Thursday 25 February 2016

An unexpected reaction

The day has come, I've received my first bad book review on Amazon ... and how am I feeling about it? Pretty great actually.

I was curious how I would feel when I got my first bad review and of the plethora of emotions to choose from I was definitely not expecting a concentrated form of excitement. Really. I work early mornings every day and as my shift progressed today, my excitement built on how I was going to promote my book and get it out there. I mean granted, this review could not have come at a more inappropriate time seeing as I am in the process of marketing and promoting the damn thing but it almost feels like a test to see how I will react to it and so far the result is that it has given me fire.

Like I have mentioned on my blog before, I was housebound with a really bad skin condition for well over two years and I think after going through something like that, it gives you a thick skin (in my case, quite literally) and you don't sweat the small things any more. I am actually hoping that this review has the opposite effect to what the reviewer wanted and customers actually want to know WHY it was so bad and buy it. Time will tell but basically I'm fine and accept that it's all part of the process if I truly want to do this as a career.

Since my last post I have been busy pottering away on my books - changing over the covers everywhere, which I absolutely LOVE, and ticking things off a to do list that is taller than I am (and I'm TALL).

Thank you to the reviewer who inspired this post and made me excited ... but please don't review my books again.

Until next time.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

The cover saga lives on!

Set to the music of the Martin Guerre 1999 cast album (natch) and Barbra Streisand (my new obsession ... but let's be real, I've always been obsessed - call it an obsession renewal), last Saturday, I finished the covers for CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION and SIXTEEN MONTHS ... I think (we've been here before, I can't say anything's set in stone with my track record in the cover department).

First, here is what both covers looked like before:

If I was being kind I would
call it pleasant.
May I present the dullest title
font ever seen on a book cover...

They were better than they were, oh GOD yes (exhibit A & B here and here), but they aren't right and definitely wouldn't sell based on these covers. Looking at the covers from the perspective of a customer, I wouldn't buy them so why would I expect anyone else to? I thought I would break down a little further the ideas and 'changes' both covers have been through in the last couple of weeks:


CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION

I had approximately 50,000 ideas for this cover and approximately 50,000 of these ideas were absolutely useless. I started going down a direction I got excited about here:

 

...but by the time it started to look like this:


...I knew it was time to move on.

I then played around with the font that I had used on the WEIGHTING TO LIVE cover a bit more. At first, I really wanted to keep all four images I had used on the original cover but as time (and desperation) went on, I thought it might be better to just have one powerful image that might hook a reader opposed to four possibly confusing and messy ones. To me, the feather was the most interesting out of the four so I started there and after a little while I had this cover:


I really liked it but felt the feather disappeared into the light-coloured background somewhat. Next, and I have no idea how it happened, an accidental click on the cover coloured the whole page black and turned into a breakthrough. Against the feather, I felt the black was really striking. Because I wanted to continue the same colour theme as WEIGHTING TO LIVE, I made the font the light grey/lilac and ended up with this:


To me, it was simple but exciting and felt it would (hopefully) make a reader curious about what was going on inside the damn thing. I added the writing in orange to the bottom to continue the colour theme and hey presto! Here is my final (again, we think) cover for CHANGES:



SIXTEEN MONTHS

Unlike CHANGES, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with this cover. First I thought about 'tarting up' the calendar theme that I was already using but after getting bored of the sight of it, I realised that if I am bored working on the idea, someone isn't exactly going to say 'Oh darling, I am so bored by this cover, let's buy it IMMEDIATELY!'. With that, it was scrapped quicker than you can say RIVETED. Here are a couple of my attempts at flogging a dead horse:



After that debacle, I thought about using a single image for the cover like CHANGES but when that didn't work, I knew it was (again) time to move onto the next (non-existent) idea.

One thing that did come out of those lack-luster attempts was the fact that I absolutely loved the orange colour next to the black of CHANGES and the lilac/grey of WEIGHTING TO LIVE. An idea out of nowhere then came to me about using different fonts in black against an orange background and after 10 minutes of tinkering, I had this:


I emailed it to my mum and her reply was this: 'Love, love, love it and love the chosen passages. Well done. Sold!

I then spent a couple of days working on different versions using really polished, professional-looking fonts, faffing about with the positioning of the title and other bits and bobs ... but nothing looked as effective as that first mock-up cover I made in 10 minutes. In the end, and after a lot more faffing, all I did was shift up two quotes and move the title slightly over to the right on the blasted mock-up cover I made in 10 minutes. There were also a couple of gaps between the different quotes so I decided to add in some more words that I will leave for you to find yourself:


The new covers will be going up in the next week or so and this time they have me really excited. Here are the three covers together:


In semi-related news, my light-bulb has been tested severely but is still on. I think I have just got to the point of no return which is exciting, daunting, wonderful and scary all at the same time. I want to do this and I can't go back because there is nothing to go back to. I have been at home with my mum for a few days as I have the week off from work and it's been utter bliss and really given my mind total clarity about what I want - if someone was to ask me right at this moment What do you want to do? I would say without a moment's hesitation, I want to work for myself. I am working damn hard to make that happen and achieve it doing the things I love....

Right, you get no pictures in a post for a while then ALL THE PICTURES so I think that's enough for one day...

Until next time.

Monday 8 February 2016

The real perfectionism

I will keep this post brief and say that I seem to be getting somewhere. Since my blog post last Monday when I said I had a light bulb moment, I am pleased to report that it's still shining brightly. Granted, at times I really have to hold that switch up to keep it from going out and there are definitely moments when I've had a bit of a power cut and the light has gone out temporarily making me feel disappointed but in my book WEIGHTING TO LIVE when the girl says 'Sometimes I fail, sometimes I don’t. I’m human', I think she is onto something. I am trying to remember that I am doing the best I can in my current situation and not to beat myself up if I slip up.

Last week was even more manic than the week before that but because things weren't as stressful, and I was in a much more determined headspace, it was fine. I know more and more every day that things must change and I am doing everything in my power to make that happen. Sometimes there is an immense feeling of frustration because I want to do everything at once and want desperately for things to change quickly but I know that time and patience must be my best friends if I truly want to succeed this year and I must not give up like the 1 BILLION attempts in the past where I have taken the easy option and quit.

Another thing, I have been watching those ghastly YouTube webinar videos on how to sell more kindle books and even though I know I have to promote them, it does still make me want to be violently sick on one of those internet 'entrepreneurs'. None of them have a love of writing - it's all about making money so in turn you are left with the ruthless people hitting the best seller charts and others unable to find a gap in the ever-growing market.

Another HILARIOUS fact I found out was that at LEAST 4,500 new kindle eBooks are published every day ... yep, I have a lot of work to do.

Until next time.

Monday 1 February 2016

Last week woes and thoughts

*Cue dramatic flailing of arms* I didn't get much done on my books last week ... I tried my best, really I did, but when I say it was one of the most stressful weeks of my life, I mean it. Wowza. I have to say though that weeks like that really hit home just how much I need to change my life completely. That sounds dramatic but it's true. Sometimes it takes certain (awful) situations to really hit home that cold, hard fact.

Since I got better nearly 6 months ago (YAY!) my life has changed dramatically for the better but I am still not doing what I should be. I am working really hard ... but in areas that don't matter. I fit in when I can working on my books etc and do it to the best of my ability but I should really be focusing on that and the other things I truly want 100% instead of getting waylaid and bogged down by the stuff that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

I had a light bulb moment on Saturday morning after something bad happened and that feeling has stayed with me for this brand new month of February. Things need to change. Things must change. I am half excited, half terrified of the challenges that lie ahead but I have to grit my teeth and just do it. In the past I have felt like this but it's been more of an energy-saving light bulb that fizzles out completely than an old school blinding one that stays just as bright ... I feel I might be one of these stronger bulbs for once.

This period of my life has changed me and how I view everything for the better so in the midst of the bad, I am grateful for it because it's leading me to a place I truly want to be.

– GET ME DR. PHIL STAT –

Again, another 'life-affirmation post' to add to the pile of corn. Not going to lie though, a strong desire to read a Judith McNaught book is gaining momentum inside me...

Until next time.