Choosing Books

If you're in a book store, what attracts you to a book? Do you head for the bargain table? The new releases? Or go straight back to the aisle where the specific book you want to buy would be, grab it and check out? Check specific authors? Do you browse? Does a title make you pluck the book from the shelf? Or the cover (if the author's lucky enough to have the books facing out)? Once you touch a book, what do you look at before you decide whether to add it to your buy pile or slip it back in place? Back cover copy? Inside front jacket copy? First page? Random page? Do you check to see if the author's voice grabs you?

Because my books are digital long before they're in print, and even in print, are still hard to find on bookstore shelves (but you can go to the customer service counter and request them), I've decided it's only fair to offer a 'try before you buy' option on my website. Instead of brief excerpts, I've uploaded the first chapters of my Cerridwen Press novels. It's the next best thing to wandering the shelves in the book store browsing through pages at random to see if a book looks like a fit.

You can find these reads on my updated website.

Counting Down To South Africa - T Minus 4

Still with the medical issues -- but this time I get the ditz award. After dealing with the interminable phone system of the insurance company (all voice activated; can't even punch in numbers), I discovered -- not to my surprise -- the malaria medication prescribed wasn't covered by insurance, and relatively costly $10/pill. However, it didn't seem to leave us much choice, so I called the doctor's office and left a message with the nurse to approve the prescription.

When I went in for my appointment (annual physical and to get my tetanus and hepatitis shots for the trip) , we spent a lot of time discussing all the 'just in case' medications, all the other malaria options, and how marvelously healthy I am overall. We decided that another medication, although it has to be taken daily, would be a viable option and was much cheaper out of pocket if the insurance company didn't approve.

So, armed with my handful of prescriptions, I left and made a stop at the PO Box for work. Of course, today there were a respectable number of envelopes, so that added to my work 'to do' list. I stopped at the pharmacy and dropped of the prescriptions and came home to tackle what needed to be done. My cleaning service hadn't shown up; a call verified that although we'd confirmed it twice that yesterday was to be the last cleaning, they had it as the first session they were to skip. So much for that -- only irritation was that if I'd known, I wouldn't have put off a lot of things, like piling clothes and stuff all over the place to start the pre-packing chores.

I went about my routine, still with little to do until I heard from editors as far as writing goes, although I was busy enough with trying to get all the marketing things in order. I really hoped someone else would write the back cover and flap copies, but no, it's up to me. I got my cover for Hurricane Breeze -- was not all that excited about it. They put the heroine on the cover dressed in a belly-dancer outfit, and the dog is peeking out from under the billowing white fabric looking almost -- well, I won't go there. I didn't even realize it was a dog until someone else pointed it out. But they don't have an approval process like Cerridwen Press does, so that's that. It's a short story, so it's not like the cover will be on a bookshelf anywhere. I'll try to post it tomorrow (I am on my laptop now -- another long story causing more delays).

Then, about 9:30 PM, I got the galleys. Will have to deal with those ASAP, and my When Danger Calls editor said she LOVES my book, and will try to have the next edits on Sunday. I'm leaving Tuesday. Monday will be packing and running around picking up all the things we realize we don't have. Guess it goes on my husband's laptop, and I'll work while he's sleeping.

OK -- back to the ditz award. (Can you tell my brain isn't working efficiently). At about 4:45 PM yesterday, I'm in the middle of sending someone an email and mentioning that I hope there are no bad side effects to the malaria meds. At this point, it dawns on me that I FORGOT TO MAKE SURE I GOT THE TETANUS AND HEPATITIS SHOTS I went to the doctor for in the first place. I'd even made sure to tell them to put it on my appointment notes so they'd have the stuff available. Of course, they forgot, too -- but it was my fault. Luckily, they were open until 6:30 so I buzzed back, got the shots, stopped and picked up the meds, came home and had a stiff drink before dealing with all the candy monsters who came by. More than we've had in years, but I have some chocolate left, thank goodness.

Welcome to Syneca - Cover Artist

One comment I've heard over and over about my books is, "Gorgeous Covers." Today, I'm pleased to share this space with Syneca, the artist who's created so many gorgeous covers for EC and CP books.
As authors, we fill out a 'cover request form,' and then sit back and hold our breath. What happens between sending in that form and having a cover to display? I asked Syneca to share the process.

The first thing that happens when the Graphics Department receives a cover request is that Will, our cover liaison files it into a folder for me. I read the request and then either assign it to an artist (including myself).

In the case of Starting Over, we went through a bit of a refining process to get Terry's vision correct, but once we understood the feel of what she wanted I knew what would work. I'd taken some shots of an eagle in my back yard in the spring and one of them was perfect for the cover. Will and I scoured around through all of our photo resources and found two women that I used to create the woman in the background. (One for the face and the other for the hair). Once I had the cover completed I took it to my boss, Exec. VP Darrell King. In case you all don't know, Darrell is to cover art what Yoda is to the Jedi. A master baby!! He can spot a problem in a cover in a nanosecond. The man has an amazing eye along with being an extraordinary artist. In this instance, Darrell gave the cover the green light and it was a go. We did some tweaking with color and focus and everyone was happy.

I have to say that as a general rule of thumb most of the writers for CP and EC - and now Lotus Circle, are easy to work with. Normally authors are a bit apprehensive on their first cover and tend to be a little less trusting of the artists. Once they have a book under their belt, they relax and start to trust us. Some of the writers are so trusting they just send a character description with a synopsis and say "wow me". LOL, we try and I have to say that I love it when we're allowed such creative freedom. It enables us to really do what we do best and that is create covers. We love getting suggestions from authors and to be honest, there are a lot of authors who have incredible ideas and combining creative talents with them is a lot of fun.

We do sometimes run into difficulties with cover requests. Sometimes things authors ask for just are not possible. It's not like we can rush out and do a photo shoot for each and every cover. When that happens I'm straight up with the authors and find that being straight with them and working on a variation on the original theme often produces great results.

Some things like backgrounds or landscapes, or even sets we can do on the fly. We're always digging into the prop box (things we pick up from flea markets, garage sales, and even a couple of times stuff that people are just throwing away) and setting up a table or desk in front of a window or a photographic backdrop and shooting background stuff for a cover. Or running outside and getting shots of trees or cars or the sky. I tried staying up one night to get shots of the meteor shower but fell asleep sitting on the patio waiting.We have some amazingly talented people working for and with us. Staff and freelance all, they are a great bunch of people. We use photos we take in-house at our own shoots, stock photos we purchase the rights to, and have a fabulous photographer, Les Byerley, who does photography and covers for us. As a rule, we do all of the title work in house. We're a bit picky about the kind of fonts we use and text placement, so normally artists turn in covers without titles and names. When those come in, I do the titles. All covers from the artists come to me. If I feel they're ready to be shown to Darrell King, then I do so. If they need work, I ask the artist for the changes I see that need to be made. When the cover meets my approval then I present it to Darrell. If he deems it worthy then it's a go. If he sees changes that need to be made, then I go back to the artists and we work on making the changes.

And then, of course, the covers go to the authors and we all cross our fingers, hold our breath and pray that we get a response saying "Yes!" That is an extremely happy moment for all of us. I'd like to thank you, Terry and all of the authors I've had the pleasure of working with on covers. Everyone realizes the importance of a good cover and we all take it quite seriously. We all understand that whether it's your first book or your one hundredth, each book is part of you and therefore important and worthy of respect. We try hard to make each cover the "most" important one on our plate. Do we always hit the nail on the head? Well, more times than not, I think

Leave a comment and I'll give one lucky poster a copy of the cover for Starting Over. I'll announce the winner on Monday, so be sure to check back.