Friday, October 12, 2018

On Wattpad and Book Covers

Success!


Today, after working on the story for the last ten years, I uploaded the first chapter of my Hogwarts fanfic to Wattpad.  Here's the link if you're interested in reading it. This is the first and only story I’ve ever finished, so this is a big deal for me. Uploading my words to the world is a big step, so I want to get it right the first time. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks tweaking this chapter, mostly in response to my critique partners’ suggestions. I’ve done so much tweaking that it’s probably a good thing I set a hard deadline for uploading. Otherwise, I’d tweak the darn thing forever. 

A couple of weeks ago, I figured uploading to Wattpad would be easy. I already had an account. All I had to do was upload my words, right? 

Wrong. Turns out I needed a story description, a bio, and a cover. The description and bio didn’t take long, but the cover was another matter. Now even though this story is fan fiction, I’d always planned to get a cover. My diabolical plan, once the entire story had been uploaded, was to combine the chapters into an ebook (good practice for when I eventually publish my urban fantasy), but for that you need a cover. Heck, I’ll probably make a print version at some point too, just so I can print a few copies to stick on my bookshelves. Hey, I slaved over this story for ten years. I deserve some sort of memento. 

But it never occurred to me that I’d need a cover for uploading to Wattpad. To be honest, it isn’t required, but everything I’ve read suggests that more people will read your story if you have one. I contacted a local illustrator that I’d met many years ago at a SCBWI function, but she has since become successful enough her prices were more than my wife I was willing to spend on a fan fiction story. 

My wife searched the internet for inexpensive covers and she found a great premade one that I ended up purchasing. So now I get to do something I’ve been watching you guys do for years. A cover reveal! 


Ta Daaa!
Cover Design by Consuelo Parra

There’s still a lot of work to do over the coming months. The book has thirty chapters and they all need more work before they’re of uploadable quality, but it’ll be an exciting time. I may find myself hard pressed to keep up with submitting my “real” story to my critique groups, but that’s a small price to pay for being able to write “The End” on this one. 

Ten years is a long time to work on a story. I hope my next story doesn’t take nearly as long.

ChemistKen
Hogwarts and the New Headmaster



14 comments:

  1. The cover is great. Glad you got it figured out.

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  2. Congratulations! It has to feel good to finally finish a project you've been working on for ten years! Also, that cover is really nice. It's perfect for a story set at Hogwarts. Maybe I'll see if I can search out your story on WP.

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  3. Now you have a proper book on Wattpad - congrats.

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  4. Replies
    1. Oh, I was also going to say, nice cover!

      If you decide to do more Wattpad stories, you can check out canva.com to make your own cover. They have a template specifically for Wattpad Book Cover.

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  5. Hooray!! Congratulations! That had to be such a great feeling. And your cover is wonderful. Well done!!

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  6. I'm looking forward to taking a look. Love the cover. ;-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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  7. Fantastic cover! I'm doing a happy dance for you. :)

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  8. Woot woot! Congratulations on your amazing feat! If you love interesting photos and can create stuff out of them, you should go to Unsplash.com--their stuff is royalty free. I'm happy you're doing well with Wattpad. It's a good community. Best wishes on your adventures there! :)

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  9. How awesome! You must be so excited. I'm excited for you.

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  10. Congrats on uploading to Wattpad. The cover looks nice. I was going to say there's always making one of your own in Canva.com. I did that a few times with freebies.

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  11. This is awesome news, Ken! I'm so excited for you!!!

    I know what you mean about waiting so long. This Friday is release day for the first novel I ever wrote. I nearly cried when the paperback proof came in the mail. It's been over 8 years. I thought I'd never hold that story in my hands.

    Anyhow, Kudos!

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