Design

Monday Mojo.

/ lizziechantree / 12 Comments

Hi everyone. The last few weeks have been a bit hectic for me with trying to update my first three novels with new covers etc and also trying out new marketing techniques. I’m also making three of my novels into paperbacks, which has been a steep learning curve as my lovely publisher designed and formatted my most recent books for me. Now I know how much hard work it is for them! I’m trying to get all of my books on brand, so that readers can see they are my books at a glance.

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I’ve also been playing around with some book graphics and am really pleased with the results. Sites like Canva, Book Brush and Visme all have free options to make graphics and have simple tutorials if you need them. It’s also made it easier for me to be able to update my website and make that more reader friendly too. I’ve simplified all of the tabs, taken away ones I don’t use and begun making sure all of my pages are relevant to my current work.

On top of all that I’m now writing my 7th book. I have one book which is ready for publication and one almost complete, which is quite exciting. To keep myself motivated and up to date with blog posts, social media and making time for everyday tasks, I’m trying to be kinder to myself and giving myself a breather to have a cup of tea or sit by a view, to replenish my energy. I also find meeting up with other writers, either in person or in online groups, fills up my creative energy tanks for quite a while. I always come away feeling inspired by what they have all achieved and ready to get back to writing.

Have a fun filled and creative week everyone.

From Lizzie.

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Introducing Christie’s Crafts.

/ lizziechantree / 4 Comments

Today I’d like to introduce you to Christine. I met her via Twitter and she’s a regular visitor to my creative networking hour there called #CreativeBizHour She’s a talented designer and is here to tell you more about her beautiful work.

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Meet Christine:

Hi there, I’m Christine and I’m the fairy ‘behind the scenes’ of Christie’s Crafts. I create custom-made fairy doors and accessories that give children a doorway into their very own Fairy Wonderland to start them on a magical, inspiring and creative journey!

Children have the most amazing imaginations and their creativity should always be supported and encouraged. Fantasy or pretend play is a fabulous way of doing this whilst at the same time giving them useful and amazing skills for their future so in 2016 I came up with the concept of a fairy doors and accessories business in order to give them the opportunity of developing these skills.

On my website you will find many of my custom-made fairy door designs, even some for teens and adults. Some of them even have 3D brick effect textures on them and I also create themed doors to cover any occasion. Each and every door, along with a wide choice of accessories is personally hand-painted by me and can also be personalised to suit. I hope you like what you see but on the off-chance you don’t, I do also take custom orders.

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Reasons why fairy doors are great for kids and part of the reasons why I do this! 😀

Imagination – children can develop their imagination through fantasy or pretend play.

Creativity – fantasy or pretend play can help a child to develop creative thinking.

Self-expression – children are encouraged to make up stories or to even draw pictures for their fairies.

Language skills – children develop these skills though writing notes for their fairies and reading the fairies replies.

Recognition – fairies recognise children’s efforts and hard work and love to praise them and sometimes even give them a reward along with a little note – “I love it when you keep your room tidy as it makes it so much easier for me to come in and out through my fairy door” – “Well done for all your hard work at school”.

Fairies love to praise children’s efforts and hard work and sometimes give them a reward  – well done for all your hard work at school.

Emotional Support – fairies love to listen to and try to take away children’s worries and sometimes even grant children’s wishes.

Christine’s Website and Social Media Links –

https://christiecrafts.com

facebook.com/christiecrafts

twitter.com/christiecrafts

instagram.com/christie.crafts

pinterest.co.uk/christiescraft

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Getting messy.

/ lizziechantree / 15 Comments

After looking at options available on the internet and not finding what I needed, I decided that I would make my own tablecloths for the book launch of my latest book, If you love me, I’m yours. As the book is about a family of eccentric artists, I wanted an art and love theme. I thought that it would be nice for my guests to be able to create their own are during the launch.

My solution was to grab some old colouring in books my children have grown out of and to get messy! The results are something I’m really pleased with. Firstly, I placed the colouring pages face down on a round table, then tuck them together with Sellotape and a glue stick. Next I turned them over and trimmed the edges freehand. I did the same with the inner edge. Next I lifted it all up and placed it onto a pink tablecloth that matches my book cover colour. Voila! It cost me £1 for the plastic tablecloth.

Once again I will be having gift bags with my bookmarks and some sweets inside. This will create the centrepiece of the table. I will also add small silver pots with mini felt tip pens beside each bag, so that everyone can create a masterpiece! Let me know what you think.

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Marketing merchandise.

/ lizziechantree / 5 Comments

Happy new week everyone. This week I’ve been working on some new merchandise for my blog tour and launch. I had this brilliant photo taken for me and it’s a wonderful way to spread the word for my work and make people smile. I have also made promotional keyrings and had posters printed. The theme of my book content and colour scheme follows through all of it, so that it is easily recognisable. This is a good idea, as it refers to your work and hopefully encourages people to pick up your book and give it a try. You never know who you might meet whilst wandering round, as my promotional photo shows, so take every opportunity and make the marketing fun for you and your readers.

 

When you bump into Batman and he’s reading your book! 🙂

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Making a book trailer.

/ lizziechantree / 28 Comments

Hello everyone. Today’s Marketing post is about book trailers.

Here is the latest trailer I have made for my latest book Ninja School Mum.

 

The problem I came across when creating this video, is that I work from a Mac computer.  This threw up all sorts of issues when I tried to save the file as a movie to publish on Youtube. Transitions were lost and the music disappeared. I searched the internet and there are not many solutions unless you download new programs onto your computer. I managed to get around the problem this way:

  1. I designed my sides and added transitions.
  2. I added music. This must be WAV and not MP3, as MP3 will not register on Youtube correctly.
  3. I also checked that the music was added to each slide by clicking the transitions tab, then clicking the sound tab, this is found under the duration tab. On the sound tab, scroll down until you find your uploaded music file and click to add.
  4. Make sure your timings and music match. If they don’t you can click the format audio tab and select ‘loop until stopped,’ on the playback tab.
  5. Next you need to convert the file.
  6. I downloaded a free version of Quick Time Player.
  7. Keeping your powerpoint presentation open to the slideshow tab, click on your Quick Time file tab and go to ‘New screen recording. A small recording icon appears in the window.
  8. Selected the tiny arrow next to  the red record button and add your sound. This is the third option.
  9. Click the red record button.
  10.  A box appears to tell you to click the screen to record. As soon as you click the play button on Powerpoint presentation, Quick Time Player records it.
  11. Play your whole book trailer.
  12. Click exit at the end, as you would to end the slideshow.
  13. Click on Quick Time Player and it will ask you to save the file.
  14. On Quick Time Player, open recent file and find your new file.
  15. You can trim the beginning and end of your video here. Click ‘edit and ‘trim’.
  16. You will be shown the video in still form.
  17. Drag the slider at the bottom across the video and click trim to take out the bits you don’t need at the start or end.
  18. Save your video and upload to Youtube.
  19. You will lose some fluidity, but this is the best result I had from the different practices I tried. I hope it helps!

 

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Ninja School Mum Book buy link: Click here.