Welcome, Rae Monet, to Mysteries and Margaritas. Rae is our web site and blog design guru. If you like the banner on our blog, well we have Rae to thank for her creativity. And believe me working with four women with different ideas could not have been easy! She also created my web site, and Liz’s web site and many other Book Cent’s authors web sites.
Mary: Rae you wear many hats, but before we get into the nitty gritty of your professional life, tells us a bit about you. As a person, where you grew up, what you wanted to be when you grew up.
Rae: I was always interested in law enforcement, police officer, FBI agent, something in that arena.
Mary: Okay now on to Rae’s many hats. She creates covers (http://www.raemonetinc.com/bookcovers.html), web sites (http://www.raemonetinc.com/websites.html) and she’s an author (http://www.raemonet.com/). The obvious question, how the hell, or sorry I mean heck, do you do it all?
Rae: Time management and a strong support team.
Mary: Do you use the same muse for your book cover designs as you do your web sites?
Rae: I think so, but let me ask her…. yes ;)
Mary: Do you only do author web sites? If not what other artist web sites have you worked on?
Rae: We’ve done several business web sites as well.
Mary: When you design, do you have a ritual to clear your mind? I mean if you’re working on someone elses site or cover, do you have to separate yourself from their ideas?
Rae: I do like to work on only one project at a time, it helps the creative process not to mix up projects.
Mary: How do you deal with difficult authors? Like the ones that no matter what you do it is not right? Or the ones who you’ve created a masterpiece for and then a few months later want to change it all? (Yes everyone, I did that.)
Rae: It can be frustrating, but as with everything in life, we just do the best we can here so we can be proud of our work, and then move on.
Mary: What is your creative process for author or anyone’s web site? Do you have a questionnaire? How do you know what they want?
Rae: Yes, we have a questionnaire we go over with them on the phone, it’s a pretty extensive phone interview we do with them as part of the design process. That process is designed to pull the info out of their head. For clients outside the U.S. we have a written questionnaire.
Mary: What words of advice would you give someone who wants a cover or web site design? What should they know in advance before they contact you? What information is useful and what don’t you want to know?
Rae: They should look at the work of the artist they are interested in hiring and make sure they “connect” visually with that artist’s work. Then find out pricing, compare, and query the artist. Let them know the genre you’re writing in, and what your future writing will bring. Think in general terms for your site, what you want you visual brand to be and carry that over to all your marketing, almost like a business logo. Then hand over your project to the artist and trust them to do their job, try to give them enough room to be creative and use their skills. And don’t drive them crazy! ;)
Thank you, Rae, for taking the time to answer my questions. I’ve enjoyed hearing more about you.
You bet! Thanks, Mary.
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Rae: Welcome to M&M- a site you know oh too well! We all LOVE our banner. I can't thank you enough for the work you put into it.
One question I have is: How do you create the "essence" of an author? I know you talked about the telephone interview and the questionnaire, but still it has to be hard to show in just a few images who is behind the writing. I so admire that skill. What would the most important things you'd want to know to be able to then start your designs?
Again, thanks for being here! Cassy
Good Morning Rae, thank you for the interview! And welcome to the M&M.
Hi Cassy,
That's a very complicated question that has no easy answer. Yes, extensive interviewing gets us started on our way, but sometimes, it's a hit or miss situation (as Mary can attest to) but for the most part, we're pretty right on with the branding. But we also go into what they want to visually brand themselves as, when we interview, that interview can take up to an hour and 1/2. Of course, my having been in the industry for over a decade has allowed us to hone our interview skills and helped us all gel as a team here to get down to what the author really wants and needs. Sometimes they don't even know and need some help.
Morning Mary, thanks so much for having me.
I'll be in and out today and hopefully will be able to answer most questions.
Hey Rae, welcome. She's right. In my case I had an idea but it was one of those "when I see it I'll know' sort of things. It must have been very frustrating for Rae.
I'm one of Rae's difficult clients who required mucho attention. I had just sold a cozy, have a paranormal mystery series on an editor's desk as we speak, have another mystery, a Women's Fiction that I am trying to make more RS, and a true RS series.
How do you tell a designer what you want when you have no idea yourself? In the end, we went with a generic crime scene photo and used a street scene for a small city look - a staple in all cozies. Rae added a few personal touches to make it relate to my cozy series and we went with that. Mine is not one of Rae's flashiest sites (and I so love flashy) but we decided it was the right choice for my writing journey now....
At least until I decide to redesign (Rae is disconnecting all her phones as we speak!!!)
I also wanted to tell you that Rae hooked me up with another server for my website and saved me megabucks.
I also want to let you know Mary does a mean design thing herself. Wait until y'all see our ad for the Crime Bake.
Thanks, Rae and Mary, for the great interview.
Morning Rae,
Love the new blog banner and Mary's website. Oh and Liz's website also. Don't want to leave her out, she might do me bodily harm.
Rae not only did my website but also my first cover and in both cases got the feelings perfect.
Yeah, I mean basically you sometime have to think in generalities about your writing career. You don't want to limit yourself too much on your brand so you can go other directions if you so desire. But if, for example, you're always going to be writing paranormal and that's the direction you want to take, then your brand should shout that. We try to do what we call the "wow" factor where the viewer first comes to your site and says, "wow!", but after that, we have to make the site functional, and concentrate on the content so you can do what you want to do with the site, sell your books! (or yourself if that's the goal)
Rae,
I love your designs, Liz's, Lindsay's, Anita's, Caroline, Denise's and the list goes on. But now that we redesigned mine, I feel it shout's out "me". And maybe a wow. But you know exactly who I am when you see it. I've had several people say it looks 'inviting'. Tiff said it makes her feel like she wants to pull a chair and listen to my story. That's a great compliment, it tells me that we got the design 100%.
For those who do not know Rae designed a FABULOUS design for me in December. It branded me as a suspense writer. But I struggled and struggled with it, as much as I loved the look and the design, it wasn't me. It was me in one of my suspense books. Also, I write other genre's. I wanted more of a author brand than a genre brand.
So I brainstormed--mostly with myself--about what I truly wanted. Then had my daughter take some pictures at a botanical garden here in Utah. After my favorites pictures were sorted from the 150 taken off they went to Rae and the rest is history.
Hey Lindsay,
Almost missed you there. Thank you very much. You're one of our original 20 clients, so you hold a special place in my heart.
I'm so easy to miss. Matter of fact most people would love it if I went missing. Then they'd have a really good mystery to solve.
Nah, fiction is way better than real life. :)
That's what I'm afraid of. Them having the real read like fiction.
I love Rae's designs. One of these days I'm going to have her do mine :-))
It's such fun to have this conversation. Sadly, it's one we have in our house nearly every night as my husband designs buildings for clients. How do you get the message the client wants and still hold onto your design imprint? I sure appreciate what you face, Rae. And, I love our banner-- you're great!
Thanks for having me, you guys. Here's raising my glass to you guys writing and us designing!
Hey Cassy,
Again, another complicated question. It's a balance act for sure, and now that we have a team involved in the design process, even more so. Ultimately, if we can't mesh our style with the clients wants, we will ask to leave a project, we can't compromise our voice for something we don't like, the clients site reflects upon us as well. That's only happened once, that I can think of, but sometimes it takes sometimes several designs and tweaks before we can mesh all involved. Sadly not an easy process, but very satisfying when everyone is happy. But it's always a struggle to balance everything.
Thanks Rae for popping in all day, you're the best!
Hi Rae and Mary. Late chiming in here but add me to the list of those who think Rae is awesome. She created my website as well, leading me through the entire process, and I was astonished at how she brought together every element that I wanted. She nailed the essence. She is incredibly creative.
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