Tony's Books

I won't shamelessly advertise, but I will mention that I've written and self published 4 books.

I was part of a creative writing forum, which I was told would be a supportive environment. Recently some of the other members of the forum started to make fun of the front covers I had made, saying they were drawn in MS Paint. I tried telling them that I'd used Macromedia Fireworks 8, but they insisted I had used an inferior software package and drawn it in 30 seconds.

Not wanting to be made fun of, I tried deleting the conversation, but I was banned from the forum for doing so.
I don't need them. If that's the kind of behaviour that's allowed, I'm OK with being banned.
Their idea of a "good front cover" is just white text on a black background, or something resembling clipart from Office 2000.

Now I'll admit, my designs are kind of plain, but I'm no expert artist and I don't have much of a budget to hire a professional.

That's really impressive you've written 4 books. Sounds like you're better off away from that forum if that's how they're going to treat you

Welcome tony, to be honest I absolutley hate elitism and your probably better off not there, doesn't matter what you use, how it looks or how it reads as long as its something you enjoy / like / feel achievement. Far to many people on this rock who think their better than everyone else and their views are what everyone should conform to, whilst hiding behind the safety of a keyboard and computer screen.

Has nobody told them you shouldn't judge a book by its cover?


Oh come on. Somebody had to say it lol.

What type of book do you write?

Mainly books for children aged 10-14, but I've got one for a slightly younger audience.

My flagship series is about children aged 12-14 with super powers who live in the North of England in the 23rd Century. They're trying to find out what gave them their gifts while trying to use them to stop criminals and disasters.

My younger audience book is about a 5-year-old girl who wants to prove to her older brothers that Santa Claus is real - but he's not quite the same as all the traditional legends describe him!

I have a fifth book in the pipe-line about a young knight who is the last warrior in his kingdom. He has to save a princess, but it's a comedy / fanatasy with a twist ending that I won't spoil.

I've got boys of that age group and I'm sure they would love to read them.

They sound really cool! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stella180

I've got boys of that age group and I'm sure they would love to read them.

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I'm working on formatting the paragraphs to make sure they're indented correctly. Apparently that's important, but it doesn't affect the overall content of the story.
If you're patient I'll post a link to my work when the changes are finished, but they are on sale now. But I don't know if I'm allowed to advertise.

I could send you the first book as a PDF for free if you like. If that's acceptable in the forum rules.

Inbox me ;)

It's a race against time tonight - "Stormbringer: Haunted City" releases on Tuesday, so tonight is the last night I can make changes to the manuscript on Kindle.

I'm about half way through the final edit. I just have to stay focused for another hour.

Good luck! I hate the editing process!

Wow! :)

It's done. Thankfully all I had to do was look out for missing line breaks.

Unfortunately I need to go back over my other 3 books and do the same to them. But I am off work until Tuesday, so there's less stress there.

While that last editing session was tough, I feel rewarded at having it finished. Bed time now, though.

You should feel good for finishing it!

Thanks, Suzi.

I edited my shortest book this morning, which took a few hours, but there's two done now and two left to do.
My eyes have gone a bit blurry, so to take a break from looking at text I edited some videos together.
My son likes these sorts of things, so I hope he enjoys it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sItVHjrJixI

I've been watching the first few seconds of it over and over again. I can't stop laughing at it.
I wish every day could be like this.

Lol! ;)

I've finished formatting Volume 1 over lunch time, so I just need to do the same to Volume 2 and I can have a day or two off from writing / editing.

Well done! :)

Woohoo! :)

I've made a bit of an error - I uploaded the content of Volume 3 into the cover of Volume 1 and I can't fix it until Amazon finish publishing the changes! I hope it won't be like this for more than a few hours.

[BEGIN GLOATING]
On the plus side, the actual Volume 3 has sold 1 copy on launch day! My most successful launch day so far.
And somebody in the writers' forum said the cover was so bad it made their balls ache. I'm not joking, that's what he said. I don't think he was looking at it correctly if that happened to him, though.
He also said the cover was so bad it wouldn't sell any copies. Well nuts to him! I'm $1.05 better off!
[END GLOATING]

Go you! :)

I'm still go get round to reading what you sent me, not cos I'm too busy, just cos I find reading difficult when I'm not doing so good but will give feedback once I am able.

Thanks Stella. I don't remember sending you any files though. My memory must be playing tricks on me.
But don't worry about timescales. I know we're all under pressure around here, so take as long as you need.

All of my books have been edited. The new versions are available for Kindle, Kobo and Nook. Paperback editions should be updated today. Smashwords editions will be finished next week.

I'm just working on refreshing my website with sales links to each of my books, character bios and a bit about me.
Also I've brought the prices of my eBooks down from £2.49 to £1.99 and the paperbacks from £7.49 to £5.99 to see if they'll sell any better.

Well done!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I just thought I'd mention it as this seems to be the only relevant place on the internet, but:

After a few months of having my main series on Inkitt, I'm getting feedback from readers. One person has put my third main series book in a reading list they've titled "Amazing" even though I don't consider it to be my best effort. Readership has also increased for the other two books in the series on there, so it looks like I might start to gain a slightly bigger following.

Also, after gaining some more directed feedback on the cover for book 3 (other than it looks horrible), I've made some alterations which render it much more appealing, even though it retains many of the original themes and style.

Well done! :)

Tats fab!

After lots of feedback, I've changed the art style significantly. Please let me know if you find these appealing or not.
https://scontent.flhr4-1.fna.fbcdn.n...db&oe=5B6989D9
https://scontent.flhr4-1.fna.fbcdn.n...87&oe=5B9D2643
https://scontent.flhr4-1.fna.fbcdn.n...16&oe=5B6A6EB9

They look cool..

Thanks Suzi, I know the previous versions may have had too much going on, so I've tried to simplify them this time around.