Every book I wrote contains a cat and I knew it would be the perfect fit.

Who is the cat on the bookplate?

The cat is Russetheart, my Warrior Cats original character. I wanted to use a cat, but not just any cat. Warrior Cats is what really got me into writing, and I wrote so may stories about Russetheart. Her design has changed a lot over the years, but this is the one that I'm sticking with for now. She used to be a solid ginger, but now she's a dark ginger with white paws. She's long-haired, though started off as short-haired, with deep blue eyes. Although she'd been through a lot and was an outcast to most of her Clan, she's strong, ambitious and loyal. I knew she would be the perfect cat for my bookplate.

The signature will be above her, which is what she will be looking at.

You can find the artist here: Fiverr

What the bookplates look like when printed - each sticker is three inches big

I will be doing a giveaway of a few of these at some point, once I've figured out how best to package and ship them to avoid damage. I might do more bookplates in the future with different designs, maybe one for each genre I write in. For now, I'm more than pleased with using Russetheart to represent my work.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you enjoyed reading and are looking forward to the bookplate giveaway, see you next week!

Looking for some new fantasy books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle:

NEW YEARS HIGHS AND MYTHOLOGY