Interview #4 by author Gabrielle Faust

Gabrielle Faust, a horror author best known for her dark fantasy vampire series ETERNAL VIGILANCE, interviewed me on her Horror and Sci-Fi Entertainment blog. Read the intervew at this link:

http://www.examiner.com/x-23384-Horror-and-SciFi-Entertainment-Examiner~y2009m10d7-Brian-Moreland-takes-us-behind-the-Shadows-in-the-Mist

Radio Interview: Urban Echoes

You can hear my interview talking talking aobut writing, publishing, and consulting writers at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/voicesandvibes/2009/12/11/author-entrepreneur-mable-cannings-author-brian-moreland

Radio Interview: "Coffee with an Author"

I just did an interview this morning where I talk about novel writing and my journey as a published author. You can listen to the interview at this link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/i-just-finished/2009/10/26/brian-moreland-on-coffee-with-an-author

Designing a Book Cover

When I self-published my first novel, Shadows in the Mist, back in 2006, I formed my own publishing company and switched from being novel writer to being publisher and art director of a product I was bringing to the market. My novel is a supernatural thriller set during World War II. I was an unknown author at that time. So I decided the cover had to be good enough to compete with all the other novel covers out there grabbing people's attention. I also wanted bookstores and readers to take my self-published book seriously. More than anything I wanted a book I was proud to share with the world, so I invested most of my publishing money into the cover design. The investment paid off. My book not only won a gold medal in an international contest, within one year it got bought by Berkley/Penguin for a small paperback deal and also by a German publisher to be translated in German. For any writer considering self-publishing, my advice is hire the best in the business to design and illustrate the cover. Below you will see the various stages my covers went through from initial sketches to final products.

When I self-published the trade paperback version, I had the great privilege to work with two talented, award-winning artists--cover designer, Kathi Dunn, and illustrator and painter, Les Edwards. Kathi Dunn was awesome to work with as she designed the layout of the cover and offered professional guidance throughout the process. She and her associates not only know how to design an eye-catching cover, they also understand the publishing business and what makes a cover sell books. It was Kathi who recommended that I hire an illustrator to paint a cover that would bring out the story. To see more of her award-winning covers, check out Kathi Dunn's website.

I researched a dozen illustrators, looking at portfolio after portfolio of paintings from some of the best cover artists in the industry. It was easy to find great talent, but I wanted to find an artist who would capture the essence of my story and appeal to the readers of horror and supernatural thrillers. Fortunately, I came across the website of Les Edwards. I was stunned to see that I recognized many of the paintings from books and movie posters that date as far back as my early childhood. He's illustrated countless Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and horror covers for bestselling authors like Clive Barker, Brian Lumley, Graham Masterson, and Anne McCaffery. He has won several awards. And he painted a movie poster to one of my all-time favorite movies, John Carptenter's The Thing. As I studied his portfolio, I was blown away by his use of light and shadow, color, texture, and details. The paintings seemed to magically take on a life of their own. I knew I'd found my illustrator and was thrilled to see Les was still taking on projects. I contacted Les' wonderful wife, Val, we negotiated a deal, and Les got to work reading my novel and sketching a first draft. You can see the evolution below. After reading my novel, Les Edwards sketched out this drawing for me to approve the concept. The pencil drawing alone had given me chills. After seeing so many of his breathtaking paintings, I had faith that Les would turn this pencil sketch into something magical.

My instincts were correct, and still I was blown away by the painting. It was better than I could have imagined. There are so many details and nuances to the piece if you look real closely. I was thrilled and didn't change a thing. Les Edwards had delivered an awesome painting on the first attempt. Next step was to send the illustration to my cover designer, Kathi Dunn.

Once Kathi had the artwork, she designed the front cover first. With a skilled designer's eye, she came up with the title fonts that best portrayed the novel and went with Les' painting. Kathi designed the spine and back months later, because that design stage requires having all the back cover copy finalized. After I received some reviews from authors who read the book, I selected the best quotes to put on the cover. I also wrote up a teaser to the story.

Lastly, we added all the necessary elements that the book selling world requires: category, price, ISBN#, bar code, designer credits, and publisher and author websites. Having an artist as revered as Les Edwards paint Shadows in the Mist's cover was an author's dream come true. To see many samples of his book covers, check out Les Edwards' website.

In 2007, I signed a deal with Berkley/Penguin to re-release Shadows in the Mist as a small paperback. They assigned the book an art director to give the cover a whole new look. Illustrator Eric Williams was hired to paint the cover. He's an award-winning artist who has an impressive body of work. Eric, along with my art director, made the cover even scarier, bringing out the horror elements of the novel. I was ecstatic to see how Eric applied his unique style to my story. He first sketched it by hand.

Eric then painted the final piece in Photoshop. I love his brush strokes and the layers of texture he applied to give the cover a mystical feeling.

After the painting was complete, Berkley's design department added the title accented with black phoenixes to reference the Nazi occult element to the story.

Below was Eric's original design with glowing eyes. I actually prefer this version, but instead the publisher went with the second version directly above. See more of illustrator Eric Williams' amazing art at http://www.ewillustration.com/

Below is the German version of my novel which releases in Austria and Germany through Otherworld Verlag in February, 2010.

And there you have it, the evolution of a novel cover from concept to finished product. Shadows in the Mist is available through all booksellers: Amazon.com, Borders, and Barnes and Noble.

Self-Publishing 101: Obtaining ISBN# and Bar Codes

When self-publishing a book that you will sell through book stores or online, you'll need to make sure you have two things on the back of your cover: a 13-digit ISBN number and a bar code. In this article I'll explain what these are and how to get them.

An ISBN is the International Standard Book Number that electronically differentiates your book from other products selling at retail stores and online. The 13-digit number identifies the book internationally which allows your book to be sold in the global market. Look on the back of any book, and you'll see this number. It's also embedded in the bar code. The bar code, which you order separate from the ISBN, is also necessary. The ISBN is also printed inside the book on the page that lists the publisher's info and copyright.

How do you obtain and ISBN and bar code?

Each country has an agency that sells the ISBN and bar code. Authors and publishers in the U.S. can order them through R.R. Bowker. Here's the price list. http://isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbn-fees.asp

ISBN numbers are sold in blocks of 10 or more. When I originally self-published my novel SHADOWS IN THE MIST, I bought one block of 10 ISBN's for $275. That's enough to publish 10 book titles, but I only needed one, since my publishing company was only putting out one title that year. Bar codes run about $25 each. Any one who has a book can order them. In fact, once you have a block of ISBN's, you can officially call yourself a publisher.

Here is R.R. Bowker's home page: http://www.bowker.com/index.php/home

For more questions about ISBN#'s, here is the F.A.Q. link:

http://www.bowker.com/index.php/supportfaq-isbn

An author friend of mine asked: If I sell my self-published book to a publisher (like you did) does a new publisher just pick up that ISBN?

My answer: Chances are a publisher will treat their version of the book as an entirely different version with new cover and ISBN. The only real benefit of them using your existing ISBN is if they paid you for it and you got your money back. Otherwise, that book and ISBN discontinues and they launch a new version. They might even change the size of the book. Or it might change from soft cover to hard cover. Once you sell your self-pub book it typically gets a complete makeover.

Self-Publishing 101: Print on Demand vs. Offset Printing

If you're self-publishing a book, you have a few choices of how to get your book printed: vanity publishing, subsidy publishing, off-set printing or Print on Demand (P.O.D.).

Both vanity and subsidy publishers print and bind books at the author's expense and offer packages of services that include editing, cover design, interior design, distribution, and marketing. Authors maintain all rights to the books. They are essentially clients to the publishers and that's how they make their money. The main difference between the vanity and subsidy publishers is vanity publishers will publish most anything and subsidy publishers are more selective.

Self publishing is more for authors who do everything themselves. When I first self-published my novel, that's the approach I took. I formed my own publishing company. I hired my editor, cover designer, illustrator, interior designer, publicist, and set up my book with a P.O.D. printer. I also ordered the ISBN number and bar code, which your book needs in order to sell it in the market place.

As a self-publisher, you will eventually come to that moment where you have to make a decision between offset printing and Print on Demand.

Offset printing is when you hire a book printer to print and bind a large volume of books, usually 2500 or more. Offset produces the highest quality, however it can be expensive, because not only are you paying for the costs of printing and binding, you also have to cover shipping and warehousing, which usually requires renting a pallet in a distributor's warehouse. You can store the books at your house, but boxes of 2500 or more books takes up a lot of room. A friend of mine went this route and spent over $10,000 up front just for printing and binding. Offset printing has a higher financial risk, because you have to sell all these books to recoup your investment.

P.O.D seems to be the more cost-efficient way to go these days. I highly recommend Lightning Source. They are owned by Ingram, the wholesaler that Borders and Barnes and Noble, and most small book stores order through. When I was using them for my first book, LS had an incentive for P.O.D. publishers: any books set up with Lightning Source would go into Ingram's library. This means readers can go to Borders and Barnes and Noble and order books. Most self-publishing companies have difficulty getting their books into the system of book stores. LS gives the self-publisher an extra advantage. LS also puts your book on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. And you decide the retail price. The setup fee is relatively cheap. I paid $100. And the last I checked the fee for keeping your book stored in the LS library is $12 a year. They keep two digital files of your book in their library: the cover and a PDF of the interior. You have your own account and you can order copies of your book to be printed and shipped to you any time. If someone orders the book off Amazon, Lightning Source sends the book to Amazon, and you don't have to do anything except collect royalty checks that are profits from each Amazon sale.

With P.O.D, instead of ordering 2500 books at once, you can order any number you choose. This is perfect for authors who just want to print 50 or 100 copies to sell to friends and family or for a one-time event. This year I am using Lightning Source to print a memoir that my grandmother wrote. We're going to print about 50 copies and hand them out as Christmas gifts to family members. You can even order just one copy at a time, if that's all you need. Or 5 or 10, however many you need. For my novel, I often ordered 40 books at a time. I'd take them to book signings, and when I sold out, order another 40.

The quality of P.O.D. has gotten so much better, and Lightning Source is one of the best. I was very pleased with the ink and binding of my novel. The illustrations on the cover and inside came out perfect. Borders and Barnes and Noble carried my book, and managers I spoke with told me they thought the quality stood up to books coming out of NY publishing houses. Lightning Source now has the capability of printing books with color art, such as children's books.

So if you've reached that point where you are deciding between offset and P.O.D., I recommend considering P.O.D. as a fast and inexpensive way to get your book into print. I was completely satisfied with my experience with Lightning Source. Their staff was friendly and the quality of the finished product met my high standards.

Teaser Chapters from My Upcoming Novel

I just posted a sneak peek from my horror novel DEAD OF WINTER. You can read the first 3 chapters at my fiction blog Dark Lucidity:

http://www.brianmoreland.wordpress.com/