Saturday, February 21, 2015

Do NOT engage the trolls

You see the stupidity, and knee jerk reaction is fuck you, you stupid motherfucker. (Yes, I have been trolled.) A torrent of responses other than curse words tumble around, no it doesn’t, did you really read it, were you dropped on the head as a child, for the love of god please don’t breed. I’ve been there, wanted to do that had my blood pressure go up and wanted to throw something but it wouldn’t have helped because the troll wasn’t even within reach. That’s the whole problem the troll isn’t within reach and the even bigger problem is that pretty much nothing you say or do is going to make the troll listen, understand, or behave like an actual human being.
This could be for any number of reasons, you can’t fix stupid, for them ignorance really is bliss, and the worst but likely most common reason is they want to piss you off and create turmoil/agitation in your life because their own is sad, pathetic, and boring without having someone to piss off. There are sadly a large number of people out there who aren’t and never will be happy and they get a pathetic kick out of spreading around their unhappiness to others.
I recently saw a post on Facebook where someone felt the need to call out the FSOG author and from atop her white horse condemn the author for responding to a troll in an undignified manner. And herein lies the other side of it, people who feel they have the right to judge you and will then condemn you for responding in whatever way you see fit. Actually, I thought the response was funny and laughed.
Unfortunately not every response I have seen do I agree with. Which brings me to the fact that I have unfollowed two writers/authors because of their rants against I don’t know who on Facebook. Sorry, it can be painful and turning the other cheek is the last thing people want to hear when they are hurting but if your response sounds like you have gone batshit crazy don’t hit post. I get it, I do, you aren’t going to take it lying down and fuck anyone who doesn’t like what you do and how you’re doing it but when I see a paragraph rant that makes it sound like you didn’t take your meds today, it makes you look unprofessional and that is that last thing I need to clog up my feed. Because here’s the problem when you try and kick at shit, you’re going to get some of it on you and then you no longer smell so good.
I saw one of the stupidest articles on self-publishing I have seen in quite some time, so I called out his being a troll and his stupidity and the jackass then tries to engage and further piss me off by sending me another dumbass article he wrote. Blocked on twitter after that. I’m not saying anything is easy and maybe it’s only slightly easier for me because I grew up with three brothers who got their jollies from torturing me when there was nothing good on television. They are the ones who taught me words are just words and for a moment they can hurt but you are the only person who decides if they do or not.

So please boys and girls do not engage the trolls, when you engage the trolls you feed them and they get stronger and they come back again and again and then they go after others. Don’t feed the trolls. 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Covers again? Yes because they are just that important

Covers are almost, almost more important than the story inside because if your cover doesn't look good and attractive then no one is going to even open it see what's inside. I'm not going to admit how many free ebooks I've downloaded let's just say it's more than I'll ever read in my lifetime. However, not one of them has an unappealing cover because even for free I won't download and take a chance on something I think is bad. Because I do feel that a bad book starts with a bad cover and I'm not the only one. So unless you have a background in graphic design and you can honestly say it looks as good as something sitting on a bookshelf in Barnes and Noble than work with a cover artist, it's essential to the success of your book and you.

As I mentioned yes, I have already done a blog on covers (Of course people judge books by their covers) You can check that one out because only repeating two from that post. I am only endorsing Cheeky Covers because I know and have worked with Carrie and I can't see myself using anyone else. Repeating Alchemy book covers because again their cost is so low on premades and they have a huge selection of them most premades are only $65 but they have a selection of sale premades that are only $25.00 you can't even get a stock photo for that lately. I like their selection, across all genres, not so heavy on romance and erotic romance but several look great for romance.

Mayhem Cover Creations  was a recommendation, great covers. They do all types from thriller to romance but they seem to interchange the same covers so although the premades are a a great price at $69 you might need to ask for a custom cover and they have different packages starting from $119 and go to $199.


Bioblossom Creative  rates are kind of high with premades at $99 but as I have done more looking this time around that seems to be where the premades are starting out a custom cover is $199. The covers are a wide range but not many are romance.

Adipix Design is custom covers only but the pricing is great when compared with others and her previous covers are really eye-catching and impressive price starts at $115 and could go up to $215

ProBookCovers is another custom cover designer, his designs are mainly sci-fi and fantasy, even horror and thriller. They look great and although the custom cover pricing at $169 is pretty good right now he appears to be having a sale for $99. 

Lime Light Book Covers another custom covers only designer who mainly seems to genres other than romance most of them look great but I admit there were a few that had me cringing however the designer seems to be willing to go back and forth until it's right so at $99 it looks like a great deal. 

AM Design Studios really impressed me with their premades which seems to specialize in the fairy and romance with premades starting at $59 and custom covers at $200.00


I hope these help and if anyone uses them and has feedback they'd like to share hit me up.