Beyond The Book Covers By Amanda Struz

Who am I?

About Me

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I am the Cover Designer exclusive to XoXo Publishing. All my Cover Designs are 100% Copyright-Free. Nothing "Pre-Made." I work with each and every author to create a cover they will be proud to show off, and one that I would be proud to stamp my name on. My posts are the REAL DEAL. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen! I live the Truth, I speak the Truth, and I tell the Truth.

2/09/2011

WHY, OH WHY DO THEY NEED TO COPY EVERYONE ELSE??

Today's post is based on some research I have been doing over the last little while.

According to my research, I have come to the conclusion that there is a slew of "new" e-Publishers, that seem to pop up out of nowhere. Mind you, this is becoming common today, since many of the "new" publishers of eBooks, are friends of friends, or former employees of publishers of eBooks, or they are rejected authors whom want to steal the thunder from a company who rejected them. I will not name any names, though I could do so very easily, but I have respect for myself.

It is fine if you come up with an idea all on your own, but as we all know, when you work for an eBook publisher, you must sign a contract. This contract is legal and binding, though some people seem to think they are above the law. HAHA, is all I have to say to them. Ignorance is NOT bliss, it is sheer STUPIDITY. When you sign the contract, you are compelled to follow the guidelines of that contract, and when you breach it, you are libel for any damages as a result of said breach.

After all is said and done, you have your own company. You then find yourself wondering what step to do next. So you ponder that thought for a moment, before realizing that hey, I was affiliated with a publisher, or I have friends with "ins" to a publisher, why not follow what they do? Hmm....can someone say plagiarism? Do they even know what that words means?

The only thing I can think of, is those that copy from someone else, not only means they have no creative ideas of their own, they can't think on their own, but also, whomever they take form is doing something they never thought of first, and by golly, it seems to be working!!

All I can say to those who copy word-for-word.....I hope you get caught! Stealing is against the law, and very frowned upon.

When the creative process hits a brick wall, you hire someone to help you, or you seriously find out for yourself what people really want, and what makes them tick. This will help you figure out what direction to take your company, or ideas in. Taking from others will only provide you the tools that someone else is already utilizing, it will not help you, and people will begin to notice that you have no clue what you are doing.

The end result being, loss of customers, loss of business, and starting from square one.

Ain't that the truth!

2/07/2011

DOESN'T THIS JUST TICKLE YOUR FANCY?? ....NOT

Ok, here is my post for this week. It should be a doozy of a post too!

Firstly, it was just brought to my attention, another blog, from an author I have designed several covers for. I like to think I do a great job on the covers I create, and here in this BLOG POST I was basically chastised for not having his covers done sooner than those he received from a unscrupulous new publisher.
Now, I can certainly understand an authors want for their covers, and what they will look like in the end, HOWEVER, I do not rush my work. I like to pretty much perfect each cover, otherwise, I DON'T stamp my name on it, (and based on the covers supplied by said other publisher) I can see why he got his other covers sooner. Like I stated above, if it is near perfect, I will not put my name to it. I stand by my work, and NOBODY, will rush me, I don't care how pissed off, or angry, or whiny people can get, you don't affect me one iota.
I do what I can to please each and every author, with every cover I complete, but there is only so much a person can handle when it comes to being bad-mouthed on the internet.

ALSO, another BLOG POST by same "blogger" (that is what we will call him) regarding the company I work for. Let me ask you this...if a person feels like we are working up to their standards, how fair of a go are we getting to begin with? Seriously people, what is this world coming to? To state "I have not heard from anyone" at that company since "whatever date" when we can clearly disprove this with several emails, would go to say that this person is misleading, would it not??

People will steal from us, copy us, berate us because they are less of a person, and simply act like a whiny baby, but we do not have to sit here and keep our mouth shut for the sake of not offending them. I am speaking out, because I have listened to that crap for the last time.

I have come across more attitude, defiance, sneakiness, and deviance than a person should in their lifetime, and now it has to STOP. Stop the whining, incessant-attitude, and lets get the ball rolling together and break into the publishing world!

Ok, should there be a need to further continue this blog post, I will post more to it later, until then, thank you all for reading my outbreak blog post this evening! :-)