A Creative Team Effort

One of the toughest and most valuable lessons I learned early on in the publishing world was never trust someone you do not know to handle your marketing. It may work out great for some people, but for me, on my first book, The Adventurous Life of Laura Bell, I was soooooooooo disappointed in the marketing tools my company provided for me. After all, they were part of my publishing package, they should have been awesome, right?! WRONG!
But I was new at the whole book writing thing, and had stars in my eyes, and a whole lot of trust. The marketing goods were okay, they just weren't great. But how could they be? I was asking a team of designers to make something for me, yet they don't know me or my tastes. They have standard designs they use and that is that. Well, I quickly learned that if you want something done right, you have to put in a little more effort. So I have not ordered a marketing package from them since and have found my own graphic designer. As luck would have it... that would be my sister. ;)

Who would know me better, right? Um..... no one. In fact, my sister and I pretty much share the same brain waves when it comes to designing layouts. I honestly have the easiest job ever. I tell her what I want, and I'm like, "Go for it. I'm sure I'll love it." And I pretty much do... every single time.

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 Her job, I'm sure is more complicated, especially when I send her something like this.... 

Yep, that is literally what I sent her. That, and the descriptions in my book of the Eastern Kingdom's coat of arms, and she just goes for it. I mean, look at THAT! I didn't even cross my 't' when I wrote 'white'.... the woman definitely has patience to take that kindergarten drawing and turn it into something as incredible as the picture right below it.

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Pretty awesome, right?!
I can only imagine what some of our conversations on the phone sound like... our husbands probably think we are crazy... but that's okay. ;)

Kerry was also a PreReader... unintentionally. She convinced me she needed to read the book in order to create graphics for everything I wished to have... I can see now, why. But at the time I kind of just rolled my eyes and thought, "Yeah right... you just want a sneak peek..." haha. But I can easily see how she was able to use my descriptions and details from the book and create awesome graphics.

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Yep... that's what I gave her to work with... and you can see how awesome she can make it. ;) Through trial and error, we change up a few things to create something super cool.

Kerry also made this....

From this....

Every graphic on my website, she has created. Minus the pics of my own personal drawings of course. So scroll around and check out her handy work throughout my website. :)
She even designed the cover of my book!!!!

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So I have to say I am super pleased with how all my graphics and marketing have turned out so far for The Unfading Lands. Kerry has rocked it from the get go... and I can sometimes NOT be the easiest person to work with I think. ;) (Hard to believe, I know....) ;p

But I will say, that Kerry makes it all pretty easy. It's pretty handy to have a sister who is uber creative and completely understands what I am going for. Plus, we talk almost on a daily basis already, so we just add a little book talk into each convo and we tackle a lot of projects that way.

We still have several graphics to post... Every kingdom is receiving their own Coat of Arms. Character profiles will eventually be coming. And of course, SO MUCH MORE!!! So keep coming back and checking out all my sister's hard work. ;) I could not accomplish everything I am without help from other people and utilizing other peoples' talents. I was not blessed with the gift of graphic design, but thank the LAWD I know someone who is. :)

She makes me look good. :)

And she and her husband, Kert are also singers... so check out their tunes on iTunes. :) (semi-sisterly plug there) ;) Honestly, they are really good. ;)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/kert-and-kerry-prater/id738089439
www.facebook.com/KertandKerry