Yes, I’ve been having fun with Clipchamp’s filters. I took my metallic glitter spiral acrylic pour art video from last year and gave it the cartoon filter. Then I sped it up for the why not of it. I thought it was fun to watch, so I figured I’d share it. Above is X16 speed. Below is X6 speed.

Yes, my write with me videos will have filters this week. Because why not?

I debated not making this post. But I think it needs to be recorded somewhere other than Twitter. Below is the draft I made before dividing up and posting the thread:

Sometimes I think WAY too much about the threats I used to receive for Victim (my weird little sci-fi horror). I’m about to start a competitive master’s program this fall. I don’t need the additional stress if something like that were to happen again.

I tend to joke that I have “one of the most obvious faces on the planet.” It’s normal for people I don’t remember to walk up to me and start talking like they know me. When I probe them with questions, they typically remember seeing me somewhere random (sometimes it’s even my doppelganger). I am apparently very memorable.

(This is, by the way, part of how my enjoyment of playing around with my presentation can bite me in the a*s when it comes to misgendering. People remember me. If they see me in a different presentation that they think “matches” (their view of) me, then that becomes how they gender / see me.)

I go through phases sometimes where I’ll use a new author bio image. I often change it to one that isn’t a person (even though supposedly readers prefer seeing someone’s face). I just changed it to a stack of my own books. It’s one of the promo images I took.

I also “sanitized” a couple of details on my more forward-facing author bios (namely amazon and goodreads). I feel bad and, arguably, like I’m being a bit paranoid about it. But I also don’t need that extra stress. I still have my pronouns listed on my website and twitter.

Also, sometimes things do happen. Here’s a [blog post] from last year about a reviewer that took issue with my pronouns. There were no threats involved.

Am I being cowardly? Maybe. But at least I’ll be less stressed about it this fall. And hopefully less likely to wind up in a situation like that again.

To clarify: I kept he/him pronouns for my more forward-facing author bios. I removed mention of they/them pronouns. I’m still proudly and openly non-binary (and I take they/them or he/him pronouns).

The [first blog post] about this was published on May 25, 2022. It’s now well into July. Whoops.

(I won’t review what the challenge is. Review the above link if that interests you.)

I originally undertook that challenge because I realized I wasn’t writing as much as I wanted to. I still don’t know if it’s the pandemic, stress, timing, or, honestly, everything else that’s going on right now. But I feel like I can’t catch up to myself. The problem that caused me to undertake the write with me challenge still persists.

And I still want to do something about it. However, I think the timing was off before. Now I think it’ll be easier to batch any wwm (write with me) videos together so I can upload them in groups. I’ll probably keep the format the same (one spaced for ever day and included on the playlist), even though that wouldn’t necessarily be accurate to when the videos were made.

I did make it almost two weeks originally. Although I don’t have a set schedule decided yet, I have decided to continue the challenge. This time, I won’t be aiming for every day. Instead, I’ll be batching them for a while and trying to determine what schedule works best for me. I’ll probably be posting another one of these updates on it in the future.

In the meantime, here’s the playlist [link] again.

Now I’m off to upload videos.

Note from the future: Youtube videos successfully embedded on September 25th, 2022. I’ve also started uploading some with sound:

I’m just making that quick announcement.

I am officially on Bookbub! My books were added successfully and I was able to claim them without problem. My profile is also claimed and complete.

Here is my author profile:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ren-j-dorian

And here is a link to each book:

https://www.bookbub.com/books/victim-by-ren-j-dorian

https://www.bookbub.com/books/into-the-unknown-by-ren-j-dorian

https://www.bookbub.com/books/will-to-speak-by-ren-j-dorian

https://www.bookbub.com/books/it-began-with-a-dream-by-ren-j-dorian

Now to research Bookbub marketing options. . .

My new paperback copies arrived in the mail! I’ve been looking forward to this! The first thing I did was check for errors as I unpacked them. I found a few dinged corners, but that’s minor (and probably because the box looks like someone tried to make it into an accordion). The second thing I did was set up to make some promo images.

Right off the bat, the photo space was cat approved:

Here’s a sampling of some of the images I took:

(I know photo quality isn’t great on my site right now. I still haven’t figured out how to fix that.)

Overall, I really like how the new cover designs turned out. They also transferred very well from ebook to paperback and you can still see the spine stripe in the new format. The living flower doodle I made on the spine also transferred well (and made the final cut). I was a bit apprehensive about the bleed zone around the spine, but the colors are complimentary enough that it works pretty well.

I  am still a bit unsettled about which images I should use. I have already uploaded a new banner image for my site (you can see it above). It is bittersweet since the old one is from Into the Unknown’s original cover, but the change is long overdue. I suppose I could say the same things about the new covers. I designed the old ones, but I needed to let them go. A part of me really wanted to do the old covers next to the new ones in a promo image, but I decided against it. I’ll always have a couple of the old ones around (honestly probably in a box under my bed, but they’re there).

Anyways, thanks for reading. I am glad that the new covers turned out as well as they did.

Why am I canceling it? Low engagement. I have decided to focus my efforts elsewhere. Everyone involved has already been informed. The website plugin has just been removed.

Thank you.

I’m trying something new. Is it a bright idea? I think so. I don’t know how fall I’ll make it in this challenge, but I want to try it.

So, let’s begin:

The What:

I intend to post a video of myself writing every day. The intent of the challenge is to see how many days I can go. The minimum length is ~10 minutes. No, you (probably) won’t see me in the video. You might see my cat. Otherwise, it’s just my webcam rigged on a tripod with a rod angled to show the pages I’m working on.

The Why:

I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like to lately. I don’t know if it’s the pandemic, stress, timing, or, honestly, everything else that’s going on right now. But I feel like I can’t catch up to myself. So, I decided to do something about it by doing this challenge.

The How:

I rigged my webcam on my tripod with a rod angled to show the pages I’m working on. This actually makes it surprisingly portable, but it’s also easier for me to write on the floor due to the level of table space required. On the bright side, I have a lap desk and I like experimenting by writing in different places.

The When:

Most of these will be recorded the night before and posted the next day via Youtube’s option to schedule an upload. (That gives me a little bit of leeway to be late since, well, things happen.)

The Where:

My [Youtube channel]

(Because, yes, I have one of those.)

Who:

Me. Yeah, that one’s probably obvious. Anyone can join me if they want. I’m putting these on a playlist on Youtube, so anyone can also join me retroactively.

Here’s the [first video]

And the playlist  [[link]

(Quick note: despite popular belief, work is copyrighted on the internet. Overall, I’m not expecting any major issues. I will still limit what’s visible, mix up things like project order, and be mindful of which projects I work on. I’m debating not working on any of my main projects, so you’ll probably see more secondary side projects, experimental treatises, and essays.)

(Note from the future: Youtube video successfully embedded on September 25th, 2022.)

This decision didn’t happen in a void. You might actually want to start reading about the [original prototype covers for It Began with a Dream] since that blog post goes into detail about what led into this decision. I’d rather use this post to go into the actual process of redesigning my old covers.

Once I decided to redesign them, I had to figure out how to go about it. The easiest way to do it was to find a cover artist. I reached out to a couple of options I found online (mostly via other author’s social media or blog posts). I also debated using [Vistaprint]’s cover design option since I’d have more designs to choose from. Ultimately, I decided against Vistaprint due to the cost factor. (I have a limited budget.)

I was in contact with Vistaprint via email. They gave me the option of working directly with the same artist for later projects (i.e. the other covers). That was actually something I’d decided to look for from the start: the ability to use the same artist. It’s an easy way to get a similar (for lack of a better wording) design throughline between my books. The artist would be familiar with earlier designs (for having made them) and would likely have stylistic quirks that match up in later designs.

I’m not going to list out other options I was in contact with or that I considered. Instead, I’m going to jump directly to the one I decided to go with: RL Design of [gobookcoverdesign.com]. If you go check out their site, you’ll notice the premade covers option. By this point, I was running against the clock for [IBwaD]’s publication. I therefore reasoned that I needed a cover more quickly. When I browsed the available premades, one actually really caught my eye for [Domes].

(I’m not ready to reveal it yet. Otherwise, I’d put the cover here.)

I reached out to RL Design and ordered both covers: IBwaD’s and Dome’s. The process was nicely simple and professional. Admittedly, we were in contact during an abnormally stressful time in my life. (I might have nitpicked a couple of things as an unintentional stress response – sorry about that.) Overall, I was grateful for the easy process. RL Design still displays the sold covers, but with a mark over them:

(By the way, here’s quick tangent: if the invoice numbers are any indication, Robin does a good amount of business. The speed / level of turnaround is impressive. She clearly has a good system going. And I don’t seem to get email responses on weekends. As someone who is still learning how to create a better work-life balance, I can appreciate that schedule boundary.)

I did find a premade sci-fi cover that I liked, but it didn’t seem fitting enough for Will to Speak. I ended up using RL Design’s custom cover option. This involves filling out a basic form (I think it’s about three pages in a word document), then selecting stock photos. I had a really hard time picking stock photos, so I initially submitted it without them. Whoops. This was a bad idea. I got an email back with (kind of) a design option, but mostly a polite request to pick some stock photos first.

So, yeah, I had to redo it. I actually sent over stock photos the second time. The process still worked out very well. Robin was nicely patient when I sometimes stepped back for a few days to think about the designs. Ultimately, we emailed back and forth several times and I selected the final design. Into the Unknown was a lot easier. I picked out A LOT of stock photos in an effort to simplify the process. I loved the first design that was sent over, so I just had to email back a couple of tweaks. Victim was more difficult (and almost needed a second redesign with different stock options), but I’m satisfied with the design I decided on for my weird little sci-fi horror.

Ultimately, I decided not to do the paperback design option with RL Design. Why? Because I already have a template for the paperbacks. And because I wanted to personally play around with my paperback options. I have the original stock photos plus my fanart experience, so it’s been relatively easy to expand a front cover image around the ebook design to fill a bleed zone. I also wanted to stabilize my template for future paperbacks. Here’s a jpg version of what my template currently looks like:

Organized chaos? Not really. Each raster layer has markers for distance from the front or back edges (plus the top or bottom, depending on location). I basically just fill in the information, recolor it, and resize it over a separate template that looks like this:

(Wondering where I got that background template? It’s actually from Amazon’s [cover design] sizing tool. The main thing I change is actually the spine width. Also, to my knowledge, this does not run afoul of RL Design’s policies. If it does for whatever reason, then I’m sure we can work it out.)

It was actually really easy to upload the new ebook covers to Amazon. They updated both Will to Speak and Into the Unknown in about 24 hours. Victim’s new cover is still being finalized, but it should also be updated within the week. Goodreads, on the other hand, has proven to be a problem. I can’t update the cover directly because of how their site works. So, I reached out to their librarians and accidentally created a bigger issue:

(I can’t seem to make that screenshot any clearer. That link, by the way, goes to the [alternative cover] page. I can’t figure out how to reach that page otherwise.)

The first librarian linked the old and new versions (without my consent) so that I was listed as a co-author on my own books. Whoops. That’s because of the time I changed my writing name. Last time I reached out through that Contact Us link the second librarian suggested, they never bothered to respond to me. I had no reason to expect this time to be different. However, I wasn’t about to leave my books stuck in this organization fiasco. So, I reached out anyways. In just a few days, I actually got a response:

(No, I can’t seem to make this one any clearer either.)

That was a pleasant surprise. They actually have exceptions in place for LGBT authors who do things like change their pen names. My old pen name was very gendered (my current one is not). As a non-binary author, I think their perspective in this response is very validating. I really appreciate that.

They conveniently skipped over the “alternate cover page” and where to locate it (although, to be fair, that wasn’t the bigger problem). I don’t want to accidentally recreate the same issue with an unsuspecting librarian, so I’m just going to let goodreads be. Anyone who decides to be nosy can do a google search and easily find that those are the old covers. I don’t expect that to be an issue.

At this point, I’m almost ready to release the new paperback covers. They just need to be finalized and saved in the proper size format. This means that I’m also almost ready to release the paperback version of It Began with a Dream. (Months after the ebook, but I’m not perfect.) In the meantime. . .

This wasn’t an easy decision for me to make. However, after having been through the process, I appreciate having made this decision. I also appreciate having taken these steps in a way that feels right by my books. The old designs didn’t disappear – you can still find them on my site. In fact, they’re also the covers you will find on goodreads. And I’m looking forward to having an easy, reliable system for future cover designs. I might use some of the premade options again. Otherwise, I’ll pick stock photos and go through the custom design option. It ultimately makes the publication process a lot easier for me.

I’ll miss designing my own covers in the future, but I stand by my decision.

(First post of 2022!)

This feels less weird the second time through. You can read about my reasoning in [this post] about last time I did this. For now, it’s time for another round of observations:

-Looking at a follow for a potential follow-back in the #writingcommunity. Third tweet is a negative review of an LGBT anthology. She thinks they shoehorned in too much sex positivity. Having never read the book, I can’t comment. But I have to wonder about potential biases since I don’t see anything else LGBT-related. I’m not accusing anyone of anything – it’s just an observation. I think I’ll let this one sit.

-There are a couple of “social media managers” who have followed me out of (I’m guessing) an attempt to grow their business. Good effort, maybe? But I’m not interested. I probably wouldn’t have even given it this much thought if not for the fact that they basically lined up in my followers.

-I’m picking up more LGBT followers. That’s actually really nice to see

-A programmer who posts in Japanese followed me. Why? I don’t know. Their bio just says “programmer”

-Hello again Felon Reviews. No, I’m still not following you. (And I can see you haven’t fixed your $30-50 mini bio.)

-CEO of (I’m going to leave out the name of the PR firm) followed me. I’m pretty sure this is the person who has been spamming my DMs in an effort to get my reviews.

-I have a follow from a follow from a minister with an odd Bible verse as one of his most recent tweets. It’s an original post (not a retweet) of text over what appears to be a stock image. “The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered himself” (Proverbs 11:25). I think it’s about taking care of others (like “do unto others as you would have done unto you”), but I wonder about the word liberal. I googled that verse and got “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” (NIV, biblegateway). I did some more digging and found that what the minister posted is actually the ASV version. It made be worth noting that I grew up with NIV. That being said, this led into a weird little internet rabbit hole of the varying translations. There’s a version that reads “He who gives blessings will be made fat, but the curser will himself be cursed” (BBE, from before the era when “fat” became villainized). I like “be generous, and you will be prosperous. Help others, and you will be helped” (GNT). The way I found myself questioning the word liberal says a lot about the political polarization we’ve been dealing with in the states. (I’m an independent, politically.)

-I have again found several people who unfollowed me after receiving a followback. They have now been unfollowed. I don’t get why people do that, but it feels disingenuous to me.

Following: 895. Followers: 679.