Monthly Archives: June 2010

I have been musing on how my book comes across to others. I wrote it. Until it went off to the printers it was mine. Now, of course, it belongs to whoever bought it and my opinion of what I wrote hardly matters anymore. But I still find it intriguing. Four people have reviewed ‘Die a Dry Death’ and a number of others have commented on sections of the story. It’s fascinating how people have interpreted my intention. Does this mean I didn’t write it well enough? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just that people interpret what they read according to their own lights.

May I quote from the redoubtable Professor Tolkien, whose book has been read by many, many more folk than will ever venture into Die a Dry Death.

This is from the foreword of my own much-battered India-paper edition of The Lord of the Rings, published in 1969, printed in 1974.

“The Lord of the Rings has been read by many people since it finally appeared in print fifteen years ago; and I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my story there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or to write it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has been noted by others: the book is too short.

As for any inner meaning or ‘message’, it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches:
but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the link between it and The Hobbit. The crucial chapter, ‘The Shadow of the Past’, is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted. Its sources are things long before in mind, or in some cases already written, and little or nothing in it was modified by the war that began in 1939 or its sequels.

The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dur would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.

Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

There’s got to be something in there for everyone to ponder.

We talked a bit about covers last time, the things you need to consider – colours, themes, title. But where do you get that great picture that says it all just for your book? Take care – you can’t just pop on the internet and pinch a picture. There are such things as copyright, royalties (where you pay a fee every time a picture is used), acknowledgements, use of commercial logos or famous monuments… So what are these things and how do you get around them?

Your own picture

The obvious one is… obvious. A photograph you have taken yourself. But before you go ahead, look at your masterpiece critically. Is your own shadow on show (and does that help?) Is the lighting right? Have you shown something distracting in the background? In short, is your masterpiece any good and does it work from a distance?

If it doesn’t quite cut the mustard, all is not lost. You’d be amazed what you can do even with Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Take this shot.

Now, I’m not suggesting this could be a cover, I’m using it as an example. But just using MOPM I can crop out a bit I want and come up with this.

And there are options to automatically fix the shading, change grey tones and fix up that crooked horizon. Have a play. You might surprise yourself.

Other sources

The internet is a great source of potential covers – photographs and illustrations, too. Always look for royalty free resources. You may have to pay to download the picture, but then you can use it for your cover without having to pay any more. You’ll find lots of sites. iStockphoto is one, Dreamstime is another. The latter offers free photos, too. Just think of a keyword for the type of image you’re looking for (eg space, spaceship). If you’re doing this from Google, add ‘royalty free’.

The alien warships featured on the front of both the Ptorix Wars books were purchased from Dreamstime for a small, once-only fee. This is a cover I did for ‘Showdown’ (who would have guessed?). It won’t be the cover on the book – it will match the ‘Standoff’ cover – but it illustrates what I’ve done

If you want background pictures of space, nebulae, earth from space, the planets etc, don’t go past NASA’s sites. Their pictures are free. The ringed planet picture in the background here came from NASA.

I used Photoshop’s layers facility to put the various elements of the cover together. If you have Photoshop or some equivalent, have a play. Photoshop comes with an easy-to-follow tutorial. I enjoyed myself.

Maps

The National Library of Australia had this to say about maps . ‘Maps published in or before 1954 are free of copyright. For maps published in 1955 or later by a government publisher, copyright lasts for 50 years after the end of the year the map was published. For maps published in 1955 or later by a non government publisher, copyright lasts for 70 years after the end of the year the map was published.’

This doesn’t mean you don’t need permission, though. For instance, the 1626 map used for the end papers of ‘Die a Dry Death’ was used courtesy of the National Library of Australia for the cost of sending it to Diiarts after we’d explained the intended usage. It was found in an internet catalogue.

Paintings

Old art tends to belong to people or museums. So while you can use these things on your cover, you have to get permission and you may well have to pay a fee. Accordingly, the painting ‘Storm at Sea’ by van der Velde was used with permission of the owners for the cover of ‘Die a Dry Death’. But that came out of a catalogue us self-publishers may find harder to obtain. The point is, don’t think you can pop off to the Louvre’s site and use a picture of the Mona Lisa on your cover just like that, just because it’s old.

Commercial images

Stay clear of commercial brands like Coca-cola, Nike, Adidas etc – especially if you’re in some way being critical. A couple of coke cans might LOOK nice but the Coca-Cola company has a raft of corporate lawyers. That includes their logos. And it seems some iconic buildings like the Sydney Opera House are a little sensitive about unlicensed images. If you find such things on iStockPhoto, they would have obtained permission so you should be okay. But don’t take my word for it – check.

Size

Even if you are only producing a cover for an eBook, don’t make the mistake (like I did) of thinking you can produce a small image. Amazon prefers an image of at least 1200 pixels on the longest side. That’s because they want the best resolution they can get as they translate your pic into their format. They only accept jpeg and tiff formats, by the way. This is another advantage of using Mobipocket Creator for setting out your eBook before you load it – the software warns you if the cover image is too small.

Get someone else to do it

It may not cost you much to get a graphic artist to help you – especially if you have the picture elements already. A few fellow writers have proved generous with their time and talents in that respect.

Whatever you do – remember your cover is your shop window. Make sure it’s the very best it can be.