Back in my young, naïve days of writing–oh, circa 2004 LOL I thought writing a book was the hard part about being a writer. (Yes, you can all laugh now.) I was like the little kid in the back seat of the car. “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” The End seemed to be at the end of a dark tunnel that I was traversing forever.
Flash forward to joining RWA (Romance Writers of America) and learning about agents, and editors, query letters, a synopsis, and submitting. Needless to say, writing the book is not the hardest part.
Flash forward again to going Indie and I’ve learned a whole new brand of hard. Formatting, uploading, checking book descriptions, reading TOS for each vendor, pricing, cover art, editing, and etc. Because the list is never-ending. But it can be a little easier with a group like the Authors of Main Street. A couple do formatting. One does the cover. We all have input (sometimes that is funny all by itself) and we can discuss anything about the book.
So today I thought I would try to make a picture with text for putting on Facebook. I like Photoshop but I’m not great at it yet. Well, I’ll let you be the judge. But be gentle, still working on that thick skin us writers are supposed to grow. 🙂
Authors of Main Street 
Hi Jill,
I think it draws people’s attention, especially the color. And then they will read the authors names. That’s how i did it. I love how each book is set up as a boxed set. You did a great job.
Janie Lee
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Well, I can’t take credit for the boxed set graphic. That was our lovely E. Ayers. She knows Photoshop a lot better than I do. LOL
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Very nice invitation, Jill. You are doing great. I had Photoshop for two years and haven’t learned to use it. I prefer Roxio. Yes, nobody ever promised us a rose garden.
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No, no promises for writers. Although, it is a job I like!!!
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Thank you for the lovely invitation! No one would guess that you’re a Photoshop newbie.
You are so right about writing the book NOT being the hardest part. That was a surprise to me too. But it’s sooo worth all the hard work.
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Thanks, Sandra. I do like playing with photoshop. I designed my cover photo for Facebook too, so I’m slowly getting it.
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Beautiful job, Jill and E. Writing these days is like being a short order cook. You do it all.:)
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So true. A little of this and a little of that.
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Well, I’d lighten the purple so the black font shows up a little more. And a flat purple color isn’t as catching as a nice gradient. Besides gradients are like playing with a box of crayons and no one tells you that you have to stay in the lines! I love Photoshop! (Most of the time – sometimes I curse it!)
Actually the vast majority of people do not understand that indie means independent publisher. That means we do it all or hire people to do it. We become the publisher! So we’re not just writing, we’re publishing! It’s hard W – O – R – K !
But working with everyone on the boxed set is fun and to some extent some of the work is shared! Instead of formatting one story, Mona formatted eleven! Of course we tried very hard to give her very clean manuscripts to format. And we all handled the burden of having our manuscripts edited by our editors before Mona got them. But the nice thing for me is so many of the Authors on Main Street are so much more proficient with FB and other social media so they are spreading the word and advertising. (Me? I run my mouth and blog!)
Who has thick skin? Mine is about a thick as rice paper.
🙂
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Thanks, Kelly. I will play with the gradient, sounds like fun!! I actually went to college to be an accountant/computer programmer so I love playing with techy stuff.
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Nice, Jill. I too have Photoshop but never have had the time to learn how to use it extensively. Learning curve is pretty steep.
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LOL I mostly use it to resize photos.
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Great blog, Jill. Writing isn’t the hardest part for me either, although that’s hardly easy :). Marketing and getting people to buy is proving the most difficult aspect of it at the moment. Thank, God for AoMS…it’s so much better with a community of fabulous authors and business women in the soup with you! I love the invitation!
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Thanks, Leigh. E. sent me a great background that I’m going to play with.
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Just got your Newsletter…It’s BEAUTIFUL! Congrats!
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