The truth about covers

It is a good thing that Amazon Kindle allows changes of information such as price and book cover because I need to change the cover for The Magician's Bride. I ventured into an American group online recently and received the news that my cover was - well nobody actually said it, but I gather the operative word would have been one beginning with an S and ending with a T. They weren't unpleasant, just honest - brutally honest! To be fair, once I asked why, I received answers and saw my mistakes -  they were glaringly obvious - once someone pointed them out! I also received help in the guise of names and websites, of people who could help, which was good.

In a way it is sad, because I enjoy using Photoshop, have spent hours on a potential cover only to have it shot down. What it really means is if I want to do it, then I have to take some courses and progress what skills I have. I know there are graphic artists out there ready, willing and a lot more able than I am to do a good cover for a reasonable price. It isn't the price - I simply enjoy doing it! It makes a welcomes relaxation from struggling with words and commas.

I don't think I'm arrogant to try. If we never do anything new, we get nowhere, do we? To be honest, I didn't think Kindle covers, which many people see as a thumbnail, were so vitally important. I have learned a lesson. Anyone got the humble pie and a knife handy?

MAGICIAN'S BRIDE

Here's a link to an article about a very important sequel - not mine!
jojo-moyes-interview-310196.

Plus a picture of me taken when outdoors in the winter time which I think is fast approaching. Leaves are falling  and starting to turn already, and its not September yet.

My good news is that I have just published THE MAGICIAN'S BRIDE on Amazon Kindle. I've been working on it since I went to France in May right up until last night when I published the last few updates. (One person had already bought it from Amazon US within hours of it going live, so I can only apologise to that person because I made upwards of 25 tiny corrections after I'd bought a copy and read it through on Kindle. I thought it was perfect, obviously, or I wouldn't have gone ahead and pushed the Publish Now button. The corrections were tiny things, like deleting or adding the word 'of' or 'it' and certainly not altering the sense of anything. But we want perfection, don't we?)

So I've done a lot of work on it. The storyline is stronger, with more fantasy to prop up the magician element;  most importantly I have given the heroine a first person POV right from page one. she is now a character who allows readers into her thoughts and feelings. In the previous version she was denied any voice at all; I wanted people to judge her by her actions, but sadly it didn't work at all well. I think the quality of the writing is better too, because once I had the storyline down pat, I found I could embellish the style much more easily. So, there we are; the book is out in the big wide world and now I'll just have to see how it goes.