As I’m writing this I am on a train on my way back to Rhode Island from Balticon. It’s been a very busy weekend, but an educational one for myself and (hopefully) many others. I recorded several of the panels I either moderated or participated in, and have plans to post those over the next few weeks. You can likely expect one or two a week until they’re all up here. Tons of good information on books and publishing went out, but there were still bucketloads of things we didn’t have time to touch on.
Along with the audio from the panels, I’ll also be posting all the stuff from the 2-hour workshop I taught with Helen Madden on using Blender and GIMP to create book covers. Because of the time constraints we did not go into great detail about every function and button within the programs, but the overview seemed to give people a good sense of what they were getting into if DIY design is a path they choose to go down. Here is a list of the events I participated in and what you can expect to see coming up on this blog. Keep in mind these are the listed descriptions, but time and participant changes may have altered the panel on the day of.
Multi-Creatives – The demands of multiple artistic pursuits. Learning to do it all without losing your mind.
Put Together the Total Package – Tips on how to make your book sell, including various self-publishing avenues and requirements, marketing strategies, and tools to promote your work.
Dressing the Naked Book – An in-depth look at how to create a winning book cover, from start to finish, including what you need to know about image sizing/resolution, available software, idea generation, and resources to build a eye-catching cover image. (This is one of those that ended up quite different than intended based on who was put on the panel at the last minute.)
Beginning DIY Design Workshop – Learn the very basics of free and cheap software to create beautiful images. Bring your laptop and work step-by-step through this session, or simply watch and see how it’s done. We’ll walk you through the tools of GIMP and show you how to start creating smashing designs, plus show you the resources every digital artist needs in their back pocket. (Includes using Blender – a free, 3D rendering program – for the first hour, followed by using the rendered element in the cover we built in the second hour.)
Make Your Book Shine – Basic information on interior formatting and layout of manuscripts and book cover design. Includes when to DIY or hire someone, how to find the right people for the job, and why all of these elements are important for a successful book.
This is just a few of the panels I participated in this weekend. I was a part of others (eleven in all!), but these are the ones that apply to the purpose of this website and the design aspect of the things I do. If you are interested in the other writing and narration I do, be sure to check out the link in the sidebar to my other website.
In addition to audio, I’ll also be posting things specific to the workshop. Due to time constraints and inability to print or prepare anything because of my move, I’ll be putting up things for the folks who attended the workshop such as resources and links to things we discussed. I would eventually like to put video with the audio from the workshop, but that will likely be slower in coming as it requires considerably more work to put together.
But there’s an overview of what you can expect to see from me over the next few weeks. I hope you find the information helpful and entertaining!
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