Appreciate Your Cover Artist

If you haven't thought about all the time and effort that goes into creating your book cover, then you're among the majority of writers. Sometimes I've loved my book covers and sometimes I've been a wee bit disappointed, but still thought they were good.

I've been busy putting my returned rights books back into publication via e-book. Getting the text in appropriate format is not difficult at all, nor is uploading the information to the digital platform.

However, searching for photos to make my own covers has been very time intensive! Hours and hours of looking through photos trying to the perfect images is not fun. And, then I had to put on my graphics hat and try to remember everything I'd learned about using my program to its fullest. I do not have photoshop, nor do I want to spend funds to purchase any programs. I have PaintShop Pro v.6...and older program.

Finally, I completed my second book cover.

Hit and Run is now available for purchase in the Kindle Store at Amazon and Foxfire should be available for purchase on Tuesday.

I'm excited to have these books available for purchase again and I hope you like the bookcovers!

Have you ever designed a book cover or have you thought about how much time and effort goes into creating one? Have you ever been disappointed with a book cover?

Amazon Kindle - Hit and Run

Yesterday, I decided to work on putting my returned rights books on the Kindle platform at Amazon. A friend and fellow author, Becky Barker, gave a presentation on how to do this at one of my RWA chapter meetings. I'd been putting it off, worrying that it would be difficult to do.

BUT, much to my surprise, the whole experience took less than two hours. The book uploaded very fast, unlike my experience with Smashwords. What took the longest was finding the image I wanted to use for my bookcover. Searching through pages and pages of photos, especially when you have a very definite idea of what you want, is very time consuming. Finally, I opened my mind to other possibilities and found one that I really liked.

The advantage I have is that my books have already gone through a professional edit since they were published previously. Both books sold really well. I did some small edits to removing words I felt didn't match my current platform of being an inspirational author, but the plot and characters have not been changed in any way.

The book itself is not yet available on Amazon. The digital platform site requires 48 hours to complete the process. Next month, I plan to release FOXFIRE.

Perhaps I'd better start the photo search now!  How about you? Do you have a Kindle e-reader or have you thought about putting any of your books on the Kindle Store at Amazon?

Oh, Those Query Letters...

Are you ready to submit, but don't have a clue what to put in a query letter? Don't freak out. It happens to all of us.

One thing is critical. Research your market. Make sure you target the right editor/agent and always, always address the query letter to a person.

That being said, you'll probably learn more by visiting this blog than from anything I can say:
Query Shark

Good luck with your submissions. Thanks for stopping by.

Below are the new book covers for my releases on Smashwords.

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Right Brain, Left Brain...Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo...

Today, I'm going to tackle convering one of my "returned rights" books, HIT AND RUN, to be read on Kindle. Why? Because I can!

I excelled in math during my school years because logic problems stirred my brain. I loved the challenge of working my way through the formulas to get to the answer. I still love working logic puzzles or delving into something unknown. I love mysteries, mystical things, and creating things with my hands. There's something fulfilling in hooking up a new device to my computer and having it work, taking a rock and turning it into an animal with a paintbrush and ceramic paints, or creating a new world with words.

I've taken several of those "analyze your brain" tests, and I fall squarely in the middle. I'm not left or right brain dominant. I suppose that's why I lean toward many creative outlets.

So, today, I'm off on a new venture. I'll have the challenge of converting the book for Kindle and creating my own book cover. More to come...