April 6, 2026
How many of your own graphics do you do?
Does anyone help you with them?
Those of you who have hung out here may remember that my sister is my cover artist. (And I love your work, K.M. Guth!) But she’s a busy woman, and she doesn’t have time for all the minor graphics needs I have. I’ve watched her work, and the amount of detail and care she puts into even a meme is amazing.
So, I’ve learned to do a few things on my own. Nothing as detailed as a cover—I’ve seen my sister combine five pictures into one design—but I can create a simple one-picture meme with text. Not with shadows and special effects, but enough to get the point across.
Ethical debate side note here: I use free photo sites regularly. You may know that I am against the use of AI in writing. More often, I find AI artwork on those sites. Now, I pay nothing for those pictures. I’m not taking away payment from an artist if I use one of those submissions. Is it unethical to use AI in that situation? See an example below.
I need to do more.
I’m behind. My FB page needs updating. It’s several books behind. Even the graphics on my webpage are lagging. The gallery of my books is missing two of my covers. And I should post on social media more often, but I don’t have the energy to come up with new graphics daily or even weekly.
Here’s my confession — I’m jealous of her skill. And know my work will never live up to her standards. I don’t like to do things halfway, and I feel as if my work is just that — halfway.
So, I’m thankful that I have a great cover artist. It’s up to me to carry my own weight. How about the other authors on this hop? Let’s find out what they do about graphics by following the links below.
As always, please stay safe until next time.
Goal Update: I’ve written some, but done more editing, so I only have a net gain of 500 words. Sigh. But I wrote one scene that took a lot of writing and rewriting.
April 6, 2026
How many of your own graphics do you do? Does anyone help you with them?
I commissioned character artwork for my Andorra Pett books. It cost me a fortune for one picture. But I rarely use it since I revamped all my covers and decided it didn’t fit the image I wanted for the character. It’s tempting to use AI to create instant images when you need a lot of them quickly.
I redid the covers for the first 3 of my Harmony Duprie book covers for several reasons. It changed how potential buyers viewed the books.
AI is such a conundrum. We couldn’t afford to pay an artist, so are they losing pay in a situation it’s not possible? I’d love to pay real people, but people have to buy my books to create the flow… I’m torn on that front. When I’ve created images, it’s my book stuff going into it and often I do photoshop to get something down. I do know I do not like ppl who can afford pay skipping out on paying real artists.
AI is also valuable in editing our books. But that feature has been around since before AI was a thing. Do we no longer use that feature because of the tag?