I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on writing today for all sorts of reasons, so I’ve been taking breaks to play on BookBrush again. As you can see, I made a new header (even though I don’t normally promote my books from there), and learned that the black borders on the theme I use make it difficult to get all the pieces in the right place. Still, I think I’ll leave it up for a day or so,just because.  The header for my writer FaceBook page fit much better.

Then I decided to show my last full-length novel some love and use the BookBrush project template sized for Tweets to make the above ad.  That one worked perfectly. In another couple of days, I think I will have mastered this site and will be searching for perfect images to use for each ad. But when I’m done, I’ll have a folder full to start with in various sizes and styles. And I promise not to spend the next three weeks sharing all of them with you. 😀 Still, for those who may have missed yesterday’s posts, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give you the link one more time.

BookBrush

An ad for my ebook novella, The Emissary, made
in just minutes!

I had about ten minutes to spare before I needed to head out to see the doctor, so I put together another very quick ad. This program/site is sort of amazing, if you ask me. When I have time to really hunt for some great images, and think about what I want to include, I believe it will do the job perfectly!

If you think I’m loving BookBrush, you’d be right. Oh, and I found out I can simply create 3-D books, even without setting them up as an ad. Whoa! I made a few like these  for my book of poetry, in less than 5 minutes.  I’m sold!

In my quest to conquer online marketing this year, I’ve been looking for ways to create easy, FAST images for various platforms–BookBub, BookGorilla & the like, Facebook Ads, Twitter posts, headers for various sites, etc. With the thought in mind that some of you might like easier ways to do this, too, I am sharing my latest find. Here is an article about creating perfect BookBub ads, with links to a great online site called BookBrush. It’s affordable, easy, and best of all, FAST to create nice looking designs with 3-D images of your book covers (using their selection of templates).

How To Create Eye-Catching BookBub Ads

Now, I’ve done a lot of graphics over the years using PaintShopPro (a more affordable “version” of PhotoShop), but even though I’m very familiar with it, BookBrush is worth using just for the terrific selection of templates available. You can upload your cover image, choose a 3-D book, Kindle, or iPhone template, and voila! They’ve done the hard stuff. You can use your own background, including the cover of your book, or choose from a selection of theirs. AND they have templates for complete designs, too, ready for you to add your cover image, tweak their background a wee bit, and add your own text. All I had to with the template above was add my .jpg to both 3-D graphics, tone down their background to a more neutral shade of gray, and add my own text. It took me less than ten minutes.

Now, I haven’t yet found a way to save the result as a .jpg on their site, but if I save the image to my computer as a .png, I can open it up in my own program, merge the raster layers into one, and save as a .jpg from there. Another 60 seconds or so. I can also add frames or borders at that point, if I wish. But even left completely plain, the resulting image looks pretty good, and I’ve only BEGUN to play with options.

For me, those 3-D book images are GOLD! They are surprisingly annoying to create from scratch, so for that alone, I think I’ll be using BookBrush a lot.

The link to the BookBub article also contains the link to BookBrush, too. Hope some of you find this as useful as I think I will.

BTW, the above was my second creation, and I used their templates all the way. The one below was my first, using my own uploads, etc.  It took me about a half hour, being totally unfamiliar with the program, and that wasn’t bad, but I suspect I’ll often use their templates, because you don’t need to reinvent the wheel EVERY time, right?

And here is a framed out version of the first ad, for times when that might help it stand out more.

For anyone in the central Florida area who might have been planning to come to one of my nature programs or other events, I’ve had to make a couple of schedule changes. I apologize for any inconvenince, but some ongoing issues with my STOOPIT skin cancer problems have left me looking very, erm, shall we say . . . unappealing . . . for a few more weeks. Trust me on this. You’ll enjoy the slide presentations much better if you aren’t distracted by my various facial issues. When all of these places heal, I’ll be back to looking more like a typical granny, and less like an extra from the cast of the Walking Dead.

With that in mind, here are the new dates for my public events through March:

Feb 9 – 11:00 – Tea and Luncheon at DeBary Hall, $25.00 to include catered lunch, custom blended teas, a reading and Q&A session with me, and your choice of one of my books, signed. Reservations required: 386-668-3840  Yummy & fun!

Feb 16 – 1:00pm – Enterprise Museum: Central Florida’s Fabulous Wildlife #8, Backyard Birds Part 1: The Usual Suspects. Slideshow on identifying & attracting wild birds. Free, no reservations required.

March 9 – 1:00 – Enterprise Museum: Central Florida’s Fabulous Wildlife #9,  title to be announced. Free, no Reservations Required.

March 23 – 1:00 – Enterprise Museum: Central Florida’s Fabulous Wildlife #10,  title to be announced. Free, no reservations required.

Hope to see some of you there! Thanks. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. 😀