I am presently the member of two Australian trade associations (APA, SPN), and one international (the Independent Book Publishers Association).  Now, professional associations generally have two conflicting mandates, firstly they have a responsibility to act on behalf of their members, a responsibility which will often have them acting like a cartel or a labor union (trade union) for the members of the profession, though this description is commonly rejected by the body concerned. Secondly professional bodies often act to protect the public by maintaining and enforcing standards of training and ethics in their profession. (Source Wikipedia). One of the primary methods by which this second is achieved is by the development, maintenance, and enforcement of a code of ethics for its members.

Without a Code of Ethics it is difficult for an organisation to discipline or expel a member for acting unethically, as without a code it often difficult to determine whether someone is a fit and proper person to be a member. This is because the question of fitness will differ across occupations, and the matter will often end up in court. With a Code of Ethics the question is simpler, as the expectations of the behaviour of its members is set out in that Code. While the matter may still end up in court, the fact that the Association made a determination against a code of ethics specific to its occupation and membership will make its decision to discipline, suspend, or expel a member is much easier to justify. And personally I can definitely confirm that it makes sacking an unethical employee so much easier.

Which should make it of concern that until recently none of these three associations appears to have had a code of ethics, although this has now changed with the release of IBPA’s first Code of Ethics. Continue reading →

In the final part of this series on eBook covers I want to get a little bit ‘arti’ and move away from the technical stuff I’ve been talking about to date. So in this blog I want to walk you through the process we followed in getting to the final cover.

Firstly the artist. David Lecossu, a French freelance Concept Artist/Illustrator who worked for the videogame company ‘Gameloft’ and who works now for clients like Applibot Inc, Fantasy Flight Games and Catalyst Game Labs. David approached us in February 2013 to see if there was any work. At the time there wasn’t but when we were looking for an artist for Shelley’s “Lights Over Emerald Creek” we approached him to see if he was still interested.

The original specifications I provided him were slightly more detailed than usual, see the following

Shelley was imagining a highly realistic, but magical pic of a girl sitting in a wheelchair. We see her from the back. Her long blonde hair hangs down her back. It is night. The wheelchair is on the banks of a creek. Tropical palms can be seen, and in the distance, blue-black shadows of mountains are silhouetted against a starry sky. Above the girl’s head is a ball of weird, magical light. It’s about the size of a football but the glow is much bigger. It is a brilliant blue/white and radiance drenches her. The light is a portal, but at the moment of the picture, all we can see is that some unearthly light is over her head. Further along the creek, two smaller lights, the size of tennis-balls, one blue and one orange, hover just over the water.

We then had to negotiate over price. Our initial offer was for $150 but David’s base rate started at $300. Given his credentials we decided to pay his rate. We have since increased our base rate to $250.

Continue reading →

Last week I blogged about what size you need to get your artist to provide you to meet distributor requirements. This week I’ll be talking about the additional requirements you need to consider, including how it displays as a thumbnail, and ensuring that it works in black and white. I will also be supply a helpful html page that you can download to your computer to see how your cover works at various sizes.

This time I’ll be using the cover of Frontier Incursion by Leonie Rogers. The design is by talented Australian artist and illustrator Emma Llewelyn.

The first picture shows the cover of Frontier Incursion in all its glory. The typeface used for the text is Vani. Looks good doesn’t it.

Frontier Incursion Colour 200×300

Continue reading →

When I started Hague Publishing I thought all we needed to do was to contract an illustrator to do one cover that we could use for the eBook, publicity, and for the cover for a Print on Demand if sales justified it. Unfortunately I was quickly disabused of this because of the wide variety width to height ratios that distributors, and the publishing process requires.

However, I have now come to the view that one size will fit all, so long as all the main elements are contained within a centred, smaller, specified area. Read on as I walk you through why I have come to this view, and what size you should be requesting from the illustrator.

But first of all, what actually is the problem, and here I think two pictures are worth a thousand words. The first picture is how ‘Bonnie’s Story – A Blonde’s Guide to Mathematics’ is displayed on Amazon.com (ie 152 x 239 pixels).

Sized for Amazon.com

However, if you simply use the same picture on Google (229 x 289 pixels), or Apple and Barnes & Noble (260 x 336 pixels) you get the following, which is frankly quite uncomplimentary to Bonnie’s hips.

Continue reading →