Month: March 2018

Energy = Flow

I talked to an interesting woman at a hotel bar yesterday.

I was at the hotel bar because my friend invited me to a free real estate seminar.Ā  I'm not really a real estate person, but my friend is always talking about ideas with me, so naturally I'd be willing to tag along with him to a seminar on real estate.Ā  Good friends do stuff like that for each other.

I got dressed up in a yellow tie, beige blazer, black pants and a pair of green Van sneakers I bought "new" the day before at Nordstrom Rack.Ā  I even wore a watch I designed myself on Zazzle.com.

I dressed up because my friend told me he wanted to buy a suit for job interviews, soĀ  naturally, I turned around, pulled all my "good" clothes out of my closet and now I've been wearing them for the past two days, just because.

Anyway, I sat at that hotel bar drinking happy hour beer and writing things down in my journal when a husband and wife couple sat down next to me.

The two were regulars because other servers were saying "hi" to them and smiling.

She ordered a drink and said the words "on the rocks" and "dirty" in the same sentence.

IĀ  just sat there writing in my journal, writing about the high hotel ceiling, the liquor on the shelves with spotlights shining down on the bottles like they're actors on a stage, writing a hotel scene that I will be using in a new story.

I even started writing about the couple, making up stuff, because I was curious.

All the while I sat sending and taking messages on my "dumb" phone, scheduling future interviews I'm going to do for my GoshDarnBlog.com site.

The husband asked me, "Still working?" as if I should leave it at all at the office because it's past 5 o'clock.Ā  I didn't tell him I was a writer, but closed my eyes and laughed and said, "My work's never over."

After thirty minutes sitting next to the couple, a woman in a baseball cap recognized them and said, "Holy Cajoly!"

I thought it was funny, "Holy Cajoly? I've never heard that one before!" I said.

The wife had heard it before and commented on how there's always something new to learn.Ā  She was interested in talking to me more and told me she channels energy.Ā  I told her I was a creative writer and tried to get her email for my list, but instead just gave her a business card.

She wanted to tell me what she sensed.Ā  I was hesitant, but after explaining my hesitation from past unpleasant experiences with new age people; like I'd been to an event once where we did one on one exercises with audience members, where more than one person told me I was depressed, which was way wack for me, but I decided to let her tell me about my vibration or whatever.

She said we are all unique.Ā  1 in 8 billion people, and each one of us is unique!Ā  I was learning this idea, just now, and finding my own way.

All true really.

"We should all make life more simple and not delve so deep into the intellectual side of things."

I knew this already being such a nerd writer myself.Ā  "Thinking" will give you high blood pressure because it's where stress comes from, so that makes thinking bad for your health!

"If you go for a walk you're creating new energy.Ā  You can receive new thoughts for story ideas.Ā  You can reset your body."

She also said when you die you realize you've wasted a lot of time being negative, which you're allowed to do here on the earth plane, but in the end you discover there's only good energy out there... everywhere.

I told her there was a Black Eyed Peas song I heard years ago, an intro to their album, that had a similar theme.Ā  I made a dj mix with that song as the intro once that got on a podcast.

The idea that there's invisible energy out there, waiting for all of us to accept the unconditional love, is a great message to hear.

"It's all about flow," she said.

The most interesting thing she said was how when you sit around and do nothing the energy from the past is old and you need to get new energy "flowing."

Since it's springtime now, it's easy for all of us to go out and access all this.Ā  Go for a walk and see what's available for you out there good energy wise.

Last night a friendly dog on a leash wagged its tail and sniffed me when I went out walking.

For some further study on this subject you can read a book called "Flow" on Amazon.

 

What Buddha Says

"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things.  Strive on with diligence."
- Siddhartha Gautama, founder of Buddhism

I have a Buddha poster on my wall.

A good friend gave it to me a while back.  It sits on my wall so I can easily look at a list of quotes.

The quote above is from that poster and I always look at that one and think about it.

Chaos is everywhere, in every "thing" and you can't get away from it, this quote seems to be saying.

Then it's like "strive on player," and the big smiling Buddha statue reaches out to give you a fist bump.

Diligence means "conscientiousness, hard work, concentration, effort, care, rigor, meticulousness, thoroughness."

Notice how it doesn't say "ignore" the chaos or drop a bomb on the chaos or destroy the chaos so it doesn't exist anymore.

I grew up Christian, so it's not always easy for me to understand what the "Buddha say."

My cousin's husband was in my place one time.  He's a minister.  He said, looking at my Buddha poster, "They got almost everything right."

Meaning they got everything right but Jesus? That would be a great bumper sticker.  "Honk if you like Buddha, but love Jesus."  Etc, etc.

Yesterday chaos for me was some stranger, who I didn't know, on Facebook, who made fun of me because I got my degree at a Buddhist/writing school called Naropa.

I didn't engage because "sticks and stones," but this whole idea of "destroying" another person through violence, whether words or weapons, really freaked me out for a good minute.

How do you strive on in diligence?

Meditate?

Pray?

Probably.

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Meet an Author

I meet a lot of local writers.

Meet Caitlin Berve.Ā  She's a published author, an editor, a blog/vlog poster and she even teaches.

She's an avid reader and writer of young adult fiction, modern fairy tales, and any story genre you might find advertised down at your local Comic Con.

Her company Ignited Ink Writing can help you polish that writing project that needs "fixin" if you ever want to hire her.

If you go to her website andĀ sign up for her newsletter she'll send you writing prompts in your email inbox!

Currently she's working on fiction and plans to have her works self-published in the future.

She made a YouTube video about manuscript formatting.

Follow her advice and present yourself professionally!

https://www.ignitedinkwriting.com/

Twitter

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Need Motivation? Read this.

He's got big teeth, a deep voice and is seven feet tall, everyone knows him, he's Tony Robbins!Ā  But have you ever sat down and read on of his bestselling motivational books?

Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

These two books are a great start to getting introduced to Tony's philosophy on how to live a better life.Ā  His books will show you how to change your psychological makeup and make you feel good.

I remember one exercise I learned from him was smiling at strangers when I walked down the street.Ā  I also remember a great story he told about how to deal with grumpy clients.Ā  Ā He just sat there smiling and listening to the client until he calmed down and then they inked the deal!

Jim Rohn was his mentor at a young age if you're interested in learning about him, too.

Aliens Among Us

There's nothing more creepy than having a dream that you're paralyzed in your bed or being aware of a presence in the dark, but these two things commonly happen when encountering little green men.Ā  These two books go into great detail to give you the skinny on Alien abductions.

"Communion" by Whitley Strieber

Mr. Strieber has seen things most of us haven't (thank goodness)-- actual aliens.

The best time to read this book is late at night so you're afraid to turn the light off when you finally want to go to bed.Ā  This book will freak you out because it's claimed to be a true story!

Communion was also a movie starring Christopher Walken.

"Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity"

Dr. David M. Jacobs has interviewed many abductees under hypnosis and has a book out.

According to him, it's not sleep paralysis, it's an abduction phenomena.Ā  The aliens literally pull abductees through windows and walls and of course then their are those alien "implants" that come up on the x-rays.

Next Blog Post: Yes, I Wear a Man Purse.

Next Blog Post: Crying as a Trend on the Net

Ray Bradbury and Stephen King Short Stories

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Ray Bradbury and Stephen King Goshdarnblog..com Evan Hundhausen
Ray Bradbury and Stephen King are awesome. GoshDarnBlog.com 2022.

Holding a print book in your hand.

The yellowed pages, the binding on the verge of collapse that only an old printed book copies can provide.

Then there's the lighting you seek out in the living room, in the den or at that lamp by your bed.  You adjust your eyes to that weathered paperback instead of using your tablet tonight.

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There are only two short story collections that stick out in my mind when it comes to print books from my past..

Ray Bradbury and Stephen King Short Stories.

Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man

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He wrote many stories about Mars and traveling there.  His stories have been turned into the TV shows on "Ray Bradbury Theater" and The Illustrated Man was a movie, too.

You can really sink your teeth into this collection.  Every story leaves you thinking about it for hours.

"Skeleton Crew" by Stephen King

Whether you're a fan or not check out this book.  I remember I read it one summer at home when I was in college.



Have you tried Death Wish Coffee?

The stories kept me glued to my dad's antique couch in the living room while I avoided looking for a summer job.

They grabbed me and didn't scare me too much, but they were all creepy enough.

"The Creep Show" movie was made in the 1980s because of these short stories.

Consider buying through the Amazon links above.  I get a commission through their affiliate program when you do.  Thanks!

Thanks for reading Ray Bradbury and Stephen King Short Stories!

If you like short stories try this fiction collection I wrote.

Next Blog Post: Yes, I Wear a Man Purse.

These two are killer reads!



Treaphort – Conscious DJ

Treaphort ā€“ Conscious DJ  GoshDarnBlog.com Evan Hundhausen
Treaphort ā€“ Conscious DJ
GoshDarnBlog.com Evan Hundhausen

Treaphort is a Conscious DJ and music producer from Colorado.

Conscious DJs combine elements of electronic music, drumming, and rhythms for ecstatic dance events.

Recently Treaphort made a song that "activates" you on a spiritual level-- "Rainbow Unity Activation."

I liked it, downloaded and even put it into a DJ Mix.

Treaphort says this about his creation, "This is a sonic activation. Kind of like a meditation."

Check out his song "Rainbow Unity Activation" and give it a listen.

Rainbow Unity Activation (one)_2018mix by Treaphort

Also, a while ago Treaphort and I worked on a remix.  You can listen to it below.

“Direct Lines” an Electronic Album by “The Slums of Mediocrity”

<a href="http://theslumsofmediocrity.bandcamp.com/album/direct-lines">Direct Lines by The Slums Of Mediocrity</a>
Just recently a digital album was released by a friend of mine on bandcamp.

"Direct Lines" is the 22nd album created by "The Slums of Mediocrity."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZC1lmisGXY
GoshDarnBlog.com 2022.

It is experimental electronic music.

Allan of The Slums of Mediocrity said this about the album he made, "A somewhat live, somewhat improvisational set of songs that came out of my jamming with a touch-pad Korg synth."

It's a calming, collage of harmonies and music soundscapes that you can trip out to on headphones.  I highly advise that you take the time to listen to it yourself.

U2 Cover by Slums of Mediocrity and DJ COLA



We made a track together once called "Slave2$."  You can listen to that track on BandCamp, too

I Choose Beautiful by DJ COLA feat. The Slums of Mediocrity

Or watch the "Slave2$" Music Video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/z47JQpnZe-k

Interview with a Cyberpunk Author

GoshDarnBlog.com 2022.

Jason Werbeloff is a sci-fi and cyberpunk writer living in South Africa. I took the time to catch up with him and ask him questions about Star Trek, the craft of writing and then veered into self-publishing and marketing his books onĀ Amazon. Read on below to find out more about him and his books!

What part of South Africa are you in?

Iā€™m in Johannesburgā€¦ We have different types of capitols, but itā€™s our financial capitol.

When did you start writing your shorts, your novels, your novellas? When did you start writing sci-fi?

I wrote my first book when I was 19. I was in the second year of university and it was a terrible book (laughter) I never did anything with it. I wrote and put it in the drawer.

Really?

Yeah. I think thatā€™s generally good advice is never publish your first novel. What happens, your first novel is generally autobiographical. It wasnā€™t about me specifically, but there were lots of autobiographical elements and I think for a lot of writers they have to kind of get that out of their system and once thatā€™s out of their system then they can start writing properly, so that novel wasnā€™t science fiction it was mainstream fiction, literary fiction, and then I wrote my first science fiction book when I was 29.

You donā€™t think you can re-write that first book and make it into something good, huh?

I had a look at it a few months ago. I called it back up again and I thought maybe I could rework it or massage it into something more useful and itā€™s just terrible. Itā€™s totally unusable, so no. No. Generally I think one shouldnā€™t publish your first novel. I mean there are amazing first novelists, debut novelists, I mean theyā€™re some phenomenal debut novels out there, but I think for the most part, thereā€™s a lot of stuff that you have to work through, emotional stuff and writing technique stuff that you have to get through before you can start publishing good literature.

ā€œIā€™m a philosopher, so I have a PhD in philosophy and what philosophers do a lot of is thought experiments,ā€

Iā€™m a fiction writer too, so I want to keep talking about this. When you write where do your ideas come fromā€¦ You said basically auto-biographical doesnā€™t sound like what you do, so you never put anything in your life in your fiction book to write a story?

I mean I do, but I guess it would be more unconscious than conscious now, so I never write a whole person that Iā€™ve met. They never become a character, but I do take part of a personā€¦ If I meet someone or if thereā€™s an important person in my life, theyā€™ll often have a trait, which Iā€™ll use, but I wonā€™t use their entire character, so I wonā€™t replicate themā€Šā€”ā€ŠLook, Iā€™m not sure whether itā€™s ethical or not to use a whole person, but for me itā€™s not about the ethics of it. Itā€™s about the creativity. People make great characters, but not as they are. What makes a person a great character in a book is often slightly different from what makes them work as a person in real life. People are not that interesting. I mean they are interesting, but theyā€™re not interesting as they are. Often with a slight change theyā€™re more interesting, so in terms of characters Iā€™ll often use parts of characters and in terms of situations. Iā€™m a philosopher, so I have a PhD in philosophy and what philosophers do a lot of is thought experiments, so we think about what the world would be like if it was exactly as it is now except for one change, so what would it be like ā€œifā€ and then we fill in those dots, and all my sci-fi stories could be seen as thought experiments, so we take the world as it is and make one change and I think the same applies to characters. You can take characters as they are and make one change and see a very interesting person on the page come alive.

ā€œI love StarĀ Trekā€¦ā€

Whatā€™s your favorite sci-fi movies and sci-fi books? I read a post about how you like ā€œStar Trek Voyager.ā€

I do. Yeah. I love Star Trek and Iā€™m watching the new Star Trek Discovery as well. Not quite as good as the old Star Treks, but itā€™s good and itā€™s going in the right direction I think. Yeah, so I donā€™t know if youā€™ve seenĀ Altered Carbon?

No.

Itā€™s a recent series thatā€™s come up on NetFlix. I think they released it about a week or two ago and itā€™s based on a book by Richard Morgan, by the same nameā€¦ I actually read the book recently. Reread it. I read it a few years ago and reread it recently, so that genre of fiction was called cyberpunk and thereā€™s a number of great authors in that genre, soĀ Philip K. DickĀ is just phenomenal.Ā William Gibson, thereā€™s a few very good authors I like to read in cyberpunk.

ā€œI created a whole lot of stories in the universe called the ā€˜bubbleā€™ and I alliterated all the stories and Iā€™m still writing in the bubble, but Iā€™m popping the bubble and moving offĀ planet.ā€

Why do you use alliteration in your titles?

I needed something to tie the stories together to indicate to people they are part of the same universe and thereā€™s various ways authors do that. Sometimes they use single word titles. Sometimes they use the same prefix for every story title, so like Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Discovery, theyā€™ll have Star Trek at the beginning of every title and one way I hadnā€™t really seen done out there was alliteration, so I started doing that and readers liked it I think, so Iā€™m now done with alliteration. I created a whole lot of stories in the universe called the ā€œbubbleā€ and I alliterated all the stories and Iā€™m still writing in the bubble, but Iā€™m popping the bubble and moving off planet. Itā€™s the same universe just it afterwards and Iā€™m no longer alliterating. Iā€™m using the Star Trek style, minesā€™ going to be called Star Phaseā€¦ Does that sound alright to use Star Phase?ā€¦ I always want feedback on these things.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

Well, youā€™re just going to be labeled a ā€œfanboyā€ thatā€™s all! (laughter)

I suppose. Yeah, I suppose so, which is fine. I donā€™t mind.

How many words do you write a day?

I donā€™t write everyday. Firstly I write five days a week and secondly I donā€™t write every week. I write one month and then another month is editing, so I alternate my months and on months when Iā€™m writing I write between two and 3000 words a day and on months when Iā€™m editing I edit between four and 8000 words a day depending on whether itā€™s a first edit, second or third, so first edit is a lot more intenseā€¦ but by the third edit Iā€™m doing six to seven to 8000 words a day.

Have you ever usedĀ Dragon SpeakĀ before?

Iā€™ve tried not withĀ DragonĀ specifically, but Iā€™ve tried other voice to talk recognition and Iā€™m not very good at it. Maybe I need to persevere. A lot of authors like narrating. I see value in it. Itā€™s fast. I just struggle to enunciate my stories. I feel so much more comfortable writing themā€¦. Do you use that technique?

No. I have a version that hasnā€™t been opened that a friend gave me because I just donā€™t like it and i see other people using it and itā€™s like you have to correct things and thatā€™s enough to make me not want to use it, so itā€™s really silly that I have a version sitting here that I could use, but I just donā€™t like it! (laughter)

Some authors swear by it. They love narrating, but I struggle.

I do have a voice recorder that Iā€™ll transcribe like Iā€™m going to transcribe this interview because Iā€™m recording it, so Iā€™ll do that.

The new Dragon can do transcriptions too.

Wow, so I should open it up and look at it basically (laughter) since I own it and then Iā€™ll get back to you on how it works?

Try transcribing this interview and see how, whether it works.

Iā€™m going to ask you some straight up marketing questions because thatā€™s what I like to talk about anyway.

Well, thatā€™s what I do most of the time.

When did you start putting your books on Amazon and self-publishing?

I self-published when I was 29 and Iā€™m now Iā€™m 33ā€¦ 2013 I started self-publishing and I self-published as I wrote, so with each story that I finished I then self-published it. I didnā€™t create a backlog and this year Iā€™m doing it a bit differently, so Iā€™m creating a backlog before I publish. Iā€™ve had a period where I havenā€™t published since October last year and readers are getting a bit impatient, which is difficultā€¦

ā€œYeah. Itā€™s nice to have readers that are impatient,ā€

Thatā€™s great!

Yeah. Itā€™s nice to have readers that are impatient, thatā€™s true, but I feel a bit guilty about it. What Iā€™m doing is, Iā€™m using a strategy called rapid release, so Iā€™m writing a whole series of books and then releasing them rapidly and that seems to work very well in terms of the algorithms

The Amazon algorithms?

It hits Amazonā€™s algorithms well. What happens traditionally is that when you publish a book, you hit whatā€™s called the 30 day cliff, so for the first 30 days Amazon promotes your book quite strongly for you. Your keywords get priority over other people with the same keywords if their books are older than 30 days and you get put on to the ā€œhotā€ new releases listā€¦ Itā€™s very good for your book and as soon as you hit day 30 your book falls off this cliff of visibility, Amazon no longer promotes it and suddenly your bookā€™s dead, so thereā€™s a Facebook group run by a guy named Michael Anderle and itā€™s called ā€œ20 books to 50kā€Ā ā€¦ Their ethos is that the best way to market a book is to publish the next one, so they try to write very quickly and release rapidly. Their goalā€™s one book a month.

Oh my God!

Yeah, so theyā€™re writing one book a month. Iā€™m writing one every two months and I feel like thatā€™s slow, but compared to how fast I used to write itā€™s a lot faster since I joined the group.

ā€œIā€™m going to be experimenting with that with the next Star PhaseĀ series.ā€

Thatā€™s really interestingā€¦ Iā€™ve heard of that. A lot of people try to sell a course ā€œWrite a Book in 30 Days,ā€ but recently I heard this great podcast on Joanna Pen and this woman being interviewed saidĀ write fast and publish slow, so she goes against what youā€™re sayingā€¦

Wellā€¦ their strategy is that, because of this 30 day cliff, you must be publishing at least once a monthā€¦ each new book that you publish advertises your previous bookā€¦ I canā€™t do that. I feel like personally Iā€™d burn out if I wrote a book a month and secondly that my brain doesnā€™t keep up with my hands. I canā€™t think of ideas fast enough to write them and lastly I need to edit, so I take a month for writing and a month for editing, but I do think if you write fast and you edit and you save up all these books and publish them rapidly one after the other, so that the technique is to publish book one, publish book two two weeks later, publish book three two weeks later and then after that three weeks to a month apart. I think that works really well and Iā€™m going to be experimenting with that with the next Star Phaze series.

How much does it cost you to put a book up on Amazon when you pay for the art work, for the book cover and everything else?

It depends. For short stories I use pre-made covers and those cost me anywhere between twenty and fifty dollars a coverā€¦ His website name is goonwrite.com and heā€™s excellent. You can buy bundles of credits, so he has thousands of pre-made coversā€¦ If you buy one cover itā€™s fifty dollars, but it gets a lot cheaper if you buy a whole bunchā€¦ When Iā€™m really stumped for a cover I use an excellent designer called BookFly and heā€™s just superb. The problem is he has a very long waiting list, so you have to book him out up to a year in advance, so you really got to know what you want and he costs a lot of moneyā€¦ but then thereā€™s middle of the range designers as well that I use like CoverMint. CoverMint costs in the middle between pre-mades and BookFly and that cover will cost about one to 200 dollars a cover. BookFly will cost five to 600 a cover.

Tell me what ā€œStar Phaseā€ is about?

I guess in a way itā€™s kind of a stock standard ideaā€¦ that the earth is dying and weā€™ve to get off planet and itā€™s about this ship that takes this select group of people off planet, but things are not quite what they seem and theyā€™re some nasty characters on board and some people that shouldnā€™t be on board and there are some un-likely heroes that are going to save the day.

Thatā€™s a great logline! If I was new to your writing what book would you suggest to new readers to read first?

Defragmenting Danielā€¦ It started a universe. It started the bubble and then after that I wrote a bunch of short stories, which I compiled into a book called theĀ Crimson Meniscus and the Crimson Meniscus has all those short stories plus the first book in Defragmenting Daniel, so they could buy that or buy Defragmenting Daniel directly.

So I donā€™t have any more questions. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

What kind of fiction do you write?

I was told I write magical realism. I have a short story collection that goes all over the placeā€Šā€”ā€Šthereā€™s steampunk, thereā€™s fantasyā€¦ When I was grad school I would write a lot of comedy and humor, so I have some stories that have just human elements that are not necessarily anything other than literaryā€¦ I veered off into genre after grad school because I kept meeting all these people on Amazon and you naturally meet genre people when you venture into Amazon, so Iā€™m pretty open minded.

Rightā€¦ I have a degree in English Literature as well, so I do understand your initial push to literary fiction. Itā€™s interesting because I think if you look on Amazon you wonā€™t find magical realism as a genre.

Thatā€™s funny.

I donā€™t think itā€™s a category listed. It would probably fall under urban fantasy or under literary fiction.

Well, thatā€™s great youā€™re helping me with marketing! Thatā€™s awesome!

Sure, sure. Look, Iā€™m not an expert on this. I havenā€™t tried to market a magical realist book, but I havenā€™t seen it as a category. Also, if you have a strong female protagonist it might be considered womenā€™s fiction or if you got a strong male protagonist it might be considered menā€™s fictionā€¦ Itā€™s always difficult to market your books if youā€™re writing multiple genres. I write in a combination of genres which makes it difficult,

What are they all?

They combine all these elementsā€¦ thriller, science fiction and horror and that makes it difficult because when I try to market to horror people they arenā€™t familiar with the sci-fi elements. When I try to market to sci-fi people they are not really familiar with the horror elements, so it can be difficult.

Learn more about Jason on hisĀ authorā€™s page on AmazonĀ or go directly to his websiteĀ jasonwerbeloff.com.

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DIY Book Covers

I spent about a year learning how to upload my own creative writing to Amazon and one day I realized I was finally ready to get my hands dirty and join the revolution myself.

There was one problem though. I had everything ready to go, but the book covers.

I happened upon a group I discovered at Meetup.com and it was mainly about how to put you book on Amazon. The consensus was you needed about w $500 dollars to pay an illustrator to get a book cover done..

The book cover seems to be most important aspect to self-publishing your e-book. Itā€™s one of the main deciding factors on whether someone will buy it.

I was short on cash, so I spent some time scratching my head about this problem.

I decided, since I didnā€™t have a novel done, Iā€™d put some short stories up that Iā€™d finished. They were only fifteen to twenty pages each, but it would help me get my feet wet with the KDP Select program on Amazon. (You can check out my short stories on Amazon by clicking here!).

First I used KDP Selectā€™s own eBook cover creator. It was real easy to use and the covers I made, in the early stages, didnā€™t look too bad.

But low and behold I discovered something totally betterĀ ! I found Derek Murphyā€™s website www.diybookcovers.com, and downloaded free templates.

Whoā€™s this Derek Murphy character? youā€™re probably wondering.

Well, heā€™s a book cover designer and author among many other things. On his website he saysĀ :

ā€œI believe the purpose of our lives is to create something unique that entertains, instructs, challenges or helps others.Ā .Ā . More specifically, I help authors and artists produce, promote, and sell more books and paintings.ā€

Derek has made gorgeous covers for literally hundreds of self-published, indie authors, but when you read about him on his website the most interesting thing he says is that he wants to buy a castle one day. Cool!

So I started working with the free templates in Microsoft Word software. I have Microsoft 2007, so this or higher is recommended.

If youā€™re used to using Microsoft Word you will have no problem working on the templates. If you need help learning Microsoft Word 2007 you should watch Derekā€™s videos or search Google and YouTube for instructions. You can read my article about how to use Google and YouTube here.

Once inside the template I added my own image and then typed in my title and name on top.

Then I was done!

That's how helpful Derek's videos were.Ā  I also suggest you check out his books for sale on Amazon.

 

I highly suggest you visit Derekā€™s website to learn about making book covers on your own. Itā€™s a great resource!

Now that youā€™ve read my blog post would you like to buy my e-book for 99 cents? Click here to read my short story collection onĀ Amazon!

Listen to DJĀ Mixes.

Buy aĀ T-Shirt.