My experience using 99Designs to create my book cover
It’s true what they say, people do judge a book by its cover, that’s why it’s essential to have your cover created by someone who knows what they’re doing. For most authors, that’s not you.
Let’s be brutally honest. Unless you’re a cover designer, you shouldn’t try to design your own cover, no more than a designer should try to write his own book. Unless, of course, you’re one of those prodigies who’s an author and a designer.
So, I’ve decided to share my book cover design experience (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in the hopes it will help others who are about to embark on this journey.
Journey beyond the boundaries of your imagination in this collection of plot-twisting short stories reminiscent of the classic Twilight Zone TV series.
From a half-century old murder, to a condemned heretic on trial for his life.
From a beast that’s escaped its prison, to a man pursued by a mysterious woman.
From a school for gifted children that’s hiding a dark secret, to a pair of lost time travelers hoping for a rescue ship they’re not sure is coming.
Androids, hooded figures, and one big, bad monster roam the pages of this captivating treasury of intelligent speculative fiction from award-winning author, J.L. Pattison.
Known for his twist endings, J.L. Pattison has been compared to Ray Bradbury and M. Night Shyamalan, and has been hailed as “A 21st Century Rod Serling.”
Can you guess how each of these stories will end?
A Journey For The Ages
When two scouts from the year 2080 travel fifty years into the future, a catastrophic malfunction occurs and they’re forced to crash land their time capsule. But once safely on the ground, they discover they’re not where they thought they were, and their situation is about to get much worse.
Chasing Her
A desperate man trying to catch a mysterious woman doesn’t realize that he, too, is being pursued, but his pursuer has far more nefarious intentions.
The Zoo
Two anthropomorphic tigers comprise the cast of this cautionary tale about choosing wisely the life we lead—and its impact on not just us, but also the world we live in.
The Blue Lake Conspiracy
A hot summer day, a dusty trail, and a simple signpost providing wrong directions sets the scene for a chance encounter between a swimmer and a fisherman. But as you’ll soon see, these two men face far more than just a fork in the road.
The Monster In The Well
Jack has a secret. In an old well he keeps a monster, and as long as the monster stays in the well, it’s harmless. But if it escapes, it will destroy all of mankind. The monster has remained captive for generations, until the day Jack makes the mistake of telling a neighbor about his secret.
The Little Engine That Couldn’t
An innocent conversation between a father and son turns bad when an inconvenient truth is unintentionally discovered.
The Day Benny Died
Fifty years, two women, and one dark secret are the ingredients to this tale, revealing the bitter truth about the day Benny died.
Consider The Ant
Under a sweltering South American sun, a chance encounter between ants provokes a debate over who’s the greatest of them all. But this debate is finally settled when something greater than all of them unexpectedly arrives.
Swan Song For A Paper Tiger
A desperate man tries to hold together a fractured heart and despairing soul, all with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the fear of eternity in his eyes.
The Inquisition
A man on trial for challenging the prevailing thoughts of the darkened times in which he lives, stands alone against the self-proclaimed gods of his age who hold his life in their hands.
Twelve White Tulips
An old woman recovering in the hospital from an injury is delighted to have a visit from her daughter, until her husband arrives with news she doesn’t want to hear.
The Gifted
Charles Beaumont High School sets its gifted students apart. But being set apart doesn’t mean what the students think it means.
The Man Who Thought He Could Fly is currently in a Cover Wars contest. Will you please consider voting for my book cover here ?
Voting takes place all week, and best of all, you‘re permitted to vote once a day (every day) till the contest ends Sunday morning at 5AM Pacific (8AM Eastern). Each subsequent vote must be at least 24 hours after your previous vote.
After nearly four years of being away from this blog, I’m back.
Did you miss me?
WHY DID I LEAVE?
Five years ago I created a new author website as a hub to sell my books, so I migrated over there and shelved this blog. Not long after that our family also faced an unexpected trial and tragedy which I created an entire separate blog about here.
HOW DID THE NEW WEBSITE TURN OUT?
My author website (JLPattison.com) consistently garnered several visits a week (every week) from all around the world, but these visits were not turning into books sales.
WHY AM I RETURNING TO THIS BLOG?
My website provider recently notified me that my annual cost to keep the website running increased by over $120. And since I don’t sell enough books through that website to break even, this means my writing endeavor will cause me to lose even more money every year than it already does. So I had to ask myself, is it worth itanymore?
On average, I spend about $1,000 to produce each new book I publish (e.g. cover design, editing, etc.). So with three books (and another one on the way) combined with running a $200-a-year website for five years, if you do the math you’ll know how financially deep in the hole I’m invested in this “hobby.” Unless something big happens one day, I will never recover those losses. And now my author website will annually run me over $300 to maintain.
In any other venture, multiple years with no return on investment is a good indicator of failure. But since I don’t write to get rich, I’ve resigned myself to this losing battle as the cost of doing business (for lack of a better term). However, I can no longer justify the annual sustained financial loss from my website, especially now that its cost has substantially increased.
TIME TO SAY GOODBYE AND HELLO
Because of the aforementioned, I’ve decided to let the website lapse in order to stop the hemorrhaging of my finances. But now I’ve returned to my original writing blog and am hoping to rekindle the magic that I once had here with my 1,000+ subscribers.
WHAT’S HAPPENED SINCE I WAS GONE FROM THIS BLOG?
Well, the biggest news, of course, is that I released a new book: The Man Who Thought He Could Fly. And if that wasn’t good enough news, my next book The Monster In The Well is due to release this summer.
WHERE ELSE CAN YOU FIND ME?
In the past four years I’ve continued to write non-fiction essays and articles on other platforms. My articles and essays on Medium can be found here, and my articles and essays on Substack can be found here. Please consider subscribing to me on both of those platforms to not miss anything.
The 3 Things Indie Authors Keep Getting Wrong and Need to Stop Doing Immediately.
As an author of indie books—and an occasional reader of indie books—I felt compelled to write this brutally honest, open letter to indie authors, even if I receive hate mail for it.
There are three failures that keep rearing their ugly heads in far too many self-published books. And as long as authors insist on committing these three self-publishing mistakes, they will keep hurting their book sales, their potential writing careers, and the indie publishing community as a whole.
If you’re an indie author who’s committing any—or all three—of the following self-inflicted wounds, the good news is they can all be remedied.
There’s an unwritten rule that says the literary world possesses certain books all authors must love and laud (even if secretly, they’ve never read them).
Just like a painter who doesn’t like Picasso or Monet, or a classical musician who doesn’t like Bach or Mozart, if an author doesn’t like a book that’s been deemed a classic, then he must be unrefined, or worse . . . uncivilized.
In my case I’d been wanting to read a particular book for a few years, not just because it was a book that I was interested in, but also because I heard other readers rave about this literary work, and it was oftentimes referenced by other authors in their books, articles, and essays, especially as it related to the current times we live in.
So, a few years ago I finally purchased the book, moved it from my to-read list to my currently reading list, sat down in a comfy chair, and prepared to embark on the incredible journey this book was sure to take me on — an adventure that many had traversed before me.
Just like a painter who doesn’t like Picasso or Monet, or a classical musician who doesn’t like Bach or Mozart, if an author doesn’t like a book that’s been deemed a classic, then he must be unrefined, or worse . . . uncivilized.
Author J.L. Pattison 