No, most professional designers will not hand over the PSDs.

You're speaking about your own business. A lot of professional designers WILL hand over the flattened PSD file so that you can edit the title in the future. There are tons that wont, probably true, but newcomers have the right to know before they purchase an expensive custom design they have the option to NOT work with cover artists who operate in that manner.




Edited. Drop me a PM if you have any questions. - Becca

Are they scamming me? No. They are offering their services for a fee. Its upfront and its legit and they are allowed to ask any price they want. But keep in mind they are preying on your worries as a new author. That is why the first thing you read on their webpage usually has something like. "You spent hours polishing your first novel....and you dont want it to fail."

I 100% agree with the above. Though your comment earlier about cover artists laughing their way to the bank wasn't really fair. They're running a business, so of course they want you to think you need them and that their prices are fair, even if they know you could get a better deal elsewhere. But that doesn't mean that they don't want their clients to go on and be successful.

The gist of your post is accurate though. In most cases newer authors don't need super expensive covers, they'll be better off buying a reasonably priced, genre appropriate cover and spending the money they saved on ads. 

Why do they keep the source file? Or should I request it? What is it for? In simple terms a source file is all the different layers of your cover in one neat file. Before you agree to getting a ebook cover designed, you need to know if will receive that as well. Most professionals have no problem handing it over.  In fact most do. Be wary if they refuse and consider if you can afford NOT having it. (explained below)

In my experience most wont hand over the layered PSD files. Though they should hand over the PSD file that lets you edit the title. If they wont do that then I refuse to do business with them.

And enough with mentioning those four shows in particular. They're well done, but nothing could live up to the hype Breaking Bad and The Wire have & I'd disqualify both of them from any great TV shows list for the lack of female characters. For some reason those four shows are always the top four. And there isn't a show with a female lead until the teens or twenties. Sigh...

Should we be "woke" and pretend inferior shows are better just because they have more female leads? Maybe those four shows don't fit your taste but I can't think of too many shows that are better then the four listed.

Fat shaming. Jesus Christ. How much lower are you going to go?

Frankly, please quit. Shut down your store, stop writing, stop trying. For every sad story you have, I have a matching one. I'm sure many here can beat me with their life stories.

You seem to have this idea that you're owed something. Well, you aren't. No one is. We all scrape and struggle and get knocked down, in one way or another. The measure of us comes in how we get back up and keep going. Blaming it all on someone else doesn't change anything, even if it is someone else doing something to you. Regroup, pull your big kid pants on, and move on. Or don't.

You bumped this thread just to insult a guy who is already at his lowest point? 

People have been saying audio is going to explode for most of the time I've been publishing (since 2014). It hasn't exploded yet and it certainly hasn't exploded for me, personally. I've seen better sales with a series that appeals to a different segment of the market, but it hasn't been anywhere close to the 20% of eBook sales so many people quoted me.

Maybe audio isn't as popular among romance readers? I know in some of the genre's I follow audiobooks are big sellers.

Why would they not be safe? Or, I should say, any less safe than the regular venues?

He's probably asking because he's never heard of them and is wondering if they're legitimate, well respected companies. I know I've never heard of DriveThruFiction and after browsing the website for a couple minutes I'm not sure why anyone why buy a book from them instead of one of the bigger companies.

The reason that most don't, she said, is because authors don't want their books going into the Amazon dungeon.

If that if true then why is she suggesting you do something that would get your book put into "the amazon dungeon"?

I hope this editor is amazing at the actual job you paid her to do, which is edit the book, because suggestions like the one she gave you is grounds for never hiring her again, in my opinion.

I don't mind talking about writing to non-writers. What I dislike is talking about what I'm currently in the middle of writing. I also hate having someone try to stand over my shoulders and read what i'm typing. Leave me alone until it's done!

Shane, how is this idea different from Books2Read?

It sounds like this project would be *similar* to books2read but not the exact same. The easiest way for me to describe it would be for you to imagine if you sent people to your books2read page for a specific book and at the very bottom was an "also bought" section, or a "similar books" type of section, where books not owned by you would be listed.

The problem I see with this is that some people might not like their traffic being potentially syphoned away to other peoples books. There would need to be some type of incentive for an author to use it, such as a guarantee that if I sent 1,000 impressions to a page that displayed other authors books then my book would be displayed an equal amount of time on books similar to mine.

There would need to be some type of statistics page that an author could view, with impressions and clicks, etc.

Amazons customer service is damn near A+ when it comes to customers buying merchandise, but when it comes to authors they treat us like crap.

To the OP, I'm sorry you're going through this, it sounds like a nightmare. I've heard of this happening before but normally the author resolves it with an email from their author domain. Not sure how that's more legitimate than a copyright registration.

I just signed my Richard Jackson Saga with Podium and so far it has been a very pleasant experience working with professionals. They contacted me just like you. Opens a whole new market place, at no cost to me, I don't see any downside.

The downside is that they don't offer advances. Is that still true?

If you're referring to her in the 1950's, you would definitely say colored, at least in the American South. I grew up in Mississippi and my grandparents referred to black/African Americans as "colored". Ironic, isn't it that the vogue nom du jour is "people of color"? Or "Colored?" Full circle. I even remember my grandmother saying in 1967 that "they" wanted to be called "black" now. So there you go.

The phrase "person of color" is an umbrella term basically referring to anyone who isn't white, not just blacks.  Educate yourself, please.

There are lots of serials in KU. Most serials don't sell well though. The better serials are usually bunched together into larger volumes, since those sell better.