Kathleen Sweeney is the Customer Service Manager & Marketing Lead at BookBrush.com. Today she tells us about Book Brush, their dedication to indie authors, how we can use it and the latest features being added.
To see more in video format, check out these Book Brush youtube links:
- Create a BOOKMARK in Book Brush in Just a Few Minutes!
- Create Great GIVEAWAY Graphics with the Book Brush Tools!
- Now Creating Duplicate 3D Book Templates is EASY in Book Brush
- Book Cover Creation is SUPER EASY with a Community Template
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TRANSCRIPTION BEGINS HERE:
Kat
Hello, everyone. Welcome back. I am with Kathleen Sweeney today, and she is that fabulous woman that is always in the Book Brush tutorials. So hello, Kathleen. How are you?
Kathleen
I am great and happy to be here.
Kat
I am excited to talk to you. I’ve been to a couple of your tutorials. You’re always really kind to pretty much show up whenever people ask, how do I do this? What is this? So for anyone who doesn’t know, can you tell us first a little bit about yourself and then about Book Brush?
Kathleen
Absolutely. So as you said, I’m Kathleen Sweeney. I’m the marketing lead and customer service manager here at Book Brush. Outside of Book Brush, I live in Illinois with my husband and three busy boys and the two most handsome cats on the planet. I can’t leave them out. In fact, I should have brought one to the session, but anyway, they’re probably sleeping somewhere. I enjoy working with authors on Book Brush, which is an online platform that we designed specifically for authors to be able to create marketing graphics and so much more, all in one handy marketing toolbox. I’m sure we’ll expand on that as we go through today’s session.
Kat
Yes. I’m so excited to have you guys in the world because when you write a book, you don’t realize… I didn’t realize, we’ll say, I’ll just use myself. The first book you get done and you’re like, okay, I guess I need a cover. I’ll figure out the cover. And then you get into the world of marketing and you’re like, I need so many graphics. I don’t even know.
Kathleen
It can be such a daunting task. And you’ve used up all your energy, potentially, and creativity writing the book. And now here you are. Oh, no, I’m going to need to do all these other things. And so that’s where Book Brush can come in and try to make that fun and easy.
Kat
Yeah. So how long have you been with Book Brush?
Kathleen
We became Book Brush in fall of 2018, and I’ve been part of the team since then. We have two co-founders, and then there’s me. So I usually say I’m the fun one around here.
Kat
You are the fun one. Well, you’re the one that I see you know the most about Book Brush, I would claim. What was your background before? Is it marketing, graphics?
Kathleen
Marketing, customer service, business insurance, things like that.
Kat
Okay. Because the graphics that you make are pretty spectacular. Did that just come with playing around with the tool?
Kathleen
So I can’t even take credit for that. It’s probably from using Book Brush, and I use a lot of the community templates that a real graphic designer on our team makes. And so that makes me look good. And we can also make you look good as an author because you can piggyback off of those graphics that are designed with a professional eye, and then you’ll get a feel for it. And then I think you’ll be good too.
Kat
Okay. So as far as Book Brush, I would say a lot of people know what Canva is. I always want to say canvas, but it’s not, Canva. I think I found both of you guys at the same time. But Book Brush is specifically for authors, right? All the templates that are there are more or less for books, ebooks, things like that.
Kathleen
Yes. And we say that a lot. There’s a lot of nice design tools out there, Canva is one of them. But they’re not all designed specifically with the author in mind. So in Book Brush, we are in the author niche. We specialize in books and authors and all the things that you’re going to need there. And so while you won’t find the things you don’t need, we’ve really beefed up the author offerings. For example, if you’re looking for those 3D versions of your book, there’s probably about 270 now. And then usually quarterly, we add some different versions. So that’s something unique that you’ll find in Book Brush.
Kat
Yes, because I was in Canva the other day because it’s on my phone and I was like, I need a mock up. Dang it, I need to go to Book Brush. Because if you’re new to writing, you usually have that little graphic that maybe your book cover designer makes you write, it’s like flat. And then you think, how do people make these graphics? And way long ago, I bought this thing that you could put in the graphic, but it was wonky. If it was a little bit tilted, you know how you want a shadow? It moved a bit and I was like, oh my gosh. It stretched it, it wasn’t weird. But in Book Brush, what you can do is literally click and click. And then I’m like a magical marketing genius.
Kathleen
Makes you look pretty awesome, too. Yeah.
Kat
It’s pretty awesome. So what are the things that you guys maybe started out with and the things that are new that authors can find there? Let’s go through, what can we make when we’re talking about graphics, if somebody’s really new to this, what are those?
Kathleen
So on a basic level, and even if you explore, we have a free plan, you can create 15 graphics for free. You can do all of those. We’ll talk about first the social media platforms and then the content that’s in there. So you can create graphics for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and then the website ads, different swag things, lots of graphics there. The image elements, if you’re using a platform called Atikus, it’s separate from Book Brush, they have book formatting. But we’re the image people, so you can do the chapter page breaks, those little design things that go across the image elements chapter on the header.
Kat
Inside the book?
Kathleen
Yeah, you could do those in Book Brush and then upload them over to Atticus. We have templates for that. We also have templates that you can make the Amazon A+ content that people are always excited to add to their Amazon page. So lots of different graphic things and then specifically the types, you can do a lot of cover reveal graphics, launch party graphics, giveaway graphics, any promo you’re doing and you need a graphic for that. We have things and you can do book plates, coasters, all kinds of swag stuff, cool stuff. They could be here all day. We have 40 minutes, right? So we’ll have to narrow it down, probably. But yes, lots of things that you can do.
Kat
Up to covers, can you do your cover there?
Kathleen
Yes. We didn’t start out with covers, and people were using the tools and they loved them. And they’re like, we’d like to be able to make covers with this. So we started with what we call the custom creator. That’s our flagship tool that’s the first thing we built. And then we launched a couple of years later, cover creator. So it works the same, but it has the cover specification. So you can do ebook, audiobook, and then print and hard back and design your own cover in there either from scratch or using a community template. So once again, if you don’t know where to start, we have a graphic designer who makes templates, and then you can just personalize those. So they’re not going to look like anybody else’s, but it gives you a head start on what might go where in the graphic or the cover.
Kat
Right. Because you give me a blank page and I could look at book covers all day long and you can be a blank page and I’ll be like, wait, where do I put this? I don’t know.
Kathleen
It’s hard to know. And what you wanted to do was write a book. You didn’t want to have to do these other parts, but it all goes together.
Kat
Yes. And I think one of the main things about it, being somebody who was dabbling since 2013 when there were really not a lot of tools back then. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t seem like that far away. But the interesting part to me that takes away the headache is the sizing. So when you’re talking about templates, if people don’t know, like with the different social media, they all have a different size to them. And if you upload one size to another, it’s going to be stretched out or pulled in or it’s going to be weird. And so the greatest thing about you guys having all of those ebook size, paperback size, it matters. It matters what size these are.
Kathleen
The sizes for the book templates, yes. And then also the graphics that you’re making for social media. So you’re not Googling, what size do I need for Instagram and Twitter and those different platforms? We have all those sizes for that, too. But going back to the book cover, say you’re going to do the print cover, even with a template or from scratch, you’re going to put in your paper type, your trim size, your page count, and it magically gets it all sorted for you so that it’s the right dimension. There’s magic coding in the background. So you just know, hey, my book is going to be five and a quarter by eight. I’m going to have 302 pages of cream paper. Cream is usually fiction, white, often the nonfiction paper type, but you can do what you want. When you put all that in and then it puts it in there and then you’ve got the bleed. And so it accounts for all that. And then you can design it, but you don’t have to worry about being spot on because we’ll do that part for you.
Kat
Oh, that’s so nice. I remember going to look for those specifications on the different, and I don’t speak pixel, so I didn’t even know what that was and I didn’t know any of that. So this is really a hands-on tool where you can get lost in it because you don’t have to worry about all those specifications. You can just look at how pretty my book is.
Kathleen
And do cool stuff. Yeah. And then we have other cool things. The icing on the cake, I think, is designing a book trailer. So that’s on our top plan.
Kat
What is that?
Kathleen
So if you think about a movie trailer that comes out, you could do a trailer about your book. And so you’re picking the scenes and the text and you’re adding music and all that to really get some excitement building about your book cover or your book that’s coming out or an existing book, things like that. So people do really like doing the book trailers. And that one is called the Trailer Creator. So we tack creator on to most of the tools.
Kat
Oh, that’s really cool. So it’s a video more than static.
Kathleen
Yeah, it’ll be an MP4. So it’s going to have animation, video, background effects, and your music all in one thing. And we have in the Custom Creator too, a shortcut version of those. I don’t know if you’ve seen the animated mockups. They are super popular because, again, your book cover, video background, animation, music, all in one handy meme. So if you want to be on some of those social media platforms with the animations and the movement, but you don’t want to be the one dancing around, you can try those. Animated mockups and feature your book.
Kat
Yeah. There’s a couple, you can do different animations, right? Because there’s ones where the water is moving or the book appears later. Almost like those reels that have the different chapters, but it’s all focused on your book and a theme around that book, right?
Kathleen
Exactly. And you can add animation to each piece. So your text can be animated, your book, they can all have an action. Now, sometimes you don’t want to animate each thing, you’ll give your poor followers a seizure. So pick what you’re going to animate, but your text can fade in and fade out. Your books can come in. Your books can do cool things like shake or be Jell-O if you want them to. And you pick what you want and you design it.
Kat
That’s really cool. Especially, yes, at a certain age, you look at all the reels or the TikToks and you go, No, I really am too old for that. I really can’t do that.
Kathleen
But my book would look spectacular in here.
Kat
Let’s see. Well, that would be funny if you could try to get your book to jiggle to the latest dance.
Kathleen
There you go. Yeah, I haven’t tried it yet. That might be my plan for this afternoon.
Kat
What song is popular? Let’s see if I can get my book to do something to that rhythm. That’s funny. So you can really spend a lot of time there. I have made quite a few graphics. It’s really nice for when you’re learning to batch as I am, like spending some time doing marketing, I’m going to batch all of these things. And you can also put like, okay, let’s say I have a sale in Kobo, I can actually, from Book Brush, get a graphic of Kobo’s graphic and put it in there instead of having to go into Google and find a graphic and copy or download or whatever it is. You guys have everything like that as well. How many different things do we need?
Kathleen
In retailer you can search, we call them images, and then we call them community stamps because they’re for everybody in our Book Brush community. So we put them there for you all to use. And there’s different sections, one’s retailer. So that’s exactly you’ll find the Kobo and the Amazon logos and things like that to put put in the graphics so people know where to find them. And then all the social media icons are in there and call to action words like, buy now, you can put those kinds of things in there. And anything that we don’t have, there’s also an upload your own. So it’s called “My Images”. And so if there’s something that you’re on a platform that we don’t have, or who knows what you’ve got some other word or logo that you want to put in there, bring it in, and you can add that to your graphic too.
Kat
Nice. That’s awesome. So yeah, it really makes it so that you’re right on one platform and you can just get it all done. What I really like doing is looking through the templates that I don’t know whether you guys have done it or other people can save them and you get ideas. There’s quite a few of join my newsletter, and I hadn’t thought of that. I didn’t thought of making a graphic. So like perusing through the community templates and be like, oh, well, look at that. That’s a good idea. Okay, let’s just fiddle with this and put my colors on there, there you go.
Kathleen
Make a few changes so it’s on brand for you. Maybe your font you normally use or some colors that go with your book cover. And then you can save that also in your account as a project. So if you want to update it for next month, things like that. So you can advertise, get them to join your newsletter. Then you can come back in Book Brush and design a new email header so your email looks spectacular when you send it to them. You want to wow them after you got them here. But for your email header, that’s another one. I would save that. If it’s going to be your July updates and then your August updates, just save it and change that text for the month without starting from scratch each time. So there’s a little time saver tip.
Kat
A little time saver. That’s true. When you talk about emails, I made a couple of different email footers, depending on which email list it was going out to. And they look great. I have to say they look a lot better than just that whatever comes with mailerlite. I can put my book cover in there.
Kathleen
Anything that you can do to make yourself stand out a little bit and attract some interest, it can’t hurt.
Kat
Yes, that’s very true. I did also make bookmarks. I don’t know why I can’t find words, but yeah, bookmarks at an actual live event. And they were easy to print off at Staples. With my website and just a little logo there, it was super easy. I didn’t have to go anywhere else. I knew the dimensions were right.
Kathleen
And so even with bookmarks, you can use templates if you’re not sure where to start or just click the bookmark by itself and design away. Now, did you put a QR code on it? There’s my next big question for you.
Kat
Oh, I didn’t put a QR code.
Kathleen
The next time. You can design a QR code in Book Brush and it’ll save. It’s in the elements section. That’s a paid feature, but you’ll be set so you can make your QR code or you can bring one in if you already have it. It’s a nice idea. Here’s my litmus test for you on QR codes. I would put them on printed material. If you’re looking at it on your phone, you won’t really be able to scan it with your phone. A bookmark is a great spot for a QR code because you’re going to hand that out at an in person event or potentially slip it in your book when you’re shipping it, something like that. The QR code will link to whatever site you’re sending them to, but you can continue to update that site. When book two and book three come out, they’ve still got access because you put the QR code there. It’s easy because people are getting used to. I think COVID pushed the QR codes forward because nobody wanted to touch paper. Now people aren’t like, what is that shape there? People know what QR codes are, and they can be super handy for authors, like on your business card or at an in person event on a sign. So people just grab their phone and scan it and they’ve got your information. You don’t even have to hand them anything.
Kat
Look at that. I didn’t even know you guys had QR codes. That’s amazing. You guys really keep up with the times here. You guys also do book spines, like the spine of the book. That was new-ish. COVID makes every year seem like it just faded.
Kathleen
Yes. So many things were crummy about that, but some good things came out of COVID where we added some things, QR codes came around. Everybody got good at Zoom, so I’ve been traveling to lots of countries for presentations and I never left my house. So that’s been good. But so we have, let’s say, over 270 3D versions for your book. Most of them are front facing and you just put in your 2D cover and it magically turns into 3D. We did that on purpose because a lot of people don’t have the spines, and that’s a separate step. But you can design a spine in Book Brush, or if you have one, you can bring it in. And then we have some templates that do have the book and the spine, so you can have that look. And that’s a little bit newer feature, probably in less than the last year that we added the spine option.
Kat
And you can also do the series box… Is that what they’re called? Box series?
Kathleen
So a box set. If you need a graphic for that… And this is the thing. People pay a lot of money to have a graphic designer do it. Plus you have to wait till they get to you. You can design that yourself in Book Brush. It can be anywhere from 2 up to 10 books. And it’s also nice. So if you need the box set image for four books now, then when you do write book five, you can come in and update it. So you can either make your own spines in our tools or bring in the spines if you have them and then get that box set image. Now, the only caveat is it’s just an image. We don’t have any elves making the boxes around here, but the image will work great. You can upload that to, say, Amazon to sell it. So you’ve got the image so people understand that they’re getting the set.
Kat
Right. Yes. Which is important to do if you spent all that time writing a series, you want them to know, or at least in anything else, this is the first of a set. If you want to buy the whole set. Images are very powerful. And so people seeing that there are more books to it, it sends a whole message that you don’t even need to put words to. It’s amazing.
Kathleen
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? You can do that. And along those lines in some of the graphics will say, go ahead and show your book in a print version and in an ebook version. So you’re visually telling folks, hey, here are all the ways that you can get my book without having to say, here are all the ways that you can get my book. So their eyes are going to tell them what they need to know. Or if you have an audiobook version, then you can pop that into the graphic. Then they see, oh, yeah, I am gravitating toward audiobook these days. I can leave the house again. I’m going to listen in the car. So they might put that in the image. So we have those types, too.
Kat
That’s amazing. Because if you haven’t tried to go find graphics, you’re right when you say you can spend a lot of money getting people to make these graphics for you and still wait around for them to get to you because you’re just one more client for them. Even if you don’t want to do all of your graphics, if somebody else does your book cover, you just upload your book cover and then you get to do all those mockups, which are amazing. I just love clicking through them. I don’t know how many folders I have on my computer of just Book Brush mockups. Because you guys have seasons, you have sales. So many people have made all these beautiful mockup templates, and you just stick your book in there. And then I feel like I’m professional, and I put it up onto my scheduler, and it almost feels too easy, honestly.
Kathleen
Those are some of our favorite, probably our most popular tool are those mockups because they put your book in all those great real life setting. And I think there are a few people who still think people are making those at home. They’re scattering out their own rose petals and making a decorative cup of coffee. No, just bring your 2D cover in and drop it in, and then you have tons of graphics, then like you said, you can get them all done. Maybe that’s your plan for the first Monday of the month, and you schedule them out and you’re all set, then you can get busy with other author-y activities.
Kat
Author-y, like writing the next book, right?
Kathleen
Absolutely.
Kat
So if people feel a bit, I don’t know, intimidated, you guys do a lot of tutorials. Where can people find those tutorials?
Kathleen
When you’re in Book Brush, and you can get in even with a free account or anything, on the left hand side, there’s a section that says webinars. And so what we moved to is we have all of them recorded, so you don’t have to wait for us. So there’s Cover Creator 101, Animation 101, Book Trailers 101. Those are all, let’s say, 25 to 35 minutes. Sometimes I get talking, there could be some 40-minute ones in there, but you can watch those when you need them, and it walks you through step by step on that particular tool. So it focuses, like it drills down, it’s right size for your brain, it’s not an hour long, and you can watch those at any time. And then we also do a monthly full-hour overview, Book Brush 101. That’s live, so you can join live and ask questions, or you can just register and you’ll get the recording afterwards because time zones are crazy, life is crazy. Lots of people can’t join live. So either one is an option. But that’s a great place to get a full soup to nuts look. I pack as much as I can into that hour of the Book Brush overview.
Kat
Is that basic every single month? So every one that’s new or just wants a refresher, that’s the basic?
Kathleen
It’s basic, but we walk through each of the tools. So there are paid features on there, too. And I have some people who join every couple of months, even though they use Book Brush all the time. And when they do, even though they’re a seasoned Book Brusher, they’re like, oh, I wasn’t doing that. Or we’ve added a little something here and there. And so it can help you make the most of the plan. I tell people who are on a paid plan, Hey, you’ve already paid, might as well make the most of what is here at your disposal. I think some times people just do what they do. They don’t go in and explore the other things and they’re like, I have not been using this enough. And so then they get some new ideas.
Kat
Yes. So I get your emails and sometimes I don’t always get to go through through them, but it seems like you guys are coming out with new things every single year. I mean, it’s been only five years, honestly. You’ve grown really quite a bit. So what new things have come out in the last couple of months that maybe people who haven’t gone in there or are still doing the same thing might not be aware of?
Kathleen
Two of the biggest things which aren’t even a new feature, but they were highly requested are the ability to duplicate your book covers and duplicate the elements. So we’ll start with the book covers. Prior to this update, you would add a book cover, resize it how you want it, and then you’d go add another one and resize it how you want it. In this new world, when you add the book cover and resize it, you just click plus, then it adds another one. Boom, boom, boom, all the same size. If you’re doing a promo where you want to line up all five books in the one graphic, it’s way faster and easier because it’s going to add the other one, the additional ones in the size you already resized to. Super big time saver. Then we haven’t really talked about elements. These are an amazing feature because you can use the color picker so you can match things. They’re able to do shadows. You can do personalized cover reveals in here because the cover reveal piece, you can place wherever you want on your book cover and color match it. You’re no longer held to here are the cover reveals and I don’t get to pick the part of my cover. You can put those in there. When we’re done, I’ll send you a YouTube video on that part because that’s going to be.
Kat
Really cool. I need to open my email.
Kathleen
Just a little feature. And we do add something to YouTube weekly with a one and a half to three-minute nugget of information. So that’s like a right size for your brain, again. It doesn’t go over tons of tools, but it just lets you dive into, oh, here’s a little something. Let’s talk about the color blur, or let’s talk about something small. Maybe I did design a business card, or here’s how to do a book bub ad, little things like that.
Kat
Yes. So you did mention the color… I want to say coordinated. No, the color matcher, right? That’s a really cool tool because if you have… Let’s say I didn’t create my book cover, so I don’t have all of the information of the hex numbers on every single color, but I put it in there and I just need the little dropper and Book Brush finds it.
Kathleen
It’s amazing. So let’s say you have somebody on your book cover in a red dress and you want your text box and your text to have this same red color. All reds are not created equal and you want it to really coordinate, not clash. So you’ll just use the color picker, go over there, hover, and it magically gets the color code in there. So it’s perfect match, looks really nice. It just takes things up a notch when everything is super coordinated like that.
Kat
Yes. And again, I can’t tell people if they haven’t done this before, like five years ago, it was really hard because I have a red dress on my first cover and I even changed the cover, but still it was so hard. That was when I realized, what you said, reds are not the same. And you might see that it doesn’t look right, but I wouldn’t know how to fix it because I’m a writer. I don’t know how to fix it.
Kathleen
Right. And this makes this part easier. You don’t have to be a designer. You can just say, color picker, here we go. There, I’ve nailed it.
Kat
Yes, absolutely. I love that. That’s so nice. So I need to go in there and check out this cover reveal too, because the cover reveals there’s tons of mockups in there.
Kathleen
There are. And they’re really great too. This other one is just one where you can design your own.
Kat
Yeah, especially if you have… Because some people do really creative things because they think ahead and they plan ahead as I should learn to do. And they’ll do a partial pulling it down further and further. So they’ll only reveal a little bit and then a little bit more and a little bit more. So depending on what your cover is, there are certain things you want to reveal and certain things you would want to keep secret for longer. So you would want to be able to place that. So that’s very cool.
Kathleen
And you’re picking the color. So even if it’s not matching your cover, you can pick a color that you want. And then I’ll give you a tip. If you want to take it up a notch, you can add animation to those so they can fade out each one. So then it’s going to be an MP4, but it’s a really cool way to make a graphic.
Kat
No way. Okay, so that was a webinar or a tutorial that you guys…
Kathleen
Yes, some of those on YouTube. I’ll find them. Those are short. The YouTube ones are nice because you get one take away, something quick and easy, not like a 30 minute commitment of I need to learn a whole tool. It’s like a quick little, hey, you might not be doing this and I bet you would like to.
Kat
Yeah. So when people, if they’re checking it out and they get 15, if they do just the basic free, just to see if they like it, where would you recommend that they start? Would you recommend that they start looking at the basic webinar and then going from there?
Kathleen
Yeah. I would say you can watch the Book Brush 101. We also have a how to get started video that’s shorter because nobody has… That’s an hour of your life. You just want to get in there and create some stuff. Or you can watch a couple of YouTube videos that are pertaining to what you’re wanting to do is a business card, because you can do that on the free plan. You could watch the how to do a business card, maybe that’s three minutes long and then you can go in and make one. So that would be a good place to start depending on which things you’re wanting to make. We had another one that talked about dissecting a community template, what’s even in there? And why are they so awesome? Because they use a lot of features that you may not have even thought about. So that would be another great place to start. So I’ll send you that one too, so you can have it in your notes.
Kat
Yeah, we can do the show notes. We can put little links in the show notes and you guys can go and see those. Because I know the mockups are really fun, but there are other features in there that you might want to go in and check. And the swag you had said, because a lot of authors are starting to do more swag, we’re in person, right? I’m about to go to a new in-person thing in March. And did I see that you guys make coasters? Was that you?
Kathleen
You can do… Yes. So bookmarks in the swag area. Bookmarks are in there, coasters, the book plates are really a nice idea because you can get those all printed and have them on a sticker. And so it’s a way that you can personalize the book. Also, if you’re shipping, you can just mail the book plate. So they might have purchased the book online or even wherever they got it, you didn’t have to ship the book, that’s costly. They have the book, you can just mail them the book plate for the price of a stamp, and then they can stick it in there. So book plates are a really neat idea.
Kat
Book plates are stickers?
Kathleen
I would probably print them as a sticker. So it’s just like a little two. It’s like a sticker where the author would sign, like, to Cat Caldwell. Love Forever. From something that like, keep on swimming or whatever you’re going to put in your book something like that.
Kat
So it signs the book for you?
Kathleen
Like a sticky post note, almost, but for real sticks forever, not just a post it note.
Kat
You guys don’t print them, right? You download the graphic and then you find…
Kathleen
Yeah, you can print them wherever you want, whatever site, or you can print them at home, whichever.
Kat
Okay. Just so that people know, you are not a one stop shop.
Kathleen
For sure. No, we’d love to be the printers too, but there’s just only so much we could get done for you.
Kat
We all have to be experts in something. We can’t do everything.
Kathleen
Anything that you create the image for, you could send to a printer. So you could create an image for a coffee cup and then send that to the printer. We don’t have a template for that because you’d probably check the printer and maybe what they need is a three by five or a three by three. We have people that do mag, a lot of times those are three by three or two by two. And again, they just design it in Book Brush, make it look cool, and then send it to a printing website, probably. So you just download it and put it over there. Magnets are a lot of fun, sometimes better than stickers because stickers stick once. Magnets can go wherever you want to put them, multiple times.
Kat
Well, and again, I love how the creativity of the community, you can just see what other people are doing, like, oh, what a great idea. I can do that myself. So then if you have more than just the basic, how many levels are there in Book Brush?
Kathleen
After the free plan, there are three tiers for single authors, plus gold and platinum. They’re all priced per year. And what you get with the additional levels are additional features. They all have unlimited downloads. But the plus plan will do all the things in the custom creator and the covers. And then when you step up to gold, you have all those instant mockups that people love and the box that creator. And then the top plan includes the trailer creator and some exclusive instant mockups. We also have a quarterly platinum academy with extra author-y content that the platinum folks get to attend. We just had it last week with Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur, was the speaker.
Kat
I have the replay on them. I have to watch it.
Kathleen
It was excellent.
Kat
Yes, because you guys are partnering with Atticus, right? Or you already have?
Kathleen
We do have. So if you go into Atticus, there’s a click to create in Book Brush. So they have a small selection and way to create some of those little page dividers and things like that and image elements. But Book Brush, because we’re graphics people, has a more robust selection and ways to do it. So they just click a link that you can come over into Book Brush. It’s a nice feature for them to offer because you can do those for free. So it’s not like you’re coming over and you have to pay a bunch of money. In your 15 free downloads, that could be what you make.
Kat
Yeah, I love that because the more that we have these print on demand and these tools, it’s really fun to really create your book and to be all your own. So a friend of mine, where the main character is a baker, she has a little whisk that is in between the chapters.
Kathleen
Oh, that’s so cute. Yeah, perfect.
Kat
I think she made it in Book Brush, actually, because she’s the one that was like, you have to buy a Book Brush, you have to get this.
Kathleen
That’s awesome. And if you’re doing the chapter art, like the art on the beginning of each chapter, you can show the passage of time because if you are in a paid plan, you have unlimited downloads. I’ve done a sample where here’s an airplane and you download it, scoot the airplane over, download it again, scoot the airplane over. What a good idea. Yeah. So as your chapters go, visually, if they notice, it’s moving the airplane across the scene and you can just keep downloading and then you upload them over there in an Atticus in order.
Kat
Oh, and that’s so much fun. And I’m also looking into doing Kickstarters. And I think more people are doing Kickstarters. And what you need there are more fun levels. So it really wouldn’t take you that much to have a little bit different. Maybe you have a paperback that’s plain, but then you have a paperback with graphics in it. That would be a fun, not burdensome thing to do for an author, right?
Kathleen
Well, of course, I think it sounds fun because I love playground and Book Brush. The days that I get the note from the graphic designer that new templates are added or new things, I’m like, I got to run right over there. There’s my afternoon sorted. I want to create all the things. I’m not sure if it’s quite as easily entertained as I am, but it’s pretty fun to see what’s new.
Kat
I think it’s fun, honestly. So when you’re in there, as well, let’s say with one of the paid plans, are you able to upload your logo and things like that and have that stay there? Or do you have to bring in your graphics or your book covers or whatever from your computer every time?
Kathleen
Everything you bring in will be in there for you each time. Your book covers will be in there. If you have a whole ton of books, you can make folders so you can organize them by the series within the book section if you want to. And then you can bring in your own background images if you have them somehow, or maybe you’re a photographer on top of everything else, bring those in. And then same thing in the images section, you can bring in whatever logos or things you want to. Also consider bringing in a picture of yourself. So if you want to be on there, hey, why not? So bring that thing in. That’s obviously unique to you. And then you can add that to your headshot or whatever.
Kat
Okay. And when people are making graphics in Book Brush, I assume they don’t have to worry about the rights of any graphic that they’re using in there?
Kathleen
If you’re bringing in your acknowledging that you have permission to use it. But anything in our sources from Pixabay. And there’s actually, when you’re looking at the thumbnails, if you’re searching, a little oval in the upper right corner where you can click, it’ll actually hyperlink you to Pixabay. So you can see for yourself that per their terms, it’s free for commercial use and things like that. But any of the pre-made templates that we have in there, we’ve already checked that for you. So you can just get crazy and design what you want and download.
Kat
That’s so nice. So you don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to go find your own picture and then be tagged by Amazon, because none of us want that.
Kathleen
Nobody has time for that.
Kat
Nobody has time for that at all. So it is Book Brush, no interesting spellings, all just B-O-O-K-B-R-U-S-H.com
Kathleen
Yes, you got it. BookBrush.com. If you say it 10 times, it’ll be a tongue twister, but if we just say it once or twice, we’ll be good. So BookBrush.com
Kat
so they just go over there, they make a free login, just to check it out and they can access the webinars from there. And then I’m sure that they will.
Kathleen
And that’ll get you on the mailing list. So we could send an email every week or two, often once a week with just something news-y about what we’ve got going on or something we’ve added, not inbox overload, but an email here and there to tell you what’s happening or we’ve added something new so you can check it out.
Kat
Yeah, so you can stay up to date better than me. But I did see that I have replays to watch, so I know that I just got a big time for it.
Kat
There’s not enough hours in the day.
Kat
There’s not. Well, thank you so much, Kathleen. I will put the links in the show notes and people will get over there. I really encourage anyone who is either new to writing or new to selling their book, or just didn’t know that there is other things other than Canva that are easier and more fun to play with, I think.
Kathleen
Come on over. Come check us out.
Kat
Thank you so much.