Behind the Cover of Greater Treasures

I think this will probably always be one of my favorite covers (and I've had many wonderful covers), and the funny part is I stumbled upon it by accident.  Sarah Jane Lehoux and I are in some writing groups on Facebook.  A few months ago, she posted that she was trying something new by pre-making covers  and putting them on her website at half her usual price.  I'm not sure if she did them with books in mind or was just playing with images and thought, "This is too good to waste," but regardless, she has some lovely work on her site: http://www.sarah-janelehoux.com/premade.jpg.

Out of curiosity more than anything, I went to her site.  When I saw this cover, I fell in love.  It perfectly fits the mood for my story Greater Treasures:  it has a kind of noir feel, and of course it has a dragon, butin a style that can hint at Vern without anyone really thinking that is Vern.  The style also makes me think of the 40s, official heraldry, all the things that harken to the plot and feel of the story.

It's great as a cover in and of itself.  The title and name show well when shrunk, it has great contrast, and it stands out in a crowd.  Those are the top three things you need to think about when creating or selecting a cover.

I had not planned on self-publishing, though I toyed with the idea for my shorter works.  However, this cover pushed me over the edge.

I recommend Sarah-Jane.  She does great work.  We're already talking about doing covers for some of my other stories, all following the same style.

What about you?  Would a cool cover convince you to self-publish? What do you look for in a cover?

Get Greater Treasures on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/greatertreasureskindle

My Novel's Journey: Cart Before the Horse

I thought in May, when I took my six-week break for graduation and vacation, that I'd be reveling in normalcy by now, but "normal" (by which I mean a slower but still regular pace similar to what I'd enjoyed earlier this year) continues to elude me.

Case in point:  "Shambling in a Winter Wonderland."  You'd think this would be a simple matter of writing an episode a day, then editing, then putting together the website.  Somehow, though, things got mixed up.

First, I decided to play with Photoshop Elements to see if I want it for Christmas (or if I want the more expensive and powerful CS6.)  I'm not good at purposeless dorking around, so I made a cover for "Coyote Fires" which I am pretty pleased about.  Then a friend suggested this article about covers, so I tweaked it.

Thus emboldened, I decided to try my hand at a cover for "Shambling in a Winter Wonderland."  (Remember, I tend to get into obsessions, so writing has fallen aside while I play on Photoshop.)  I could not find any free photos of zombies, so I messed with silhouettes and tried to color them like skiers.  As you can see, the results were less than impressive, although I thought the font was fun.

Well, I posted it, and immediately, Frr Mallory said, "Yuck!" and offered to make me a cover for free.  Look how awesome--the difference between know-how and access to good graphics.

So all of this talk about the story has meant that I needed a website to refer folks to, even if it's just a stand-in until I post the first episode.  Rob and I came up with skizombies, which isn't the title but is catchier.  Today, I made the subdomain, http://skizombies.karinafabian.com, and designed the website, the home page of which is posted.

So, cover art, website, promotion...and no story?  Well, three episodes are written of an expected 19, and the others are planned out in very general terms.  What I need to do this week is apply BICHOK* and write them.

In other writing news, I finally found out that Discovery was rejected by Ignatius.  Somehow, the rejection letter had gotten lost in the mail.  The timing is good, though, since Harper Voyager is taking unagented submissions in October, so I'll start with them.  It's also with an agent, but I've not heard back from her yet, either.  I talked with the slush reader at BAEN about The Old Man and the Void, and it's made it to #2 in his to-read pile, which he says might not mean much as the publisher keeps handing him stuff to read first.  

So more waiting, but the best thing to do while waiting is write.

*BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.