Betsy Horvath

Category: Publishing

  • New Release!

    Hello, my friends!  I’m pleased and proud to tell you that I have a NEW book out!  A NEW one!  I KNOW!  I’m as shocked as you are!

    Choosing Love is finally out in the wild, and available now wherever fine ebooks are sold!  Paperback version coming shortly.

    Here’s the information –

     

    Sometimes the best choice is simply to follow your heart.

    Jenny Kline’s whole life is centered around chasing her dream to be an artist—a painter. Sure, she works two jobs to make ends meet, but she tells herself the life she’s building will be perfect—until she finds out she’s lost not one of her jobs, but both of them. At first, the offer of employment as a temporary receptionist at the Hardy Falls police department seems like a no-brainer. That’s before she’s stuck behind a desk all day dealing with cranky townspeople and lusting after a certain gorgeous cop she’s been trying to ignore for years.

    Officer Harry Newman has been avoiding Jenny since the moment he joined the Hardy Falls police force. After all, he might think she’s sexy as hell, but her mother is the chief of police—and his boss. He knows it’s better to stay far away, but that’s hard to do when Jenny is in his personal space every day. She’s a temptation, and all Harry wants to do is get closer—to hell with the consequences.

    Despite their best intentions, the chemistry between Harry and Jenny sizzles. Then Harry’s past raises its ugly head, Jenny tries to help, and their mutual attraction explodes into a night of passion neither of them expected. Will they be brave enough to continue what they’ve started? Can Harry put the past behind him and walk into the light? And will Jenny be able to chase her dreams and hold on to Harry at the same time?

    Welcome to Hardy Falls, Pennsylvania, where even the best-laid plans have a way of flying right out the window—especially when love comes knocking on the door.

    Click HERE to read the first chapter

     

    Available Now

    Kindle |  Nook  |  Apple Books |  Kobo  |  Google Play  |  Other

     

    Huzzah!

    I also thought I’d better mention that I’ve re-numbered the books in the Hardy Falls series–just in case someone notices and is confused. There are a couple of reasons for doing that, but mainly I went to the trouble because Amazon doesn’t recognize the “.5” books as part of a series.  I figured I’d make the change now before I got too much further along.  The number changes are still filtering through the various vendors (I’m looking at you Apple Books!), but eventually they’ll all be whole numbers the way God–and Amazon–intended.

    By the way, just as a side note, do you know what you SHOULDN’T do when you’re trying to finish up the millions of little tasks needed to get a book out?  Tasks that all require internet access?  You SHOULDN’T cut through your internet cable because you wanted to do a little yard work to decompress and got overenthusiastic with the hedge trimmer.  That’s bad!

    Sigh…

    But I don’t care because the book is out!  I hope you enjoy Jenny’s and Harry’s story as much as I do!

     

    I’m tired.

     

  • Find Your Own Way

    In today’s information age, there is advice every freaking where.  Heck, sometimes it seems like you can’t walk across a room without tripping over advice.  Bullet points of the “correct” way to do things.  Top 10 lists.  YouTubers and bloggers and Instagrammers.

    There are times when advice isn’t such a bad thing.  When you’re starting out, it helps to see the signposts others have followed.  Watching what other people are doing can help when you need some kind of direction.  Or if you’re tackling a new task you haven’t encountered before, it can be great to get a little insight or guidance.

    But it seems to me that all too often the overwhelming volume of advice and techniques and tips and tricks and lists and whatever available now can become an obstacle.  Yes, it might help to get you started, but you also have to learn to make the path your own.  Yes, you might need guidance to learn how to handle a new task, but not all guidance is correct in your particular situation. And quite a bit of the advice or guidance out there is contradictory.  It’s easy to waste most of your time being confused.

    In the end, you have to find your own way.  You have to use the advice but not be restricted by it.  If you don’t, you could find yourself walking down a path that’s not actually yours.  You might insist something has to be done in a certain way when it simply won’t work for you.

    No matter what it is we’re trying to do, we all, ultimately, have to figure out what fits us.  We are unique and so are our dreams and abilities.  There’s nobody else exactly like us.  Nobody else has our quirks and foibles and history and darkness and experiences and goals and dreams and objectives.  Nobody else needs to take exactly the same steps to reach our destination.  You, my friend, are a unique combination of cells and experiences.  That means that what works for someone else won’t necessarily work for you.

    It’s hard.  It’s a lot easier to follow a step by step blueprint than it is to actually look at what you’re doing and decide whether or not it’s working.  It’s a lot easier to follow everyone else than it is to strike out on your own.  And it’s hard to remember that just because a certain technique or approach seems to have worked for everyone else in the world, it might not work for you.  And that’s okay.

    I see this a lot when it comes to writing.  There is no other group of people on the planet who can give advice like writers.  In many ways, that’s fine.  You need to know stuff.  You need to know the craft.  You need to be able to navigate the ever-changing publishing landscape, especially these days—just ask some of the big legacy publishers.  You have to keep training and learning and growing.

    But the risk is that you—the writer YOU are—the PERSON you are—can get buried under it all.

    From what I can see, this is true in all different kinds of pursuits, from how to use social media to find a job, to the best way to lose weight, to the way you should run a business.  From every direction, on every platform, in every breath.  Advice, advice, advice.

    I get caught in this cycle sometimes.  Whether it’s my writing or my eating or my exercising or my decisions regarding…well, anything.  I can get pulled down the rabbit hole of advice because I assume that the people giving it know more than I do.  And a lot of times they do.  But it’s also true that they are not me.  And sometimes I get so caught up in what I’m told I SHOULD do that I don’t focus on what’s best for me in my situation with my goals and my challenges.

    So what’s my advice?  Well, I think we DO need to keep learning.  We need to improve our grasp of our craft, our business, our life.  We can’t stop and be complacent, and that means we do sometimes need advice and guidance and whatever.  But, on the other hand, we can’t let it trap us.

    I guess the only thing we can do is keep testing our processes and our decisions and our joy in our lives.  And if things don’t seem to be heading where we want to go, or if we have a gut-deep dissatisfaction with the process, then no matter how valid the path seems to be we must be brave enough to acknowledge it’s not for us.  We have to be brave enough to follow our own drummer.  Then we have to be wise enough to listen to advice if our drummer is taking us off a cliff.

    It might not be easy, but I hope you go forth and conquer!

    “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

    ― Pablo Picasso

  • Why I Decided To Make My Ebooks Exclusive With Amazon (For Now)

    Here’s another post discussing what I’m doing publishing-wise and why I’m doing it, for those who care. Which, granted, aren’t that many of you, but hey.

    As before, this discussion is set in a woodland clearing I rented for the occasion and is attended by a variety of woodland creatures who are all prospective indie authors.  Once again, it is my hope that my dialog with these furry and fluffy prospective authors will make this post worthwhile (aka entertaining) for the massive blog audience of non-writers.

    But I’ve been wrong before.

    Let us begin….

     

    *Betsy is sitting on a large boulder in a clearing in the middle of a forest* *She looks up when one bunny, two squirrels, an opossum and a hedgehog enter the clearing*

    Wait, this is it? Goldarnit! They promised there would be flyers this time! There are less of you this week than there was last week!

    *The woodland creatures exchange a look* *Shrug* *Settle down around the boulder*

    Whatever. *Betsy mutters as she flips through her papers* So, this week we’re going to talk about going exclusive with Amazon and why I decided to do that for now for my Hardy Falls ebooks.

    *Tapping from various tablet computers*

    *Betsy settles back* An independent author basically has two options for publishing ebooks. We can publish them with a wide distribution, or we can be exclusive with Amazon through their KDP Select program.

    *Hedgehog raises his paw*

    Yes?

    You mean that an independent author can publish ebooks other places besides Amazon?

    Oh, my yes. An independent author can publish ebooks on almost every ebook platform known to man. That’s what we mean when we say “wide distribution.” You can publish your ebook everywhere on every site you can find, either by yourself or through an aggregator like Draft2Digital. Amazon’s definitely the biggest ebook store out there, but you can also publish on Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and everywhere else.

    *The aggressive squirrel from last week spits out an acorn cap* So, that’s good, right?

    Well, sometimes. But not always.

    *The squirrel frowns* Being everywhere is better than being in just one place.

    *Betsy chuckles* That’s what I thought too. However, I recently pulled the books I have control over (the Hardy Falls books) from the other stores and went exclusive with Amazon.

    *The bunny stares* What? They were in all the stores, and you decided to pull them back? Why do that? And why now?

    Yeah. *The opossum looks up* I thought you have trust issues.

    Oh my, but I do. I hate the thought of putting all my eggs in one basket. Especially an exceedingly large and perhaps even soulless basket owned by a major corporation. But I think it’s the best choice for me for now.

    *The hedgehog shakes his head* I don’t get it.

    *Betsy smiles indulgently* I completely understand. There are a couple of good reasons why I switched for now. But first, let’s talk about the differences in the way the major online stores work, at least as far as I know.

    *The other squirrel frowns* Don’t they all work the same?

    No. Nook, iBooks, and Kobo all operate more like traditional bookstores. There are humans involved in deciding which books get featured on the site and which books get promoted to readers. Think of it like books being displayed at the front of a bookstore.  If a writer has name recognition or a personal connection with the sales representative (like maybe they met at a conference), their books have a better chance of being put forward because the sales rep knows the book exists. That’s wonderful – but not for me since I don’t have connections at this point. I’m sure momentum can build, even for a new author without the rep’s attention, but it is much harder.

    *The squirrel continues to frown* So, what about Amazon?

    Amazon doesn’t work that way, and that’s one of their big advantages for an author like me. Amazon is really much more of a data company than a traditional bookstore. Each time you go on their site, they track every move you make, every breath you take. Their recommendations are for you specifically, based on the data they’ve gathered about you. They have sales reps too, but they’re less important.

    *The opossum looks concerned* That’s kind of creepy.

    *Betsy shrugs* It sure is, but it’s Big Data. It also means that someone like me can still get in front of readers, even though I don’t have the name recognition or backlist of a Nora Roberts. If the Amazon algorithm thinks a customer will like my book based on their past purchases, that customer gets an email recommendation. That’s why “also boughts” are important. The Amazon algorithm looks at what the people who bought your book also bought; then it links your book to that other book. It will promote your book to the people who bought that other book because they are linked.

    Okay. *The aggressive squirrel looks uncertain* But that still doesn’t explain why you went exclusive with Amazon. That “also bought” stuff is for every book.

    Yes, but Amazon offers some major benefits for going exclusive with them. I was giving up those benefits to have my book available in all the other stores.

    *The bunny hops* But your sales in the other stores made up for that, right?

    *Betsy laughs so hard she falls off the boulder* *Scrambles back up* Sorry, sorry. Give me a second. *Wheezes* Okay. Did you listen to the part about my books not getting attention on the other stores? In the time since “Handling It” has been out, I think I’ve sold three copies on the other stores – and I know who I sold them to.

    Oh. *the woodland creatures exchange a glance* *tap on tablets*

    Which means that, although 99.99% of any sales I’ve made have been on Amazon, I’ve been giving up the perks Amazon offers for exclusivity to be in wide release.

    *The bunny waves her hand* What are the perks?

    Primarily for me, it’s Kindle Unlimited. That’s a subscription service where people pay a monthly fee and can read as many of the ebooks in the program as they like for free.  Only books exclusive with Amazon can be in Kindle Unlimited. The author still gets paid for the number of pages read – not as much as a sale, but something – and the borrow counts as a sale for author rankings. That’s a wonderful program for an author who doesn’t have a lot of name recognition or a backlist. It encourages people – in my case the avid romance readers in KU – to check out a new author without any risk. But there is also the Prime borrowing program, countdown deals, free days and other programs you have access to by being exclusive.

    Ohhhhh. *The hedgehog nods* Do you think you’ll be exclusive with Amazon forever and ever?

    No. I want to be in the other stores. I want to be everywhere. But for now, until I have more books in the series finished, I’ll probably stay exclusive.

    *The aggressive squirrel looks unconvinced* What about print books?

    This is for ebooks only. The print books are still available everywhere. I think we’ll talk more about print books some other time because they are their own animal. Um, excuse the expression.

    *Frowning squirrel is frowning* But it means that Amazon is, like, really, really important now.

    *Betsy winces* I know. But I didn’t sell any books on the other platforms anyway, so what do I have to lose? And it’s not forever. Until I have more books published, Amazon will be friendlier to me than the other vendors (and Amazon’s not terribly friendly).

    *The opossum raises paw*

    Yes?

    Do you think you might be making a huge mistake?

    Oh. *Betsy sighs* The possibility is excellent. But for now, I’ll see how it goes.

    *The woodland creatures exchange a look* *Gather up their tablet computers and leave the post*

     

  • Why I Probably Should Have Had More Than One Book Ready Before I Published

    As I mentioned in a prior blog post, I’ve had a number of people ask me about independent / self publishing.  I decided to write more posts about what I’m doing regarding said publishing, why I’m doing it, and what I’m doing wrong in the hopes it may help others.  This is one of those posts.

    In order to write this post, and those that might follow, I have reserved a meeting space in the woods (for the fairly high price of four bags of non-genetically modified corn) so I can reach out to the little furry woodland creatures in the area who are interested in indie publishing.  Hopefully this will generate some synergy and dialogue to make these posts more worthwhile (aka entertaining).

    Let us begin…

     

    *Betsy is sitting on a boulder in the middle of a clearing, deep in a forest*  *After a moment, small woodland creatures enter and settle around the boulder*  *Specifically, there are two bunnies, four squirrels, an opossum, and a  hedgehog*

    *Betsy looks at her audience and frowns*  This is it?  There were supposed to be flyers.

    *The woodland creatures shrug*

    Well, okay.  *Betsy clears her throat*  Today’s presentation is about why it is better to write a series, and to have more than one book in the series written before you publish the first book in the series.

    *The creatures all pull out their various tablet computers and dutifully tap a few notes* *The hedgehog raises her paw*

    Yes?

    Why should we listen to you?

    *Betsy smiles*  Because I did it wrong.

    *The hedgehog frowns*  That’s not good.

    No, it is.  Because I did it wrong, I can tell you why it was wrong and why I did it anyway even though I knew it was probably wrong and what I’m thinking I’m going to do about it now.

    *The hedgehog keeps frowning*  What if you’re doing other things wrong?

    Oh, I’m sure that I am.  *Betsy smiles confidently* But I can only talk about what I know I did wrong now that I know I did it wrong.  If I’m still doing it wrong, and I don’t know it’s wrong yet, then I can’t tell you it’s wrong.  Right?

    *The woodland creatures look at each other*

    Okay. *The hedgehog sounds uncertain*

    *Betsy adjusts papers*  Good.  So when you first think that you’re going to be a fiction writer, most experts tell you that you should write a series, and that you should have several books in the series ready before you publish.  Does anyone know how many books you’re supposed to have finished before you publish?

    *Paws are raised*

    Yes? *Betsy points at the opossum*

    Lynn Kurland said you should have at least three books ready.

    *Betsy points at a squirrel*

    Liliana Hart said you should have at least five books done.

    That’s right.  *Betsy nods*  I would say that Liliana Hart is more correct.  I’ve heard multiple authors say they didn’t start to make any sales at all until the fifth book was out.  So, let’s say the more books you have ready in a series, the better.

    *A small squirrel looks up from his tablet*  Is that what you did?

    *Betsy smiles benevolently*  Good heavens, no!  Can anyone guess what I said to myself when I was starting?

    Oh!  Oh!

    Yes?  *Betsy points to the gesticulating bunny*

    *She clears her throat*  You said, “Dear God, if I wait until I have five books ready, I’ll be a hundred years old! I’m not going to wait!  I’m putting it out now!”

    *Betsy nods* Yes.  Yes, I did.

    *A large, aggressive squirrel frowns*  So that was wrong?

    *Betsy leans back on the boulder*  Oh my, yes.  The experts are right.  If you can wait, you should have several books in a series written before you publish the first one.

    *The aggressive squirrel persists*  So then it was bad.

    Not exactly.

    *The squirrel shakes his head* Huh?

    *Betsy smiles*  I don’t really regret what I did.  I was so terrified of publishing, that if I’d waited I probably would never have followed through. For me, it was definitely more important to get the books out there. And for the Hardy Falls books, publishing has helped me work my way through the learning curve of independent publication. But it really wasn’t the best idea to put the books out one at a time, with a year (or years) in between.

    Why does it matter anyway? *The opossum is squinting*  So what if you don’t have them all done?

    *Betsy shakes her head sagely*  Think about the age we live in. In the same way that people binge-watch Netflix or Hulu, they pack their Kindles with books and binge-read. We love book series in the same way we love television series. We want to invest in characters or a place for multiple books, not just one. We want to live with these people. That’s especially true in romance, where series and trilogies have a long history, but it’s equally true for every genre.  Think “Lord of the Rings.”

    Ooooohhhhh.  *Tapping from various tablets*

    So, not only do you want to put out a series, you want to have multiple books in the series ready to go when you start. In our world, there are just too many distractions competing for people’s attention. Too many movies. Too many shows. Too many games. Too many books. If you can’t deliver new books relatively quickly, you are forgotten and lose any momentum you might be building. Millions of authors are publishing books every day, there are plenty of other things for people to read. They will forget you in a heartbeat.

    Like you.  *A squirrel looks up*  You aren’t delivering quickly at all.

    *Betsy squirms*  Well, um, no.

    So do we have to take years and years and have the whole series ready first?  *One of the bunnies is frowning*

    Well, no.  But if you have a couple of books ready, you can publish them every month or every two months for a while. That keeps your name out there in the new release column and gives you time to be working on the next books while you’re finding your audience. And if people like your books, you have a backlist for them to work through.

    Instead of just one or two.  *The hedgehog mutters*

    Right.  And if you are a reader like me, you’ve waited to start a series because you wanted to see if the author would let it drop or if they would persevere. There’s nothing I hate more than starting a series and being left hanging because the author doesn’t continue. I often don’t even start reading a series until there are at least three books out there.

    *The frowning bunny continues to frown*   Which is why it was stupid for you to write the prequel to “Handling It” first, instead of immediately writing Hardy Falls book 2

    *Betsy fidgets*  Um, right.  But I had my reasons.  *Woodland creatures stare at her*  I did!  Except, um, at the moment I don’t have any proof that the series is going to move forward, because I kind of took it backward.

    So what are you going to do now?  *The hedgehog sounds a little dubious*

    *Betsy beams*  Well, I’m glad you asked.  Hardy Falls Book 2 takes place in the time leading up to Thanksgiving. Book 2.5 takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So instead of rushing to get them published, I’m planning to release them in the fall.

    Assuming you get them done.  *The frowning bunny frowns*

    Then I can release them in the appropriate season, and I’ll be able to release 2 and 2.5 closer together.

    If they’re done.  *The frowning bunny crosses her arms*

    And I’ll be working to make sure Hardy Falls Book 3 can come out soon after Book 2.5

    If you get it done.  *The frowning bunny taps a foot*

    *Betsy winces* Uh, right.

    But you won’t have any new books until the fall, then. *The hedgehog is frowning too*

    *The aggressive squirrel shrugs*  Does it matter?  She doesn’t have any momentum anyway.

    *Now Betsy is frowning*  Hey! I need to have things to publish.  Then I’ll worry about momentum.

    *The opossum looks stern*  As long as you actually get the books done.

    Right.  *The frowning bunny agrees*

    Yes!  Yes!  *Betsy throws up her hands*  It all depends on whether or not I get the books finished.

    *The woodland creatures exchange looks*  *They all shake their heads and gather up their tablet computers*  *One by one, they leave the post*

    *Betsy calls after them*  Don’t forget to come back now!  Lots more to say!

    *silence*

     

     

  • The Importance Of A Production Schedule

    Although I love the holiday season, I’m a HUGE fan of January 1st.  That’s when the new year stretches out before us unsullied by our footsteps. What will happen in 2017?  What will we accomplish? Anything is possible.

    But, as with everything else, possibilities only become realities if we actually do the work to make them happen.

    Most of the time I just have vague thoughts about what I’d like to accomplish. And, as you might expect, those thoughts don’t matter much in the long run. So this year I’m going to try to take steps to turn possibilities into probabilities.

    If you read the post about my goals for the next few years, you saw that one was to have 3-4 more products available by the end of 2017. (I’m actually aiming for more than that, but I don’t want to get my hopes up). Another was to set up a production schedule.

    The new products goal is to meet my longer term objective of “15 total products by the end of 3 years, excluding “Hold Me”.” The production schedule is the roadmap to get there.

    In the past, I’ve been reluctant to commit to an actual production schedule. It makes it all seem so bloodless, doesn’t it? How can I have a schedule for creativity? How can I know when a book is going to be finished? Isn’t that taking away the mystique of the whole thing?  Don’t take away my mystique, darn it!

    But if your goal is to produce more books, you need some structure. If you are swimming upstream (or in your own little pond entirely) you need to provide your own deadlines and expectations. They might be self-imposed, but they need to be important to you. You need to care whether or not you hit them. A schedule tells you what those deadlines are, what those expectations are, and helps you fit them into your life.

    My timing is still up in the air because I’m working at becoming more efficient in the various tasks needed to produce and publish a book. So in my schedule, I made plans based on what I think I should be able to do, but I’m sure things will change as I grow my skills.

    I started with some hard deadlines I want to meet. “Welcome to Hardy Falls Book 2” takes place leading up to Thanksgiving, and “Welcome to Hardy Falls Book 2.5” takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’d like them to be published at times appropriate for those holidays.

    Using those deadlines, I worked backward to try to build in time for all of the various tasks needed for publication – editing, covers, beta readers, and all that.

    In addition, I am working on a short little novella about Mary Alice and Johnny (from Hardy Falls) for newsletter sign-ups. I’d like that project to be finished as soon as possible. Hardy Falls Book 3 needs to be basically finished by the end of the year, if not sooner, so I’ll be drafting that as soon as 2 and 2.5 are done.  I also have ideas for other series that need to be fleshed out, as well as Hardy Falls book 4. Then the blog and the newsletter require writing time and need to be scheduled.

    I think you can see how easy it is to let things slip if you don’t have a plan!

    I came up with a rough schedule for next year and started implementing it in December.  I’m not going to share it all now, mostly because I really don’t know if it’s realistic, but here are the first two time blocks –

    12/4-12/17 –

    Keep up with current blogs and newsletters. Clean up my task list as much as possible. This means dealing with all of the millions of things needed to maintain my current books, my website, and my newsletter, and hopefully make them better and more professional. Plot out Mary Alice’s short novella.

    12/18 – 12/31 –

    Keep up with the current blog and newsletter. Write a backlog of blogs and newsletter articles. Write first draft of Mary Alice novella.

    Okay, that was the plan for December.  How did I do?

    The first goal – to clean up my task list, took longer than expected when I decided to re-read the first two Hardy Falls books and make some minor proofing changes. I wanted to feel as good about them as possible now that they have new covers. Because there were some changes in the texts, the ebooks and print books needed to be reformatted, which took time.  I also went hopping merrily down some rabbit holes that were not exactly productive.

    In addition, I had some personal issues (including the whole “worm incident” mentioned in this blog post – ick) which stole time as well. However, I did bust through most of my task list, and the books are reformatted and republished. Now except for one or two straggling issues, I can set them aside and not worry about them. I managed to do a rough plot for the novella.

    For the second two week period, I got blog posts and the newsletter for January written.  I planned out the blog posts through April and the newsletters for the rest of the year.  I did some good work on the Mary Alice novella, but it is far from finished.

    Because the Mary Alice novella is a priority, I’ve adjusted the schedule so this block will go through 1/7, to give me a chance to (hopefully) finish the first draft.

    The next period will go from 1/8 – 3/15.  I have ambitious goals to finalize a lot of stuff, and I’ll be trying to become much more efficient with my self-editing process.  I’m not sure right now whether these goals are do-able – dates may need to be adjusted. I’ll split the block into periods for each product once I see how it’s going.  First up is Mary Alice, then on to Hardy Falls book 2.

    I’m planning on doing regular blog posts about the production schedule and whether or not I’m meeting my goals (at the beginning of every month). You’ll be able to see how I do in real time! Watch me run! Watch me leap for the ball! Will I catch it, or fall flat on my face?

    Only time will tell.

     

     

  • Getting New Covers (and New Cover Reveals!)

    One of the first things you hear when you start going the independent author route is that you need to get professional covers for your books.  You hear things like:  “Don’t try to do it yourself!” and “A bad cover can kill a book!”

    So, of course, I tried to do my book covers myself.

    And it was a mistake.

    Now I’ve had professional covers designed for both of my independent books, and I will have professional covers on all new books moving forward.

    Why?  Why spend the money?  Here are a couple of good reasons-

    1. You have to be aware of your competition.

    People really do judge a book by its cover, and your book will rarely be seen in a vacuum.  Unless you are hand delivering it to a family member, people are going to be looking at your book in the company of many other books – whether it’s on a website like Amazon, or, if you’re fortunate, the shelf of a bookstore.  You need your book to look just as good as the books around it.  If your cover looks homemade (and being homemade is not the point of your book), you’re operating at a disadvantage.  An independently published book already has enough disadvantages in the marketplace.

    2. You have to know your limitations.

    If you are not a cover designer, you have certain limitations as to the level of cover you can design.  I firmly believe in the power of learning, and I think you can learn to be a cover designer.  But if you aren’t one already, you will have to learn it.  Which leads to…

    3. You have to decide where you want to spend your time.

    Can I learn Photoshop and design and become a cover designer?  I probably can if given enough time.  And therein lies the problem – time.  Do I want to spend my time writing, or do I want to spend my time fooling around with Photoshop, coming up with something that’s only half as good as it needs to be?  What is the most efficient use of my time?

    4.  You have to decide where you want to spend your money.

    There are a lot of things you can spend money on these days.  But if you’re going to be an independent author, I submit to you that one of the things you definitely should spend money on is your cover.  Your cover, as well as editing and formatting, are the things that are real investments in your business because they make your products better.  You SHOULD invest money in your business.  But you don’t really need a Boogie Board because it would be oh so cool to write notes and have them go directly to your computer without having to retype them.  (I returned it…geez).

    For these reasons and more, one of the major decisions I’ve made was to get professional covers for my books.  If I want people to take me seriously, I need to take myself seriously.  That means investing in making my books look as good as they can.  After all, the cover is the first impression someone will have of your book.  And you never have a second chance to make a first impression.  As they say.

    So, here are the new covers!

     

    These were designed by Dane Low at ebooklaunch.com.  The covers were reasonably priced, and Dane is just great to work with.  He was very patient with me as I bumbled about, flailing helplessly in my normal charming fashion.  If you want to know, I found Ebook Launch through the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLI), a terrific organization you really should think about joining if you want to do the independent author gig.   Another source for cover designers is Joel Friedlander (thebookdesigner.com) and his monthly ebook cover design awards.

    Now, as an object lesson, here are the covers I made compared to the ones I just got-

        

        

    Everything from the font choices to the depth of color to the layout is a lot more refined and, well, professional.  Plus, it’s extremely evident that I didn’t exactly have the skill or knowledge I needed to pull off an effective cover. Although I know my friends and family appreciate the covers I made, the new ones really are a hundred million billion times better. 🙂

    And the best part – for the new covers, I didn’t have to sweat over Photoshop for days…weeks…months….yay verily, years.

    So, all in all, I think this was a very good decision. Now I just need to remember all the places I have the old covers and replace them with the new.  And we all know how that goes.  🙂