We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Victoria Kaer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Victoria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
The biggest issue that creatives face is getting noticed. The industry is flooded with authors or graphic designers struggling to get their work seen.
As an author, self publishing had made it extremely easy and cost effective for authors to publish but having your work found is difficult with the slew of books out there. If you don’t have the capital to advertise or do trade shows it’s very hard to get the word out about your book/s. I’ve been in the industry since 2010 and am still relatively unknown.
As a graphic designer, it’s hard to get noticed beyond the designers that already have established themselves. With the intrusion of AI generated covers it’s even more difficult as authors feel they can bypass the talent of a designer and create a cover themselves. I’ve been designing since 2012 in one capacity or another, I began learning to do cover design so I wouldn’t have to rely on anyone for my own cover designs, I could be totally self sufficient. When I decided to expand and offer service to others I discovered how difficult it is to get noticed.
Victoria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I began writing as a hobby, it was something my daughter and I could do together. She was in elementary school at the time and she would help me with character development. The first series I began was my Merlin’s Chosen fantasy series. It was for her. After reading the manuscript, a friend told me I should try and publish it, she had her teenage daughter read it blind (she didn’t tell who had written it so we could get her honest reaction). She loved the book and that sparked the beginning of my author journey.
A lot of my writing involves dark characters or characters that are struggling with something. I like to show the reasons behind actions, to show what created the issues for the character and then prove you can live with whatever darkness may be in your life. There is a way into the light, it simply might be a bit of a struggle to get there.
After there were issues with readers disliking the original cover on the first book in the series, I attempted to create a cover of my own and discovered how much I didn’t know about cover design. Once I knew that I wanted to have control of my cover design, I decided to learn to do it myself. Since I started designing, I’ve done covers for many other authors and designed logos, business cards, and more. I love creating. Being on an extremely tight budget was one of the core reasons I wanted to maintain as much control of my writing as possible. Graphic design services can run up a large bill. I offer payment plans to authors so they can still afford to get high quality graphics for their work. It’s important to me that authors be able to show off their work in a favorable light so readers want to read their books.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
The main thing I wish I had known about when starting out as an author was the benefit of being a part of author groups or having a network of other authors to rely on. It’s a massive help to have others in the industry to assist with questions or concerns. The author community is very close-knit. We warn others of scams, give advice on publishers, editors, graphic designers, or anything else we feel might help. And we share one another’s posts on social media. People often ask, “why are you helping your competition?” Other authors aren’t competition, they are valuable business partners who happen to be independent from your own work. The networking we do helps us all.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
As an author it would be when a reader identifies with an aspect of one of my books. If it speaks to them emotionally that’s a win. Readers want to form a connection, to see some part of themselves in the character/s. If the character can overcome something then it tells them they can too.
In graphic design, it’s much the same. If a cover image I produce speaks to someone emotionally then they will want to read the book. People often repeat the mantra of, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but readers often do. If a cover speaks to them then they’re more likely to pick up the book and give it a look. It’s rewarding to know that a cover I created is the reason someone picked the book up and gave it a chance.
Contact Info:
- Other: Carrd (this has all my links on it): https://victoriakaer.carrd.co/
