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

StoryOrigin Review

Hi all, 

I last did a review post about Infostack and I wanted to do another. This time it's StoryOrigin. It's a platform where you can do newsletter swaps with other authors, join group promos and even send out review copies. I first joined when it was free and stuck with it when they added a payment system. It is now a core part of my newsletter as it brings me new fans and new eyes on my books. 

Newsletter Swaps

You can swap either free reader magnets or books available to buy. I do a mix of both to keep my newsletter going and generate a few sales. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to grow my newsletter so quickly. You can swap with other authors by genre so you can see who would be a great fit for your newsletter. You can also see their open and click rates to decide if you want to swap with them. 

Group Promos

I love creating and participating in group promos. They bring lots of new eyes to your books and are so much fun to organise. I love creating themed ones, such as dragons or monsters. I mostly use them to promote my Kindle Unlimited books, but I have done a few sales ones which have done quite well too. 

A group promo banner I created for a StoryOrigin promotion

I haven't used the other features yet, such as review copies. I do want to use it to gather more reviews at some point though. The dashboard is easy to use and you can keep all your links in one place. It's easy to upload reader magnets and create universal links for all of your books. Without StoryOrigin, I would be struggling a lot more with my newsletter. I know a lot of people compare it to Book Funnel, but I haven't tried that one so I can't comment on it. 

If you're looking for somewhere to build up your newsletter, I would recommend StoryOrigin. I've been using it for years and can't see myself without it. 

Do you like these reviews? If you do, let me know and I'll do some more! 

That's it for this week, see you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these giveaways!

A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas Giveaway

A Giveaway for National Author’s Day

Why I Love Participating in Anthologies

Hi all! 

If you've been checking out my other publications page, you've probably seen the list of anthologies that I've been published in. When I write short stories, I submit only to anthologies now. Why? Read below! 

Physical copies. 

Anthologies are far more likely to do physical copies when published. I love lining them all up on my bookshelf to see how much I've been published in. One anthology that I was included in even sent out a physical copy as part of the payment for submitting, which I thought was really nice. 

Builds your portfolio. 

You can add Anthologies that you've submitted to when you're pitching to agents and publishers. The fact that you already have work out there shows that you're dedicated to your craft and also boosts your letters if you're struggling to find stuff to add to it. 

Free Submission. 

I only submit to anthologies that don't have a submission fee. Not because they're not worth it, but because I don't think it's right to charge authors a lot of money to have one short story published in the book. I know some authors prefer only submitting to paid ones, but I like to keep my budget for my own books. 

Different Themes. 

I've found that my writing has gotten a lot better when I broaden the themes. My favourite theme so far is one about nephilim. I found the subject so intriguing that I knew I needed to write something for it straight away. 

Collaborative Project. 

I really love reading other authors’ stories. I love seeing an insight into how their minds work and how their writing differs from mine. You can find your new favourite author in an anthology if you look hard enough! 

More Variety. 

I can write a variety of short stories or even submit ones that have been sat in my folder for a while. It gets them out there and it also drives me to go outside of my comfort zone on some occasions. 

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoy reading, see you next week. 

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

Silver Winged September: KU Fantasy Adventures that take to the sky!

Abundant Woo-niverse Giveaways for Magical Realism, Supernatural, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

Infostack Review

Hi all! 

I'm not sure about how many authors are aware of Infostack and the deals they offer, so I thought I would give my thoughts here. I've purchased their Write, Publish, Profit bundle three times and I'm happy with what I got. 

Infostack offer cheap bundles with certain themes and businesses in mind. The one that I'll be talking about is Write, Publish, Profit. They do other bundles as well, such as wellness, healthy eating and marketing. I've never tried any of them as they haven't been of any interest to me, but from what I've seen they look quite good too. 

They contact a variety of writers, marketers and course owners and bundle it all into one for $49. They have several ebooks, courses and worksheets that you can work through. Some are discounts on software or services, such as cover design or editing. There is a cheatsheet you can buy to help navigate your way through the bundle if you're confused too. 

My favourite part of these bundles are some of the courses you can take. I've always struggled with marketing and a few of the courses are really good and have helped with that. 

Anyone can purchase the bundle at any point in their writing journey. It covers starting your story to marketing it when it's published. Even though I've published books previously, I still find some of the writing and editing courses useful. 

I'm a huge fan of Infostack because of Write, Publish, Profit. I've just purchased 6.0 and I'm getting through everything in there slowly but surely! It's only offered once a year for a week, which means you have to sign up to their newsletter or risk missing out on the deal. For $49 you get a bundle worth thousands of everything was purchased individually. I was cautious when I first heard about it as I thought it was too good to be true. I'm so glad it wasn't! 

So, if you've never heard of Infostack before or you've been on the fence about purchasing from them, I'd say do it. The deals are amazing and have helped me so much with various aspects of being an author. 

That's it for this week, don't forget to check Infostack out! See you next week. 

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

My Favourite Author Resources

Hi all!

This week I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite resources for writing, marketing and publishing books. I've used all of the below and they've all worked out really well for me! Some are free, while others have subscription plans or a fee for lifetime access. You can click on each of the names to be taken to their website, so be sure to check them out!

Reedsy BookEditor.

I use this tool to format all of my books. I find their tool clean, easy to use and it formats the book beautifully. They have templates for the front and back matter for copyright, dedications and about pages. It's completely free to use and I was so ecstatic to find it after hearing about how hard formatting can be. All my books and reader magnets have been formatted through Reedsy, so if you want to have a look at the end result just take a look at my books!

Book Brush.

I use Book Brush to design Facebook ads and graphics for Twitter. My favourite use for them however is making advent calendar facts! Once I found a template I liked it was super easy for me to just use that template and change the text and graphics. They have loads of images to choose from and plenty of book templates. I especially like their cover reveal templates, which I really want to use in the future. Another thing I want to try out is their Amazon A+ templates, as I would like to add them to my book pages!

StoryOrigin.

The thought of swapping newsletters with other authors terrified me before I signed up with StoryOrigin. I signed up while it was still free and had no hesitation in paying for it. I find it invaluable to swap with other authors and join promotions. My mailing list has grown a lot and I've found new fans of my work. I also really like creating promotions, and creating the headers using Book Brush. It's easy to use and you don't have to contact other authors directly if you don't want to. You can also see how many clicks authors get from each campaign they do, so you can reject anyone if they are joining campaigns and swaps without holding up their end of the bargain.

A header I made in Book Brush for a future promotion on Story Origin

Infostack.

I purchased Write Publish Profit 3.0 in June and absolutely love it. Everything they use in their deals has a massive discount. From courses, to books, to writing tools and marketing opportunities. I've only used half of the stuff that was in the deal, and I've found it all great! I found out about it through a Facebook group and quickly snapped it up. Their deals are only available for a limited time, so if you want it you need to get it quick!

AppSumo.

This is another website where you can pick up courses, ebooks or apps for a reduced price. I've bought quite a few of their deals and I'm really impressed with them. The first one I bought was the Depositphotos deal, 100 credits to download 100 photos that will not run out. So I bought another one when that deal popped up again! I'd recommend them if there are any apps or plug-ins you want added to your website or just to keep track of various things.

Depositphotos.

I've currently got 168 images left to download from my AppSumo deals and I love it! They have a wide variety of photos, vectors and illustrations for various subjects. If I'm ever struggling to find photos for a book cover, this will be the first place that I'll look.

Author Shout.

Not only did I enter Blood and Water in their Reader Ready Awards in 2020, but I participate in Cover Wars will all of my books if I can. Entering Cover Wars is completely free and it's free advertising. None of my books have won unfortunately, though I'm hoping one will one day!

That's it for this week! I hope you found this blog post helpful and will check out some of the great resources above. See you next week!

PS; looking for something new to read this week? Check out the books in this bundle:

Magical Winter - Fantasy in Kindle Unlimited

How Authors Can Use Fiverr

Hi all,

This week I'm going to discuss Fiverr, and how it can help authors!

First off, what is Fiverr? It's a freelance marketplace where you can hire people to do just about anything. From animations to business plans to crochet designs!

I myself have used Fiverr quite a lot for my business. Below are services that authors can use:

Art

Animations

Posters

Book Covers

Blurb Writing

Amazon Keywords

Marketing

Merchandise Design

Advertising Coaching

Book Promotion

Website Design

Guest Blogging

YouTube Videos

Reviews

Sensitivity Readers

I've used Fiverr a lot, and I really love using it! You can have a set budget and find someone who can help with whatever you need. A lot of the freelancers that I've used have been absolutely fabulous. Some of the art I've commissioned can be seen below:

I've also had some book covers done for my reader magnets. I'm not sure that I would have a main book cover done by them as I do like my current book cover designer. I've also heard about a lot of authors getting in trouble for using book covers designed by people on Fiverr. There can be a few freelancers who don't go down the correct routes when it comes to stock photos and rights to use on books. Make sure you do your research before hiring anyone.

However, I love the variety of freelancers that are available on there. You can work with them until you are completely happy with the project. I have plans to use Fiverr more in the future, with more art for posters and reader magnets. I've had great experiences with the freelancers and I'm so glad there is a website like this out there. It makes it easy to hire freelancers and communicate with them until you get what you want. A lot of them have specific add-ons such as expediting your order or adding more detail.

In the near future I'll be getting a cover designed for the reader magnet of Years, and maybe a piece of art for a poster of Nirvana.

That's it for this week, next week I'll be talking about Mute coming out! I hope you enjoyed reading.

PS; looking for some horror books to read before Halloween? Check out the ones in these bundles:

October Tricks and Treats

Halloween Frights

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

Why You Don't Need to Market on Every Social Media Platform

Hi all!

This week I'm going to discuss something that I've seen a lot of authors talk about recently - social media. While some only have one or two platforms for their marketing, others have several. The ones who have several say that all authors should be marketing on every platform available, and I thought I would share why you don't need to do that.

The platforms that authors usually have a mix of are:

Twitter.

Facebook.

YouTube.

Instagram.

Reddit.

Medium.

TikTok.

Clubhouse.

Pinterest.

Patreon.

To begin with, it's too much.

Some authors may be able to use all of the platforms effectively, but I just think it's too much. How are you supposed to engage with your audience equally when you have so many platforms to keep an eye on? Ones like TikTok and YouTube may require you to follow trends or do challenges in order to stay relevant. So you have to research that, on top of posting regularly, and interacting with other regularly. It's just way too much.

Most of the time, it's not effective.

Some choose to post the same thing on all of their social media platforms so then more people see it. However, with things like Twitter and Facebook, it's hard for these posts to get noticed unless one goes viral. A lot of the time you'll just be screaming into the void.

It takes away from other marketing and writing.

If you're spending all day on social media crafting the perfect post and engaging with others, you're going to have less writing time. It also means you'll have less time to research for your advertisements.

Information overload.

If your fans follow you on multiple platforms then they will see a lot of posts from you. Sometimes this can be a hit overwhelming, as if they miss a few they have to go back and see what you've posted. Sometimes it's best to post a couple of times a day.

It’s not fun.

You’ll likely spend most of your day worrying that you haven’t posted enough on specific platforms, or that your posts aren’t doing as well. This is mentally draining, so it’s much better to focus on a few rather than all of them.

Some are not accessible for all.

In the case of Clubhouse, I've seen a lot being posted about how they are not accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. A lot of the events on there don't use closed captions, which means that some people can't engage. If you're going to do an event on here, then make sure that you also run the same event on a different platform that is more accessible.

I only use three platforms myself; Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. It means that when I get home from work I'm not spending hours on social media. I can post as little or often as I want, with no pressure to post something on each account every day.

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

PS; looking for some new books to read? Check out the ones in these bundles!

Multigenre Kindle Unlimited Finds

Fantasy Books for Sale

The Pros and Cons of Book Posters

Hi all!

This week I thought I'd write another blog post that could help authors, this time about book posters.

What is a book poster?

It is a poster designed to market your book. It usually has the book cover on the front, and where the book is available to purchase. Some choose to have a solid colour background or a picture, while other authors go for illustrations. An example of one of my book posters is below:

I went down the illustration route, as I like those best on posters. The top of the poster is dedicated towards the illustration, which initially catches the eye. Then as they look down the reader can see the book cover, tag line, and the fact that it's available on Amazon. Not all authors use book posters, but I prefer having something to tag onto the end of my blog posts and emails.

Pros.

Eye-catching.

A lot of posters can be eye-catching, which is exactly what you need when marketing your book. You want people to be drawn to it and check out your work.

You can make them yourself.

Using websites like BookBrush or Canva, you can make your own marketing material. They have a lot of templates and designs to choose from. You don't have to pay someone else to make it for you.

Useful for advertising.

If you use Facebook ads, then having a book poster as your ad could help you make more sales. It also means you don't have to worry too much about the visual aspect of the ad, as that has already been covered.

Cons.

Illustrations can be expensive.

To get the type of illustration that you want for your poster, it's going to cost money. To get a good one by a talented artist will, rightfully, cost more. If you want to use illustration, make sure you set aside a bit of your budget for the cost of this.

You can't use them in many places.

I use them at the end of my blog posts and emails, but that's about it. Most posters are too large and get cropped by social media sites. This means that they can't grab people as easily. There aren't many places that they can be used effectively.

Might not do as well as regular advertising.

Using a book poster as an ad may not work, depending on your target audience. Some prefer to see images that relate to your book. For example: weapons, backgrounds or creatures.

That's it for this week! Do you have a book poster? Do you consider it a marketing necessity? Comment your thoughts below! See you next week.

PS; looking for some new books to add to your bookshelf? Check out the ones in these bundles!

Multigenre Kindle Unlimited Finds

Inside the Dragon’s Cave…