Showing posts with label image. Show all posts
Showing posts with label image. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Creating a Newsletter—The First Page by Rochelle Weber, Newsletter Editor #MFRWorg




In November, we covered creating a header for the first page of a newsletter. Since the MFRW Newsletter broke ninety pages, we’ve discussed the difference between a newsletter and a magazine.  One of our members posted an article that discussed the differences.  Length was one.  Most newsletters run between one and twenty-four pages.  I guess we passed that a few years ago.  Another major difference was the cover.  Most magazines have a photo on the cover with a headline and teasers about the content inside, which usually consists of articles and advertising in non-industry-specific language.  Newsletters tend to have articles on the front.  Of course, I like to add some sort of artwork to the front of my newsletters as well.  It would be a pretty dull publication without some sort of illustration.


So, how do I lay it out?  I add text boxes for the articles I put on the front page.  In the case of the MFRW Newsletter, we put our Featured Author on the front page.    We start with the person’s biography one the left and an interview on the right.  We put the author’s photo in the top right-hand corner, and if there’s room we put his/her contact info in a box at the bottom left.  Again, I use IrfanView to size it.  I like 1.5 inches wide, and I keep the aspect even and let IrfanView decide the length.  We outline the Contacts box in pink.  Our headings are in brown and the links are in hot pink.  The text box for the biography takes up about one-third (1/3) of the width of the page.

As for the interview, the submission form contains several questions for each author to choose from—some serious ones about the craft of writing, some funny ones that may give us an insight into the author him/herself.  And it just occurred to me that since we’re a marketing group, I should probably ask about their favorite marketing technique. I’d better add that to the form as soon as I finish this so I don’t forget!

Depending on how well that fits in the remaining two-thirds (2/3) of the page, it can be one wide column or two narrow ones.  I’ve found that when info doesn’t fit in one column, it sometimes will fit in two. To create columns in Publisher, click on the Columns Icon next to the Paragraph Icon (¶) just to the right of center on the top toolbar.  It should give you a drop-down icon that allows you to choose the number of columns you want by highlighting the columns in the icon.  You’ll then have two columns that are exactly the same size.  To increase the size between columns, go to Format, Text Box, click on the button in the lower right-hand corner that says Columns, and where it says “Spacing,” change that number.  I like 0.25 best.  If I figure out a way to make that the default, I’ll let you know.


Now, all you need to do is figure out what you want to put on your front page!

And, going back to the difference between a newsletter and a magazine, I’d love to add more articles to the MFRW Newsletter.  It’s definitely big enough to be a magazine.  Just think, me, a magazine E-I-C.…  I still wouldn’t get any money for it, but it’d look good in my bio!  Wouldn’t you folks like to be the Cover Models for a magazine?

Rochelle Weber is a Navy veteran and holds a BA in Communications from Columbia College in Chicago with an emphasis on Creative Writing. “Would you like fries with that?” Her novels Rock Bound and Rock Crazy are available in both e-book and print. She edits for Jupiter Gardens Press, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Marketing for Romance Writers Newsletter, winner of the 2013 Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll for Best Writers’ Resource.

Rochelle battles bi-polar disorder, quipping, “You haven’t lived until you’ve been the only woman on the locked ward at the VA.” Her song, “It’s Not My Fault,” won a gold medal in the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition. She lives in Round Lake Beach, Illinois. She has two married daughters, four grandchildren, three step-grandkids, and one step-great-grandkid. Two cats allow her to live with them and cater to their every whim.

You can access the MFRW Newsletters at:


Or:

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Preparing Artwork for Newsletters (Or Blogs)


How do you put together an award-winning newsletter?  Well, you could use Word and just write a lot, but that would be kind of boring.  What sets one newsletter apart from another is the use of artwork.  There are a lot of different programs out there that enable you to edit artwork.  I like IrfanView.  It’s free, and I find it easier than the Microsoft or Adobe programs.  Microsoft wants to store everything in the Cloud and I don’t necessarily want to store other people’s book covers in my Picasa account.  As for Adobe, I seem to have a mind-block when it comes to that program.  Don’t know why.

So, when I receive a photo, I save it to a folder I keep for my newsletter artwork.  If the author doesn’t send artwork, I go to her/his publisher’s website or to Amazon and copy it from there.  If I get it from Amazon, I’ll need to crop the Amazon info from the artwork.  To do that, I open the file in IrfanView.  I then click on the magnifying glass icon with the + sign until the image is large enough to work with.  Place the cursor at your favorite corner of the book, and outline the book.  Then go to edit and scroll down to “Crop selection,” and click.  If you’ve done it right, you should have just the artwork without the Amazon logo.

I like to keep all of my artwork at a uniform size.  I think 1.5 inches wide works best.  Book covers are usually about 1.5” wide by about 2.25” long.  Author photos tend to be more square.  And I think 150 dots per inch works fairly well.  So, go to Image, which is the drop-down menu right next to Edit.  Click on Resize/Resample.  You’ll see the boxes where you can set the sizes for width and height.  Make sure you click on inches or pixels—whichever you’re most comfortable with.  I usually make sure the “Preserve Aspect Ratio” and “Apply Sharpen After Resample” boxes are also checked.  Finally, I set the DPI (Dots per Inch) box at 150 or 300, depending on how dense you want your artwork to be, and how large you want your file to be.  The MFRW Newsletter is up to almost eight pages and will soon be over a hundred, so 150 DPI are plenty for us.


Save your artwork in its folder, and you’re good to go!

Now I’d like to introduce you to Emerald.  When our staff splits and we have an editorial section and an Advertising Section, Em will head the editorial side.
 

Emerald is an erotic fiction author and general advocate for human sexuality as informed by her deep appreciation of the beauty, value, and intrinsic nature of sexuality and its holistic relation to life. Her work has been featured in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust, and she serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW). Read more about her at her website, The Green Light District.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Image is Everything

Breaking Delia's Rules
W. Lynn Chantale

My latest attempt at a book launch fizzled. I had no idea what I was doing and my publisher at the time knew even less. So I stopped and regrouped. When I decided to become serious about writing I figured e-books were the way to go. After all I wouldn’t have to do traditional book signings or TV interviews--I’ll be honest I’m not a big fan of crowds, the telephone, or even leaving the house for long periods of time. But I still needed to get my name out there. Thank goodness for the Internet.

After much searching I found several articles on Branding and attended a meeting at my local chapter of RWA on the same topic. So what is Branding? What does this term mean? It’s a good or service that consumers connect with a name, slogan, or logo.

Examples
Have it Your Way - Burger King
The Golden Arches - McDonald’s
It’s in there - Prego Spaghetti sauce

Or how about these: Worlds of Adventure...Souls of Desire...
Unstoppable Heroes, Uncompromising Love, Unforgettable Passion
Where words mean so much more...
She’ll keep you up all night

Recognize any of those? They are all tag lines from various romance authors’ blogs or websites. The first is Emma Lai, second is Kayelle Allen, third is Em Petrova and last is Jackie Collins. I know what’s she doing in the midst of all these steamy writers? Just to show that even a NYTimes bestselling author has branded herself.

But then there are some authors or products which need no slogans, like Stephen King, Nora Roberts or Kleenex or Kodak. Automatically one thinks of horror, romance, tissue, and cameras. None of that recognition would have been achieved if branding hadn’t been accomplished.
So, how does one accomplish branding? I thought this would be something difficult, but turns out, it’s fairly easy. First get your name out there! Make it easy for readers to find you. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter or Myspace readers should be able to find you by name. Not a nickname or something cutesy, but by your name or slogan. And those aren’t the only places you can brand yourself. Use your email signature line, GoodReads, Blogs, Online Communities, (Eharlequin, ARe Cafe, Savvy Authors, The Romance Review, etc.) articles, blogs you visit, email address, websites. Note: a word on websites--even if you don’t have one now, buy the domain name. You don’t want to put in all this hard work building your image, cultivating your brand just to have someone else take all the credit. People need to know who you are and what you’re about.
I will confess when I first set up my Twitter account I used a nickname, as soon as I heard that tidbit from an avid reader and blogger I came home and changed my name. After all, everything else says W. Lynn Chantale, why not Twitter?
Keeping this in mind what image do you want to convey to readers? Do you write dark, sensual love stories? Then your site needs to reflect that. Sci-fi/fantasy or historical romance? Something relevant should be in the header, like a group of sexy men (great site Kayelle). Or if you’re a closet romantic and want to convey that image; well a pink background, red roses, and maybe a picture of a bubble bath is the way to go. *grins* However you decide to build your name, your image, your brand—this is how readers will find and remember you. So make it count, get your name out there, and have some fun while doing it.
Until next time, indulge your inner romantic.

Seducing His Wife
W. Lynn Chantale
About the Author

W. Lynn Chantale resides in southeastern Michigan. Married to her high school sweetheart, they’ve been together for the last twenty years. They have three children. She writes African-American and Interracial sensual erotic and erotic romance. She has a mad affinity for milk chocolate, preferably Dove chocolate truffles or the caramel-filled squares (Godiva and Ghiradelli are acceptable), and plays the bass guitar when the Muse begs for a bit of distraction.

Contact Info