Pitching for work + Creating mockups

Pitching for work

I don’t actually need more work at the moment, but I still like to keep an eye on what’s available, and I still keep looking because you never know when a current client no longer has any work for you, or if they go bust, or if you fall out, or anything.

One of my regular clients seems to be ghosting me right now. They’ve ignored messages but I can see they’re still working in the workroom. I don’t really need ignorant clients, and so long as they don’t owe me any money (they don’t), I’m happy to walk away and stop wasting my time and energy.

Obviously, I have no idea what’s going on at the other end, but I do believe that the least they can do is send a quick and courteous message.

I do need to replace that particular tentacle on my income octopus, though. And there’s another I’m thinking of replacing too. So every day, I still visit the job board, if only to hide everything I’m not interested in for whatever reason. And sometimes, something jumps out and catches my interest.

This morning I pitched for three new jobs. Two of them are regular writing gigs, the other is a one-off editing job. The topics all interest me. I discounted another three where the topics looked a bit dry.

It’s the first time I’ve pitched for writing work, so I’m starting small to make sure I can still do it. Write, that is. On a freelance basis, I mean. (I used to be a prolific feature writer, you know.)

Creating mockups

After publishing Twee Tales Too late on Monday … (you DO know I published a book this week, right?), much of yesterday was spent learning about and creating mockups for marketing purposes.

I’ve often wondered how indies and traditional publishers manage to do those boxset graphics or e-reader posters, and after a bit of internet searching and a lot of practice, plus quite a few mistakes, I think I’ve worked it out.

First of all I found Covervault, where the owner has a wide range of mockups to choose from for free, plus a paid-for boxset bundle (although there are boxset mockups for free too).

Then, because his mockups are created for Adobe Photoshop (the poet has this but I don’t as I think it’s raving complicated) (I also think it’s raving mad expensive), I did more searching and discovered Photopea.

I already have GIMP, which does work with psd files, and I like it because it’s downloadable and will work on your desktop without an internet connection. But I couldn’t get all the layers to open in the same way on GIMP, and GIMP doesn’t have “smart objects” either.

In fact, there’s still a lot about GIMP that I don’t get, but more about that another time.

So I found a tutorial on how to use Photopea to open and manipulate the Covervault mockups, and voila! I saved a couple of mockups as they were from Covervault, but I also had a go at changing the backgrounds. And when the poet came home, he had a go in Photoshop too.

The one at the top of this post is one of the Covervault off-the-shelf designs.

I spent a little time sharing my wonderful new marketing goodies, but then I needed to pull in the reins and get on with the bread-and-butter stuff.

Client work

I had another book sent to me to review, so that one will be added to the pile. I really need to crack the whip on this one and get on with it. Otherwise, they’ll stop sending them to me, and it’s a great way to read new authors and different genres.

Then I settled down with the job that came in on Monday.