Deborah Woehr

Watermarks are a great way to protect your work against copyright infringement because they are embedded in your images. Photoshop CS3 has a filter called Digimarc which embeds watermarks into your images. The thing is, you’ll have to pay $79 annually for their basic subscription package in order to get it to work. You can find free watermarking software online for both Macs and PCs. But why go to all of that trouble when you can make your own custom watermark inside Photoshop with a text layer?

Once you type in your copyright information, make sure your watermark is placed in a spot where it is not easy to edit out without looking obvious. I’ve seen some transparent watermarks that were displayed diagonally across the image. Simply change the transparency of the text so that it blends in somewhat within your image, and then rotate it. Make it stand out by giving it a drop shadow and/or embossing it. I’ll provide an example for you below.

Before I close, I want to tell you that watermarking your images serves another purpose besides piracy protection. Google indexes your images whether you want it to or not. In fact, Google loves images. So, instead of putting ©John Smith 2008 for your copyright info, use your name and/or your website.

I’ve spent the last several months researching different online schools to upgrade my Computer Graphics degree, only to find that the costs are too prohibitive ($80,000 for a really good program) for my budget. So, I started looking for alternatives. I have a small library that contains how-to books on InDesign, Photoshop, design, etc. But the thing about how-to books is that they can easily overwhelm and frustrate.

For instance, I bought books for InDesign CS2 when I was preparing to design the 2006 Writer’s Blog Anthology. Having used Quark and PageMaker in the past, I was somewhat familiar with the basic interface for InDesign. However, I needed help in setting up a table of contents. I set these books down, more confused than I was when I opened their covers. Is it just me, I wondered. When I went to Amazon to read the reviews of these books and others, I found that I wasn’t alone. Some of us are better visual learners than book learners.

While browsing through the how-to manual online, I found this training video called InDesign CS3 Essential Training. At the time, I balked at the $150 pricetag because the books were so much cheaper. Then I saw it again on the shelf in my local Barnes&Noble. I wasn’t sold on it until I went to the Lynda.com site and learned that I could receive video instruction for 431 courses for $25 per month.

I’ve been taking copious notes while watching this video series since Monday. David Blatner, who blogs on InDesignSecrets.com, is the host. His style is very straightforward as he teaches you both the basics of this program and tricks on how to maximize your time by using keyboard shortcuts, customizing your menus, adding special characters, importing text, etc.

The video on importing text is especially valuable to me because I have relied on the Place feature as well as the “Copy and Paste” method when importing text for my books. David explains why you should get out the copy and paste habit. He also explains how to import Word files so InDesign will format them correctly. This is a huge timesaver.

If you have 9 hours of straight time to sit in front of your monitor or TV, you can easily get through these video series in one sitting. But I recommend that you take your time because this program is complex. I’ve listed the truncated version of the table of contents to give you an idea of what you’ll be learning. To see the full TOC, visit Lynda.com.

Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Workspace
3. Getting to the Tools
4. Creating a Document
5. Managing Pages
6. Text
7. Graphics
8. Formatting Objects
9. Managing Objects
10. Transforming Objects
11. Character Formatting
12. Paragraph Formatting
13. Styles
14. Working with Tables
15. Color
16. Exporting
17. Printing
18. Conclusion
InDesign and InCopy overview
Where to go next
Goodbye

Is the DVD worth the price? It depends on how and where you’re going to use it. If you’re training primarily from home and have a good Internet connection, then I suggest you consider signing up for the basic subscription at Lynda.com because you’ll not only get access to this basic course, but you’ll have access to the other six at a fraction of the cost ($300 for a full year versus $1050+shipping for the DVDs). If you are a visual learner like I am, this course is an excellent way of mastering the basics of Adobe InDesign.

I haven’t had much time to practice digital painting as much as I would have liked to because I’ve been preparing for my first virtual book tour, which is scheduled for February. Here is a list of my scheduled stops.

Feb. 1 - Rose Marie Wolf’s Blog www.rosemariewolf.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 2 - Paranormal Stories www.paranormalstories.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 4 - M.E. Ellis’ Nutters Gang www.meellis.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 5 - Storycrafters www.storycrafters.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 6 - Blogcritics www.blogcritics.org (interview)
Feb. 7 - Beyond the Books www.beyondthebooks.wordpress.com (interview)
Feb. 8 - Fiction Scribe www.fictionscribe.com (interview)
Feb. 10 - Dark Phantom Review www.thedarkphantom.wordpress.com (book spotlight)
Feb. 11 - The Story Behind the Book www.thestorybehindthebook.wordpress.com (guest post)
Feb. 12 - Buzz the Book www.buzzthebook.blogspot.com (book spotlight)
Feb. 13 - The Book Stacks www.thebookstacks.com (guest post)
Feb. 14 - Henri the Ghost www.henritheghost.blogspot.com (interview)
Feb. 15 - Night Owl Romance www.nightowlromance.com (you’ll actually have another url that will take you right to your interview) (interview)
Feb. 18 - Paperback Writer www.rebecca2007.wordpress.com (interview)
Feb. 20 - The Book Connection www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 25 - The Plot www.theplotline.wordpress.com (book spotlight)
Feb. 26 - The Plot www.theplotline.wordpress.com (character interview)
Feb. 29 - Announcement of free book giveaway

Dorothy Thompson of Pump Up Your Book Promotion has done a fabulous job of helping me promote Prosperity. Next month, I’ll be posting the details of each stop at my writing blog. Hope to see you there!

When I originally started this blog in 2005, I had a firm goal in mind: to promote my books and discuss writing. Since then, I’ve moved my original blog to DeborahWoehr.com/blog/, where I not only discuss these things but more. This area of my site has served as a landing page for the better part of a year until I started delving into designing book covers (see sidebar).

Last week, I moved my landing page up to the navigation bar under the “Hire Me!” link. Then I began debating about whether I wanted to use deborahwoehr.com as a blog or as a bulletin board to announce the publication of my future books. The idea sounded a bit redundant, so I gave it some more thought, finally making a decision when I wrote Goals for 2008.

I have several interests, but my first and second loves are art and writing. I earned my degree in Computer Graphics in 1993, only to find out that I was pregnant two weeks after I received my diploma. My life changed direction, and I became a stay-at-home mom for the next nine years, as well as a writer. This took me on another path, when I decided to self-publish my books on Lulu.com. I didn’t like the stock covers they offered, so I designed my own and fell in love with digital design.

You can do so much more with digital design than you can with traditional media. I might pick up my paint brush again someday, but I’m not promising anything. The computer has become my canvas, to express myself verbally and visually. This blog will chronicle my progress as I update my skills. I’ll also be trolling the blogosphere and the web to see what other digital artists are doing and to find the latest tips, tricks, and tools.

Stay tuned.

I’ve had a penchant for ghost stories ever since I could remember. Anyone out there remember Creature Feature? I saw my first horror movie when I was thirteen, when my aunt took me to see Friday the 13th and Prophecy. Of course we just HAD to go to a campsite for a family reunion that year!

I didn’t really become interested in ghosts or the afterlife until I lost my grandfather. Organized religion did nothing but confuse me. So I turned to books written by Betty Edie, John Edward, and Barbara Rommer. Rommer’s book turned out to be my favorite on the subject because I didn’t believe that everyone experience chariots and angels after they died.

It wasn’t until I lost one of my brothers that I began to write novels and short stories. Writing became my outlet and an obsession that my family has endured for the past decade. My first story was about a serial killer. This manuscript never saw the light of day for several reasons.

Shortly after I had published my first short story, I began to write a story that I eventually called Prosperity. Is death really an escape from all of our problems? Is there a Heaven and a Hell? Or, are we forced to face and deal with the problems that we avoided in life? These were the questions that kept pervading my mind as I worked out the plot for this novel, which was just released last weekend from Lulu.

Amanda Thorne is an embattled clairvoyant, who refuses to believe in God or the afterlife, even when the ghost of her murdered husband confronts her from his grave. More ghosts confront her when she finds herself stranded in a tiny town in Arizona.

Two of them mistake her for a prominent woman who was murdered 79 years ago. One of them wants to avenge him for the murder, and the other wants to kill her all over again. She and her misplaced deputy friend must uncover the truth about the murder before history repeats itself.

Right now, the book is available only from Lulu. I’m anticipating that it will be available on Amazon and Barnes&Noble some time in February, when I’ll be going on my first virtual book tour. More about that later.