Cover Chaos

Finally! The new website is finished, and I can check one thing off my monster to-do list. At this point, I'll take every accomplishment I can get. As to the rest of the book marketing and promotion I need to do, well, one bite at a time, right?

The most challenging issue that requires immediate action is the creation of a new cover for my book. This is a challenge that I obviously thought was resolved, but I was completely wrong. Apparently, my lack of experience bit me on the booty, and I'm enjoying a "live and learn" moment. Okay, so "enjoying" is a really strong word. The problem is the catch-22 related to cover design for a brand new author. To compete against thousands (pages and pages) of other books and actually sell books, it's critical to somehow stand out and tempt buyers into clicking on your book title. After all, the best blurb in the history of the world won't sell a single copy of the book if no one ever finds it and reads it.

For new authors with no name recognition, that means the best way to attract attention is to create (or buy) an eye-catching book cover. This is where I steered dramatically off course. The book in question is a historical romance, and anyone familiar with the genre knows that a huge chunk of book covers for historical romances include a man and a woman entangled in a passionate (or at least compromising) embrace. Second and third place numbers probably go to a lone woman in a gorgeous gown or a lone man in a striking pose, possibly (Gasp!) shirtless. You find the occasional scenic photo on a historical romance cover, but it's certainly not the norm.

In a quest to avoid the "typical" cover styles, I pondered some of the key elements in my book, trying to come up with image ideas that would make a captivating cover. The result was the purple eye that appears on the first version of my book cover.

 

I thought the eye was perfect. Originally blue, I changed the color to represent the unusual violet eye color of the heroine in the book. Beyond that, the overall look of the design was edgy and seemed to fit with the mysterious theme implied by the title.

Yes, well, I started communicating on Amazon message boards with some more experienced writers in the historical romance genre to find answers to a few questions I had, and many of them pointed out that my cover didn't indicate to the reader that the book is a historical romance. Due to the edgy look, the consensus was that the cover indicated a thriller or paranormal novel or something in the young adult category. Yikes! Talk about bursting my bubble. I knew the cover was edgy, but I certainly didn't mean to create the impression that the book was a completely different genre.

Once it was so blatantly pointed out, I could easily see that maybe I went a bit too far. So there it was, the nasty catch-22 of creating a cover. I need a cover that deviates from the norm and stands out from the crowd, but the cover still has to say, "Hey, I'm a historical romance!", or my potential readers might skim right past it, regardless of an eye-catching cover, because they assume it's something else.

I'm running ad campaigns that I'm afraid could suffer because of the poorly chosen first cover, so I have created a temporary revised cover that fits the theme. I say temporary because it's an embracing couple that might not really stand out, but at least readers will know it's a historical romance. I suppose it's better than nothing while I wait for inspiration to strike on something remarkable and unique…and historical. Sigh… Feel free to offer advice.

Saturday Humor

As if wading through a mountain of marketing information isn't enough to lay me low, I have now added website creation to the list of monsters weighing me down. I have officially decided that it might be worth it to spend every dime of (future) profit on marketing services. Who needs luxuries anyway? I just want to pay the bills and then pay someone else to do all the yucky stuff so I can WRITE! Sigh… Here's a little humor for today. LOL!

Just for Fun

I'm still up to my eyeballs in marketing mania. No time for deep, thought provoking prose or even lighthearted banter, so here's something just for fun.

Marketing Mayhem

So…after only a few short days, I'm already floundering in my new quest to devote some time to a daily blog. What a surprise! LOL. It turns out that publishing a new book involves a lot more than simply pushing the "submit" button for final approval. I am now officially buried in what seems like a never-ending to-do list of items for marketing and promotion. Oh, how nice it must be to already be successful enough to have a publicist. And to think, I always thought the best part of any future financial success would be treating myself to occasional luxuries. Now I think having enough in the bank to pay someone to do the stuff I really hate just might be the better perk.

Between designing my own ads (no publicist, remember), promoting the book on a lengthy list of sites, and still managing my "real" job (refer back to my previous post about the darn bills that won't stop arriving on schedule), I'm feeling a little sleep deprived. To make matters worse, all I really want to do is move on to the next book, just waiting to be properly formatted and electronically spit-shined for publication. Patience is not one of my virtues, and my inner child doesn't understand why I can't just do what I want. (She's a bit of a brat.) Logic dictates that it doesn't make sense to write books without finding readers who enjoy them, so I will continue to learn more than I ever wanted to know about marketing…for now.

Interestingly, the greatest challenge I faced with the marketing materials wasn't the ad creation. I'm a bit rusty on Web design, but I can still navigate a graphic design program with workable (not award-winning) results. The challenge turned out to be finding a good photo of myself to use as an author photo. I never would have imagined it was possible, but not falling prey to the selfie craze actually just bit me on the booty. I have some very good friends who are enjoying the last laugh right now.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not making fun of all the selfie queens out there (at least not much). Your selfies always look great, which means you apparently look great all the time. If I looked great all the time, I might be tempted to snap a few more pics of myself, too. Unfortunately, my truth is I can literally work in my pajamas, and when it's cold, I usually do. I love makeup and its impressive capabilities as much as all the selfie queens out there, but I don't feel the need to spend 30 minutes applying it each day. (Yes, it takes me 30 minutes, probably because I don't get enough practice.)

The point is I'm not selfie-ready at any given moment, and that turned out to be a problem. It was about 2 a.m. when I gave up on finding a photo, and I wasn't in the mood to glamorize at that point. I finally had to crop a headshot out of a group photo. Of course, I quickly discovered that my friends (or family) and I usually stand way too close together in photos, so it was still a challenge to find something I could crop that didn't include someone else's hair, shoulder, or cheek. (Yes, sometimes we really are that close.)

I'm making progress down the marketing list, but it may be a while before I get to the point where I can add something to the blog every day. I may have to "cheat" and fill in with some cute pics or inspiring quotes on really busy days. Be sure to follow me if you want to be notified when I post something new. Also, the link for the book (paperback and Kindle eBook) is http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Lady-Anjannette-Conner/dp/1523877510/ for anyone who follows me on the blog and not Facebook. Talk soon!

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Welcome to Midnight Ramblings of a Writer on the Edge

Welcome! I'm new to this thing called a blog, but never fear, my fellow readers. I'm looking forward to figuring it all out. As someone with a lifelong passion for writing, I suppose I should be embarrassed at missing the boat on something so perfectly designed for writers, but if I took time to wallow in the shame of it all, then I wouldn't have time to write, would I? And THAT is my new resolution for myself. In 2016, I will do more things that are just for me. In my case, that primarily means writing one of the novels swirling around in my head…and then another one…and another…well, you get the idea.

Writing is what I love to do, and I would gladly spend all day doing it if I could just get the rest of the world to cooperate. Alas, the bills roll in every month right on schedule, reminding me that I can't give up my editing job to write unless someone hands me a big, fat contract. Or a movie deal. I could probably get by for a few years on a movie deal…if I really tried. Of course, editing isn't a bad gig for a writer, but I edit mostly Web content and business documents, neither of which provide much food for my creative soul.

It goes without saying that I prefer writing to editing, but I would lose my house, and my children (at least the two remaining at home) would starve if I attempted to switch to writing for my clients instead of editing. I believe I could nail the job, but I would spend far too much time researching material and perfecting every single sentence to ever work at a profitable pace. I wouldn't be able to help myself. My right brain would demand that I try to turn an article about something like removing old wallpaper into a critically acclaimed masterpiece. Good luck with that, right? For me, it's much more profitable to work on an article with the mindset that the content is set, and it's simply my job to clean it up.

At least things are looking better on the creative writing front for 2016. My youngest son started high school last fall, and his lack of enthusiasm for anything beyond video games (a whole other subject for a future blog) has freed up some time that I used to spend volunteering at his schools and attending games, practices, and events. As a result, I finally had time to shake the digital dust off a few books I wrote many years ago (before so many kids) when I somehow had time for myself. After some excruciating time spent manually reformatting relatively ancient word processing files and re-editing every single word, I successfully published one of the books on Amazon a few days ago.

If you want to check it out, the title is Mystery Lady by Anjannette Conner. Fortunately, the genre is historical romance, so at least the content won't seem dated after the long delay between creation and publication. I don't think an extra 20 years after the end of the Revolutionary War matters much at this point. This book is my first step in meeting my goal to focus on what I love and spend more time writing. I will complete the same process for the second and third books and then turn my attention to a whole new story. It will be interesting to see which one makes the journey from brain to paper first.

Meanwhile, I think I can already imagine the therapeutic benefit of releasing some stress in the form of a blog. I can't imagine that a straight diary-style approach focused on my life would remain interesting for long, so I plan to let loose with commentary on a huge range of topics. The topic could be something that annoys me on a given day or something that thrills me. It could be something pulled straight from the headlines or something completely outrageous. Let's just say I plan to have some fun with it, and I certainly hope all my readers do, too.