BRANDING FANTASY COVERS WORKSHOP…
We did a form of this workshop back in May for four weeks that filled almost instantly. It was basically branding any kind of series.
So Allyson had fun and I didn’t get killed by the writers, so I talked Allyson into doing the workshop for branding a fantasy series. Any type of fantasy.
This one will also fill almost instantly.
So here are the details…
Allyson Longueira, the publisher of WMG Publishing has offered to design a cover and help brand a fantasy series for a limited number of writers. For those of you who don’t know her, Allyson is an award-winning designer who also happens to have a masters degree in design.
Over the years, Allyson helped writers with cover design in coast workshops here and for a short time we did a basic cover design workshop to help writers learn how to do covers.
But this one-time short workshop on branding fantasy covers is different. Working with you, Allyson will design a brand for your fantasy series and give you a cover template for your series when you are done.
And it will be a workshop as well to help you learn the theory and details of fantasy cover branding so you understand the concepts of how branding works with covers.
AND YES, IF YOU TOOK THE LAST ONE, YOU CAN TAKE THIS ONE. IT WILL BE DIFFERENT.
Here are the details:
4 Week Online Workshop
Starts Wednesday, July 26th.
Cost: $300. Limited to ten to twelve writers. First in, first served.
The structure of the workshop:
Week #1… Four videos about fantasy branding. (I will present them, but Allyson and I will work them out together.) Your assignment will be to send Allyson (through me) a number of your covers you would like to work on. Allyson will do an evaluation and look for problem areas and things that could be improved to create a brand.
Week #2… Four or five more videos about fantasy branding. Your assignment will be to find art for your covers, numbers of options. (We will give you help with this on how to do so cheaply.) You will also fill out a question sheet with all the details. Allyson will let you know if the art and will work or not for what you want. If not, you will find new art.
Week #3… Four more videos about aspects of fantasy cover branding and design. You and Allyson will agree on art and type. At this point she will design a cover for you for your series. She will send you the InDesign template when she gets it done.
Week #4… Four more videos about aspects of fantasy cover branding and design. Your assignment will be to do other book or story covers using the template you have been given and send them to us. We will double-check you are using the template correctly and that your fantasy series is branding completely.
When this is finished, you will have a fantasy series branded by one of the better book cover designers working. And you will have learned a ton about branding fantasy covers as well.
Allyson works in InDesign. The template you will get will be an InDesign template. But you can use the idea and the design for any design program simply by copying what Allyson did. Again, she will check you at the end of week four with how you are doing.
(Note: This is not a workshop to help you learn tricks in InDesign. This is to give you a cover brand for one of your series.)
A one-time offer. The workshop starts Wednesday July 26th and goes for only four weeks.
This is very, very limited. Allyson thinks she can help ten to twelve writers at most. That’s it. First in gets it. I will shout when this is full. Last time it took only a couple of days.
Write me if you have questions. To sign up, simply pay for the workshop by sending $300 through my email address at Paypal to get to the WMG Publishing account and write me to let me know you have done so.
(Sorry, we can’t use the Kickstarter regular workshop credits or any other credits for this. Those are for the monthly workshops.)
I’d love to take this workshop, but as yet, I don’t have covers, this is a new project I’m about to launch. I intend to commission custom art, I have some very loose mock ups, but that is all. I would appreciate expert help on branding the series. Would this workshop be suitable for me?
You don’t need covers, Dan, for this one. That is sort of what it is about, helping you get covers and get going. And I would highly recommend you not do commissioned art unless you really know what you are doing and looking for and have more money than most. In this new world, stock art is easy, cheap, and wonderfully done by professionals.
As a person who had to commission art for seven years back before this new world, trust me, that way lies madness and a ton of wasted. Money.
So yes, this workshop would be very suitable for you.
Yes, how do I sign up? I have a fantasy trilogy I am writing and illustrating and Book One is nearing completion. Beta readers have read the first half of Book One and given me their suggestions and it has been edited and proof read. I am typing up my final edits and hope to publish the first portion of Book One as a novella for free for a limited time. I have a drawing chosen as cover art and a title but not know how to complete it, etc.
John, you need to read the instructions again on this post.
You sign up by e-mailing me and telling me you are signing up and sending the $300 through Paypal. First come.
Your process scares me, to be honest. So clearly you haven’t been reading this blog or taking any workshops, otherwise you would have never explained that process to me. (grin)
For example, Allyson will expect professional art. If she doesn’t like something or can’t make the art you pick work, she will make you find new art. You will need to send her a number of pieces of art in the process. She will not do a cover that won’t look totally professional. So heads up. With the crowd of people you have in your work, this might not be a good fit for you. Just having many beta readers read an unfinished work and you taking their suggestions makes me shudder to my core.
So you are welcome to sign up. Just realize you are walking into a professional sales and branding world here. And your process and belief in myths might not be suited for that sort of thing.
Thank you for the reply! I am most happy to send the drawings I am hoping to use and see if you and Allyson believe they are appropriate. And I appreciate your other comments. I do not want to publish if the work is not ready. Three of my beta readers have actually edited the work and before I ever gave it to them there had been editing. So hopefully there’s at least a possibility it’s “ready”. I sent an email and will send another. Thank you again!
And as all the long time readers of this blog know, I just shuddered. You missed my point. I wasn’t talking about the manuscript being “ready” I was talking about your belief in the worst myth of them all. Nothing more.
This has given me a lot to think about. I have a cat fantasy novel and it’s a world I would like to write more in. I did make a cover for this book but I got to thinking about the branding. I would like to appeal to readers of the cat warrior series. All their books are branded by the font that they use on each book. You know it’s a cat warrior book by that font. Different cat picture for every book. Plus I have a cat cozy series and that again would be stamped by the font and art used. Would love to have Alyson’s input.
Yup, that is the kind of thing this workshop is all about. Fantasy series branding. Still room so still time to think about it.
I would take this except I don’t write fantasy. I’ll watch for a Western series branding workshop.