The Book Cover Designer--a great resource for Self Publishing Authors

I adore book covers! Especially the hot and steamy ones! I mean, c'mon. Nothing says "Read me!" like a book cover with some hot looking male or female in a provocative pose.  Book covers are absolutely crucial to selling your book--even if your hawking an ebook!

Why?

Because many of your readers are visual people. If a cover intrigues them, catches their eye, makes them go "WTF?," then odds are good you might make a sale. Book covers are the best piece of advertising you have!

So what do you do when you are a self published author? How do you get the same quality cover as someone publishing through a traditional house? Do you hire an artist? Graphic designer? Your neighbor who won an art contest that one time when they were twelve? All of the above can be great ways to go, but they can also be expensive...except maybe for the neighbor thing. (Don't pick that option. Please.)

I recently stumbled across a fantastic site called The Book Cover Designer. Here, you can find pre-made book covers at inexpensive prices from a wide array of designers in all genres. That's right. All genres! You can even order something custom which may be a bit more expensive if that floats your boat. The font, the title, the placement on the cover--all you have to do is let the artist know what you want.

Of course, I do recommend that you be choosy and that you read the fine print for each cover. Many of them are a one time sale, meaning that once you buy the cover, it is taken off the site so that no one else can use it. However, that is not the case for all--so be sure to check what your designer says he or she will do once you purchase a cover.

Also, there are some really awesome designers and some poopy ones, too. Just browse and see what you come up with! Check out a few of the covers I picked out and then click on The Book Cover Designer to find your next cover! The Book Cover Designer.

By the way, my favorite designer is Madelene Martin! Great to work with and has a wide variety of ideas for covers! Here is her site! Madelene Martin

Bayou Myth

Well, I hate to do it, but I'm gonna! I'm tootin' my own horn! Today my young adult novel, Bayou Myth, officially goes on sale everywhere. I hope you'll check it out at my personal blog, LOESCH'S MUSE or perhaps at one of the buy links listed below.

I've been working on Bayou Myth for a while and it feels so good to have it available in ebook form, as well as, paperback. Next week I will be doing a virtual book tour through My Reading Addiction Book Tours which will include giveaways, interviews, and (gasp!) reviews--ten reviews to be exact!

Here is the synopsis of the book:

As a sixteen year old voodoo queen in the making, Joan Renault just wants to be like all the other girls in the small town of Monte Parish, Louisiana—obsessed with boys and swamped with social lives. If the other kids would quit calling her “hoodoo hag,” she might have a small shot at normality. It would also help if Joan’s weekend outings with her secret crush, Dave, weren’t always being interrupted by her dead Grandmere, the legendary Marie Laveau. After all, it’s hard to make out with your best friend when your grandmother is watching! But when you come from a long line of voodoo priestesses with dried gator heads decorating the wall of their huts, normal doesn’t come easily.

When Joan witnesses the brutal sacrifice of a child to a tree Druid, she learns her Grandmere’s scandalous past has come back to haunt those living in the present. Hera, a vengeful voodoo priestess, is determined to use the residual energy of Pandora’s Box to revive a sleeping voodoo god and declare war on the descendants of Marie Laveau, especially Joan. Suddenly, Greek myths are being re-enacted all over town, and Joan has her hands full trying to sort it all out. With the approach of Samedi’s Day—the voodoo day of resurrection—Joan must learn to accept her destiny in order to stop the approaching threat to her family and friends.

Feel free to learn more about me at www.maryannloesch.com or check out the buy links for Bayou Myth!

AMAZON

BARNES AND NOBLE

SMASHWORDS

Create Your Book Cover Writing Exercise

Lari Bishop, the Managing Editor at Greenleaf Book Group, shared an exercise at Austin Publishing University that is designed to help you think about your book as a complete product, even before you start writing it. The exercise was originally developed by author and consultant Kevin Daum. Here is the exercise:

1. Fold a piece of paper so that it looks like a book jacket (legal size paper works best, but anything will do).
2. On the front, write the title and subtitle.
3. On the inside flap write your elevator speech for the book. Keep it to 3 sentences max. 
4. On the back, write 2 endorsements/blurbs for the book--what you would want people to say about it.
5. On the inside back flap, describe why you are the person to write the book. 
6. On the inside of the jacket, describe how you are going to structure the book to make it compelling to readers.

Try this exercise and see if it helps you think about the book in a way that lets you address not only how well its written, but who would be interested in reading it and why they would believe you are the best person to deliver it. 

Happy Writing!