General Discussion

[BetaB17]

@Beta How long have you been spherical?

I don't know, since I've discovered how not to be so flat?

[Kerr]

Yes, ho, ho, ho, merry Chistmas everyone.

[Aarah]

Ya, Merry Christmas everyone!

[Crawldragon]

I'd like to extend a very special Merry Christmas to the poor souls who had to work during the holiday this year, including but not limited to:
Retail workers, gas station attendants, essential postal employees, government employees, emergency personnel, hospital workers including doctors and nurses, and members of the militaries of your respective countries.

Hopefully you'll all be rewarded with a roaring fire, a gift-wrapped package, and a large mug of hot coco (or whatever beverage you prefer) soon.

Also an honorable mention to whoever's in charge of keeping major online gaming services alive and functional through the holiday season; I'm sure that wasn't what you were planning to do during your time off, but on behalf of my fellow gamers thank you very much for helping to make the past couple of days special (as well as the following few days for Hannukah, Kwanzaa, New Year's etcetera)

[HatofMadness]

(or whatever beverage you prefer)

Beer.
What?
I said, Beer.


What?

[Crawldragon]

Nothing wrong with beer. It's funny you mentioned that, actually, because the party I attended was very big on wine and champagne. My cousin, who gave me the ride there, bought a bottle of wine to bring to the party and during conversation she asked me what I prefer to drink to which my only answer was "beeeeeeer." Also sake, but no one there knows what sake is, which is tragic because it's the fanciest thing I drink, and that only rarely.

Tragically I have yet to discover the joys of egg nog with rum mixed in, but I will someday.

[BetaB17]

Bear? Where?
What?
No, said beer

KK nvm



What

[ProphetDragon]

I just made a cover for my book using Photoshop, now I will be very grateful if someone can review on it. I made it all myself using Photoshop and 9 different images.

Hidden:

[Unionhack]

Remember, copyright infringement is bad!

[The SheoDovah]

And can lead to a lot of legal trouble.


Or you could use Youtube's wonderful copyright bots to harrass anyone that dares to criticise your work and then end up suing them, become the biggest joke in the industry, go under.

What is it with certain small developers trying to attack people like Jim Sterling? If one's game is awful, one will be criticised.

[ProphetDragon]

Remember, copyright infringement is bad!

Well, I'm just doing it to make a better cover so that more people read it. So I don't think that calls for any laws, and if this story gets as famous as The Hobbit, some artists may make a cover for it.

And can lead to a lot of legal trouble.


Or you could use Youtube's wonderful copyright bots to harrass anyone that dares to criticise your work and then end up suing them, become the biggest joke in the industry, go under.

What is it with certain small developers trying to attack people like Jim Sterling? If one's game is awful, one will be criticised.

Thanks for the advice.

[The SheoDovah]

I would recommend that you don't use any images that are copyrighted. It doesn't take much to get into legal trouble for using material without permission. All it takes is a cease and desist letter. HBO issued such a letter to a 10 year old for using Winter is Coming. There are people out there that will be very quick to sue others for using their work and lawsuits can be stretched out to bankrupt people. Would advise using original content for the cover if it's something you are serious about and if you intend to sell it.


Anyway, tis boxing day. What a misleading title of a day! There's no boxing. It should be renamed to that day after christmas where everyone is hungover, filled with regrets or realised they purchased too much food, most of it expires within the next week and having to use every day to eat as much of it as possible. Or set fire to it whilst chanting as part of a ritual to summon the god of food, Satsumarelia.

Oh and only 4 days left of 2016 etc.... .cheers, joy woopee, other.

[Crawldragon]

I think you may be under the mistaken impression that the cover you designed is covered by fair use because it's a transformative work, but it's really really not. Not only is fair use not respected by all countries, it's barely respected by the country that started it. The conditions for "fair use" are very very specific, and you're certainly not going to get away with selling a book with a cover that combines a number of copyrighted images.

You'd be better off simply taking this cover, showing it to an artist, and telling them "I want something like this" and having them design an original cover for you using that as a baseline. Just make sure you do it in writing because if it isn't absolutely clear that they were planning on having their artwork distributed they can still sue you for using it.

EDIT Also since you asked us to review it, I have to say that the cover looks really really ugly. I would go for something much simpler, and in particular one where the text is on a more uniform background so that it's easier to read. I see fantasy novels with covers like this in the library and I think to myself "I'm not going to read this," because it makes me think that the book is so crappy that the publisher or the author decided specifically to make a loud and busy cover just to move more units.

[ProphetDragon]

It's not something like that (I hope) since this book is free online. If I decide to publish it old style then I might myself carve out a cover or ask it to an artist.

EDIT: I just checked online and it says that copyright won't be an issue (because if it were the case then none of the books would have any covers) and that all authors are free to pick out an image and use it as a cover and they can also be changed if wished.

The real cover for the authentic version would be a bit plain I believe. The book itself is not much bigger than The Hobbit.

They said my cover should be 'attractive' since it's only an image.

[Kerr]

Regardless of your political views when it comes to intellectual property and copyright, which is a political issue that we probably shouldn't get into (especially because it relates strongly to Piracy), plagiarism itself (so taking credit for the work or others) is pretty [&@%!] behavior and something you shouldn't do. You wouldn't like if say, your brother stole your story and said he wrote it so don't plagiarize others. Credit other people when you use their work in something like this, it's common courtesy (an academic necessity, something you'll definitely learn if you ever pursue third level education.)

But if you are planning on just stealing other people's artwork instead of commissioning something, steal this instead.

Hidden:

[MetaCthulhu]

@PD Here you go.

[ProphetDragon]

Regardless of your political views when it comes to intellectual property and copyright, which is a political issue that we probably shouldn't get into (especially because it relates strongly to Piracy), plagiarism itself (so taking credit for the work or others) is pretty [&@%!] behavior and something you shouldn't do. You wouldn't like if say, your brother stole your story and said he wrote it so don't plagiarize others. Credit other people when you use their work in something like this, it's common courtesy (an academic necessity, something you'll definitely learn if you ever pursue third level education.)

The image above is actually meant for a lesser version of the real book. So to say, I plan on making a cover myself for the real story.

But now comes the problem of the cover, I have to make a cover for a real book or perhaps an eBook.

The story is just about some ancient dragon kings who live in the modern world and strive to reclaim their kingdom.

[The SheoDovah]

What Kerr said. Plagiarism is a very [&@%!] thing and can lead to the creator losing all passion for their work. Why bother creating something if someone's nicking it and passing it off as their own?

I would advise contacting the owner of the images you've used and get their permission. All it takes is a random search and you book could be noticed by them. Seeing their work being sold and you being the one to make profit of their work can lead to a lawsuit. It is best to comission a cover with what you are after. Lots of artists out there who do that kind of stuff.


Anyway, anyone got their new year's resolutions yet? Anyone planning to forget about them by a certain date?

[Cassandra]

Yeah, watch out for plagiarism. You really don't want to get caught doing that. It's against the law, and just in poor taste. I'm not going to say anything more on the subject, because I really don't know that much about it. But yeah, be careful.

EDIT Also since you asked us to review it, I have to say that the cover looks really really ugly. I would go for something much simpler, and in particular one where the text is on a more uniform background so that it's easier to read. I see fantasy novels with covers like this in the library and I think to myself "I'm not going to read this," because it makes me think that the book is so crappy that the publisher or the author decided specifically to make a loud and busy cover just to move more units.

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Crawldragon. The background is just a bit too busy. There's so much going on that the title gets lost and is hard to read. I personally think that simpler designs come across as more professional, and catch my eye more than the super busy ones. Your cover just looks cheap to me.

(Also, I hope that everyone had a good Christmas this year.)

[Linkuya]

Had a UESPer add me on steam after probably two years of not talking with them on site (I just don't visit the site much these days). Certainly surprising.

[BetaB17]

Well, not to surprise you any further, but UESP has a discord server now <_<

[The SheoDovah]

Lie and Surprise mode: Oh gosh, what a surprise.


Back to the daily stuff of doing stuff and forever working on the quest to get a gosh darn sweetroll.

[Velvet LeChance]

Anyway, anyone got their new year's resolutions yet?

I plan to teach myself cybersecurity. I already know some languages for data-programming and database-management quite well so I'm thinking it will only be very, very difficult as opposed to very, very, very difficult. Mind you, I made this my mid-years resolution and then promptly didn't do it at all, so who knows.

---

I also agree with the above with regards to the cover, there is too much going on and the title gets lost among it.

[The SheoDovah]

Regarding the cover, it's very generic if i'm honest. I can easily see a lot of books using the same style of it and there are a ton of fantasy books. There can be 30+ in the smallest bookshop and potentially 90% of that have generic covers.


New Years resolutions.....


Tis a lot more ambitious then mine. Mine are just destroying laziness with a vegenance, writing fanfiction and moving into a place of my own if i earn enough. Tis not a question of if but when i get employed in the year of 2017.

[BetaB17]

My NYR is a sweet and simple one >_> to bring in some of my white chocolate cupcakes to work so that people would stop mentioning "Oh, when are you gonna bake something for us" =__= Do you want me to just make that straight outta the both? Huh? Calm yer tits if you want from scratch and chill.. Sheeesh, I'll get to it when I get to it >___< (See, told ya, sweet and simple)