Becoming an author (Part 2)

So there I was after a few months of hard work happy thatI had produced a satisfactory story that I wanted to share with the reading community. The writing part was finished. End of story hey? Well no, as it turned out, far from it.

I needed a cover to represent the book. The writing side had been largely enjoyable. I did it using Microsoft Word and then used a new software programme to me called Grammarly. This time I was not sitting flowing words, plotting stories and inventing characters and researching for back-stories to make fully rounded characters. It was a new perspective. I was surprised when loading the manuscript up just how many ‘issues’ the software suggested needed a further check. I am pleased to say not all were in need of attention and some others where very much open to my own judgement. I did not take action on everything the software highlighted. Nevertheless, it was certainly beneficial to me to work through and re-read it all another time because it made it better.

The next element was the cover design. Once again a new thing for me to attempt. I had no clue where to start! After a quick internet search, I ended up reading an article and watching a YouTube video giving detailed instruction of how to create using Microsoft Word would you believe. IT took me to different areas of the program that I had never used before and after familiarising myself with the newly introduced parts I was soon practicing and playing around with ideas. ‘Never judge a book by its cover’ the saying goes, but my intention was to try to give some representation as to what lies on the pages within. With my limited skill set, I eventually produced the cover design that I ended up using. Selecting wallpapers, backgrounds, checking which images were licensable were all a challenge to get right. Deciding how and where to place the layout was one thing, selecting colours, font type, sizes for the titles was a whole other thing!

Once I was pleased, it was a case of trying to turn it from what was essentially a word document into an image file. I found websites that could do that without cost. Once it was back as an image, I used Microsoft’s Photo programme to make any tint alterations that I felt it needed. I recall a slight light adjustment and a tiny crop and it was completed. I was mindful of professional book designers as well as Artificial Intelligence adverts popping up as competent producers of high quality artwork. I chose to keep with my own effort because it was still me wanting to try to see the whole project through myself from start to finish.

The next challenge was how to get the book out into the world so that it was accessible to a world of readers.

That was yet another challenge I had underestimated how to and who to use.