Editing Pictures or Video Part 1

Making A Book Trailer

You may look at me and say there is no way I can make a book trailer.  Trust me, it's easier than you think.  The hardest thing is finding the right pictures, and then getting permission to use them.  Every picture site can be different.  A lot of the free sites don't care if you use their pictures, but always read the fine print.  Some photographers want credit, others just say they don't want anything.  I always prefer to thank the person in print at the end of the book trailer for sharing their images.

Keeping up with everything  can become tedious. If you are like me and have a lot of images it's best to save the name of the photographer, and the site on the thumbnail for later use.  Then, at the end of your video, you can thank anyone and everyone for their contribution.  Everyone likes to see their name on the big screen, even if it's only a book trailer on u-tube.

My advise is pretty much the same when it comes to music. There are free sites that offer music, and some that charge a small or large fee.  Always read the fine print, and save any links or sites that you might possibly need in the future. 

Software 
There are so many ways to make a book trailer or a family video.  I have personally used, Windows Movie Maker, and Wondershare DVD SlideShow Builder Deluxe.  You can also Google movie maker and find all kinds of results.  Again some are free, some not so free.

I bought Wondershare, a few yeas ago for close to eighty dollars. I just love it.  I've made about fifteen videos with it.  Some of them have been for the family, some have been promo videos for the new Hangout Networks show hosted by Jason Matthews & AC Cruz, called Indie Authors. 

It's simple and easy to use.  I'll post links below to some of the videos I've made with theWondershare software. Also, let me say I am not being paid by them to advertise, and if you buy their product I don't guarantee anything, nor do I receive anything, when, and if you purchase one of their many products.  I just really think it's a very useful software. 

Full Hard drive ?
I will say that if you're computer is like my older computer, and your hard drive is filled with thousands of pictures, this software will not work very well at all.  I thought the software was defective, and it didn't use it much for about a year.  Then I got a new computer, moved the software to the new Lenovo, and was amazed at the difference.

It takes about fifteen to thirty minutes to make a short video. Right now I'm editing an hour long video and it's about 44 percent.  I'm guessing it will be about another thirty minutes or close, until it's done.

Known Bugs
I have one complaint. The upload button that is supposed to upload my videos directly to u-tube doesn't seem to work. I'm not sure why.  I haven't done much research but did learn others were having the same problem. 

You can save your videos in all kinds of formats, and even post them straight to Facebook, which I've not done yet.  Today I'm bringing my thought to a close. I'll get part two up in a few days with screen shots and more details on how the Wondershare software works.

My first Book Trailer  Street Justice Charlie's Angel
Promo for Indie Authors Here

Samantha Fury
Author of The Street Justice Series
Book 1 & 2

Attention: Subscribers to Christian Daily Paper

Hey this is short and sweet!  The Christian Daily Paper has a new LINK.  This should be our
one and only change that we will be making.  We hope that you will click on the new link here
Christian Authors Daily Paper, and keep enjoying what our Christian Authors have to say.

Thanks for your patience in this matter and we apologize for the inconvenience.

CIA Team
Samantha Fury 

50,000 Words in a month?

How many of you have ever entered a contest?

Well, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a writing contest. Thousands of writers and authors participate, play, and persevere through the month-long challenge - including many of the Indie Authors show guests.

I normally enter this contest in November, so to be honest, I don't know much about the June version. I do know the contest is all about writing and trying to write 50,000 in a month.

Win Prizes and Pride through NaNoWriMo

I've entered and won this contest in November about four times. Each time in November, I have won a prize. Four years in a row, I won a free book for participating and winning the contest. Now, of course, there is no way for the good NaNoWriMo folks to know if you are cheating or not, but they hope that you won't.

Words, Words, Words

It's not easy to write 50,000 words in a month, but it can be done. For me now it comes down to a contest against my last year's record. I try to get in one really good day with about 7000 words, so if I have a bad day, I don't get so far behind. Last year I hit 9000 words in a 24 hour period. I was stoked.

I don't think I had ever written that many words in one day. I also don't know if I will ever beat that record or not, but you can bet that I will do my best when November comes around.

June Challenge

As I said, this is NaNoWriMo in June, so I'm not sure that I will do as well at this time of the year. There are gardens to tend, grass to mow, and dogs that want to go outside and play in the grass, but I'm going to try. I'm not doing great so far, but I hope to get going soon and get some serious word counts out there.

I will add that this writing is supposed to be on a brand new story that you have never written about before. You can get writing buddies, and have word wars, and it can really be great fun. I'll be sure and let you know how I do this month. Right now, I'm just up to 7000 words.

I haven't been writing that much yet, and I must say that the fact that I don't know if there will be a prize at the end, has affected my word count. Last year the contest rewarded winners 5 free books from the company CreateSpace. Did I mention NaNoWriMo can be life changing?

This small contest is what got me started on the road to self publishing in 2009, and I'm so thankful for a good friend Tommie Lyn, who talked me into entering the contest, and to NaNoWriMo and CreateSpace for running and sponsoring the contest. Winning that first free book showed me that I, too, could self-publish and be an author, so for that, I'm very thankful.

Samantha Fury
Author of the Street Justice Series
book 1 & book 2

Learn more at the NaNoWriMo official contest/challenge web site - http://www.nanowrimo.org/

My New Office

My New Office.

I wanted to share my new office with my followers. I love to spend time outside, but I hate bugs, and I didn't like not having a nice table for my laptop. so we went shopping.  There was also a good reason to get a gazebo for me, miss forgetful.  A few weeks I was working outside in my swing, and it started to storm.  Well, when it storms the dogs go nuts, and I forgot all about my poor little laptop. It was out in the rain all night.

I know my new office is not a good excuse to leave my laptop out in the back yard, but if I'd had this, a month ago I'll bet my laptop wouldn't have even gotten wet. By the way everyone told me that my laptop was done for, I might as well toss it out. True it wouldn't come on, it wouldn't boot up, and it was pretty much dead.

I took it inside let it dry out for a few days.I told all my friends about what I'd done, some said to bury it in rice, but I didn't have that much rice. I contacted our local computer store East Ky Computer Sales and Service and they told me what to do. For a few days I was to let it just sit.  Take out the battery, and see if it would dry out. It was hard to not go in there over and over and try it, but I didn't.

I think it was about four days, when I finally decided to just go plug it in again, and see if it would come on. Thankfully, and of course after saying a prayer I plugged it in and sat down waiting. It was a bit slow but thank GOD it finally came on. It taught me a very valuable lessons and hopefully I won't leave my laptop out in the rain again, but with me it's really hard to tell.

Samantha Fury
Author of The Street Justice Series Tell next time

My New SEO Hat.

The newest hat in my collection is a SEO hat.  Until a few months ago I'd never even heard the word SEO, but once I did I figured I'd better learn all I could on the subject so I did what I don't do often.  I bought a book and started reading it.

If you've known me for very long you know I'm not an avid reader.  This month I bought I think my first ebook that I actually paid money for. I've gotten many free e-books, but never plunked down my hard earned cash for one. So what did I buy.  Get on Google Front Page my Jason Matthews.

First, I'll say for those of you that don't know me well. I don't like to read.  I know I'm strange that way.  I just feel that it is taking time away from my editing and writing.  Also, I suppose it has to do with the fact that it takes a lot to hold my attention.  By the way, this book held my attention. I only put it down because life kept calling.  The dogs wanted to be fed, hubby thought he needed clean clothes, you know things like that.

Why did I buy this book?  I want my blogs and web sites to be found not just because people type in my name. I want some day for my web site and novels to show up when someone types in Christian Romance.  Right now that does not happen, so I thought I need to try and learn how to achieve this new goal.

That said, I bought a book on the subject of SEO. Search Engine Optimization.  I've talked to Jason Matthew's, and I've heard him discuss topics on the new show Indie Authors, so I knew he could explain things well.  I'm not the easiest person to teach.  I need something written out in plain English, and by the way this book does just that.

Did I understand everything first time around.  No, of course not. Jason's a great writer but he's not a magician.  I learn slowly and it will take me a while.  You may be different. If you don't have a reading disorder you may read this first time around and just breeze through these steps with ease.

For me there were so many new terms to learn and ideas to grasp onto.  Jason Matthews provides in the book many links and suggestions. I can see this book helping me in so many ways, but it will be a process of taking each step one at a time and learning how to implement the new changes.

You can even purchase a pdf file, to make things easier to follow while you start taking the first few steps in the process.  I've started with step one, creating good content, and I'm sure that as I take these steps and I learn more about this process I'll blog again and let you know how things are coming along.

In short there are so many helpful tips in this book, on blogging, social media, tips for your web sites, that I think you will take something away from every chapter you read.  I did, and I will soon start with step one in working my way up the Google ladder.

I know that this will not make me an over night success and that with my schedule it may take me months, to get through all the steps, but as they say Rome wasn't built in a day.  It's like blogging or writing a book, or even planting a garden. 

The garden aspect works best for me.  If I just go out into my back yard and toss out some seeds and stand there watching, waiting, nothing is going to happen. It takes months and years of knowing what you're doing to reap a great crop.  You have to till, then plow, fertilize, sew, get rid of the weeds, water your plants, you maybe even do some bug dusting.  In the end you'll have a good crop if you get enough rain.. 

If you just toss your seeds on the ground, and pay it no mind and never think about it again until you want something to eat, you're not going to get anywhere.  I look at writing, blogging, and even SEO in this same matter.

I've got to work hard, I've got to put in a lot of hours, and learn new terms, and learn not habits, in order to be successful.  As I mentioned earlier being successful means wearing many hats.  Sometimes I wear my writing hat, or my editing hat, or marketing, or blogging hat.  Well now I have a SEO hat to go with the others.

It may not fit right when I first put it on but with the help of  Jason Matthews book I'll get it on straight after a while.  He gives lots of links and ideas, and if you don't understand something he even gives you the opportunity to contact him about the matter.  What more can you ask for.  How many hats do you wear? Do you have your SEO hat on yet?

Here is a list of topics, you can see this and more in the free preview on Amazon. Click on the image for a larger image.

Samantha Fury
Author of the Street Justice Series

Time Management

Today’s post is about my nemesis, Time Management. I’m learning more and more how important it is to have a schedule, and that I need to stay on it. Thursday, I sat down and wrote out a new schedule for household duties and writing assignments. This time, I am going to do my best to follow the list and try to cut down on wasted time.

One of my problems is that I don’t look at my writing as a true occupation. I don’t devote enough time to actually sit down and focus on writing; that can be hard to do when you are also running a household. I may be up and down doing tasks like laundry, supper, or playing with the dogs, during my writing time.

Do any of us really treat our writing as a occupation?  Do we just write when we can, putting it to the back burner more than we should. Friday night, we, at Christian Indie Authors had our normal meeting; it starts at 9 p.m. Eastern in the chat room.  Author Pastor George took some great notes on time management, if you'd like to take a peek here they are.

Back on topic, this week we talked about Time Management, and we even started a thread in the forums for members to post new goals they were setting. It’s our job as friends and co-writers to also do the same, and check in and see how others are doing.

I really hope to change the way I look at writing. Sure, chores will need to be done, but instead of doing them while I’m writing, I will be setting time aside to write. I will be doing the chores in the morning and, since I like to write in the evenings, will try to get everything done on my list for the day so I have my mind and thoughts free to work on my job: That job is being an author.  Though at the moment this new job of mine is not paying many bills, it is starting to add to the money I have to spend on groceries. If I start following my schedule and start treating writing more like a business than just a fun past time, maybe things will get even better.

I know we all have different goals, and one of mine is to be able to make a living as being an Author. But, if I don’t treat my occupation as just that, (my occupation) I don’t think I will get much further than I am now. That said, for me, it’s time for a change, and that change may start with baby steps, but it will start and grow and my schedule will become second nature after a while.

The schedule is written, the plan is laid out. Now all I have to do is follow it. What are your plans?  Are you like me just doing things when you think about it?  Maybe it’s time for you to write out a schedule or maybe you’re on one that’s really working and would like to share some thoughts.
I don’t normally ask for comments but today I’m going to. Are you on a schedule, do you have a plan that works, or are you just happy with writing be a fun past time?  Can’t wait to hear what you’ve got to say.

Till next time
Happy Writing
Samantha Fury

Making a book cover lesson four: Buying a bookcover

Lesson four Making a book cover: buying your book cover with guest Mary Campagna Findley

Today we are moving back to book covers, and the next few blogs will be about those folks that want to buy book covers rather than make them. Making a book cover can take a lot of time, and if you don't know what you're doing there can be a large learning curve that you will have to contend with. You may think your time is better spent in writing or taking family outings or marketing your new novel.

If you are a self-published author you can always buy your own cover. That is one of the great things, and the downfalls, about being an Indie. You don't have someone telling you what kind of cover you have to make, or you don't have someone doing the hard work of picking out your book cover for you.

I spoke with a friend of mine this week who makes covers. Mary told me that when she is making a cover for someone she wants the author to know that they are the boss, and whatever inspiration she has, the author can always say,. "Nope. I want this instead." Mary always wants to know what's most important to the author about the story, what the author thinks will make people pick it up and read the book she's making the cover for.

You can see a few covers below and even more covers, and learn more about Mary's work here. I'd like to thank Mary for her time today. She does great work so be sure and contact her if you like her covers.
Mary has been making covers about 5-6 years for her own books, about a year for others. Ebooks prices range between 30 and 50 dollars, print books with banner (digital and printable), ebook cover and bookmark between $100 and $150 but her rates can be negotiable depending on ability.

Each of us must think about our book cover as being our novel in a quick picture. When we can, we need to bring out some aspects of the story in our cover. Readers need to know everything possible. Is your novel a Romance or is it Steampunk? Does a murder take place in your novel? Is someone shot or stabbed? Maybe a gun or a knife would be a great addition. The options and ideas can seem endless.

We want to get the attention of the reader but we don't want to mislead them about what's inside the book. Making a cover is so important, so it's best not to just jump in and throw something together. Study other covers that are in your genre, and give the person making your cover everything you can think of that will help them build you the best cover possible.

There are some sites, that also offer ready-made covers. We'll talk about a few of them later on in the week. Thanks for dropping by.

Samantha Fury
Author of the Street Justice Series
More lessons in this series
Lesson one Making a book cover with create space
Lesson two Making a book cover general helpful ideas
Lesson three Making a book cover with a create space template
Lesson four Making a book cover buying your book cover with guest Mary Campagna Findley