Pinterest

If you're not familiar with Pinterest, you need to get familiar! j/k I think Pinterest can be a great tool for writers who are visually inspired and who like to organize their work visually (at least on occasion). Pinterest allows you to share and store images along with text that you can come back to again and again even if those images have been removed from the internet. The site allows you to make several boards for different interests or, for writers, different projects. 

I currently have a board for several of my books. I like being able to explore what the characters, scenery, and specific objects in the book look like. I also like sharing quotes that relate to the content of the book when possible. For my "No Rest" board [http://www.pinterest.com/innesjen/no-rest/]I have several images for each character, I have a lot of images for the scenery in the book and I've shared lots of quotes that set the mood of the world these characters live in. 

I'm also able to use Pinterest to drop hints about the story with seemingly random images such as the one below from my "No Rest" board:

Pinterest also gives you the opportunity to save images for books you haven't written yet but are in the back of your mind and you want to remember key things about. Or to potentially even explore the story through images prior to setting a specific plot. I have a few boards for books that I intend to write and I use the boards to keep myself excited about the project.

Pinterest is also a great way to engage with readers. By sharing your Pinterest boards with readers you can help them get excited about your books, the world they are set in and the characters that you've created. Below I've attached an image from my board for my book "Two Heads Are Better Than One" that represents a key object from the story. [http://www.pinterest.com/innesjen/two-heads-are-better-than-one/]

There is an added feature of creating hidden boards. These boards can be used for images you want to be able to see but you don't want others to see on your site. These boards can help you get excited about a project before sharing it with everyone else. They also can be used to only allow a select few people to see the images you've saved there. 

Lastly, Pinterest also allows you to explore your brand online and to share things that associate with your online persona, or at least to share some of your other interests with the public at large. For me, that means lots of cat photos [http://www.pinterest.com/innesjen/gabby-and-chewie/]:

Gabby & Chewie Comic Strip #7

There's no such thing as a restful night's sleep
when Gabby and Chewie are involved...

Cover Art

Cover art has always been important to me. A cover doesn't just sell a book, it also represents the author's care and attention (in my opinion). When I used to look at publishers I would look through their catalog and examine each cover they posted online. If the artwork was poor then I was very unlikely to approach them for publication. When we started writing "The Beginning of Whit" we had some thoughts on a cover. In a moment of boredom I actually worked on a rendition of "Night Hawks" that could work as the cover but when the flash drive that the image was on died, so did the image. 

(The original "Night Hawks" image by Edward Hopper.)

While I came up with a lot of images throughout the process, to get the right "feel" for the book we finally approached some actual artists. Even though we still were kicking around the idea of doing a play on "Night Hawks" we knew that if we started a series with that image then we'd have to maintain a series of covers based on famous art (if we wanted continuity between book covers). 

Ultimately, when I found an artist whose work was something I was interested in, I went with a design that fit her already established portfolio. The final image is something I think really represents the book and the care that my co-author and I took in selecting a cover. The color choices for the cover give it an urban fantasy feel and the youthful/fun feel of Whit. The scary chickenman in the shadows gives it some intrigue and the stake and donuts gives some hints about the character and the book.

Two parts of the cover are extra touches conceived by the authors. Andrew chose to have the broken egg at the bottom of the page. I chose to include the one-eyed cat beside Whit. When I told Chewie that she was featured on the cover, this is how she reacted:

Have I Really Been Gone That Long?

Wowza, how time flies. I'm starting to see a trend though, seems like every year I get into a funk followed by a busy period followed by a funk and I put this blog on the back burner. For anyone who is disappointed by this, I apologize. I will say that, during the busy period between funks, I did some great things and I'm moving one of my projects forward (at a snail's pace but at any pace is better than no pace). One thing I want to share with you is something I finalized recently. My first YouTube author video! Okay, the exclamation mark is a little excessive because it's not that exciting, but I had to give it some emphasis since it feels like a moderately sized reveal. So here it is:

Yeah, that's how awkward I am in real life. Okay, you got me, that's how awkward I am when I'm keeping the awkwardness in check, it's a lot worse in real life...

Anyways, good stuff coming down the pipeline and I'll be updating here to keep everyone informed. :)

Creating Content for an Author Facebook Page

Sorry to all of you who are tired of hearing from me how to publicize yourself and your work as an author through social media. For those of you interested in this topic, I've got another tidbit for you.

While I've seen a lot of authors approach their FB pages in different ways, one thing that makes any FB page "successful" (i.e. gets more traffic/more likes) is viral content. Viral implies that it is shared across the web (or FB) reaching more people than just a single share by your page. Content can be anything that applies to your brand (i.e. you as an author, your book, your interests).

Take into consideration what types of things are often shared on FB.

Quotes are pretty common among FB content and FB shares. Here are two quotes I added to images and shared on my FB page. Notice how they apply to my brand (fantasy author).

I also created this one with my own text because it applies to my brand (fantasy books and strong female characters).

Lastly, I created this to help promote the series in particular. I have more of these cat photos/text to share on the page. I chose cats because they are popular and they are featured in our book.

So consider what your brand is and what content you can make to add to your page and get people to share. Also note that when it's time to promote your book asking family and friends to share any posts about your book is helpful. Don't ask them to share every post you make (unless you want to be annoying) but getting them to share your posts about your actual novel will get more eyes on that post and more potential sales.

3 More Q and A

I haven't done this in a while but I figured I should get some more answers out there for the questions I receive from readers. So here goes.


I know you really enjoy movies, which NEW movie are you most excited about?

This is pretty easy to answer and maybe obvious. I'm most excited about the new WOLVERINE!!! (yes it has to be said in all caps) movie.

I know there were things I didn't like about the last Wolverine movie but as a huge X-men fan and a huge Hugh Jackman fan, how can I not get suckered into loving this film sight unseen? The hope that this film will be better than the last Wolverine film is what is ensuring my seat in the theater on opening day. Okay, maybe not opening day if I'm busy, but def. opening weekend. I know what you're thinking, fool me once...but I'm willing to take the shame of being fooled twice by this franchise. 

What happened to all the Gabby and Chewie comics? Will there be more soon?

I can't say if there will be more soon as comics take a considerable amount of effort (I know, mine don't appear to take much effort as they often show up still quite raw) and I haven't had anything funny to say through comics about the cats as of late. But I'm still drawing and still working on Gabby and Chewie images (such as the rough sketch below) so I hope to eventually get more up on here if not sooner than later.

If you could have any superpower what superpower would it be and why?

There are so many awesome potential powers to choose from so it would be hard to decide. If I were to limit the assortment of powers to something that fit both my past and my personality then invisibility would be the power I would have to choose. Initially, my reasoning for this might seem I guess sad for lack of a better word. I grew up as a middle child between two very bright and outgoing sisters who loved the spotlight while I wandered in shadow. I was a shy kid by nature and as I grew older I got more scared and quiet. Even today I still get anxious talking in front of large groups or even single strangers. I often try to melt into the background of most social situations because it's always been easier to observe than to be the center of attention. So since I've historically felt quite invisible and even worked towards making myself invisible in social situations, I think I could use invisibility to my advantage as a superhero. I already know how to blend into the background and how to observe and use those observations to my advantage. As an invisible superhero I could be a strong asset to any superhero team/league/group that would have me and I could use my already explored invisibility to help fight crime or even save the world.

Murderous Fiends

I wake up from a nap and this is what I see:

And people try to tell me that these two aren't plotting my imminent death.