You know what a writer like me used to do? She poured herself a cup of tea and wrote. She starved in a little garret and feverishly sweated over hand written manuscripts and when she was finished, she wrapped her work in brown paper, tied it with a string, and hoped to hear back in her lifetime whether she was successful or not. Then of course she poured herself a cup of tea and did it again and again and again.
These day, a writer–especially an indie published writer like me–has to put on her writerly hat in the morning and her publisher hat in the afternoon. She has to hire an editorial team and a cover artist and be a marketing wunderkind. She has to keep a visible online presence. She has to sell herself as well as her books, and make it all look easy.
Case in point: the cover for Winter Solstice in St. Nacho’s . The original title of the story was Christmas in St. Nacho’s. It was supposed to be a thirty thousand word novella that would make Hallmark proud. But you know me. As soon as I started to write, I ended up outlining a totally different book featuring the character Tug from A Much Younger Man, and his is a redemption arc as grim as my cover is sweet.
PLUS my cover had a typo.
Two typos if you count the missing apostrophe in Nacho’s. I honestly never even noticed, because deep down, I’m that lady writer drinking tea and staring out to sea and concentrating on story, not marketing or publishing and for that, I apologize.
After that wake up call, I showed the cover to the crit group I belong to, my Shenanigangsters: Sue Brown, Morticia Knight, LE Franks, and Belinda McBride. (We try to meet daily to cheer each other on, and I would not be able to do any of this without their support.) In thumbnail size, you can barely tell anything’s wrong with the cover. But you know what? I shared the full size and nobody noticed. (We’ll laugh about this later.) I had that cover fixed. I moved on.
Then I posed this question, “Does that happy, sappy cover still even fit the longer, grimmer book I’m writing?”
We all agreed,,.NOPE! OOPS!
Now, Garrett Leigh at Black Jazz Design will be creating an entirely new cover that more clearly represents the story set out in the blurb. One that will fit in well with the other St. Nacho’s books, so stay tuned for a new cover release on that later.
In the meantime, I’m keeping this first cover (corrected back to Christmas in St. Nacho’s) for something else, later. Maybe a sweet thirty thousand word novella for next year.
