Looking for a premade cover isn't as straightforward as I thought

I've been looking for a premade contemporary romance cover lately, so I've been stalking A LOT of websites and Facebook groups in search of the "perfect" cover. Why premade, you ask? To be honest, it's mostly a cost issue, but also I don't feel like what I'm looking for should be that difficult to find. And yet...

My specifications are pretty straightforward. The book is one that I'm receiving the rights back from a traditional publisher on, and it was initially published during the New Adult heydey. New Adult still exists, but it's a lot sexier. Especially in terms of covers.

Which means more man chest than couples. I did some market research - aka stalking Amazon - and discovered that a lot of the best-selling New Adult covers feature a male torso, preferably with six-pack abs. Well, that's easy enough to find as a premade, right?

Sort of. There are a lot of male torso premade covers out there, but fonts matter. Fonts mean the difference between a paranormal male torso and an edgey contemporary male torso. Don't believe me? Look at these two:

The glowing text treatment on Last Alpha gives it an otherworldly vibe, yes? (And, ok, there's a wolf in the background too but I didn't notice that at first, I swear.) By contrast, the handwritten brush font on One Night With A Hero is contemporary romance all the way.

Black and white male torsos on New Adult covers are super popular. Most of L. J. Shen's covers are black and white with a dash of color in the title and they definitely work for her. Her recent release hit #1 in the entire Kindle store, and is still #8 overall and #1 in three categories two weeks post-release. That's not due to the cover alone, of course, but the cover doesn't HURT its prospects at all.

Don't worry. I know that L. J. Shen's covers aren't premades - and I'm pretty sure the photos are exclusive, not stock. But it's worth studying what works, and her covers definitely do.

There are a lot of black and white male torso premade covers, and honestly I think I've seen over one hundred since my search began. But nothing is jumping out and saying, "Yes this one!" Yet.

Because that's the other thing, with so many to pick from, it's easy to be SUPER picky. To the point of indecision. I feel like the only way I'm going to actually decide is if I set a deadline and then don't allow myself to look at any premade covers once I've decided. Unless, of course, you have a premade site you think I should check out. Then, by all means, drop it in the comments!

Happy World Book Day!

It's World Book Day in the UK and Ireland today. Which kind of makes me think it's not "World" Book Day at all if it's only being celebrated in a tiny corner of the globe? (Kind of like the World Series in baseball.) But, in this case, totally willing to overlook that because BOOKS! Am I right?

So what is World Book Day? According to the World Book Day website: 

World Book Day is a registered charity on a mission to give every child and young person a book of their own. It’s also a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. 

Tokens are given out in school and at bookshops to be exchanged for a selection of £1 books designated as World Book Day books, ranging from early reading books through young adult. The idea is to bring books home to everyone, and everyone can bring home a book. 

When my son was in primary school, World Book Day was an occasion for dressing up. Here he is as Skullduggery Pleasant in Year 4 or 5:

Now he's in Year 10 and dressing up isn't a thing anymore. Apparently neither is World Book Day, really. This makes me sad but I have to admit, I'm not unhappy to be trying to come up with costumes for a teenager who's over 6 feet tall. (Let's not even talk about the fact that reading isn't all that "cool" anymore, sadly, and even though my son does read, he'd hate acknowledging his recent favorite book almost as much as dressing up.)

Of course, there are loads of ready-bought costumes for younger kids available now. Kind of like Halloween part 2?

I admit, we always made our own World Book Day costumes. Some years were better than others. The Skullduggery Pleasant costume was so good my son wore it twice, although I'm not sure if he didn't just want an excuse to wear that mask.

Is it another stress on parents - this random day in March when suddenly you not only need to come up with a costume, but it needs to be book-related? AB-SO-LUTE-LY! My son wore glasses from a young age and there was definitely the year I threw a scarf around his neck and drew a "scar" on his forehead with lip liner so he could be Harry Potter.

But I have to admit, this one (stolen from Facebook this morning) is definitely my favorite:

If my son were still doing World Book Day, I'd be all over this idea. Just saying.

However you're celebrating World Book Day, I hope it's with your favorite book.

(Mostly) FREE Graphics Tools to Make Your Life Easier

Writers - especially indie writers - are busy multi-taskers. There are things we have to do - like write our books - and then things we also we have to do - like social media and advertising. Today I'm here with some tools to make your life easier on the social media/advertising front.

Graphics? Love to hate them, right? Canva's templates makes graphics easy, and if you're a graphics newbie I highly recommend. There are templates for Instagram, Facebook, even book covers. (I'm still all about a professional book cover, but if you want to do a mock up for your designer, this is a great resource.)

But wait...I need images, you say. Got you covered. I love Pexels for free stock images. They even have free stock video. Unsplash is another great one and the categories are very well organized.

Let's say you find the perfect image, but you hate the background. Remove it easy peasy with this tool. 

If you're a romance writer, I highly recommend the Tease Me Images Facebook group for paid images. Michelle, the owner of the group, crops and curates collections of images in both Facebook ad size and Instagram size that are both eye-catching and super reasonably priced.

Need a book cover mock-up? Or maybe your book cover on an iPhone? This is the best free tool I've found.  You can also do a cool composite of two or three styles together - e.g., paperback, iPhone, iPad.


Ok, you've got your graphics. Now you need to post them. I'm a big fan of scheduling my posts with Buffer. The free version works well for me. They do have a paid version, but I'm cheap and have never tried it. The benefit that Buffer has over a lot of the competition is that it posts directly to Instagram without having to go through an app. I don't know about you, but an extra step to me just means another step I can forget.

To liven up a post or two, sometimes I use Text Waves to bring attention to the post. There's also Emojipedia for including emojis in your posts, although did you know that if you're on a Mac, you only need to hit Command + Control + space bar to bring up the emoji menu? 😮 

I bet you're trying that now on your Mac, aren't you? Try out some of the others, too, and let me know what you think. And if you've got any other free graphics resources, share in the comments!

Wondering what to bring?

Hey there, Boarders! It's my turn today to do a Google Search and my initial thought was "what to bring to a writing conference" because I'm heading to the Romance Author Mastermind conference in Houston as we speak. But then I typed "What to bring" into the Google Search bar, and well... 

Here we are:

What to bring to Friendsgiving? Well, according to PopSugar, Pumpkin Thanksgiving Sangria is a hit, as well as Pumpkin Goat Cheese Crostini. I give the sangria a thumbs up, the crostini? Maybe? Williams Sonoma recommends a sweet potato "crostini" with blue cheese and honey, which looks amazing, but, um, where's the green bean casserole? And the roast potatoes that someone else cooks in their oven? I'm hosting Friendsgiving, myself, and I really really want someone to bring roast potatoes. Also, possibly that sangria. Hint, hint.

What to bring to college? The College Board seems to have a pretty thorough checklist, although I'm not sure I ever had any of the Household and Kitchen Items in 4 years of college. College Info Geek has an even more extensive list, including a desk chair. Do people really do that? Aren't the hard wooden desk chairs a rite of passage?

Lastly, what to bring to ACL? Maybe because I'm already in Texas as I'm writing this, the Austin City Limits Music Festival is appearing in my search results. According to the website, a reusable water bottle is at the top of the list, along with sunscreen and hearing protection. All great suggestions. The 2019 lineup looked amazing, btw, if you happen to be close to Austin and want to keep it on your radar for 2020.

All that said, I'm no closer now to figuring out what to bring to Romance Author Mastermind that I might have forgotten. I have clothes, my laptop and a notebook, as well as a copious amount of snacks. That's all I really need, right?

Any veteran conference goers have any helpful hints, I'd love to hear them!

Lamenting the (temporary?) lack of reading

Who here has kids? *raises hand*

Who here has kids who are readers? *raises hand halfway*

I have a fourteen-year-old son who was once an avid reader. He struggled as a developing reader and we enrolled him in Kumon, which is a global company and it was AMAZING. It wasn't his favorite thing to do when he was seven by any stretch of the imagination, but even he credits Kumon with his reading abilities today.

That is...his reading abilities when he chooses to use them. Unlike his eight-year-old self who was never without a book, the fourteen-year-old has become a reluctant reader. I'm pretty sure if it were up to him, he'd never read at all for "pleasure", preferring SnapChat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, PlayStation. Basically, <insert social media platform here> and it supersedes reading.

Thank goodness it's not up to him. A condition of living in our house is that he reads, and it is a habit for him. (I mean, I'm not sure we'd really make him move out, but I tell him all the time that reading is too important a thing to just drop.)He takes his Kindle upstairs to read before bed every night (while all other electronics stay downstairs) and brings it down every morning to read with breakfast. But, the only other time he'll pick up his Kindle "willingly" if he's been rude and had all other electronic devices taken away from him. I guess then reading doesn't seem so bad? Also, he's not stupid. He knows it warms my cold hard heart to see him reading, so it's not a bad way to get back on my good side!

I did an informal poll among my friends and acquaintances about their own teens' reading habits and many had similar stories - their child stopped reading somewhere between ages 12 and 14. If they didn't stop altogether, reading declined significantly. Yes, there are a few whose teens avidly devour book after book, but they were the exception, not the norm. There also didn't seem to be any difference between boys and girls. All were fairly disinterested.

It makes me wonder why, especially with the plethora of YA books these days. I remember being 14 and reading Victoria Holt, with a sneaky side of Jackie Collins. (Um, 14-year-old girls, Jackie Collins' books still exist! Just saying.) Is it the pervasiveness of other forms of entertainment? I absolutely think this is a factor. Or is it the medium?

The Boy doesn't read print books anymore and he hasn't in a couple of years at least. We originally loaded up an old Kindle for him when we were going on holiday rather than carry several paperbacks, but now the Kindle is his preference, hands down. Is it because it's another screen? Maybe? Or is it because of the immediate gratification? That's why I love ebooks so much. I'm sure there's an element of that with him, as well.

My husband thinks The Boy is learning a habit in reading at bedtime and at breakfast and that this will be his habit out of choice when he's older, too. The Boy, of course, says once he moves out he'll never read another book again. I think he says this to wind me up, but I'm not really sure. I hope not because I can't imagine a life without the comfort and company of books. But am I just being old-fashioned? What about your kids, if you have them? Do they still read? And if they stopped, did they come back to it?

Asking for an author review quote

Search through any author group on Facebook or publishing-centric threads on Twitter and eventually the topic of author review quotes comes up. As in: what are they? Do they help? Do you need one? And - arguably the most important question of all - how do you ask for one???

What are author review quotes?
Short answer: They're nice things other authors say about your book.

Long answer: They're nice things other authors say about your book that you can use for marketing purposes, editorial reviews on Amazon, even your front cover. They're pithy, smart and quotable, and ALWAYS positive.

Do they help?
Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Still yes. An author review quote from an author with whom you share a potential audience is ideal - although maybe it would be cool for marketing purposes if I got a quotable quote from Stephen (a horror writer) for one of my romances? Will think on that one. An author review quote from an author with name recognition in your genre is helpful, too, especially if you're putting his/her quote on your cover.

Do you need an author review quote?
Short answer: No.

Long answer: That space on Amazon for editorial reviews looks awfully empty without any editorial reviews. You can wait until reader reviews come in - and it's great to have a few of those, as well, but an author endorsement or two definitely helps. You can also use author reviews in your pre-publication marketing.

How do you ask for an author review quote?
Short answer: Nicely.

Long answer: This is actually a pretty long answer.

1. Do your homework!
1. You've read some books by the author you're asking to review your book, right? If not, get on that.
2. Check out her website and look at recent/upcoming releases. If she's got a book coming out next week, you might want to hold off on your email.
3. Check out his social media. Is his Twitter feed filled with deadline stress? Or maybe his Instagram shows that he's spending the month at the lake with his family. Either way, it might not be the best time to ask this particular author for a review.
4. Look at her website again and click on CONTACT. How does she want to be contacted for review requests? Via her agent? A PA? A form on the website? An email address?
2. Once you know the preferred method of contact for submitting your request, use that. For most authors, it is NOT Twitter DM, Facebook Messenger or Snapchat. Email is the most likely scenario.
3. Think about the tone of your email before you start writing it. On the one hand, your review request is kind of like a business letter. On the other hand, it's...not. To some extent, it could/should reflect you, the writer. 
4. If you know from doing your homework that there's something you and the author have in common, or something you think they'll really connect with in your book, mention it. E.g., I saw on Instagram recently that you were in London.It looks like you had an amazing time! My book is actually set in London, and I lived there for five years before trading in city life for a tiny English village.
5. Indicate how you'll use the review. Will you use the author quote on your print cover? In pre-publication marketing? In release week marketing and on Amazon?
6. Set a date!!! This is especially important if you're going to use the quote on your cover or pre-publication, but it's also important for your sanity. Something as simple as: My book releases September 27, and I need all author reviews completed by August 27.
7. But give them an out. Something like: If you can't make that date, I totally understand, but I'd love if you could let me know so I won't be stalking my email inbox.
8. Offer a full manuscript and a sample. Some authors will eagerly read the whole thing. Some might prefer the first six chapters, but can still provide you with a great review quote.
9. Include your blurb, cover, social media links, website, etc. You can cram a lot of this into your email signature and some people might argue that it should be there already anyway.
10. Spell check, proofread, send.
11. Obsessively check inbox for a reply, despite said date conversation. :) 

It also doesn't hurt to google "Asking for author blurbs" and reading through some sample emails. I did that, in addition to the above, when I was asking for author review quotes for my last book and, well, it worked for me!

Marie Kondo-ing Your Writing Career

I had a new release a couple of months ago and now I'm deep in the weeds of (re)writing my next book, so I've been thinking a lot about how I want the rest of the year to shape up. And I've decided there's one thing I'm looking for above all else.

Joy. 

It sounds hokey, right? This is my CAREER. I spend a lot of money on covers, editing and ads, and I'm not doing this because I have a trust fund somewhere for all of that. I've come a long way in redefining my version of success as it relates to money, but I still want/need to make some. But for the rest of 2019 - and maybe longer - I'm taking the Marie Kondo approach to my writing career, and I'm going to advocate that maybe you should, too.

If it doesn't bring you joy, rethink it.

Like...all that social media. 

Do you really need to be on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest? More importantly, do you like being all of those platforms? I'm going to go out on a limb and say probably not. I know I don't. Twitter, especially, does my head in, (although I'm keeping my account so I can follow We Rate Dogs and Thoughts of Dog). And so I can signal-boost my author friends when they have something to shout about. Otherwise, in my quest to Marie Kondo my social media, I've decided Twitter is a passive platform for me. Is it a missed opportunity? Maybe, but Facebook and Instagram are where I like to be.

But not too often

To the surprise of no one, I've discovered that I work best when I get my words in before I dive into Facebook or Instagram. But I've also discovered my overall mental health is better too. Less FOMO, less multi-tasking, less mindless scrolling means more productive time I actually feel good about. I've started not even logging into Facebook until late afternoon and, it kind of pains me to say it, but I'm not missing much that I can't catch up on.

And sometimes the highlight reel is enough

There's a lot of noise on the internet and it doesn't always come from social media. Author chat groups, blogs, Goodreads. Checking sales/page reads and rank. Yep. In my quest for more joy, I'm marking KDP as noise. 

Question for you: How many times a day do you log in to check your sales and/or rank? I used to keep my KDP tab open in my browser and would flip over to it at least hourly, even when I didn't have a big sale or a new release. I justified it to myself by saying I always had ads running but truthfully it was another thing sapping both my joy and productivity. On a normal day, a check in the morning and another check at night are enough for me. I can still adjust ads accordingly based on the result (and my ad spend isn't crazy enough that I'm losing tons of money if my sales slide for a day), and I'm off the roller coaster of emotions that come with both a really great sales day and/or a really bad sales day. It's liberating.

So is setting work hours

I used to work all the hours I could. If I wasn't writing, I was making graphics, scheduling social media posts, reading blogs, catching up on industry news. God, it was stressful - mostly because it always felt like I would never catch up. It was only when I realized that for me catching up equaled done - and that was never going to happen - that I stopped. The truth is, there is always something more to be done. See any of the above, then add things like: updating back matter, revamping your website, finally writing that YA fantasy you keep thinking about. Oh wait, that's me. But the truth is once I acknowledged that I could work twenty hours a day and still not be done, it became a lot easier to be done for the day at a reasonable hour, to sometimes watch TV and to seldom work weekends. Weekends are my reading time and that, my friends, sparks joy.

Tell me what about your writing career sparks joy and what could you Marie Kondo?