Trust your judgement

When you make the decision to become an Indie Author, you take on some pretty hefty responsibilities when it comes to your novel. For one, you may think that it's more inexpensive and less time consuming than writing all the query letters to try and find an agent. I am telling you right now that you will have to spend countless hours doing your own promotion to help make your novel the success that it can be.

But, that's not what this post is about.

When I first started out, I made the decision to do my own cover design. After all, I am pretty good with PhotoShop and I was confident with my skills. It took a few bits of trial and error to get it tweaked and set up how I liked it. It had elements from my story right there on the cover and, in my mind, was perfect.

Then reality set in. And that harsh reality is that people really do judge a book by its cover.

I found myself even doing it without realizing it. When I browsed the free Kindle books (my weakness is Military Romance Suspense novels, go figure), if there wasn't something on the cover that caught my eye, I didn't even look at the description. It's not fair, I'll be the first to admit it, but it's the truth.

I have been reading a book series lately while I wait for my second book to go through its proofreading stage. I reached out to the one of my new favor authors, Lisa Ladew, and asked her where she had her cover art done. (Be sure to check out the first four books in her Edge of the Heat series that got me hooked here: www.amzn.com/B00Q4YAJL6. If you don't want to commit to four, the first one if free here: www.amzn.com/B00HYEMAFI. Highly recommend!). Being the awesome and helpful person that she is, she told me that her cover art is done by http://www.stunningbookcovers.com. Unfortunately, They aren't taking on new clients at this time, so out into the world of Google and Twitter I went.

I just want to mention that if you aren't using the world of Social Media to its full advantage, you are really missing out. Not only are there other Authors out there that will be happy to answer questions for you and help you out, but it's a fantastic resource.

After some searching and price comparing, I settled on http://ebookindiecovers.com. I was lucky enough to find one of her pre-made covers that fit my needs perfectly. She got back to me quickly and within an hour, I had a new cover for my novel for Kindle. I asked her if she would be able to use one of the models for the series since the second one was coming out, and she was able to quote me the price. I can't tell you how happy I am.

The bottom line is this... while it will save you some money in the short term to do some things yourself, there is no question that having a professional do it for you is worth the money. If you question if you should change something, even a small detail, trust your gut. I had been on the fence for a while on the cover and I'm happy I finally did it. Now, I just wish I had done it sooner. Please see the before and after pictures below.

          Old Cover                                            New Cover

Please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think below.

Happy writing!

~J

Write what you know...or not

Everyone always says to write what you know, what you've experienced, what you've personally gone through. What a load of crap! Granted, I always tend to interject some military, in one form or another, into my stories. But, that's what I like to do. That being said, if you only write what you know, how will you know if that's the only thing you like? 

The short and sweet answer is that you don't.

I want to challenge you to get out there, learn something new. Get outside of your comfort zone, read up on something that you didn't know before and then go and tell someone about it. Find something and become passionate about it. 

What a lot of you don't know, and some of you do, is that I have been a member of the SCA (www.sca.org) for well over a decade now. It's an international society that recreates (NOTE: not reenacts) the medieval period. When I first started, I picked a persona that wasn't for me. I didn't like it, but I went along with it because my now ex-husband was doing it. I then moved on to researching the Mongol culture and really enjoyed it. However, that was suggested to me, and still didn't fit me. It wasn't until I found the Ancient Romans and started to look into them, their culture, textiles, and cooking techniques that I was really hooked. I look forward going to events, spending time with my friends and talking about our shared interests, and talking to anyone that wants to listen.

It's similar to that. Find something you like, that something that could spark your interest, and fan that flame. Let it grow and run with it. Don't write the same things over and over again. Find something new and exciting. Share that excitement with your readers.

~J