Contest Announcement!

As you likely heard, I’ve been obligated to remove my first novel, “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name“, from the shelves as a result of a copyright infringement issue stemming from the systemically unethical actions of my former publisher. This is a bit of a kick in the teeth, since the book was doing remarkably well for a new author’s first release by any metric I was able to determine from blogs and common wisdom.

This has left me with a problem of likely not being able to have another publisher of any size touch the title due to legal mire issues. So, I’ll be self-publishing this one to get it back out on shelves where people can enjoy it.

The other issue that comes out of this, of course, is cover art. So here is what I want to do…

A contest! Essentially, I’m asking everyone who is an artist of -any- grade at all to take a shot at doing my cover art for “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name”. The rules are really simple:

Starting today, send your submissions to michel@michelrvaillancourt.com, subject “TSD Cover Contest“.   In the email, ensure the image title, your “artist name“, preferred contact email address and preferred portfolio website are there, as well as your image.

I will also need to see the following phrase in your submission:

I promise that to the best of my knowledge this is original artwork to which I own all rights, royalties and ownership. If I win, I understand this work will be reproduced as a book cover on an eBook, Trade Paperback and possibly Hardcover edition of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name”.

… if that isn’t there, I can’t accept your submission. Sorry. Burned once already. 🙁

Your image must be 300dpi, 6.75in x 4.125in (172mm x 107mm). Send me anything else, and I’ll just resize it to those numbers and put that up for you — wether it looks good or not. 😉

On the 14th of February, I’ll put a gallery of submissions up where everyone can see them and folks can comment/ vote for favorites. On the 28th of February, I’ll take a look and in conjunction with popular opinion, I’ll chose the winner. (see the update below)

Everyone who participates gets a free copy of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” with the new artwork. All entries will be permanently hosted here on my site on a dedicated page with full attribution and link back to the artists email address and portfolio website.

The winner gets $100 and I’ll use thier image on the re-release of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” with full attribution on the back cover and in the book blurb where ever it is hosted.

STATEMENTS OF THE OBVIOUS:

1.  If you won’t want me to use your image as my book cover on a book that has already been selling in North America, South America and Europe, please don’t enter.
2.  If $100 plus word-fame is not enough recompense for your time and work on this cover, I’m sorry but that’s the best I can do, so please don’t enter.
3. By entering into this contest, you’re agreeing to the terms and conditions of the contest. If you don’t like them, please don’t enter.
4. By entering into this contest, you are making a legal declaration that you have full rights to anything you submit and that I’m not going to get a call from Marvel, Square Enyx, Morano or The Artist Mafia Collective about my book cover. If you can’t do that, please don’t enter.
5.  Just because you have entered doesn’t mean you will win. Just because you and everyone you’ve never met on Twitter voted for you doesn’t mean you will win.  If I really don’t like what you’ve done, I’m still allowed to say no. It’s my book, after all.  If you can’t get that, please don’t enter.
6. If you want to have some fun, help a starting novelist get his feet back under him, and maybe wind up seen by readers and Steampunk art fans on three continents, PLEASE DO ENTER.

Welcome to the Cover Games!

(8th Feb 2012) Update on the contest:

Thanks to a $200 donation from Alexandre Quesnel of Seattle, WA, the prize stack for the contest just got richer. Instead of $100 for first place, prizes will instead be:

First place …. $150
Second place … $100
Third place …. $50

… as before, everyone who enters gets a copy of the ebook with the winning artwork when it is re-released on Amazon.

Also, I’ve had one artist submit a front and back cover piece, which is very cool. To accomodate that here are the art sizes, revisted:

Front Cover Only: 300dpi, 6.75in tall x 4.125in wide (172mm x 107mm)
Front & Back Cover Ensemble: 300dpi, 6.75in tall x 9.25in wide (172mm x 235mm)

If you’re looking for a “quickie” about the book, it’s a Steampunk airship-pirate adventure-romance. Be sure to check information found at the “About The Sauder Diaries” tab. You can also read the first chapter of Book 1 on Scribd at http://www.scribd.com/doc/42186865/The-Sauder-Diaries-Entry-1-I-have-become-a-pirate

(8th Feb 2012) Update to the Update on the contest:

After some consultation and recommendations from artists interested in participating and participating in the contest, I’m moving the dates back to give more time to folks to really rock this.

So, on the 28th of February, I’ll put a gallery of submissions up where everyone can see them and folks can comment/ vote for favorites. On the 14th of March, I’ll take a look and in conjunction with popular opinion, I’ll chose the winner.

The idea is for the eBook to return to the shelves on April 1st, 2012.  Stay tuned for details.