The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 21 – Book Marketing Images Made Simple

From social media shares to ads, authors need a LOT of marketing images. But how do you create them, especially if you aren't a graphic designer or have a tight budget?

Autumn checks out a new tool that might be the perfect solution for your marketing image dilemma. From a free option to a no fuss templates, is BookBrush all it looks to be on the surface? This is a walk through of the tool and while we tried to make it work for audio, we REALLY recommend checking out the video this week!

Check out BookBrush for yourself at http://bookbrush.com/!

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Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Autumn (1s):
For those of you listening to on the podcast, I'll be doing some screen-sharing today. So to get the full value, you might want to watch the associated video. The link is in the show notes. Go check it out. You have a new release coming up and you want to know, you need images to share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and your newsletter. And you want to be able to change them up a little bit so you're not spamming people with the exact same content over and over and over again. So what do you do?

Autumn (31s):
Learn Photoshop in one night through YouTube tutorials or pay a graphic designer half your first months royalties for some really snazzy smart images. Wait, I just heard of this new company called book marketing images or something. Authors need all the time. They're really important and most authors are working on a budget and most of them aren't graphic designers.

Autumn (1m 3s):
So it's kind of like a worst case scenario. This is something where you need really powerful images that bull attract readers that they will, you know, be willing to go and buy your book and at least take a look at it. And they say that someone needs to see your image at least seven times, at least seven times before they're going to go click on the link and buy it. So that means, you know, do you really want to send them seven when images not really. That's getting good old and tiring. They've to start like just not seeing them anymore.

Autumn (1m 35s):
This is a problem because like I said, most authors are on a budget. So how do you figure out new ways, new ways of changing up your images new more powerful messages that you can evolve and work on. And that one don't take you forever to figure out how to create them or to, it don't cost you an arm and a leg. It's really a difficult choice. So you know, there's a lot of gray area here. So what do you do?

Autumnb (2m 2s):
Pay a professional. Do it yourself. Fence of Lupron, honorable

Autumn (2m 6s):
in most cases. I would agree with you a little bit grumpy for those of you joining in for the first time it grumpy is our resident AI cohost oil. We never actually gave him the job. He sorta took it, but I would agree with him most times. Yes, I seen book covers and some advertisements done by other authors who aren't professional graphic designers or to hurry and they've really aren't up there with the ones that are well designed by professionals.

Autumn (2m 37s):
You can tell the difference and sometimes it's charming to see a do it yourself and other times you just know they're not converting. It's kind of a little painful when it comes from a design sense that you know, they just could do better.

Autumnb (2m 52s):
All the other options are too complicated to learn.

Autumn (2m 56s):
You're right. McRobbie there are some other options out, but yeah, some of them are complicated. There's Photoshop, Canva, there's a few other things that you know you can play with, but they aren't perfect from a design standpoint. I mean really, I'm a graphic designer, but if I'm looking for a tool, something that's going to be useful, that's number one. I want it to be useful. I don't want it to be complicated. I don't want to spend hours learning to use this, this new piece of software. And it helps if there's some guides, templates, a help desk.

Autumn (3m 28s):
I mean that's asking for a lot because what, then I'm going to be paying an arm and a leg and everything I would've made that year on this one. Book that's not what I want either. It's gotta be a balance of all those things. So what could be the options out there? So I had this wishlist of things I wanted if I was going to be designing a whole bunch of images for my books and for my new releases and just ongoing media campaigns because you need to keep them fresh. And so leaders, like I said, we'll continue to see them start getting interest.

Autumn (4m 1s):
You know, you have to foster that they're being, there's so many images out there. So you need something that will set yourself apart and begin to tell the story of what you're creating. And so that's what I found out about bookbrush and it just so happens about the same time I got an email from Kathleen who works at bookbrush and she invited me to give it a try. And I did think it was funny because here I was already looking at it and I'm a graphic designer. I mean I usually do all my design images right in Photoshop.

Autumn (4m 32s):
It's just what I go to. It's what I know how to use. But I'm always looking for something that's maybe a little faster and easier because I love Photoshop, but let's face it, I do covers, I just really complicated things in there. And when I opened it up, it's like this black hole, it's sex me, it. And I get flying with things. I go to look up a thought, does the next thing I know I'm download at 15 fonts. I'm playing with a new cover that I think would look good with this one. I'm really inspired by this other image and Oh yeah, three hours later I was supposed to be working on, uh, you know, immediately needed, desperately do book marketing image.

Autumn (5m 10s):
And that's not done. I haven't marketed anything and I am so far from where I started off. So focus. Okay. I like focus. So I wanted something that would help me with focus. So Hey, I tried bookbrush and I've got to try it out and give it a test run and I want to show you what I found with it and let you see if you like it because I'll let you know what I think at the end. So here we are with bookbrush. This is what it looks like to go ahead and open up the website and you don't.

Autumn (5m 41s):
It is a fantastic deal on the surface. You look at what it promises to bring you and yeah, you know, it's mentioning some great people here, Mark Dawson's, your other images. BookBub is featured this, you know, it looks so easy and the images look beautiful. There's a great Washington action video testimonials. It sounds fantastic, but really is, it is anything that's easy as it's promising. That's why I get to take a test run with it.

Autumn (6m 12s):
You know the graphic design or doing a test run on a graphic design program. This has got to be interesting. So the first thing you'll notice is that there's a couple of options, right? When you start up, once you log in, you have a custom creator and a video creator, which is in beta. We'll take a look at that in a minute. But let's start with the custom creator and it's okay. It opens up and it's like boom. It's steps you right through it. I mean this is not complicated. I mean, how can you complain about just something that is literally a step by step program?

Autumn (6m 43s):
I mean I can't screw this up, so that's a good thing. So the first thing you want to do as an ad size and look at those, it okay, it's giving you a whole bunch of options. So if you don't know your ad sizes and you don't want to go Google, like do you need Facebook, do you need Twitter what they're actually used, different sizes. They do. The cool thing is bookbrush has it already set up for you? We even have Pinterest. So BookBub take a choice. You could even do your custom size if there's something you want to design for your newsletter and you just want something a certain way, you can do that here too.

Autumn (7m 17s):
But let's say I have a new release that came out yesterday. Well when I was recording this, it came out on May 15th for you. So I want to go ahead and do an Instagram image and it gives you already an Instagram story. So I've got two choices here but I want to just do something I want to post and say, Hey, you know I released a new book, I want something fun. So I'm going to choose a typical square Instagram one. I've got my size. That's kind of templates and this is one of my favorite things I have to move on or about bookbrush is that it gives you custom templates.

Autumn (7m 52s):
Now it has two different varieties. I have some saved templates cause I've been in here playing meant it, but it gives you community templates to now community templates. These are some tried and true ones that have actually worked for other authors. And that is fantastic. So if you wanted to like know, like are you doing a cover reveal? This one looks fantastic. There's some great images that should inspire you if you don't know where to go. So if you're not a professional graphic designer, but you need some images that have been proven to convert well or at least of where to start so that you have that professional look to your images, check out the community templates because you're going to be inspired.

Autumn (8m 38s):
And even if no much of which one you choose, you're going to at least be a step above just throwing something together in a lesser program like paint or something else. So looking through these, I mean I have to love all of these, but I have a new release so I have a kind of a theme and I'm doing fantasy so it's actually dark fantasy and well you know what? It happens to be 99 cents. I kinda like this dark image so I'm going to go ahead and choose that. Now the nice thing is like it comes up and if you look, all of these things are clickable and movable.

Autumn (9m 12s):
So if I want a little more space, I want to change things out a little bit, all doable. It works. So that is a fantastic little thing. I can move all this stuff around. And the cool thing is if I don't like the background that's coming up, I can upload my own. So you know this doesn't work for me. Maybe I want to go ahead and choose an image. Let's see, maybe I won't go with the actual book. Get rich, boom, it's in there and I can move it around too.

Autumn (9m 51s):
So there you know you can move it around, you can take it out. You can also see if I want the background behind it Dar. And once you click on that edit background, I don't know if you saw that. So you have this little thing right here. It says edit background. I can have the dark, I can have an overlay and make it darker. I have transparencies so you can really choose some cool things.

Autumn (10m 21s):
It gives you this option for overlays. I want to make it a little gritty. Barclay's through some really cool effects you can add right over top of the image. So you can play around with these and get, you know, that kind of darkness or removal you want with a background to make it kind of wealth, you know, fade into the background. Just sort of important. But I don't know if I want anything, maybe an alum black.

Autumn (10m 57s):
And so you can change even the colors. I'm kinda liking the darkest blue, so let's give that a whirl. Of course it's not my book and I do want that other part to stand out. So maybe I should just stick with black. So that isn't my book obviously, but I want to use this image. So how do I change it out? Just double click on it and it's that easy.

Autumn (11m 28s):
So I want to go back, change the cover again. It's easy enough to just go ahead and drag in your Europe new cover, drop and drag. You know, it's not that complicated. So I've got my book successfully uploaded and I click on it and hopefully it'll change into my book today. How has that, so I have, you know, this image that's already looking really great.

Autumn (11m 58s):
However, um, well this isn't what I wanted to say cause it's not urban fantasy it's dark fantasy it's not on sale. It's a new release. So it's all there. So easy to go ahead and just get typing and click on it again. And you get lots of auctions like you notice it has this glow to it. I don't really want it to be yellow though. Oh it doesn't look too bad.

Autumn (12m 29s):
But this is dark fantasy I kind of want to read to, to it. There we go. I can change the size, I can change the font. It comes with some great fonts already. But the nice thing is there are options for you to go ahead and upload your own. Look at all the thoughts that are in here. So it's pretty good. I haven't delight crush, so I'm going to go with this one. However you know it needs maybe to be moved down or maybe we just want it larger.

Autumn (13m 0s):
What does that look like? So the neat thing here is like you'll see this other element, so it's 99 cents that's on top of something and that's on top of a stamp. So these are the options for understands. There's lots of different ones you can upload and create your own. And again, there's community stamps too, so that makes it really fun. And there's some great options. If you're a best selling author USA today, all of these different places where you can find your stuff.

Autumn (13m 34s):
Right now I'm looking for this circle that's down there because I don't really want the purple one. Oh, but does he? I could do an audio book. That would be really cool. There's shelves. Oh here we go. I think I want to try the red one. So definitely a little bit more punch to it. Cool. So I just need to figure out where, which order these layers. I've got so many now. I don't really want this one.

Autumn (14m 4s):
So you just click it, get rid of it. I want to use this one instead. And if you notice it has down arrows. So now it's behind the other one. So there you go. So that's it. Um, so what have I done? I've done this in like less than five minutes. I have an image that it looks pretty snazzy and would definitely be powerful when you're done. When you have the image you'd like, it's so easy.

Autumn (14m 35s):
You can either say it as a template. If it's one that you think you're going to use time and time again or don't forget to download it and that's it saved. I haven't imaged. Alrighty, five minutes. I can go ahead and post this to, I didn't fall into the Photoshop Oubliette of Oh, what else can I get done? That rabbit hole. Great. I also said I was going to show you what the video looked like. So let's go look at those because how much fun is that?

Autumn (15m 6s):
So this is the video creator that bookbrush is using and there's so many ways you can start with this is steps you again through one, two, three, three steps to create a video. And you could go ahead and use the images. You've got, look, this is the one I just created. I wanted to turn that into a video. I could work with that, but I want to go to my books and let's choose something that looks kind of, you know, dark fantasy ish that will really stand out and look at all these options.

Autumn (15m 40s):
I mean, again, you can do cover reviews, lots of things. Now this is the paid version, the pro version. We'll look at the other one in a moment, or at least discuss it. Well, let's just go with a nice flat on it, bitch. Okay, so now I have the book for the video. You need a chicken. So in effect, and if you get to this point, you can feel a little bit like it's a blank screen. What's going on?

Autumn (16m 10s):
So panic, you just need to know what you're searching for. So let's see. Mine's fantasy. So what is, what's out there? That's magic. Okay, now you're getting the Ikea haunted little images. And so there's all these video effects. It's just come up just by searching for them. That's a little too lighthearted for me.

Autumn (16m 40s):
So let's see this one. What happens with sparks, why that one's kind of cool because it is a new release. So I kinda like that. And then you get to choose options so you can have transparencies. Length of the video works for me so I can really like play with my new release. Now there's still some work that needs to be done.

Autumn (17m 11s):
You know, there's, I think a few things I would like to see in the video weather right now. It's not letting me add text or anything like that to it. So unless I'm pulling an image in that already has the text laid out and the book, I'm kind of at a loss for be able to say, Hey, new release. But it gives you a great starting point. Just if you want to do some quick stuff and I want to crop that down to uh, an Instagram size so I can upload it that way. Fantastic. But again, some of the size up and options that I'd like to see and aren't there.

Autumn (17m 46s):
Some of the options are like adding a font or add in that little 99 cent sale. Those things would be really cool, but I don't have that quite yet on my video after. So there's still some work that needs to be done. But overall I think that was pretty quick. So I know I haven't been applying with video much and this might inspire me to give it a go. So that's it. That is bookbrush and his whole, I think it's okay to tastic tool and the best part, what are the best parts is that it is actually free to sign up. It gives you limited options.

Autumn (18m 17s):
You don't have quite as many templates. I don't think he would act load the thoughts with it. You're limited to the number of downloads you get, so you're only allowed three per month, but you don't, if you don't have any books out, you're working on a really tight budget. This is a fantastic way to at least get three images every single month where you can talk about your book and upload it and really get to share some new experiences with your story and try to get new readers to take an interest. Bookbrush would give you a professional image, it'll give it to you quickly and if you really upgrade to the paid plan, you can get all those community templates and to me the price is really good because it's only, it rates out to less than $8 a month.

Autumn (18m 57s):
It's like $96 a year. It's a lot, but at the same time for the number of images and the power and the need we'll have as authors to come up with those images and really the strength of some of these, especially with the templates that have been proven, they can really help you if you're struggling to create some beautiful marketing images for marketing is hard enough. It's painful enough to, you know, you need these images, you need good images. You need a lot of images. This is a way of doing that for yourself, not taking a ton of time, not this major, massive learning curve that is going to slow you down and just keep you from doing the 500 other things you have to do while you are an author and especially if you're in New York or, and you have to do all of this on your own.

Autumn (19m 45s):
So I hope you like this. I hope you enjoyed my little bookbrush walkthrough and stay safe out there and see you next Monday.