Tweaked the Flash Cover

 

Why?  Because I thought the original was a little too harsh and I could soften it up.  I like it very much but I'm not sure it's the perfect cover if I have to depend on the cover alone to sell the book.  I've seen a book about an adult paparazzi and it's pretty tame--white background, woman holding a camera.  There's a YA and it's what you think it should be, a young woman holding a camera.  Actually they are the same, aren't they? 

If photography is about light, then I wanted to do something with a lighting effect.  Maybe that's too deep.  Maybe I should have just taken a photo of my old Nikon.  Wait.  I have an old photo of me with my Nikon F that I took.  I could have used that.  Of course, it's a slide so I would have needed to transfer it somehow.  (Like I'd want to be on the cover of a book.)

Do readers really need to be taken by the hand--"This book is about a photographer".  Kip does photography but the book is about her life and love.  How do you convey that in an image?  You can't.  So look for an image that says something about the theme, the sense of the book.  I know we're somewhat limited although I'm sure tradpub uses many of the same stock photo sites we can.  Of course they can afford Getty Images and we can't.

OTOH I think Avalon spent a buck fifty on the cover of Love In The Air and I mean $1.50 not $150.

Update:  Mark Coker just published a free ebook The Secrets of Ebook Publishing so maybe we'll learn something.

Uptheupdate:  I sorta skimmed/read the book.  It was hard to read in Calibre--no margins.  He says the most successful books are over 70,000 words.

"A book is as long as it takes to tell the story"--Jean Karl my first editor (really famous for being a topflight juvenile editor)

You have to do what is comfortable and what works for you.  If all that social media works for you, and you like it, do it.  I don't so I don't.

New Cover For Flash

I'm sure I would be very reluctant to change covers if I paid for one.  I think the only cover I haven't changed is Not Low Maintenance.  No wait, I haven't changed Just Kate either.  Nor the Mitnicks.  Let's stop there before my memory kicks in.  The point is I've changed most of them at least once and some quite a few times like Nothing Serious which yes, is selling now better than before.

Other than financial, there's no point not to change.  It's not as if anyone is going to recognize the cover.  Everyone is new all the time.  It's not like a bookstore (yeah you're lucky if the book will be there long enough to have a cover change) where they could see you one week and miss you the next because they don't see the same artwork.

Yesterday morning I figured I would invest an hour or two into the new cover and be done.  I had an idea what I wanted to achieve and all I had to do was get the right Photoshop tutorial and I'd be back to Flash 2.  About 3 tutes later I realized, again, anything having to do with the Pen Tool and pathways was still a stumbling block for me.  I probably need to do Pen Tool 101 before moving onto things requiring a real skillset.

I googled Photoshop light effects text again and this time turned up with a different approach--3D.  So I went with that.   The tute was good.  My very fine, tho older, computer was pushed to its limit and past once with a crash so I probably need a new video card and maybe more memory if I wanted to continue doing 3D.

My results weren't enough like the ones in the tute to leave things well enough alone.  I added an outerglow to the text and a little bevel otherwise the light didn't impact the text enough.  Then I merged all layers otherwise the lens flare filter doesn't work.  That has to be done on the working layer, it can't be on its own layer and you can overlay it like in you know a layer.  I saved the work before doing the lens flare because once you save merged layers that's the end, you don't unmerge them.

Hours invested--all afternoon.

I'm happy enough with this cover.  It's a little static, a little less colorful than I had in mind.  The original cover was very static and even though the idea of it was right--beautiful woman shielding herself from the paparazzi, it was very posed and she was stiff.  There was no sense of immediacy, movement or drama.  I'm glad I only paid $3 for the photo.

I suppose there is no real debate except in my mind about how large the author's name should be.  If a vast number of fans gave two hoots and a holler about me, then I suppose I would want my name larger.  The reason it is not larger is that I prefer to see the artwork.  Text on art is a necessary evil or at least to me a drawback.  That's why I try to keep the two elements separated.  Other people have different opinions.

Flash

That's the title of my new YA.

I somehow got the idea-- what would happen if a young woman became a paparazzi, a celebrity photographer.  So, very excited, I emailed my pal and gave him the one-liner.  He thought it was a great idea and he started imagining all the different things that could happen, all the titles, how hilarious it could be.  I thought "oh, this is good, the whole Bad Apple series is on the heavy side, doing something funny would be like a vacation!"  I hadn't finished the first chapter when I could feel it changing.

There are some light moments and Kip, the main character, manages to press on never feeling sorry for herself, but there are some mature themes and another friend who's a medical professional said "Don't go there."  I went there anyway.

So here's the blurb

Celebrity.  A by-product of talent or the goal.  The crumbs of greatness or the whole cake.

When Kip “I lied about being 18 for so long, it seemed like the truth” Chanin, arrives in Los Angeles with her mother who wants to work in Hollywood, it doesn’t take her long to understand that this is a factory town and the product is an illusion.  To help support her two-person family, Kip grits her teeth, puts aside being a news photographer and becomes a paparazzi.

Kip’s first photo is of Alex Milne, the handsome and volatile young actor.  That one photo changes both their lives.  An evening being detained in the Beverly Hills Police Station expands Kip’s world and opportunities both wanted and unwanted confront her.  To lasting shock and pain, Kip learns the identity of her father and she sets out to solve a murder that’s been gossiped about in Hollywood for the last 80 years, tainting the Milne family to the present day.

One thing Kip learns to her core is that life is real even in a city dedicated to creating illusions.

And here's the cover. 

There'll probably be a sequel but I don't think it'll be a trilogy.

Tonight X-Factor is on and I'm really going to enjoy it.