Projects for self-isolation

Many of you, like me, will be stuck at home at the moment. I'll admit it's not a huge drama, I'm happy with my own company. But that's my choice, not because I've been told I have to. It's a great time to be getting on with the latest work in progress but I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the new novel. To try to get past that, I've signed up for Campnanowrimo, which is like a mini version of Nanowrimo. You can check it out here.

In the meantime, I've been mucking about with Photoshop. I've had the Creative Cloud version in the past when I actually earned some money from writing but these days I can't justify AU$180 per year for something that's an occasional toy. I bought Photoshop Elements years ago and I'll stay with that (although I have upgraded to the latest version). It can do almost everything that PS CC can do – just not the really fancy stuff like manipulating smart objects. That's a shame because I came across some great ways of creating 3D covers.

Here are some examples, all created using Covervault templates. You'll find videos on how to use the templates in a section called "tutorials". I can recommend this resource – but you do need PS CC.

However, there are lots of other things you can do to support your writing projects. For instance, you can create posters using just about any simple graphics software that lets you add text to pictures - and you can have fun browsing the stock photo stores for suitable pictures.

This one is simply a bought stock photo with a teaser. Great for things like Twitter if you add a buy link.

This one is a combination of a background with a snippet of text – a quick way of inviting readers to look at your book rather than having to click over to a website to read the snippet. Again, don't forget to add that buy link.

And then there are online tools that let you create fun posters. Photofunia is one I've used several times. Just upload your cover and the software does the rest. You don't need any skills and it's free.

Here are a few of my results.

For this one I uploaded a poster I'd made.

Even if you can't get your head around writing, you can have some fun with these projects.

Another day, another cover

I used to think I wasn't too bad at graphic design - until I had a few covers made by people who know what they're doing. Really, it's so very important to have an eye-catching cover. So I had my favourite cover designer, Rebecca Poole, take a look at the covers for Morgan's Choice and Morgan's Return.

Here are the old ones (done by me) as comparison.

We were both very happy with the (inevitable) spaceships I'd used in the previous versions, but I wanted to see if we could get the people element into the visual. Rebecca and I tossed around some ideas, and finally decided on a "his" and "hers" approach. Then it was all down to the cover models. And once again we were reminded how hard it is to get the right kind of cover model. Ravindra is dark-skinned, but of Indian appearance, not African. There are a few around, but long hair and unshaven would not go with the image (sorry Vikkas), and I didn't want anybody too young. So the man in the cover is a compromise. He's not as dark as I'd like, but I really like the pose, Ravindra looking for answers to difficult questions. And of course I LOVE that ship.

Then we moved on to Morgan. I knew she looked like those very beautiful women of mixed race that you see in South America, but with strange, chrome eyes. We found a stunning model, Bex fixed the eyes, added an incredible space scene with weird alien ships - and we were done.

I'd never really realized how important fonts are. Believe me, the detail makes all the difference. And you don't HAVE to have the titles in the middle of the space. Who knew?

I think these covers are absolutely stunning, and they fit the stories really, really well. Bex is an absolute pleasure to work with. Take a look at her site.

Oh, and if you want to know more about Morgan's Choice and Morgan's Return, you'll find the series page here.