Friday Five for May 27, 2016

1. I survived talking to the university class. I didn't lose my voice or faint, and I remembered to wear pants. I even got a few laughs. So I'll count that as a win. Though, it was extremely awkward and nerve-wracking for me. Speaking in front of people is just not for me.

2. I'm still fussing with my Totem covers and their fonts. I think I might have one that works. Maybe. Ack! I need to stop messing with them and be done. It's stealing my writing time.

3. One short story competition loss this week. One short story submitted. Very little writing was done. I blame it on the fonts!

4. Yesterday was my son's kindergarten awards. He wore his bow tie shirt. So cute! Every child received a medal and a certificate. So sitting through eight classes took quite a while. My son also won a medal for the highest academic achievement for boys in his class. Proud mama right here. Today is his last day of school, and then it's ten weeks of summer break!

5. Friday Five will be on summer break too. It'll be back in August with a new logo. My blogging will be very light over the next two months. I have some incredible guests scheduled, though. Please come visit and let them know how awesome they are.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Word Witch Wednesday - finicky fonts

I've spent as much time looking at fonts as I have looking for images for my book covers. Fonts say a lot about a story. This includes the type you use inside a book and on the outside of it. They must fit the mood, tone, and voice.

Maybe I put more pressure on myself than I should when it comes to fonts. I am my own worst boss when it comes to these things. But if you look at your favorite book covers and take note of the title, you will see how much of an impact it has on your opinion of the story and the overall effect of the cover.

Here are five things to remember when choosing fonts for your books:

1) Fonts are like images. You can't use all of them without permission. Some you even have to pay to use. If you're on a tight budget, make certain you are using free fonts from sites like 1001 Free Fonts and DaFont.

2) Study book covers in your genre. You will see the majority of them use similar fonts. If you're unsure what types they are, here is an article with several popular fonts for each genre.

3) Experiment with effects. Not just the simple bold and italics. When I use Photoshop, there's a whole bunch of different font effect I can pick. Each one makes the font look so different.

4) Make certain the font is readable. No one will want to read your book if they can't figure out what the title is or if they get a headache reading the fancy script you chose for the story text itself.

5) Use a different font for the title and your name. Contrasting fonts draw the eye. Check out this article for a more in-depth explanation of contrasting fonts.

How do you choose fonts for your books? What types of fonts draw you as a reader?

Wicked Wednesday - the little things of website design

As you might have heard, I'm redesigning my website. It's long overdue. Very long overdue.

A few weeks ago, I spent some time browsing other authors' websites. I wrote notes of what I liked, of what worked well and what didn't, and what would be best for me. I realized my tastes are minimalistic. I didn't want anything full of graphics, blinking lights, or a soundtrack.

I designed a new look. A chore I thought would be simple with the sort of layout I wanted, but it was the little things that made it into an hours long job.

 

Background image / header. Most authors have a personalized header. Some use a background image. I prefer the latter. But what to use? My first idea was to find an image or series of images that captured what I write. Bad idea. So much of my time wasted browsing images. I found the majority of authors use images from the covers of their books. Though I wanted a gorgeous new image, I thought that maybe people who visited my site would think the image was from one of my books and get confused. So I decided to go with one of my cover images.

The color palette. Many paranormal romance authors feature red and black on their sites. Urban fantasy authors use red and black too, or blues, grays, and black. Romance authors have a lot of reds and pinks. While I'm partial to blue, I want my site to stand out. The background image I chose led me to pick from a color palette I never expected. Dark and light browns and golds. Browns? I know, I know, but it looks rich and casts the right atmosphere.

Fonts. I'm still changing my mind about fonts. I'd just have everything in Courier or Times if I had my way. I'm not picky, but a lot of people are really enthusiastic about fonts. Font matters as much as the color palette in creating the right look. So, I've been trying out a ton of them. I like simple and easy to read fonts. I don't like the fancy scripts or very genre specific ones for me. I'll decide on something sooner or later, and it'll likely be in the Courier family.

I've handed my husband all my notes. He'll be programming the new design for me. I just hope he doesn't spend all his summer evenings playing Skyrim and forget about my site!

 

If you have a website or a blog, how much time and consideration did you put into the little things?