While I work on my Part II of A Primer on Book Covers, check out my buddy Art Taylor’s review of the mystery The Twenty-Year Death in the Washington Post.
Art is a professor and writer and gets to review mysteries and crime fiction for the WaPo several times a year. Check out his blog after you check out his review.
Review: Ariel S. Winter’s The Twenty-Year Death in the Washington Post.
Hi Friends –
Just wanted to throw out a quick note about A Reason to Live. Thanks in large part to your support, I’ve been on a great sales run this week, averaging about 2-3 per hour on Amazon. Those kinds of numbers have resulted in some great results:
#2,674 Paid in Kindle Store (as high as the #1,700’s)
#15 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Hard-Boiled (as high as #6)
#20 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Hard-Boiled (as high as #12)
I’m looking into various strategies to try and keep the energy going, including some ad space on Goodreads. I’ll try to do a post-mortem for everyone once the dust settles (assuming it does!).
I hope to have Part II of my book cover primer out tomorrow. This time I’ll talk about cover images . Keep an eye out!
While we’re on the subject of covers (see yesterday’s post), I thought I would take the opportunity to release the tentative cover for Blueblood, the second in the Marty Singer mystery series.
I’ll be posting more about the release of Blueblood very soon, including an excerpt and other goodies. The last draft is with my editor as we speak, going through those precious little tweaks that often make all the difference. My goal is to release in digital form for all sellers (Amazon, Kobo, B&N, etc.) by the third week of August. With luck and hard work, it will be available by the last week of August or early September.
Let me know what you think of the cover in the Comments!
There are a lot of good book cover sites out there, but I thought I’d throw in my two cents, as I enjoy making my own covers, I’ve received compliments on them, and I have about 15 years of web (not print) design behind me.
Why Should You Bother?
If you don’t have a lick of design or illustration experience behind you, you may be asking why bother with knowing any of this? I won’t be making my covers, that’s for the artist to do.
If you’ve been writing for a while, this is a lot like the question that many modern writing guides warn against when it comes to submitting your work to agents. Why should I edit my work? That’s what editors at publishing houses get paid to do.
The answer is the same: if you don’t give a tinker’s cuss about every aspect of your work, you can be sure no one else will. No, scratch that. They’ll give less than a tinker’s cuss. And that’s not much.
Okay, one of you has a LOT of friends.