#am I really a indie author / artist now?

[hydralisk98]

About to reach a kiloword (2^10 aka 1024) followers...

First, thanks to all of you by so sooooo much for caring and sticking around, you are amazing sapient individuals and deserve my praise for it.

Now, I want to make myself and my income future-proof. So, don't mind if I start creating and selling a few products on a few online storefronts? I am still making free stuff for you all to enjoy, I just want to develop some more usefulness and improve upon my skills going forward.

PRODUCT IDEAS (the Nth list)

Syndicalist stickers, buttons & cutouts (derived from Kaiserreich) derived for a handful of countries in the world.

Contemporary legalism-compliant axis-victory world fan-merch (merely immersive feelies that avoid specific connotated patterns & malicious use intents)

Reprint templates for "Landlords Game" and its 1930s "Prosperity" ruleset

Custom ancients-style games & classic board games...

Memetic stylized personalized "branded" stickers

Customized iconography packs for autistic organization

Cardboard double-sided counters

Cutout sticker sheets

Memo pads & sticky note stacks

FontForge typefaces / fonts (in TTF, WOFF & OTF formats)

Artistic notecards

Regular playing cards and Tarot cards decks

Visualization decks / deques for colouring & gratitude

Animated yesteryear retroweb-like pixel assets for Neocities

Reality scripture worksheets with visualization tips & aids

New desktop theme customization packs (mostly aiming towards KDE Plasma & GTK-derived desktop environments, with limited support for macOS / Windows)

Printable stylized documents and their model source files in PDF & LibreOffice source file types form (with some Blender, Inkscape, GIMP...)

PNG / GIF / SVG graphical packs

OGG / OGV / OPUS multimedia packs (for physical media too!)

3D paper prints / papercrafts environmental packs

Hexagonal dotted grids for speculative world generation paradigms (TTRPGs-friendly)

Kid topics worksheets (w/ source files) for constructed languages & cultures...

(Add)venturing prompt / question / query modules

Construction toys & their thematic sets

TTRPG modules (game adventures, campaign settings, ruleset complements...)

Personalized computer builds (with both aesthetics and function in mind...)

Educational flashcards?

Art prints / posters?

Paper dollhouse packs?

Code snippets and scripts (GitLab / GitHub / Sourcehut)?

Visual previews for community review:

Farewell to soon!

[renthony]

It's so funny when people genuinely ask me why I get so wrapped up in my little gay cartoons. I'm a queer making queer art, why the fuck do you think I'm invested in the way queer art is produced and received?

I have a short story available as an ebook and paperback, and there are copies of it in several libraries around the world. I'm working on a short story collection and a full-length novel right now, with the hopes that one will be ready by the end of the year.

I have to worry about censorship because it directly affects me as a queer artist. What happens if one of my sales platforms ever decides that the queers are too degenerate to monetize anymore? What happens if art by trans people starts getting rounded up and burned again? What happens to me, who creates art the conservatives despise?

And on the flip side, I also live with the very real possibility that the jackasses who scream that such-and-such queer media "didn't do enough" or was "stereotypical" or "doesn't actually represent the community well" will turn on me and decide that I need to be "held accountable" for "making The Community look bad" because they don't like the way I portray my own queer experience. I've seen it happen to my peers in the queer writing scene, and I genuinely worry that it'll happen to me or my wife (also an author) one day.

I care about the way queer media is treated because I create queer media. If y'all want to actually see more queer media, mainstream or indie, you gotta actually let queers make messy art. You gotta understand the ways queer art gets censored, and why.

And if you read that and think, "but that sounds really hard, and I don't really know how to do research," that's where I come in to say, "that is why I am doing it and trying to translate it into an accessible format for other people. That is why I care so much and study so much and talk about the queer cartoons so goddamn much."

[thenocturnenarrator]

since you asked for book description:

"Narra, or rather Emma, was a person who didn't really stand out from the crowd at first glance if you were standing next to her on the street. You might just think that she's just another regular teenager who looks strangely reminiscent of a certain pixelated character from a hit indie game. But if you delved deeper into her life, you would learn many interesting things.

No wonder such a nice person with a perpetual smile had yellow as her favorite color. Yellow color like sunflowers in the sunlight, like lemons that can burn your house down. Both comparisons were fitting for Narra herself, because she indeed loved the sun and the rays, but she could just as well destroy your apartment.

Narra, whenever she had time, was involved in art, her artistic soul poured out through her fingers and, well, through a pen, onto the canvas. Her drawings were as colorful and warm as she was, perfectly reflecting her personality. She was one of those artists whose drawings, after seeing them, you could confidently say what kind of person their author was.

Because everything around Narra was blooming like those yellow sunflowers in the sun's rays.

And Narra was happy."

Oh hell yeah

I’ve never heard that name before what are you saying. Don’t ya think I didn’t notice the chara reference I DO NOT LOOK LIKE CHARACTER IRL AND YOU KNOW THAT

I’m kinda yellowish too so. Hey now, I wouldn’t destroy anyone’s apartment! Unless…

Very true, unfortunate for learning in class but very fun nonetheless. UYTFUYTFUYTGUYTF shush! You’ll make me blush uytfuytf :>

Awww uytfuyt thankssssssss uytfuytfyutytv

After reading this? HELL YEAH I AM

[batmansymbol]

hello, my sweet sweet tumblr friends. i have a new book out one month from saturday. here we are together, the book and i:

this one was fun. i wrote it with my sister! when we were young, we were cutthroat competitive. she (older) would forbid me from reading the books on her shelves, and i (gremlin) would booby-trap her room, so you decide which of us committed the greater sin. now we have a blast.

our names are pronounced REE-uh-nock and SHEE-fra, and our book was pitched as THE PARENT TRAP meets THE VANISHING HALF. it releases August 15th, 2023. logline is "Two half-Chinese half-siblings collide for the first time at a summer art camp, not knowing they're related—and begin to understand who they are as artists, as brother and sister, and as Asian-Americans."

it's a book about summer camp hijinks, about passing, about what we long for and where we belong. it also says "Robinson & Robinson" on the spine, which makes us sound like an accidental injury law firm. sweet.

of all the books with my name on it, this one is probably the "book club"-iest. if you like coming-of-age novels or stories about the AAPI diaspora, you might like this one :)

you can preorder a signed copy from my local indie here, or non-signed copies from Bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon. i really cannot stress enough how much every single preorder helps, as i am what the industry calls "a midlist author," also known as "an obscure author who has difficulty placing projects with publishers because of sales figures lmao." (this is not to whinge. the majority of working authors exist in this financially & existentially precarious position)

alternatively, i would be totally thrilled if you reblogged this post, or mentioned the book to any teachers, librarians, bookstore workers, or other readers in your life :)

happy summer everybody—may it be the lazy river of your dreams. xoxoxo

[lesbianmarrow]

hey you seem to have a lot of knowledge about comics and their structure, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for some good comics? like ones with good flow/eyelines?

ahh thank you, i am so flattered! it's funny you ask because just yesterday i was thinking about the flow/eyelines in the book i was reading. it's called feeding ghosts: a graphic memoir by tessa hulls. it's a monochrome graphic memoir about the author's family history, the family's history of mental illness, and how that's all linked to the history of china. it reminds me a lot of fun home in some ways. because the author is describing not only her family's history but also her experience of learning about and processing her family's history, she'll often draw her adult self in the panel along with a young version of her mother or her grandmother. that implosion of linear time is a core theme of the book and the author uses some really interesting page layouts and ways of manipulating the eye around the page to emphasize that.

another book that comes to mind for me is laura dean keeps breaking up with me by mariko tamaki and rosemary valerio-o'connell. i remember being really impressed with the lettering in that book. it was really beautiful and fit the gorgeous, dreamy art while doing a stellar job of guiding the eye along the page in an unobtrusive way. so often it is the lettering that does so much of the heavy lifting in making a page visually legible to a reader - once i started noticing it, i couldn't stop. rosemary's art in that book is also so stunning. she has such an ornate, intricate style that nevertheless manages to be dynamic, which is what was needed for this book. also i'm biased bc i met both mariko and rosemary and got my copy of the book signed by both of them >:)

erica henderson is also a comics genius. i feel like i learned so much of what i understand about how comics function from reading her patreon posts. recently she did a harley quinn annual at dc, and it's just a one-shot story of harley quinn and zatanna on a cruise together solving a murder mystery. henderson wrote, drew, and colored the issue herself. she's a master of comedic timing and the story has so many amazing visual gags. and her page layouts are always very thoughtful and interesting. i wish dc would do more of that, just get a really great writer/artist to do a 40-page one-shot of some popular characters. i guess the black label minis are kind of a bigger version of that. but i do love a humble one-shot.

if you've not yet checked out the shortbox comics fair i highly recommend doing so! it's an annual online-only comics fair, meticulously curated, where you can browse their selection of all-new indie comics and buy pdfs of the ones you like. all money goes to the comics creators. it's october-only so now is a good time to check it out. i bought some comics from them at the beginning of the month and there was some seriously incredible stuff. personally i really loved in the fading light and wednesday's child.

finally if you're not already familiar with silver sprocket i recommend checking out their stuff as well! they publish a lot of comics that tend to be more experimental than stuff you'd find at more mainstream publishers and they skew pretty queer and trans. in general i like looking at what smaller presses are putting out - avery hill publishing and uncivilized books also have good stuff.

i hope that helps! i'm always happy to recommend some good comics :)

[andromedaexists]

It's Been a Week...

Seven days ago I introduced my book baby (Δάιος, you might have heard of it) into the world! On 10/10 Icky baby made his debut!!

So what has happened since then?

Well, my personal life has become a living hell but that's not what we're here to discuss. Today is all about self-publishing a debut novel.

Icarus came into the world on the 10th with a KDP ebook and paperback release. Those were soon joined on the 11th by an ebook, paperback, and hard cover wide release through the distribution channels of IngramSparks.

I have learned a lot with this process. Namely: IngramSparks is a fucking bitch when it comes to covers, Amazon will not provide quality author proofs so I have no way of knowing what my book will look like before it publishes, and that I need to give myself more time to work out the kinks next time.

Before I get too far into details, I want to highlight some numbers here. If you do not want to see publication numbers then you are free to go! Thank you for stopping by, though!

Okay, so here are my numbers so far:

I had sixteen (16) preorders on the Δάιος ebook through Amazon.

On release day, these orders processed. I also received another 3 orders that day, bringing the total number to 19.

Since that first day, I have received a total of 26 orders through KDP.

As you can tell, I had a significant dip right after pub day. This is mostly my own fault, as I am terrible at marketing and by virtue of my life going to shit I haven't even been shitposting about my book.

Of these 26 orders, 5 of them have been paperbacks

This is a lot better than I expected!! I think it's because I am so partial to physical copies that I tend to push those first and foremost before the ebook.

But these are just the amazon KDP numbers, I have also gone wide with distribution!

So how many orders have I gotten through IngramSparks??? None.

Not a one. That's to be expected though, a lot of indies sell through amazon first and foremost. I mostly set up ingram for two reasons: 1. I wanted to hold a hardcover edition of Δάιος in my hands but i really dislike the way that KDP doesn't offer dust jackets for their hardcovers and 2. Consignment

I just finished filling out some consignment forms for my local NE Ohio bookstores, we'll see if I get into any of them.

There is one other place I sell, though: my website. How many orders have I gotten there? 6!!

one of those images is different, because on my website I can offer something that amazon and IS can't. Physical goodies. The books on my website come with a pack of 6 stickers, a thank you card, and my signature! And technically I have 8 orders, but one hasn't come through yet from a friend in person and the other is for Shane bb who is getting an annotated copy of the book (I haven't finished the annotations yet lol)

So now that we have all the numbers out in the open, let's talk about money. How much did it cost for me to publish δάιος? A lot. It is possible to publish for much less than what it cost me, but I went out of my way to commission a cover artist that I just knew I needed to have and that cost me a pretty penny.

All in all, I spent $2,920.16 ($1,703.02 is the cover alone after conversion from GBP)

And how much have I made back so far, just in week one?

$73.46 from KDP royalties and $44.82 from my website ($94.95 - $50.13 for the books alone, not even counting the goodies and packing supplies) for a total of...

$118.28!!! That's a lot!!!

I am very privileged to have a credit card I can put my expenses on as I slowly pay them off, and I do not regret anything I have done in the creation of my book. Even if it makes me cry a little bit at how much I spent.

Now that the numbers are over, what are some positive things that have come of this and some negative things? (pos first)

I have published my debut novel!

There are 4 people who have read my debut novel and liked it enough to rate it on goodreads! (it has a 4.75 star rating atm!)

My book is BEAUTIFUL

Icky baby has been unleashed on the world!

I feel like I've finally accomplished something with my life

DID I MENTION THAT I PUBLISHED A BOOK???

the negatives:

I really don't like that the colors of the cover don't print properly, every copy I've gotten either lightens the contrast so you can't see the title or it darkens the damned thing and you can't see Icarus

I also don't like that IngramSparks doesn't support any letters outside of the basic latin letters on the spine of covers, because that means that my baby is naked under the dust jacket and that's just boring

Amazon Fuckt Up my print proof (i will attach pictures) and I freaked out about it for a good 4 days

I just realized today that I published daios with a placeholder chapter title about halfway through the book... so I fixed that but there are already more than 30 copies of the book in circulation with that error...

Idk if it's just my bad eyes but I feel like the text is too small in the print books. I would like to make it larger when I publish the revised edition next year

INGRAMSPARKS IS A LITTLE BITCH THAT WILL YELL AT YOU AND REJECT YOUR COVER IF YOU LOOK AT IT WRONG

I can order just a regular copy of daios off amazon and it will be here in two days. So why when I order author copies does it take TWO WEEKS TO SHIP

I really hate that the hardcover can't have creme paper. Like, gimme the offwhite. It looks so much better with my cover and the vibes of the story. Lemme use something other than bleach white please i'm begging

All in all, I learned a lot with this!! I had my ups and downs, I think I've done everything in my power to make this book successful, and now I just have to roll with it!

I will check in again at the one month mark, but yeah! That's it! Thanks for reading through this long winded post!!

The pictures, as promised:

And just in case you can't immediately see what's wrong:

The colors are off, the title has like a hard demarcation when it's supposed to be a soft glow and you can't hardly see Icarus down there

My name is brushed up against the edge of the book when it's supposed to have a decent buffer room

The spine is shifted. Why is the spine text partially on the front cover?

The colors are off on the back as well, the text is hard to read and it's too close to the edge of the book when it's supposed to be more centered.

For reference, here's the finally front cover on a regular paperback purchased through amazon (I.E. what a normal customer would receive):

[chaikachi]

Hi, Chai! I've been following you for a bit, mostly for the RG content, and I've recently seen you talk about your other non-RWBY interests when I realized that I'm really curious on what other media do you like? (Be it shows, movies, music, games, books, etc.)

Oughh this is a very good question. I'll put them under a read more cause I have a feeling I took this question too literally and it might get just a little bit long because of that. 💦

I'm generally very passive with the media I consume and only draw as much RWBY as I do because RG has had me in a vice grip since V8E1 and isn't letting go anytime soon. 💀 But I do engage with lots of other stuff too! This isn't an exhaustive list, just ones I like lots or re-watch often enough.

Anime

I probably watch this stuff more than anything else. My favourite of all time is probably The Eccentric Family, both seasons. The art direction and the messages of the story just hit very hard for me and I re-watch it pretty much every year. My second favourite is Kekkai Sensen (i prefer the first over second season as they switch directors).

As for others enjoy:

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

Silver Spoon

Yona of the Dawn

Snow White with the Red Hair

Kyousogiga (recommend if you liked Kekkai Sensen)

A Lull in the Sea

Chaika the Coffin Princess [Now why does that name sound so familiar 🤔]

Anohana

Been really enjoying this season's shows and am looking forward to the Winter 2024 lineup (Dungeon Meshi and Yubisaki to Renren at the same time!!)

Shows

Dragon Prince

The Owl House

Good Omens

Games

Nier (2010),

Transistor

Pyre

Zelda Series (Ocarina of Time & Spirit Tracks are my favourites)

Nier: Automata

Honorary mentions to Grand Chase (an old MMO i used to be obsessed with), Avalon Code (a niche DS game that I really liked), Fire Emblem Awakening (a classic) and Animal Crossing (that I played like it was my day job in 2020).

Movies

Can only think of two live actions and the rest are animated/anime 😭

Stardust

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Howl's Moving Castle

HTTYD (1 & 2)

Kubo and the Two Strings

The Wind Rises

From Up on Poppy Hill

Penguin Highway

Books

I don't read as much as I did when I was a kid, but my top three are probably Runemarks, Howl's Moving Castle, and Stardust (I like the last two a lot because I liked their movies).

Webcomics

Used to be really into these and wanted to write my own before Webtoon kinda... gentrified the entire industry. But hey, I can still talk about some of my favourites!

Shaderunners (queer heist in a roaring 20sish setting)

Witchy (queer south East Asian inspired fantasy adventure)

Kochab (sapphic story between a skier that gets lost and meets a fire spirit I think? It's final updates are going up this month!)

Lady of the Shard (all time favourite. queer polyam lovestory between a goddess and her acolyte. Complete. I reread it every year, I love it so much. The rest of the authors work is also great, you might know them from Cucumber Quest).

Then lastly...

Music

I mostly listen to indie/folk more than anything else, with a bit of jazz/R&B thrown in for flavour. Favourite artists are probably:

San Fermin

Flock of Dimes/Wye Oak

Of Monsters & Men

Maggie Rogers

Florence & the Machine

Paper Kites

Matthew and the Atlas

Halsey

This list obviously isn't exhaustive because I have the memory of a goldfish but those are the highlights that came to mind at least.

Sorry for the long list, but thank you for the question!! It was fun to put all these in one place.

[musiclover638]

Hazbin Hotel

I want to talk about Hazbin Hotel as a Christian. I have been religious my entire life. I believe Jesus died on the Cross and rose again in three days. If you don't agree with me, I don't care. I am happy being a disciple. I am happy with my religion.

Now, I have been seeing that some religious people are criticizing it from a religious POV. If you see anyone doing that, don't let that shape your view of other religious people. They are not truly righteous if they are looking at it in that lens. I know the show is based of an idea that Viv made up. It's not affecting me, my view of Lucifer, Adam and Eve, heaven, hell, etc. It's not doing any of that. In fact, I am proud and happy of Viv and how far she has come in her journey as an artist. Making a pilot on YouTube then getting the change from A24 to make her idea a reality is amazing. Go Indie animation! (We got a win, Y'all!)

I really enjoy Hazbin Hotel. It's well animated, has a fun cast, and great music. I do have a problem with the pacing but I don't blame Viv or her team. (Eight episodes is not enough to tell a story like this. Hopefully season two has more episodes.) Some songs are't... great and some are absolute BANGERS and some things that were revealed were revealed fast. But these are the kind of criticism that are deserved and needed. There is nothing wrong with criticism and everyone, from artists, musicians, and authors alike must accept it.

So, yeah. This has been on my mind for a while and I just wanted to say something about it.

[maridiayachtclub]

i went to a con this past weekend. didn't go to any panels or anything, just wanted to browse the vendors and artist alley. which i did, with two primary goals:

the first was to find some comics and books by little indie outfits i have never heard of. and there were several of those, and i picked up a couple of books from local (or quasi-local. two states over counts as "nearby" when it's Montana) authors, but i guess i was hoping to see more? there weren't as many comics as i was expecting at The Comic Con. like, it's been a good number of years since i've been to one of these, but much more than the last time i went, it felt like the crowd consisted of (and the vendors catered to) people whose engagement with geek culture is mostly Star Wars and D&D by way of Stranger Things. like a very big presence hinged on big corporate-owned media, compared to indie and creator-controlled stuff. merchwise, there were far fewer handmade tchotchkes than there were kinda samey looking things made with 3D printers and CNC routers. i'm not trying to be snooty about it, but there was something alienating about the whole thing that i'm trying to figure out.

the artist alley was at least closer to what i was expecting, though i didn't find much that i actually wanted to spend money on. this was the other thing i was looking out for: FFXIV-related art. and there were like, two artists (of like 50 or so booths, plus however many more scattered throughout the vendor hall) that had anything FFXIV-themed at all, as far as i could tell. one artist had a bunch of prints of rather lovely watercolor-esque portraits of major characters (plus a landscape of the Crystal Tower, which I bought a print of), and someone else had acrylic charms of the standard set of fan-favorite characters in a cuter anime style that had different appearances on either side. but overall, the FFXIViness levels were disappointing, both in quantity and in selection.

overall the experience was very... whelming. i was kinda underwhelmed, but not so much i am officially disappointed. i would summarize my trip as "an unusual way to spend a saturday afternoon." it was a thing that happened.

the local anime con is happening in a month or two and i was kinda thinking of going to that. being in a nerd crowd, at least, was nice, and i kinda want more of that. but if i'm out of touch with nerd culture, i'm double plus out of touch with Anime culture. i'd probably be saving some trouble if i didn't go. like if i wanna see a buncha Genshin Impact art that i don't care about i can already go to twitter, right now, and do exactly that. don't even need to buy a ticket or anything

admittedly the whole experience was colored by attending the con with someone who was in a shitty mood, didn't like the crowd and was constantly trying to avoid it. maybe i woulda had more fun if i wasn't spending 40% of my mental energy worrying about that, or feeling like i had to keep offering excuses and apologies every time i wanted to stop and look at something, or trying not to get caught showing an untoward amount of interest in something that's too cute or feminine or pink. performative gender clown act BS. nah yeah now that i think about it, that was really biting into how much fun i was having

anyway, regardless, it still sucks that in today's economy you can reliably get pictures of one of ffxiv's numerous government-issued boyfriends but not a single wee doodle of Ysayle....

[tryslora]

Do you have any suggestions for making book covers without having to pay someone?

If you know since you're pretty much the only writer person I follow

(sorry I'm nervous to ask out of anon 😅)

No worries, don't be nervous, anon! Totally cool question.

I will say that I tried making my own covers originally, and uhhhh I have standards I couldn't reach, so I failed at that and went the paid route (and OMG the artists I have found are AMAZING, I just have to say that the fandom community ROCKS).

First things first, start by looking at covers of books in the same genre that appeal to you. Look at what you like about them, and what's consistent about them. Are they clipart type graphics? Are they simplistic? Is it photorealistic? Are there images at all other than scrolls and flowers?

What are the placements and sizes for the title and author name? Usually the author name is smaller than the title unless it's a super famous author who gets to be more important than the title.

Also, if you put a subtitle or series on the cover, and you plan to sell the book, this information MUST be listed in the records for selling (like your ISBN). KDP has been known to bounce books for not matching up.

Anyway. Some things I know people have used.

Canva (you can get a 30-day trial of the paid version, if you need to). They have templates, graphics, all kinds of things available. Check licensing!

Actually, pause here for a sidebar, because that's a huge theme for all answers--always check what licensing is available for any graphics/art/font you're including. Depending on how you're using your cover, you may need a different license. If it's for personal use, you only need basic personal use licensing. But if it's for sale (paperback or ebook) it requires to be allowable to be used commercially.

Anyway, back to Canva. I know some indie authors who swear by it and put together really simple text and graphic covers.

I've collected a small group of links I use when I do need something quick, or I need a graphic for use online. Some of them I haven't played with fully myself, so for all of them, look carefully at what they offer, what their licensing is, and how and whether they include AI (and check for things tagged AI vs not).

DIY Book Covers - I found this one linked from an indie writing site. I have not played with it.

BookBrush - this one is for creating social media images once you have a cover.

Pixabay and Unsplash are two sites I use all the time for graphics. They have started to have more AI art on them in recent times (and beware of links that lead to images that do cost--they are mostly free, but have advertised paid links, too). Last time I looked, the AI art was tagged. All the promotional images I do when I'm getting ready to launch a new PHU book come from these sites.

Pexels looks to be similar, but I don't think I've used it much. I have a bookmark for future me tho!

There's also Wikimedia but in my mind, that one's more for personal use than commercial. I've linked to their page on licensing.

So. You've found imagery, and now you need to put it together.

In terms of free graphics editors, I can only list the ones I'm most familiar with. I've already mentioned Canva. I have used Adobe Express (it's actually handy for stripped down video editing). I know folks who swear by GIMP.

I... know there are places to get cool fonts, but um, I don't have them bookmarked. Sorry!

All of this covers the basic cover image at the front, and not constructing the actual wraparound book cover you need if you're doing a print edition. Most places (I've dealt with DraftToDigital and Amazon KDP) have a template that you can download then edit in GIMP or Adobe Express and those contain instructions.

And I know you don't want to pay someone, but I am going to mention one site that has come up often in indie/small press panels I've been on this year: GetCovers. I have not used them, and cannot vouch for them. I don't know whether they do or do not use AI. But I do know the folks who have spoken about them were happy with their covers, and with the service. And depending on what you need, they are super inexpensive compared to other options.

This does mean that they are using art they've bought and that your cover might have the same art as someone else (this happens a lot where stock photos are concerned--I read two books this year from different authors where the covers obviously came from the same photoshoot).

But anyway, they are an inexpensive option if you get frustrated with doing it yourself.

Best of luck, nonnie, and I hope your book adventures take you far!

[lousirs]

What kind of music do you think the dolls will like? Like their genre of music (hopefully it's understandable cuz I have no clues what I just said 💀)

nah nah u good :D

hm... i mean from the get-go i'd say all the characters who have singers as their voice actors would probably listen to their singer's style of music. for instance, i can totally see lou listening to nick jonas and kitty listening to charli xcx. but aside from that...

moxy would totally listen to pop music. but like, that really cheesy pop music from the 2010s that tells you that you are beautiful just the way you are, ya know? britt nicole is someone who comes to mind (every time i listen to her song 'gold' or 'headphones' i just think about moxy). but alsoooo going back to what i said with characters listening to their voice actor's music, i find it amusing if moxy listened to rock as well, as kelly clarkson is kinda pop-rock (or used to be i haven't listened to her entire discography yet). she's just jamming out to some electric guitar or something lmao

i'm not too sure about babo (my mind is saying smooth jazz but idk if that works with him) but wage and lucky bat would totally listen to those 10 hour relaxing ambient music with the windchimes and piano... lucky bat would listen to relax, and wage would listen to ease her nerves.

ugly dog i can see listening to latin music (cause ya know...pitbull mr worldwide 305) and prolly some rock and heavy metal thrown in there for good measure.

ox would be country. for obvious reasons (yeehaw)(i found out about blake shelton through ox so everytime a blake shelton song comes on all i see is ox rotating in my mind)

with lou... you'd probably catch him listening to classical or cafe jazz, but when he's alone he'd listen to most things, i'd say. ...and also he'd listen to electro swing because i said so and i am the voice of authority I MAKE THE CANON /j (but i can see him listening to electro swing). ohhh and songs from musicals too. he is soooo a musicals fan. dunno what musicals he'd listen to tho, i'm not too knowledgeable on them uh

mandy would listen to lofi and indie music... if there's a niche artist who makes nice songs, mandy probably knows of them.

nolan... nolan is a wildcard honestly lmao. he seems like he'd listen to both acoustic and electronic music (daft punk vibes)... actually. just remembered something. you know that sound that plays when the spotlight centres upon nolan? that sounded like dubstep for a moment, and i just remembered thinking that nolan listens to dubstep because of it... so now he does. nolan listens to dubstep too.

all the spy girls would listen to pop, but probably different kinds of it. kitty would totally be hyperpop, no doubt in my mind (probably because charli xcx is more hyperpop nowadays). tuesday is similar to moxy in those 2010s songs, but it would be only the love songs and she'd imagine lou and her singing them together. lydia... probably hip-hop or funk-pop.

that's all the main and side characters... idk what michael and mehgan would listen to uh... also jazz???? maybe??? i don't know enough about tray or icebat to say what they'd listen to... BUT GIBBERISH CAT WOULD LISTEN TO BREAKCORE MUSIC HANDS DOWN

[byfurries4furries]

Lyre (Fantasy Romance Visual Novel)

This is going to be a bit critical, but this will still be an overall recommendation. This game has some major problems though.

I've said before of other visual novels that they have poor pacing at first, but Lyre has a glacial pace for most of its playtime. It's not a case of something like Remember the Flowers or Adastra where the natural pace of the author is kind of leisurely, but for Lyre, it just doesn't have stakes for over half the game. In Adastra, it's less than 2 hours in where you get introduced to the basic stakes: Pretend to be a good dumb trophy husband for the alien wolf who kidnapped you and help him become emperor so he can get the power to send you back home. In Lyre, you're a lord sent over from one fantasy kingdom to another to become a royal accountant with some gala coming up. Also you get a wolf bodyguard named Lyall who's got a moderate bubble butt (moderate by furry standards at least). There's just no actual stakes for most of the game. However, by the time the game tries to pick up, it sort of overcompensates and has too many pivotal scenes happen too close to each other in a way that lessens their impact somewhat. It's not too bad, but once it finds its footing, it does start get a good pace going with shifting perspectives, flashbacks, and plenty of narrative momentum. So although it takes a while to see, the game does get very good eventually.

There's a few more nitpicks though. The romance suffers the most from pacing issues. It's extremely gradual, but in a very flat way. Up until the chapter that tries to do way too much at once, there's no obstacles to overcome in their romance, at least none that are apparent at first. The fantasy setting is relatively okay with homosexuality, Lyall and KnotSlut69 (If the game wanted me to name him Richter, it wouldn't have let me name him at all) are of relatively equal status, and their attraction is clearly seen by both of them as mutual. It isn't until the chapter where stakes are actually introduced that any significant roadblocks or insecurities over their romance come into play. As for other nitpicks... there's a human character named Elizabeth with some pretty wonky looking sprites. Am I the only one who finds it weird that Western furry artists often give anime eyes to furry characters but not human characters?

That said, the story does eventually get good. The political drama, the twists, the mysteries, and eventually the romance. It all makes for a pretty good experience. Also while it is finished, it is only the first part of a much longer series of fantasy furry visual novels. I have a lot of faith that things will turn out better for the next novel now that the author seems to have improved quite a bit since then. It's not the best, but it's certainly a pretty good one for anyone who's already done with most of the better VNs in the scene.

Also, I just want to take a moment to appreciate the soundtrack which was partially done by Augustovich. His music is really beautiful, especially because he makes amazingly calm music. A lot of FVN composers tend to struggle with that because they seem more comfortable with shoegaze-y indie rock, but he brings a really great classical sense of composition to his work. A big drawback to the pacing issues is that his atmospheric tracks are very overused, because his other contributions don't get used enough to break up the musical pallette of the game as a whole. It is a shame because all of his contributions are well done. They really help to make the game feel like an RPG, just one where you fiddle around the starting town for four hours trying to figure out how to get the main plot to start, but no one's used that as a knock against Twilight Princess's soundtrack. Anyways, I bring him up here, because he unfortunately passed away due to complications from COVID before Lyre was able to be completed. It is sad to see any creative mind go before they truly get a good chance to shine. Exias, his replacement, shouldn't be discarded though. He brings more of a grand aura to his music that does fit the later parts of the game and he does well at mimicking Augustovich when new compositions can't clash with old ones too much. However, I think he can be a bit extra sometimes, which certainly isn't helped when the game uses his compositions in weird or funny ways (I couldn't help but laugh when the triumphant sounding part of Kjærlighet started playing as Lyall was having his ass groped). They do have a great cinematic feel and they would probably feel more natural in a game where it can be the establishing musical pallette. But I should stop nitpicking. I just really do have a lot of passion for music and I wanted to give some praise to a musician who could have and should have had more time to make many more wonderful songs.

That's all I have to say for now so until next time, keep on yiffing.

Links

Itch.io

[mermaidsirennikita]

Do you have favorite romance covers?

What do you think of the covers nowadays? I see the one from the historical romance were painted and beautiful and look at the ones we have now...they are not even well done pictures

Edit: omg I got so aggressively bitchy I forgot to mention my favorites lmaoooo TYPICAL

I love a Lindsey cover. Silver Angel, Defy Not the Heart, Tender is the Storm all come to mind. Any naked man cover.

I love the original cover for Indigo by Beverly Jenkins.

I LOVE the original cover for A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux, that shit fucks so hard.

I love the original covers for A Hunger Like No Other and Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole. Those are both werewolf books, and damn if it doesn't look like those guys are about to literally eat their heroines alive.

I have a lot of issues with covers, both as someone who enjoys art and as a creative who works with creatives.

So first off--outright, I hate AI covers. I do not automatically jump to blaming authors, especially trad authors. Trad published authors usually don't have the final say on their covers. And even when they do have influence (which is typically restricted, beyond a bare "what do you like?" to big names) they aren't usually instructing "and use this graphic designer" this artist, etc. They don't have that kind of power. I don't think that most of them know AI is being used for their covers until they know.

And even indie authors, I don't want to automatically assume are using AI. There have been vocal AI defenders out there (Kerrigan Byrne, Elsie Silver, though I don't know if either has used AI covers yet). But I'll be real, I know that the vast majority of indie authors outsource, and there have absolutely been cases in the past in which authors have been tricked by designers or cover manufacturers. I can think of one such case in which Laura Thalassa, a fairly known indie author at the time, found out after the fact that her cover designer had reused or stolen a cover that was already sold to a different author. She had to replace the cover. That wasn't her fault. I don't expect authors to know AI off the bat, either. I am fairly certain that there are designers and manufacturers passing off AI covers to authors who don't know any better.

I absolutely know there are authors intentionally using AI for covers, and not only does it create a poorer quality product--it deprives creatives of jobs and also often steals from existing imagery without compensating the original artists.

ANYWAY. That aside, I generally am disappointed with a lot of book covers today, and not just with historicals. Obviously, I prefer the old school stepbacks with painted covers and the gorgeous work of artists like Robert McGinnis and Pino. I majored in art history; I love art; I think romance novel covers are so unique and have their own special space, and I think that we are absolutely losing that art form, and it makes me sad. I love stepbacks, I miss stepbacks. I collect old school covers. I don't think we will ever get those back, because publishing is so dominated by capitalism and it is obviously more expensive to make those covers.

(I'll also add--paranormal romances used to have some killer illustrated covers too, which have been replaced by more digital, photoshop heavy covers. Take a look at the original A Hunger Like No Other cover. SO GOOD.)

But even the digital photographic stepback and covers are fading out, and I'm sad about that too. I really dislike these cartoonified covers from authors like Evie Dunmore (Tessa Dare and Suzanne Enoch have also been getting cartoonified covers or re-covers). I hate them for contemporaries, too. Like, I would take a million covers with shirtless guys on them versus the cartoony covers. I think the cartoony covers are confusing, they make it difficult to know a book's heat level, and they express a level of shame about the genre that I can't get behind.

Like, honestly? If you're that embarrassed to be reading romance a) do you really love romance or b) use your e-reader or audiobooks. I don't get this concept of like... hiding what you're reading from the world.

So yeah, I have an issue with current cover trends visually, ethically, morally, and like... societally lmao

[annarcaccia]

I've been Debating whether to postpone my books release because of the writer (now also actor) strikes.

I decided I'm not going to postpone the release. I support the strikes, I really hope writers and other artists get what they deserve. I am an indie author and if I postpone it will hurt me a lot (emotionally) in regards to the fact that I am completely very much so unknown... And if I do nothing, publish nothing, it will only hurt me, not anybody else...

Within the means of the strike I am utterly insignificant...

But to those who are not getting the pay they deserve, the credit they deserve, the credit they earned, I support you 💯

[zingaplanet]

Tagged by: @kuhcra 🙌❤️

Sign: I'm an aquarius, i never really get these things, come on astrology mutuals tell me smth about myselffff, am i gonna die and become a cat? Am i destined to save the world from a catastrophic alien invasion?

Height: I'm 172cm ish!

Last thing I googled:

Believe it or not, the Reading fest ticket, I'm contemplating whether 100 quid is worth it to get smashed to a pumpkin amidst crowds of thousands to watch the Killers play

Number of followers: hmm i dunno around 400ish? Doesn't matter tho, I love. Every. Single. One. Of. My. Mutuals. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ i also love that all of you come from different fandoms and come here to be chaotic with me or be introduced to some completely random ships lol. My page is a fandom networking platform n i won't have it any other way!

Amount of sleep: oof I'm an old man. I need my 8 hours beauty sleep. Sometimes 9 hours on weekends lol

Lucky #: I've absolutely no idea what this means, tumblr lingo expert help?

Wearing: A knitted sweater, cozy pajama pants and CHRISTMAS SOCKS! I luv my festive socks 🧦🧦🧦

Dream job: Oooohhhhh this is so difficult. Ok there are 2 things to this (leave it to me to overcomplicate stuffs lol)

Within the unachievable realm I've always wanted to be a musician (Hency my profile background!). I kinda almost did, I taught piano for quite some time, and was in a band for a long time. Hey you never know, might get called to headline glastonbury anytime, hang out with Alex Turner backstage and never have to work a day in my life anymore 😉

Frankly I just dream of playing a rock concert with my band at the royal albert hall and crowdsurfing the dead-est, posh-est crowd ever just cause i thought it'd be hilarious to see their faces 🥲 lol

In the slightly more achievable realm within my field right now, my dream job is to work in the UN peacekeeping or other international conflict orgs to help broker peace deals and help resolve some of the conflict stalemates around the world. I've worked with humanitarian charities before but I get really frustrated seeing so many efforts gone to waste cause the bureaucrats on top just couldn't be bothered to sacrifice their political interests for longlasting peacekeeping efforts. Sorry this is such a geeky answer! It's just that I've seen so many unnecessary sufferings and I just really really want to be in a position where I can at least make my mark to do smth good to change the world for better before I die!

Movies/books that summarise me: prob Orwell's 1984 lol, i'll leave it to you to interpret why

Favourite song: Oh this is so difficult! My current fav is by the Belgian artist Stromae, the one he made as a tribute to Cesária Évora, one of the greatest living singers of all time!

My current fav album and something that you DEF DEF DEF should listen to is the new album by the Canadian indie band Peach Pit called From 2 to 3. It has that old school road trip feel good vibes with your friends during a cross-country, it calms the soul and soothes the mind just uuggghh absolute masterpiece! (My fav track is give up baby go!)

Fav instrument: My bass! Especially my fender jazzmaster bass Rory ❤️ it's been my date for 23 years

Aesthetic: Have you seen the riverside of Thames in autumn?

Fav author: I don't read a lot of non-fictions anymore sadly, but I love poetries and literature. Jeanette Winterson is one of the only I feel that can really capture the essence of our souls and unearth emotions as raw as our hearts. Here's her masterpiece from Lighthousekeeping:

Fav animal noise: 🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬

Random: my dear mutuals, I am working on 2 deadass long angsty carraville and fedal fics that might never get finished but I'm committed to see them to the end even if it takes years!

On another note, if somehow our interests overlap again, the last fic I did was on pepmou. It's so sappy, I don't even know how I got through it! But if you're feeling a bit in need of enemies to lovers... ⬇️⬇️

Enjoy the tag my lovelies: @surreality51 @aramblingjay @tam-is-blogging @aliceinqueensland

[sandyrantsxo]

I'm boring

I found out that I have a new fear. A fear of being too boring and not interesting. Well, I know that I'm not as exciting as other teens my age, but I've never ever expected that I'm this shallow and there's really nothing worth knowing about me.

Exhibit A. I'm not "pretty". Like, I know I'm pretty but I just don't pass the conventional standards of being pretty.

Exhibit B. I'm not skinny, and I'm fine with that. That's the least of my insecurities. I love my body the way that it is and it took me time to finally accept that this body is mine.

Exhibit C. I don't play sports. I used to be sporty but now it's just not in my radar. I used to play badminton, volleyball, chess, and even basketball. Damn, I used to be so great in badminton and basketball.

Exhibit D. I love isolating myself from others. Yes, I might not come off as an introvert but most days I just wanna spend time alone when I'm outside our house. It's just so chaotic back home so when I'm out with my friends, I'm trying to find this peace and calmness from my surroundings, thus making it look like I'm an introvert. Well, I might be an ambivert, but who cares, right?

Exhibit E. I don't have a lot of friends. I have 5-7 friends but then that's it.

Exhibit F. I don't have a lot of money. We're not rich, so I can't go out and buy things and flex it to everyone. Let's be honest, people like you when you have money, which leads me to exhibit G.

Exhibit G. I'm not popular. I would be fine being a basic bland bitch if I was famous at school or whatever, but I'm not!

Exhibit F. I don't have a talent. Yes, I can dance, sign, etc. but I'm barely good at it. I guess I'm pretty decent, that's all.

Exhibit G. I don't have an interesting hobby. I don't watch animes. I don't listen to kpop. I don't watch k-dramas, even famous Western series. I don't know how to draw or paint. I suck at content creation (TikTok/YouTube). It's hard to find friends when all you do is watch comedians have fun on YT or watch an adult man play Roblox and other video games. Well, I love Smosh, Flamingo, Taylor Swift, and other indie-pop (not completely underground) artists, but then that's it. Literally. I used to like writing, like novels, poems, short stories, but now it feels as if it's a chore. I hate to admit it but I don't enjoy it as much anymore, which makes me sad because I feel like I'm straying away my first dream when I was teen. To be a published author.

Exhibit H. I'm awkward. My humor's off in comparison to my peers' humor. Maybe it's a result of watching sketch comedy? I don't know. I try not to think about it often because it makes me sad that people don't know what meme I'm referencing to. Even my FYP's different from theirs, lol. I laugh at little things that I shouldn't be laughing at. Maybe it's also a result of being chronically online. I don't know.

Exhibit I. I'm nostalgic about everything. I tend to stay in the past and compare everything to what happened in the past. Although I always tell everyone that I'd rather pay attention to the future rather than the past, I can't deny that sometimes, it's good to reminisce the good times. I miss being a kid and truly enjoying the holidays. I miss being a kid who wishes to be an adult so she do everything she wants. Turns out adulthood is not that simple. Fuck, I'm not even halfway into adulthood and yet I'm already feeling this way.

I could probably write more about how boring I am. Just yesterday, I found myself talking to chatbots. Yes, those AI things that makes you feel like you're actually talking to a real person. I rate it a whopping 10000000/10. It works so good. I got it to write an essay for me. Twice. I even came across an AI chatbot with a background story. I loved every minute of talking to them. Weird, right? Told you so.