I had another good morning with my writers’ group today. Suspense and mystery writers abound, and it’s pretty fascinating! I am not sure what they think of me. I was trying to explain what Steampunk was as a lead-in to my other WIP. And my fantasy stories are not filled with fluffy cute unicorns (haha).

Our book signing- my first! Hooray!- is approaching fast! May 16th! The last few weeks I’ve been working on increasing my free time by cutting my commute time. Time is absolutely precious. That would be my one sage. Time is absolutely precious. I’ve been also working on how to present myself and books in the most professional, engaging way. I’ve been advised to keep my expectations low, and while I don’t quite see selling a lot (I think fantasy is a tough sell), I’m eager and I want to start planning for more such events. It’s exciting! And this author co-op type thing is ideal to me. Must try to get the rest on board.

I’ve been brainstorming my half of the small shared display area. Here we go: On my list was a banner, a table cover, bookmarks, business cards, and postcard-sized front covers. This in addition to the actual book itself, of course. Which is Red Moonglow on Snow, in case we’ve forgotten. (Psst….look up and to the left of the screen. It’s all right there…)

LOGO

A new logo for my publisher name was not on the list. But I uploaded the old one into a template for a business card or something, and it looked atrocious when on any other color background and when made appropriately larger. (Psst…look hard left. That’s the original one…) Maybe I wrote this already, but I spent a weekend trying to find a graphic artist. It all came down to me not feasibly able to pay $400 for someone to simply make my own design sharper and in a maybe better file format. I reached out to an artist on Fivrr, and have not heard back. In the interim, my impatience and DIY-ness took over and I revamped it.  I’m a little more skilled at the vector software now than when I’d originally designed the logo. I love it! I sharpened it, cleaned up the edges, added shadows for depth, rotated it just a tiny, and added a glow of an open book to fit with my motto. Lastly, I copyrighted it through the US copyright office. Awesome awesome awesome.

TABLE COVER

Presentation is everything. Color is equally important. We’re being provided tables, but it’s up to us to decorate as appropriate. I would have wanted black or red- obvious reasons for those who’ve read RMOS– but knew that one of the mystery writers was using black. Obvious reasons for her as well. I did not expect that table covers were so expensive! Geeze! $70-200 online. Ouch. Yea, Party City I went. I bought one in each of my main colors for a bit over $1 each. I’ll decide which works best later, when everything is together.

Silver? Red? Black?

TABLE RUNNER

This was also not planned. But in searching for a table cover, I came across a table runner, which lays cross-ways across the table. This is where one may have their brand new, revamped and awesome logo custom printed……! This changed my course of presentation. I really liked the idea of amplifying my Indie-Publisher-ment 1st, and my book(s) 1st-in-a-half. Eventually soon, I’ll be adding more published books to these tables, so having a permanent name that people can remember- in a way that is more visually professional- works out better. I hope. I’m a little protective about my name, as is evidenced on RMOS‘ cover. I got bolder since (The Dryad‘s cover). But still. And when I look at another author’s name for the first time, it’s only a name. Not enough to pique my curiosity. Once I’ve read and loved their book, then I know their name.

It would have been great if I could have found one company to do the runner, the business cards, the photo stock, and the bookmarks, but no. None exist. Oh, and the banner. And banner stand. Still no.

Big sigh.

I chose BannerBuzz for the table runner. Couldn’t really tell you why. Cost was about $30. I went back and forth between four main search results, and settled on them.

Here it is! With the updated logo! In the center is MTB’s motto.

Excited and extremely frightened to see the result! I’ll post when it arrives!

Ok. Methinks that’s good for today. I’ll share the rest later. Have a good night, all!

-L.