for thinking people
December 26, 2022
2022 is almost over. The truth is, I don’t really see anything special about the end of the year (or the beginning of a new one). It’s just an arbitrary limit marking another revolution around the sun. But I’m fully ready to opportunistically take advantage of it and offer a list of the 5 most popular 2022 posts on Home for Fiction.
At the same time, I’d like to share with you 2 posts that haven’t received the attention I believe they deserve. Let’s rectify this in 2023!
December 12, 2022
There are many things troubling indie authors looking to self-publish, and one of them is undeniably how to make a book cover. More importantly, how to make a book cover that is both marketable and true to the art.
As you might have noticed from past posts, I have a pretty strong opinion regarding the balance between being a writer and being an artist. In a nutshell, I consider the two mutually exclusive, though in this imperfect world most of us try to find a balance between the two.
And making a book cover that supports your novel is definitely a matter of balance.
Should you go for aesthetic meaning or mere eye-catchiness? Should you prefer familiar, known solutions or something more unique, drawing attention? Perhaps the simpler the better?
We’ll take a look at these and much more in this post. I’ll share with you all I’ve learned about making a book cover that both serves its marketing purpose and respects your art. From book cover examples (drawing on my own painful experience) and ideas on how to proceed, to more general – dare I say, philosophical – problem points having to do with book covers, there’s certainly something interesting for you.
As a bonus, I’ll also share with you my most favorite book cover of all time!
November 14, 2022
One of the cornerstones of becoming better is completing things. There are sadly many people who begin something full of enthusiasm, yet sooner or later abandon it because it has become too difficult. Then they start something new, only to soon quit as well. The vicious cycle then continues, and they never (or rarely) complete anything. But there are crucial differences between a false start and a failed project, and learning to recognize them is pivotal for learning how to complete things.
Indeed, as societies we don’t talk enough about quitting. We don’t talk about learning how to abandon something when you have to. We seem to live in a world teaching people how not to quit. Instead, we should learn how to do it – properly.
And so, in this post, I’ll draw on my own experiences with false starts and failed projects, to show you how we can separate them.
