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How to Hire a Cover Designer

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There are a thousand ways to get cover art for your book. Here is just one: Fiverr.com I considered 99designs and Behance, but you can't beat the prices at Fiverr. Graphic design jobs starting at just $5! You'll probably get what you pay for so I don't necessarily recommend hiring a $5 job. I set my sights between $15 and $50 and scoped out a huge array of designers. Check out designers' portfolios and make sure you read their reviews.  In addition to perusing designers' ads, you can post your gig like a Wanted Ad and request for sellers to approach you. I hired a designer and waited with bated breath, only for the deadline to come and go with not a single word from them. I messaged them thrice and still no answer. Luckily, you can cancel the order at any time and get a refund (in Fiverr store credit). But I got a special 20% off coupon from the site for the designer's no-show. The second designer I hired for $35 for an ebook + print cover packa...
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Writing Contests & Novel Awards

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Conferences, Community & Beta Readers

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The importance of Community can be hard to understand for people in a quiet, lonely profession such as writing. Most of our work is done sitting at a computer or typewriter in a room by ourselves. For an introvert such as myself, to whom loud noises for long periods of time is like torture, reaching out to people is simply Not Done. But I got a wild hair and decided to attend the Upper Peninsula Publishers & Authors Conference in Marquette last month. I was inspired, I was motivated and I learned a whole lot. But perhaps most importantly, I talked to people. Listened to their journeys, their lessons learned through experience. Simply sharing this passion with people made me excited to get my own writing moving again. I realized how critical outside perspectives are. We tend to disregard a stranger's opinion about our affairs because how could they know? They haven't been living it. But that's just the point. They have enough distance that they can see thin...
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