To Dream of Foreign Nightmares

[Ryan Pollard]

Ladies and gentlemen, lads and lasses. Help out a scrappy Englishman who can't even roll out a book cover for their first book. It's only $0.99, so I don't see why you lot couldn't give it a punt.

TO DREAM OF FOREIGN NIGHTMARES by Ryan Pollard

ABOUT THE BOOK

Nineteen year old Markie Bristow is an aggravated aspiring musician from Manchester, England. Caught up in a life of drinking and football hooliganism, accompanied by boyhood friends whose lives are going nowhere, the ambitious young lad's crumbling romance and friendships force him to think big or regret it later.

He tries to move on with his life, only to face a coming-of-age modern tragedy. Follow his journey as he attempts to find his way in the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Pollard was born in Manchester, UK. He grew up in the South Bronx of New York City and would spend his summers in England. He has both AFA Theatre and AFA Arts and Sciences degrees. He is attending the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts.

[911jason]

Welcome to KB Ryan... if you'd like some help coming up with a cover, let me know. I'd be happy to help... =)

[Ryan Pollard]

I'm too skint to go out and get anybody else to do it. I have some ideas but I don't have the artistry to draw a cover and I wouldn't own the copyright to anything I would use in Photoshop. But hey, if anyone is good and wants to do it for free... 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Ryan--

welcome to KindleBoards and congratulations on your book and your first posts!  

I encourage you to get a book cover; in addition to being important for sales, you need one so we can invite you to use your book cover as your avatar and have image links to your book and website in your signature.  Although self-promotion is limited to the Book Bazaar, most of our authors have found the best way to promote their books is to be as active throughout KindleBoards as time allows.  This is your target audience--book lovers with Kindles!

You'll want to head over to the Writers' Cafe to take part in the discussions with other authors.  Lots of good info there!

Thanks for being part of KindleBoards!  Feel free to PM us if you have any questions.

Betsy & Ann
Book Bazaar Moderators


The fine print:
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[911jason]

I'm too skint to go out and get anybody else to do it. I have some ideas but I don't have the artistry to draw a cover and I wouldn't own the copyright to anything I would use in Photoshop. But hey, if anyone is good and wants to do it for free... 

There are plenty of royalty-free images available... what kind of image would you envision on your cover? I found a great image of a neon BAR sign on a downward pointing arrow that would look great... but not having read the book, I wasn't sure if it would fit the story.

[911jason]

So this is the image I was talking about in the previous post...

[Ryan Pollard]

Thanks, Jason. I like the text for the title and some of the colours. I don't want to be a picky little twat though, so try and bare with me here. Pubs in the UK don't look much like that, but I like the direction you went in. A lot of the story takes place in a made-up pub so it's almost as if you actually did read the story.

If you type Manchester pubs into Google images you could see what they're like. I had a go and typed "non copyrighted pub images" in and came up with this picture I like.

http://www.eveandersson.com/photo-display/large/scotland/edinburgh-old-town-high-st-worlds-end-pub-snowing-dawn.html

[911jason]

I kind of thought you might say that (about the bar vs pub), I just fell in love with that image for some reason!

I did search the stock photo site I use for Manchester and for Manchester Pub and didn't find anything which is why I went with that Neon Bar image.

Here's one using your find:


 
This image is fairly low resolution for a book cover. I think it will display fine on Amazon, but it is about 40% of the size they ask authors to submit. Also, based on this comment on that image's page...

Copyright:    For non-commercial use, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
For commercial use, please email me (referencing Photo ID 13783-edinburg).
I have larger versions, suitable for printing, of most photos on my site.

...you will probably want to contact her prior to posting this image on Amazon. She also notes that she has larger versions, but I'm guessing she'll charge you for it.

Oh, and feel free to be a "picky little twat", this is YOUR book! I'm just trying to pitch in and help. =)

[Ryan Pollard]

I think we can give one last effort before I contact her. In your photo stock, do you have anything like pint glasses, bottles, guitars, or anything rock music related?

Now feel free to rule this next idea out, but what about a Times Square or New York thing with the English flag nearly transparent as a top layer? I don't know if it would have specific images like that.

[911jason]

I'm at work now, but take a look at the site...

http://www.sxc.hu/

They have just under 400,000 images, and all are free and royalty-free.

[Ryan Pollard]

Here we go. I can smell the Guinness off this photo.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/443284

[911jason]

Okay, I'll try to work on it in the next few days, but if not, I'll definitely be able to work on it when I'm off again which is Sunday and Monday.

Just curious, but do you feel like that daytime image gives the right mood for the story? I was thinking of a night-time image.

[Ryan Pollard]

Good point, what with the title and all. When I saw the photo, my initial memories were of the weekend football matches in England that take place during the day and the pubs fill up. Maybe we could get the best of both worlds and dim it? It would still look like daylight but through sunglasses.

I saw this other photo, and it's probably what you were thinking of - http://www.sxc.hu/photo/510140. The Temple Bar part at the top would have to be taken out though because everyone would be like, "Oh, that's Dublin." Like if the photo were to be cut off at that point. Your gonna make me flip a coin on it, aren't you?

Thanks for the help here. The book could be absolute rubbish for all you know and you're still giving me a hand with the cover. 

[911jason]

I like the tone of that image better, but the happy couple walking in front doesn't scream "nightmare" at me... we're getting closer though! I'll keep looking and play around with some of these that you've found and post up some options later in the week hopefully.

[Sandra Edwards]

Ryan, welcome to the Kindle boards and congrats on your book. I guess I don't need to reiterate the importance of cover art  .

FWIW...I love both the covers Jason put up...

Sandy

[Edward C. Patterson]

Welcome to Kindleboards, Ryan. I bought your book, which should start you in the Amazon rankings (as I see that was blank). I look forward to reading it. I'm a big fan of the film Green Street and also run an Elijah Wood fansite. Hope things go well with the cover project.

Edward C. Patterson

PS: Ryan, is there any rason that you have 2 Amazon listings a day apart?

[Ryan Pollard]

Cheers, Edward. I watched Green Street once. It's not in big favour with the English because of a few inaccuracies, but I think some of us are a little too harsh on the film. I prefer The Firm with Gary Oldman in it, and I.D. is really popular with the football supporters. I don't think those are so easy to find in America though.

That's the first I heard of the two different listings. The one I posted here is the only one I have control of. Does this mean I can say I have twins now?

[Edward C. Patterson]

Ryan:

Here's the link to the other (and later dated) copy: http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Foreign-Nightmares-ebook/dp/B003X27V5E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1280532456&sr=1-2

My suggestion is to ditch that one from your DTP set-up ASIN: B003X27VSE  A duplicate page becomes dodgy when dealing with the reading public. It dilutes your rankings (if you compare the pages, you'll see that one has ranking - the one with purchases - and the other doesn't). It will mess up your reviews and review count and stars when those come. And if you decide to publish a paperback (POD), the pages will not reference and reviews and pricing discounts will not carry over.

BTW, if you are considering a paperback, let me know (drop me a PM or and email edwpat@att.net) and I'll get a copy of my book on How-to set one up a paperback at CreateSpace for under $50.

Ed Patterson

[Ryan Pollard]

It's weird, the second version doesn't even show up in my DTP. Good find, I'll have to bring it up to someone at Amazon and see if it can get removed. It's probably a glitch.

[911jason]

There have been other posts here on KB about authors posting a book on Amazon and shortly afterwards someone else reposts the book apparently for their own profit. I hope that isn't the case here.

[911jason]

A couple more attempts...

[Ryan Pollard]

You did them both too well. How dare you make me pick. I'm going to sleep on it but right now I favour the one at night.

[Ryan Pollard]

In the last week I have spent time in Duluth and been rather busy. Some updates, both late and recent...

1. I picked the book cover.

2. My interview on Kipp's blogspot was posted last week. Read it HERE.

3. Amazon have been completely useless in helping me with that other published version of my book. I don't know how many other ways I can tell them my case. Bloody morons...

[911jason]

I picked the book cover.

Well, don't keep me in suspense! Which one? I have larger versions to send you of whichever one you choose.

[911jason]

Nevermind, I found it on Amazon... and I see they changed the "Kindle Edition" logo now too!

[911jason]

Funny, now that I see it with the "Kindle Edition" logo added, I see that I made the same mistake I told someone else about last week... I used the entire width of the bottom of the cover for your name, so the Kindle pic covers the last two letters of your name.

I can re-do the image to move your name over to the left a bit more so it won't be obscured... let me know if you want that. =)

[Ryan Pollard]

I like the way the cover looks right now, but thanks. The cover has gotten a lot of compliments so far.

[911jason]

Glad to hear it! =)

[911jason]

What happened to this book Ryan? It's no longer available...