Cover Crisis - A lesson learned in market research and advice for graphic designers.

Ok, so you're probably thinking 'who does this girl think she is'. I admit I'm pretty much a nobody. I have no published books or other literary credentials but I do have a brain and I have assisted in designing a book cover that is about to go on the market (it's a sci-fi/ fantasy called Kindred by Bradley C. Bridgens). I'm also a book purchaser, but you knew that.

Whilst doing some market research on the amazon.com website for my first WIP Aura, I had to laugh at some of the ridiculous covers that are out there.

So here I was, sipping my Red Thai Curry Cup-o-Noodle soup, perusing Amazon when I clicked on the vampire books. I almost killed my laptop when the page loaded, spraying soup over my keyboard. Call me crazy, call me a grandma, but don't you think some of the covers are... well... tacky?
Female faces, carved male torsos, jaws, necks, jaws latched onto necks, woman dressed in PVC... same, same, same, same, same. As if the predicable and *ahem* lame poses aren't enough to stop me groaning, some poor author could well be paying the price for said covers. I'd die if that were my book. I'm not going to go dropping names because I haven't personally read any of these books (even though I'm sure they're written better than they are designed) but I'm beginning to wonder what is going through graphic designers' heads these days. Yes, that's right, I'm ranting about the graphic designers!
Seriously people, what were you thinking? If I scroll down the page all I see are the descriptions aforementioned and 70% of the time I can't
a) read the title of the book, or
b)tell where the title ends and the author's name begins, or vice versa.
I'm not sure if this is a tactic to get me to look at the cover longer than the average 4 seconds of if you're angry at your boss and trying to foil sales in a bid to piss them off either way your tactics are as lame as the cover.
Here are the problems I'm experiencing with some covers, and this is on literature on a whole, not just vampire fiction.

• The cover text is too similar a colour to the rest of the book. I frown at the book to try make out the text. Any frown is bad when looking at a cover. The picture is then your only hope to get my hands on it. I might read the blurb, but probably not.
• The cover is way too busy, littered with quotes, tag lines or other junk. This one earns a screwed nose unless the title or image underneath all the words looks somewhat decent enough to pick up. Put this on the inside cover (hardback) or on the back of the book and I will pick the book up without screwing my nose. Promise.
• Too many effects have been added to the text i.e., shadows, blood effects, pictures in the font. Sometimes the font selection alone is a bad choice. If I can't read it in a glance, you've lost my interest. See bullet above.
• The cover is waaaaay too sexy/corny and I don't want to be seen lifting something like that from the shelf because it's simply just too freaking humiliating. I'll happily blush buying a nudie mag for a laugh at the picture, and you know, I even think the girl on the cover will be less scantily clad. I don't want an embarrassing cover lurking on my personal bookshelf.
• The title doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the picture on the front and I'm left confused. Next book.
• Then there are the books that have the most boring cover and I just know straight away it's been pumped out by an author (or even ghost writer) on a time limit or been designed by an extremely unimaginative graphic designer. It's probably just me, but I can't bring myself to read these books. The cover is boring so I naturally assume the story is. Blame your graphic designer because I didn't buy the potentially bestselling book.

These are attributes I will notice and possibly buy based on a good blurb and an attractive cover.

• The title is effective. It needs to be thought provoking, dramatic, funny, even just a curious sounding word or a word I don't understand the meaning of will grab me. If I don't buy the book that day, I'll at least go home and Google the title's definition because I can't get it out of my head. Then I'll go back and buy it. If you're real lucky I might even just grab a dictionary from the reference section and look it up immediately before buying the novel. Heck, I might even buy the dictionary too.
• The picture tells a thousand words so make it relevant. A thousand words are about a chapter long, perhaps a half. If I like the picture, I'll like your story.
• The design is simple. None of this super-mega-uber-imposed nonsense you see plastered all over a paperback. I see the title, I see the author, and I see the picture. If the picture is a full spread image the colours can't be busy. If you're going for a solid colour, red means passion/anger/lust, blue is peaceful and mysterious, black is dark and thrilling, white is sincere and gentle. Remember what your mother told you, less is best.
• The image is actually relevant or cleverly contradictory. It's captured my attention because it's clicked and hit home or I think to myself, ooOoOOo, what is that about *grab*.
• The blurb is a knockout. If the author has some kind of idea what the cover could look like (or will if the author is designing it themselves) they need to make sure the blurb is as captivating as the cover. There is nothing worse than scouting through the walls of cruddy covers (with possibly saleable blurbs, but I wouldn't know, I didn't read it because the cover sucked) only to turn the book over, read two lines and go "nuh". I put it back on the shelf and frustratingly keep searching. If the blurb is awesome I go to the counter and buy the book. Then I go home and read it straight away. And hopefully, I'll finish it within the following three days. Then tell my friends... you get the gist.

I know some of these books sell, and some sell well, but if a best seller has an average cover imagine the sales if it had a knockout cover. Just some food for thought because when you think about it, people really do judge a book by its cover. Make it count.

LH xox

WIP-Equinox

Since finishing Aura my brain has been filled with nothing but ideas so after much protest from my husband, the sequel, Equinox is well underway. So far 22 chapters are in first draft with an expectancy of about 40 chapters in total. I know that sounds huge but the chapters are short as they alternate between the view points of Grace and Evan, getting my readers excited about hearing what Evan has to say.
Equinox follows the trials and tribulations of Grace and Evan's new life together as they battle to keep their new family safe from something they never perceived to exist. What that is, I can't tell you just yet, but let's just say we haven't heard the last from our old friend Thomas.
Focusing on family values and continuing with Aura's primary theme of unconditional love, Equinox is sure to have you valuing the sanctity of family and praying that your family doesn't have secrets quite like these!

LHxo

Grace's opening chapter on Wordle

And now Grace has her turn. Looks like there's only
one thing on her mind! I can't blame her.

Evan's opening chapter on Wordle

Just for a bit of fun... These are the most commonly used
words in chapter one of the sequel to Aura, Equinox,
written in the male protagonist's point of view.

MS Word FAIL #2

As if post number one was disgraceful enough, Microsoft HR need to start firing their staff... starting with Yoda.
(And yes, I'm aware the sentence didn't make sense in the first place. I was editing after all.)

MS Word FAIL #1

I read Nathan Bransford's insightful blog post this morning Can I Get a "Ruling": Quotation Marks for Emphasis which expresses the annoyance (and occasionally, hilarity) of the improper use of quotation marks.
But that's not the best bit.

Maybe I should just post the pic and let you figure out what had me in giggles just hours after reading his post.

So...

Well hello!!

Yes, I know, I know... it's belated but I'm still figuring out this whole blogosphere. Don't tell anyone but I actually borrowed 'Blogging for Dummies' at the library today lol.

As you may know I'm currently writing a book called 'Aura' (read 'About Me' for a blurb if you didn't know). Today I think I pooped myself - and enjoyed it!!

I'm currently on a mission to hack down the manuscript from 121 500 words to... well anything below that really. I'm currently sitting on 110 500 (but I've got two editions going, one on the laptop the other on PC because I just love making life difficult for myself). I'm happy with the progress as I don my mask and hack away with my trusty chainsaw but I realized getting rid of dodgy sentences, corny lines and over descriptiveness was not the answer. So by chapter six I basically went, ctrl+highlight to end of chapter... DELETE. Actually I think it was backspace. Then the pooping in the pants began. I was in the library too!! (Just so you know, I am speaking of metaphorical poo) I admit after editing the book four (FOUR!!) times in five months I was pretty set in my ways but something in my gut just made me go, you know what - screw it. It took some large, dangly cajones but I think it just may be what sells my novel!

Now of course I was sensible and backed up the chapter but lets forget about that. Regardless, I panicked. I hadn't written fresh material on the same subject in months. I automatically felt pressured to come up with something really good. As if by some total miracle... I think I did.


Basically what I'm trying to say to other writers out there is take a risk!! If you don't like it, fine, delete it (because you copied it first, right?) and go about your merry manuscript way as if nothing ever happened. But, to anyone who is aspiring to write (and finish) that book make a meal of your pride and try re-writing or fixing areas that could turn things into a more exciting direction. Of course you don't want to go too out there and mess up the plot and continuation and end up with a choose-your-own-adventure, but give your characters some options. This is also probably a really good idea if you end up with writer's block or are feeling insecure/nervous/generally crappy about your story. And if you don't no one has to know. Or you could be so impressed you could post it in your blog.