Showing Appreciation

Finding someone to do cover art and interior design is a major part of showcasing your book. I've done two of my book covers. Four were done by others. One company did the art work and I never saw it until the book was printed. They own the artwork.

The two I did were amateurish. I found a free photo for Out of the Flames.Then followed the instructions given by Lulu.com. My title colors are wrong. They get lost in the flames. When I published through Createspace, I had a template I had to put a photo in. Again I ea free photo. Again the typeset for the title was wrong. It gets lost on the page.

Finally through an author friend, I found Blue Harvest Creative. They are reasonably priced and do an excellent job. Best of all they are one stop shopping for all your marketing needs. They will provide bling...bookmarks, trading cards, posters, business cards, and tons of other exciting things.

First they read the book. I had sent them a photo I thought might work as this is the second book in a series. They took the photo I sent which featured my main character, Macy McVannel, and did a mock up. Then they took this and made a mock up. Instead of featuring Macy as she was featured on the first book, they chose to feature on a character in the book. Not what she looked like but how readers would perceive her.

I even ran a contest on my blog and Facebook to get feedback. This was overwhelmingly the favorite and no one had read the book but my designers and editors. It best tells what is going on in the book without being a spoiler.

They reminded my readers this was a Macy McVannel novel and that I had written Cold Case: Sleeping Dogs Lie. They put together an ebook which is exactly like the print book. They are working on putting my older books into ebook format. They will give them new covers and design print and ebook to be alike. I could not ask for more.

I want to thank them fore the wonderful work they do. How they make each author feel like they are the most important client they have. They way they go above and beyond to get our names known. And mostly the way they make us feel like a family.

Joni Lynn and Vern, I love all you do for us. Without you, I would not have the 2013 Mystery Book of the Year.

Thank you.