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Cover art by J Caleb Clark of JCalebDesign.com
Here's a list of the people I've found who do excellent work:
Author Analytics, General Tools, and Data Collection:
I’ve been using ReaderLinks for at least 7 or 8 years now (as of 2024) and cannot recommend it enough! Get all your data in one place, track detailed sales breakdowns, and finally know what promotions work and what is a waste of money. Insanely helpful.
Formatting:
Editing:
The editing from Nef House Publishing is expensive but also the highest quality in the industry that I’ve ever found. If you want the top shelf, go there.
Proofreading:
The editors I mentioned above can proofread just fine, and I have one recommendation for a proofreading grammar specialist. Email A. J. Maruna (ajmaruna@gmail.com) and tell him I sent you. His prices are exceptionally good, and he does excellent work.
Covers:
Jake from JCaleb Design is the absolute best in fantasy and sci-fi.
Brad Lark (blark@blark.com) makes some awesome illustrations. If you’re looking for drawn work (as opposed to photoshop / stock image manipulation), he’s your guy. You can see some of his portfolio here.
Logos, Designs, Book Trailers, and Author Merch (like t-shirts, stickers, things to sell or giveaway at convention booths, etc.):
Brad Lark (blark@blark.com) is the only person I’ve found so far with reasonable rates for shirts and general graphics work. Shoot him an email. You can see some of his portfolio here. And you can check out his full website here: Flying Pork Apparel.
ARC Services:
Email List Management / Sending:
I’ve used a couple different services, and MailerLite is the only one I currently recommend.
Looking for a publisher?
Check out Nef House Publishing.
My own services are back!
After a couple years of focusing elsewhere, I’m back and offering some writer services once more.
Want your service to be featured?
Too bad. I only feature services that I’ve personally used and found to be exemplary. You can’t pay to be on the list. (Alright, well… at a certain number I won’t say no, but you’ll need to at least be paying a few of my mortgage payments before you catch my attention)
What a cheesy picture…
Release date should be in the first or second week of April!
Ugh.
No one enjoys writing blurbs. No one. Especially for a new author, blurbs are incredibly difficult. Take a look at the Hunger Games blurb above. There are some really good points and some things I would personally change. The first thing any reader should notice in a good blurb is the atmosphere. This one is easy to detect: desperation. The kill or be killed line is flawless.
The goal of a blurb is really to convey just a few basic things: genre, atmosphere, and the very basics of the plot. Does the Hunger Games blurb do these things? You bet. The genre is clearly dystopian. "A dark vision of the near future" sets that up well. The "certain death" and "kill or be killed" lines establish atmosphere. The general plot is very basic and all you need to know. A bunch of kids are forced to kill each other in an arena for the amusement of others. We don't need to know about Katniss and the love triangle and all that other stuff that happens. We will find that out within the first few chapters of the book anyways.
What should you never put in a blurb? Detailed plot points. More than a single line about a character. The actual name of the genre (i.e. don't write the word fantasy in your fantasy novel's blurb). A reference to other books or authors.
Since I gave an example of a great blurb, here's a bad one. I'm just making this up:
The Hunger Games tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, a love-struck teenager who volunteers to take her younger sister's place in a brutal annual event known as The Hunger Games. Will Katniss be strong enough to survive? Or will her conflicted heart be her undoing?
Many, many things should be obviously bad about that blurb. Too many adjectives. Too much plot. Two genres established. Is it romance? Is it action? Not enough dystopia. Not enough desperation. No epic notion of grandeur. Take a fresh look at your own blurbs and see where you can improve.
A few more pointers: never publish your first blurb. Write and rewrite that sucker at least a dozen times. Run it by 20 or 30 people to get their thoughts. After they read the blurb, ask them to predict the main plot of the book. If they miss the mark by a lot, you have more work to do. If they hit it spot on, you are giving too much away. You need a balance between mystery and just giving it away.
Should you put quotes from other authors on your back cover? Absolutely! Send your book around to authors in your genre you know and see if they will give you a review. Grab a line and slap it on the back. That can be wonderful for potential book sales.
Check out this back cover from Gone Girl:
Even though the back cover is just a list of quotes (inside panel has the actual blurb), the potential reader still gets almost all of the pertinent information. All of the words like terrifying and menacing let you know exactly what kind of thriller this is. When I talk about establishing an atmosphere for a novel with a blurb, this is what I mean. Nothing says dark thriller quite like "wickedly clever."