Gratitude, guidelines and early results for ‘novel slash social media experiment,’ “Sweet by Design.”
August 6, 2010
Several of your covers thus far…
Gentle Readers- I want to thank you for participating in my ‘novel slash social media experiment,’ Sweet by Design.. For those unawares, Sweet by Design is my third novel –a quirky romantic comedy featuring a gay protagonist. I’m releasing it online, by chapters, along with links, images and a social media component to make it as fun and interesting as possible.
In the first ten days the response to my “experiment” has been overwhelming. The site has gotten more traffic, and presumably readers, than my last novel sold in a year! A big part of the novel’s launch is crowd sourcing the book’s cover. I’m soliciting designs for the inevitable paper version of the book, the winner of which gets my Ipad. Numerous submissions have already been posted, with more coming.
What's mine is yours!
But you have questions. The following are guidelines about how the contest works. I’ve made it as easy as possible to participate and I sincerely hope that you do…
Create the book’s cover. Win my Ipad!
-First things first. Examine the synopsis and/or start reading the novel’s chapters: Sweet by Design (novel, synopsis and cover contest)
-You may submit your design(s) anytime via JPEG or PDF to Steffan1@rcn.com. (Book size is roughly 6″ x 9″ but exact specs not required. Remaining sleeve design and back cover will be created after winner is chosen.)
-Designs may be illustration or photography.
-No more than two designs per person may be submitted.
-Your design must be legally usable by me any way I see fit: book cover, advertisements, publicity, website, etc…
-Your cover design will be posted on this blog under “Your Cover Art” in header, as will any biographical information and links that you provide.
-The contest runs until just after last chapter is published. Exact date TBD.
-Winners will be chosen by guest jury (TBD) and myself. Comments to the blog will play a roll. Your opinions are encouraged in comments forum.
If you have questions, please write me at the above email address. Please share the link with your friends, especially the gay ones 😉 If you have insecurities, get over them. I did.
Good luck!
The Happy Soul Industry
The Last Generation
Gods of Advertising 