Going Home

The weeks before a book comes out get a little crazy. There is the final edit-- one hopes, and writing of blurbs-- multiple writing of blurbs. Frankly it leaves my partner and me a little zoned out. Add to it that this is lamb and beef marketing time-- not a favorite for me but necessary. It'd be easier if we were more tolerant of feedlots and auctions. We are not. We want to sell direct or to someone who has an empathy with the animals. That takes more work and more craziness. It has to be done though as a rancher who sells no livestock soon is running a desert with starving animals.

On the writing and publishing end, this has been a crazy year. The poster above shows three historicals that are not yet out-- Lands of Fire and Bound for the Hills (#6 & #7 Arizona historicals) and Love Waits (#4 Oregon historical). 

This turned out to be a rather unusual year for how the books went. It seemed to grow in a rather organic sense-- at least that's what I'd like to think.

Having put off bringing out the Oregon historical series, written over a span of many years, I had decided, once I found the perfect image for its first cover, to bring all four out in 2015 at spring equinox, summer Solstice, fall equinox and finally winter Solstice. If I had stuck to that, the year would've been easier, but something else came along.

In late 2014, I got the idea for a novella--an elder romance, Rose's Gift. Rose and Ollie had each been in several of the earlier Arizona historicals. She was married. He was a dedicated bachelor. Her husband had died before Arizona Dawn. Still I hadn't really thought of these two together-- and then it was so obvious that nothing would do but to write their story. I had the rough draft done by Christmas but with multiple edits and all, it didn't come out until January 31, 2015. That was no conflict with the Oregon historical due out March 21st. It didn't even require writing another in the Arizona series-- except...

Holly Jacobs was introduced in Arizona Dawn and again in Rose's Gift with the idea of eventually writing a romance that centered around prehistoric ruins, archaeology, and reincarnation. I needed a hero, and he had been in one of my earlier books and a short story. Hero, heroine and a plot. I couldn't turn away from it.

The writing went smoothly although, I was by then promoting the first Oregon historical-- that has to start a month before a book comes out-- and continues on a long time after it. I could have let Echoes from the Past set for a year, I suppose, but I didn't. I brought it out August 5th... and then, well it turned out the hero had two other brothers, who needed their own love, and...

I won't go on with this as I am sure you can see how this thing snowballed. Writing has a way of doing that. So this has been the year of Oregon and Arizona historicals and not sure I will ever do something like it again. It was fun, if a little confusing for readers maybe.

If you have been following the Oregon historicals and read its excerpts, that book came out yesterday. Its paperback will be available sometime this week. Going Home.

With the blurbs mostly written, I am onto editing the sixth Arizona historical, which was a story I really liked writing (of course, if I don't like them, I don't write them). There really is no end in sight to the work-- not for awhile anyway.

wise use of time

Lately, I have been reevaluating my use of time. With a new book out, hours went into getting it seen-- which meant networking in the places readers and writers gather. While that was happening, I was writing for two blogs (once a month for a third), editing what will be the second in the Oregon historical series, and began writing the fifth in the Arizona historicals.

I am sure there are exceptions, but professional writers, those who take writing as their job/career) must network or someone else must for them. The simple truth is to sell, work must be seen by someone who buys their genre. Writers who are particularly good at this have teams set up ready to buy their newest work, which will guarantee it to show up well in Amazon's rankings, as soon as it comes out. Once it shows up, who knows whether it will stay selling, but it has a chance.

So writing the books and doing what will get them seen are important uses of a writer's time. Thinking about this has led me to look critically at blogging. I began 'Rain Trueax' in December 2011 when I put out my first indie book, Desert Inferno. My intention was for it to be a place to write about creativity, my books, other people's books, process, and promotion. I invited guest bloggers and mostly considered I could put anything here that fit with my writing philosophy. 

All very well, except that the blogs I write take time to get them to where I want them. Mostly neither this one nor Thoughts are written stream of consciousness. I like to find a theme or topic and it takes writing and rewriting before I am satisfied. In looking at how I use my time, one of the blogs has to go. Logically, based on seniority alone, it should be this one. So here is what I plan-

1) No more regular posts here, but I will continue, on no set schedule, to post excerpts from books or related images. That kind of thing takes much less time. I have had blogs just for the books-- Rainy Day Romances (something about each book and links) and Romances with an Edge (using an alternate cover and links). They only take work when a new book arrives-- and even then the work can be used multiple places.
2) My regular blog writing will now all be in Rainy Day Thought, mixed into the usual subjects like the ranch, animals, nature, creativity, spirituality, aging, history, photography, art, travel, culture, or whatever comes to mind. If you have never been there, come on by. I will always have a new blog on Saturdays and maybe more often but that's undecided.

Whether I continue with Thoughts, I'll see as I go. I like to write in blogs, but it's not something I must do to fulfill myself-- as is writing fiction. It is something I have done since 2005, but it has to benefit me and readers for me to put into it the time it requires.

Some people make up their mind what they want, and they stick to it for a lifetime. I tend to try this or that and see how it goes. When I began the current year, I reevaluated a lot of places in my life. Times of reevaluation seem healthy for me. Is something worth the time it takes? If it's not, change it. 

So for 'Rain Trueax,' this is the last scheduled post-- although if you are interested in snippets from books, check back once in awhile.

to be or not to be that was the question

Since last summer I talked about the debate I was having with myself. Should I bring the historical novels out as eBooks? I've gone back and forth with differing answers. For any writer, there are options-- more than ever before. 

I could have submitted them to a publishing house to see if I could find interest except why would I do that? I know a lot of writers want publishing contracts but these days, unless it's a huge house with a guaranteed number of sales for everything it brings out, what is the advantage for the writer other than ego? 

Well one advantage could be they would do the promotions-- except not likely a lot of it for a first time author. They also might get books into stores I cannot but those books stay a very short time before being replaced by new books; so sales that route aren't apt to be many unless I was out pushing the books. 

Some think books have to be better if they come out through a big publishing house. Those are not people paying much attention to what actually does come that way with less editing than ever and more expectation the author will do it or not get accepted.

From experience (years back), I know that the publishing houses expect a writer to hit certain buttons. They want the cookie cutter books and rarely take a risk on something different. 

Given the lengths of my historical romances-- from 115,000 to just over 130,000-- it would be rare to get any of them to even look at mine as they want 100,000 words or thereabouts. So, I'd have to slash the heck out of them and probably would still not fit the cookie cutter niche; so not going to happen.

There was all along the option of holding onto them while I built up a brand using my contemporary romances already out there. I have done some of that since I put out my last contemporary a year ago. During that time, I've put myself into a lot of the media where they say an independent writer must be, but it hasn't led to gang buster sales or even being sure the books are being seen by their potential readers.

They say you should figure out who your potential reader is. I know a few things about them. One they cannot be wanting a masterpiece but should be someone looking for a good read, some excitement in their stories but nothing depressing to the point it leaves them feeling more down than before they read the book. They save that for non-fiction!

They should enjoy reading for pleasure and not see it all having to be literary or something that they can brag about to their friend as being more intellectual than what their friend was reading. Let's face it, what one reads can be a status symbol. The only status one might claim for reading my books is they buy from indie authors to encourage independent writing. Hey, that's some status, isn't it? No?

My reader can't be prudish about sex in a book. On the other hand, they cannot want it to be the whole book. They have to not be afraid of romances but be open to those that are a little different. They have to be okay with the book not following a set formula that often is found in romances. They should like a story where the characters and situation carry the events to logical ends.

If they read a lot of other kinds of books, they should be someone open to one that is a mix of genres... And they cannot be embarrassed to be found reading a romance. 

What, you say that kind of reader doesn't exist? Oh maybe that's my problem ;)

Anyway I am bringing the historicals out-- more coming on that.

Predictability or manipulation?

In the midst of the ranch's fox chronicles, I've been trying to think about my books-- the ones already out and those yet to be published. My thought right now is that the first Arizona historical will come out the end of July. It's mostly then because we have a trip planned for the middle of July; and I want to be around when the book is published. I also hope to bring this one out as a paperback which takes more advance planning.

This week I came across an interesting article for writers. Ginger Simpson mentioned it in the MOA, and I thought it was worthy of linking here.

Is your plot predictable? by Rita Karnopp 

What she writes about is an issue which I think most writers debate with themselves. My exploration of predictability and unpredictability in writing follows:

Do you see the title first?

It occurred to me that I haven't written much (if any) on the process of creating titles. They are important to blogs, books and pretty much any creative effort of writing. A title can turn a reader on or off. It can leave the reader disappointed or feeling very satisfied. I love titles, both creating and reading them.

Usually creating titles has come pretty easily for me. I write a lot of them because of the blogs and then there are the eleven ePublished contemporary romances with five historicals which likely will also be available eventually. Whether anyone else likes them, I always like my titles. I look for imagery and some aspect of what I've written. My goal is to have a title go to the deeper meaning within the book. 

In writing a blog sometimes my titles are pretty prosaic, just the facts ma'am, and sometimes flighty. I think they always deal with what the reader will find when they get to the text. And this is what I hope for with my books. 

Most books, when a work in progress, have a working title. Sometimes that can last years if that book doesn't immediately get finished or is finished but not yet published. Sometimes I know they are not permanent. Other times I stubbornly want them but finally accept they aren't best for the books.

Only once did I put out a book and change the title after it had been published. Basically whether they draw in readers or not, they have a reason for being what they are. I thought I'd describe a few and their reason for being as examples of how readers might come up with their own titles.

The one I changed goes first. I called it Golden Chains because it's about love, art, mythology and I saw love as a binding sort of chain, something that is valuable, lovely but harder to break than we think. The story of  Prometheus is both in the book and woven into one of the character's personality. Golden Chains-- what could go wrong?

Well to start people assumed it was erotica. It's not-- although it does have sex in the book and nude modeling in art classes. Neither qualified it for erotica except to people who see all nudity as suspicious unless its confined to a bedroom-- or maybe a strip joint. After a few months of having this book out and realizing, through comments, that the title wasn't fair to it, I changed it to Bannister's Way (mentioning the change in its blurb so people didn't buy it twice).

Bannister's Way was a good title also as one of the issues is the way David Bannister gets things done which seem manipulative and underhanded to some. He is a detective.  He has though gotten into a situation where he's trying to win back his ex-wife, dealing with a world where he's out of his league, and instead of feeling totally in charge, he's having to learn what it's like to feel blocked and out of control which impacts his work as well as his life. Bannister's Way is about our way and how it might not always be the best. Can we learn new ways?

Another title that might confuse readers but it's staying where it is would be Moon Dust. I suppose a reader might wonder what the heck that means; but if they read the book, they will receive the answer. I personally like titles like that and think a reader would also as a way to consider discovery part of a good read. The title, Moon Dust, is not depicting romantic love. It is a fairy tale in the book; but the fairy tale, as they all do, has a deeper meaning. It's how we actually can make change in others and our world.

I could write about mine all day because its fun to describe how they got to be. They are created by connecting with the energy of the work, finding a few words, very few, that relay that energy to a person passing by. I like words with imagery, sometimes some mystery, words connected to the book (sometimes a piece of text within), but mostly indicating the energy of the book. 

One last example is another title that likely wouldn't seem obvious for its meaning. Hidden Pearl is about a world of cults and people searching for meaning to their lives and finding it in dangerous places. It is a Biblical concept in one of Jesus' parables (Matt 13:44-46) where something of great value might be hidden but when it's found, it is of greater value than anything else.

In my story, the hero is not looking for anything until he is sent on a quest by his Navajo mother. Being born of two cultures, he has mostly denied any connection to his heritage. He has believed in what is in front of him, but when he begins to try and find what happened to his sister, he finds himself also on a quest into himself.

The reason people get into cults is because they want that thing of great value, the meaning of life. They think they have found it but often find instead it is a trap. I suppose the title might confuse potential readers, but I figure that if people ever get into my books, they will find those titles are often keys to the deeper something in them. 

There are a lot of titles out there; many are only designed to attract. One popular author uses single words like reckless, breathless, etc.  Several mystery writers use the alphabet with the readers knowing the next title will fall in line. Some create words that will become part of our lexicon. I guess whatever comes to us is what we will build upon.

Titles are rewarding, not always easy. I had an experience recently that brought this all to my attention-- coming next blog. 

The images I chose for here are all mine from a variety of sources and I chose them just because...

the novella and Christmas

Until now, the only books I have written are novels ranging in length from 80,000 to 135,000 words. I don't really think in terms of short story ideas and had little interest in taking the time to develop characters only to end a story at less than 40,000 words.  I kept seeing novellas popping up in Kindle which got me more interested in finding out more about them from the writing standpoint.

"The novella has ambivalence built into its DNA. It's neither one thing nor the other and tends to make you think even as it lures you down blind alleys and serves up irresolute endings." from  the novella is making a comeback

As I researched the form to determine if I wanted to do this, I learned length determines what it is. A short story runs from 3500-7500 words. A novelette from 7500-17,500. Novella 17,000-40,000. Novel 40,000 or greater although the average novel will be 80,000-120,000.  Of the three shorter options, novellas allow for more characters, more complications, actually more freedom of form, but ideally sticks to a theme (which might be unconventional). It will most likely have one point of view. There is some disagreement on whether it should have chapters as some believe it should be read at once to fully experience it. Others still see the value of chapters for readers without time to do the whole thing in a sitting.

It was while we were driving south to Tucson that I firmed up  my ideas for writing my own. Some of why I wanted to do it was the challenge of something I hadn't done but more was because I had begun to think it'd be fun to write a Christmas story where my own Christmas this year will be very nontraditional.

If I was in Oregon, I would do some decorating. It's become more minimal through the years as I used to go all out for  it. We would go to our son and daughter-in-law's for Christmas Eve. Our kids and we will, however, have our gift sharing and Christmas in January at a home rental in Sunriver so don't feel too sorry for me not being with them December 25th. Okay so you don't feel sorry at all knowing I will be in Tucson likely with sunshine and a morning hike on the desert.

None of that will be like my own Christmases as a child and growing up with the large Trueax family who gathered regularly for holidays-- Christmas always at my uncle's home. As that changed with the old ones dying and our own babies being born, it would usually be our home and big dinners, often including friends who might not have family nearby. That has disappeared except in my memory and my memory is what I was counting on to write this story.

Generally speaking when I write, I don't rush a book. I like to know where it's going but be open to surprises along the way. Surprises come out of writing and thinking, going off and thinking, writing some more. Surprises require being aware of where the story might have something to add beyond the original concept.

To write this novella in time to be available at all before Christmas meant writing 5000 words a day. Now I have done that but I think writing that fast makes it too easy to go with the trite event, to slip into stereotypes or pigeonhole characters not allowing for interesting nuances. 5000 words a day doesn't give a lot of time to develop secondary plots or characters. None of that a problem with a novella.

In the case of this novella it would especially be made easier since it would use characters and a setting from a book I'd already written-- From Here to There. It would bring the story forward three years and set it into the holidays. Writing it felt like just continuing on with that book. Even with more words in a day, I still took breaks after a thousand words where I'd go off, do something else, think about what happened before heading back to the keyboard.

As has happened to me before with my writing, what starts out simple comes to have a broader theme than I originally anticipate. This story is about the season-- ranch style but also and more importantly about two families where one has been very estranged. My heroine wants to bring them together as she is ready to start her own family. With thoughts of babies in her head, she wants a big family to be part of her someday children's lives. She also wants her husband to know the kind of Christmas she experienced through a beloved aunt and uncle.

So my story is about traditional Christmases (with a Solstice thrown in) and about the healing of a family. It has lended itself well to writing 5000 words a day but mostly because so much of it is about tradition, family, and with characters I already knew.

Hopefully A Montana Christmas will be available on Kindle by December 16. For this one, I am using an editor to catch my glitches as there is no way I can write something this fast, instantly edit it, and not miss things. Although I will edit myself, I wanted another perspective.

It will be out a bit late for this season but still around next year-- the beauty of Kindles. I don't know if I will write another novella but maybe someday a secondary character or some offshoot from a book will suggest the time is ripe. Where it comes to my life or writing, I like to leave myself open for new ideas and changes.

Autumn's end in Tucson

A lot of people don't realize that southern Arizona has a colorful autumn because they think of the desert as being all there is. Where you find autumn is in the river canyons. As far as I am concerned there is nowhere with prettier autumn colors for their intensity and the surprise as you round a bend in a trail and find another burst of color.

Photographing the desert in late fall and winter yields more fantastic colors with the sun lower on the horizon and not washing out all below it. There aren't the gorgeous colors of the cactus and wildflowers but other colors compensate for that and you do find an occasional wildflower still doing its thing until the hard freeze comes-- and some winters Tucson can go down to 10° F. which means a lot of garden plants have to be hardier than one might expect.

On the long drive down, we discussed an idea for a novella that would encourage readers to find a different way into my stories, characters and way of writing. I did a little research on the form for novella and it was about what I expected ranging in length from 17,500-40,000 words. 

So once I got set up at my Tucson desk, I began writing my first novella. From what I read some have chapters and some not. The argument against them is a novella is something the readers take in a single bite. To me 20,000 words seems like more than one bite.

My story is using characters from another of my books which has made the writing easier as I am basically picking up these same people three years later at Christmas time. Fortunately this was a book that never had an epilogue; so this will tell the readers that liked it what happened to those characters. So far the only problem is it has glued me to the computer a little longer than I might wish when I am here with so much to do.

For the house, me, and the books, I am full of ideas; but since this is the season where tomorrow will be 12/12/12 (the last such date until 2100 starts it all over and I won't be around to see unless reincarnation is true), and we are on our way to 12/21/12, it seems a rather magical time even without the Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Kwanzaa and who knows what other seasons. It feels good to be here, and my blood pressure is almost back down to normal-- almost.

And for anyone who wondered after my last blog here, our cat, BB is much better. That upset appeared to be emotional and he's eating and looking fine, enjoying walks outside when he goes with one of us as we won't let him wander around given he is deaf.

On the horizon

Between editing, thinking more on my coming new book, writing for the other blog, family stuff, preparing the vacation trailer to actually go somewhere, my mind is also on how do I market the new one? And where?

I have read many who put out a lot of material ahead of a new book including passages from it. They make a big deal out of its arrival date. I guess I could do that. I did create the trailer about photos that inspired the story. Still I am not that great at marketing. For that matter, I still don't like any part of doing it.

Some of the writers who do well do put out paid advertising. I think it must work for them or they'd not do it but would it work for my book? I don't buy books based on advertising. I receive ads from say Amazon and almost never look at the books they are listing. Facebook offers advertising, but I can count on one hand the times I have even looked at the advertisements there.  Besides wouldn't my Facebook friends' list feel used if I did that?

This blog, Rain Trueax, might be my best shot at promoting. I think anybody who seriously wants to write needs a blog like this where it is about sales and belief in the books. Sometimes I admit to wondering if I made a mistake not using the main blog with its larger readership but know how I felt back when others suddenly turned their blog into one to sell. It turned me off. It's different if a blog starts out about writing and promoting as this one has.

The new book is complicated by it being different than the ten already out. It's not building on the kind of book I have already published. It's not though so different in the feel of the story but that this one is set in an historic time.

For the editing, the historic setting has required a lot of second researching as I come across passages where I know I researched them when I wrote it-- but how carefully? If I can't remember, I go back and do it again.  Back then I didn't have the convenience of the internet to double-check my facts.

From where stories come

When you begin publishing your books, another element enters your world-- one beyond the story. It's even beyond the marketing as such. It's about why some books sell and some do not. It's what are you doing that worked or did not for readers.

There are a lot of places to find answers to that question. One, which I have been reading other writers discussing, is using a computer  to help organize your book. So basically there are certain known formulas that work. You pick one of them and then insert your own dialogue, actions and characters. The end result supposedly will be a computer-generated, with human help bestseller.

The very idea of approaching writing that way turns me off even if it worked. It would mean following a program instead of the story that had come to me. Approaching writing that way would take all the enjoyment from it-- best seller or not. It would deny the flow of my own work. I would have to force mine into what the computer had decided worked.

It might explain though why so many books today disappoint me. They do feel like they follow a formula whether the formula was learned from a class or a computer dictating it. To me, they are boring.

But maybe some could say the same thing about mine since I also have a certain amount of consistency in what I enjoy writing, certain elements that will be in any book of mine, but they are there because they are the stories that come to me and are emotionally satisfying-- not because a computer dictated them.

I began doing something a few weeks ago that more firmly convinced me I don't want that kind of computer help with plots or structure.

As I was fooling around with extended trailers, I began to think that there are a lot of images in my head that are part of how each of my books have come together. I don't particularly think of it at the time; but when I do, I recognize it for what it is.

My books haven't come out of some perfect structure. I haven't published non-fiction, but the fiction comes from experience which expands into imagination. It comes out of dreams. It comes out of visualizing these characters, and then coming across a face that fits them perfectly even though I had never seen that face before.

Below is one example of what I mean with the images that led to one of my books-- From Here to There.

Images that inspired from 'Here to There'

The images don't all come from Montana where the story was set. They come from my own photos in various western states over a period of years, and they come from those I found online buying the license to use.

These images are not the plot. They are the essence. No computer can give them to me; and if I forced them into a computer generated formula, I think it'd suck out their energy. Maybe this is why I didn't end up trying to fit them into the boxes desired by traditional publishing. The books belong to the energy, not the formula. If a particular book proves to be unsuccessful with readers, well at least it remained true to itself.

when you tell what you tell

One of the issues a writer has in any story from short to epic and in any genre-- when do you reveal information to the reader? How do you reveal it? Does the reader discover it or are they told? Writers who do a dump of info right in the beginning show their lack of skills. The reader wants to discover and does not need an entire resume in the first chapter.

Think how it works in friendships. You get to know someone. You find out a bit about them; then a bit more. If they tell you too much right out of the gate, you back off. On the other hand, there must be enough information to make the friend feel secure and interested in learning more. That's exactly how books are. The best books keep revealing things until the end.

One of the things I have learned about this process is that groundwork should be laid for anything that will later be revealed as a key element of the story. It's not as though you constantly are dropping hints, but there has to be enough that when it comes as a surprise, it also is believable.  Tricks don't make a reader have faith in that writer and aren't likely to lead to their seriously considering another of their books.

I have had stories where a set of facts revealed themselves throughout the book. I knew what they were but hadn't thought fully on what they meant. Suddenly it dawned on me-- this has significance and one or more of the characters must address it at least in their thoughts.

How you address it for a character means they recognize what's going on and draw the conclusion the reader has also drawn or will as soon as they hear them say it. Whether the reader came to it before the character doesn't seem important to me. What is important is they believe it even as they go-- wow, look at where that led.

The idea of tricks, of some big surprise is fine-- if it makes sense for the characters. If it's all aimed at the reader, I don't as a reader appreciate it.

Characters do act in their own best interest. Now that doesn't always mean it's wise what they do, but it will make sense at the time for their character-- even if later they go-- what was I thinking? This will vary only slightly between character or plot driven stories.

In a way  a book has two audiences. One is the characters themselves. The other is the reader. The reader has to be secondary to the characters-- and no matter how slick something sounds-- a writer must make sure it's believable for those on the front-lines-- the characters.

This was driven home to me when I was editing a book which will be ePublished a little later in May-- Sky Daughter. I had my characters saying something about a certain situation and when I looked at the reality of that situation, it didn't fit their assumptions. I either had to adjust the event or their expectations-- if I wanted readers to feel good about what they had read.

When I start out with a story, I do know the outline of where it is going. I never lose sight of that. There is a plan for this, but what I don't know is all that will happen along the way. The characters, when they have a sense of reality to them, they take the story into different areas and sometimes unexpected ones. They do not take the story from me. Rather they fill it out.

Again in Sky Daughter, I saw this happening in a key situation. Every event put down a trail of crumbs to the conclusion, sometimes in ways I had let happen because these were the characters and it's what they would have done. In the end though, I felt it was important for my hero to acknowledge what it all meant which required some thought processing by him.

When something like that happens, when I find in a key element, the story was smarter than me, I am excited and it reminds me why I love to write fiction. 

As with two other books, I did a trailer for Sky Daughter which is adding a lot to my enjoyment in these stories and I hope will add to reader interest in the story.

Words and Images or is that Images and Words

My last week has found me obsessed with covers for the eBooks. I have gotten myself so sidetracked by it that I have even worked on covers for my manuscripts that are not only not on Kindle but might never be on Kindle. It is an obsession plain and simple, and I think I have realized why.

The images on a cover have the potential of telling the story before the reader opens the book. Images can reveal the emotions that the writer hopes the words inside also do.

There are a lot of ways to do that. I have seen books where there are a ton of small images on the covers and those with one key symbol. I am interested in both options. As a commenter here said earlier, if a person is a known writer, they can sell books based on their name. If they are not, they better use what readers of their genre are expecting to find.

Once I reconciled myself to redoing covers and buying stock photos, it led to two types of covers. The easiest is simply using a photo or combination of photos. So far, I have done three of those. Some have required republishing so future readers get the cover that Amazon shows on the ad.

And yes, I sold out; but I have to admit the guy does look like I visualized my hero in both cases. Too bad there aren't more 'types' putting out sites like his. With more writers creating their own covers, it is helpful to have someone creating the costuming and images to help the vision become real-- at least as real as any photo.

For my covers, I set stock images either onto a bit of a digitized backdrop (from my own photos) or just the straight photo.  My favorites are those with no faces as that leaves the face open to imagination.

Then came the covers where I opted to do digital paintings for the characters. IF I could have found more photos of my protagonists, I'd have used them. It's not easy finding a photo of a character I have imagined but have never seen. The digital paintings were a mix of photos I had bought as well as some I had seen as inspiration but where I changed them to fit the character.

I learned a few things. For instance I had one nice image I created of a man who I thought was a bit young for one of my characters but thought I could alter it to appear older. When I told my husband I couldn't make a boy into a man, he laughed saying he had heard that elsewhere. When I tried to work with the heroine, she ended up looking like the youth's mother.

The thing is although my hero was young, this was not a coming of age story. The images have to stay true to the kind of story. This is the kind of thing I really never paid attention to before. I have never bought a book based on a cover. I am not sure others do either but apparently at least some do decide whether to look beyond the cover based on it. Now what kind of image works, that I am still not sure about. I will keep trying to learn. I can do a lot more this way than I ever imagined but it has led to some failures along the way.

The boy, who simply was never going to work, I dropped alongside a waterfall which came off a photograph I took in Idaho in 2008. Who knows maybe someday I will do a coming of age story although it's unlikely to be of a boy... I wonder how hard it'd be to turn a boy into a girl......

I have three of the new covers alongside here but not yet republished for the books. That takes time with Amazon........

That cover business!

Well, I have resigned myself to changing covers again. Since I entered into this Kindle world in December, I have been trying to learn what readers want in a cover. I am keeping in mind a few key points: A) I cannot forget selling is a business, B) I am not the average buyer; and C) A reader won't even get to the story to decide if it works for them-- if they hate the cover.

So within reason I am open to changing to what works... hopefully. That does not mean ordering a custom cover for hundreds of dollars or paying a graphic artist likewise amount of money. Truthfully my books may not meet the average reader's desire no matter what I do. BUT they won't even get a chance with the wrong cover.

I liked my original covers. Although they were different than the Kindle book covers, they were similar to those I had seen out in the stores. Key point here-- this is Kindle. And what works for a published writers is not necessarily what will work for an indie writer where the reader already suspects they don't have the talent to write an exciting and meaningful story.

The covers I created when I recognized the problem frankly aren't ones that would excite me to buy a story. I might look at it anyway but those covers, symbolic or not look dull.  When I can't sleep at night, I have thought about what might work instead and spent more hours than I can tally up with this issue. The one thing I know for sure is I am open to changing. I believe in my stories but realize they have to sell themselves and that starts with the cover.

So to figure out an appropriate image, I've thought about what a one word message would be for each book. One word that says what is inside. I had read before that I should learn to put together a 30 word post that sells the book. That was hard. One word even harder.

One word is intended to lead to one image which might be two people, might even be an object followed by a background that tells more about the story. This isn't easy for me which surprises me as I think of myself as a person who is image oriented and very aware of symbolism. Apparently not so much as I thought.

So to start this process,  I first had to put aside my personal feeling of hurt that what I did for covers, the characters I painted were not good enough. I spent a lot of hours doing that, more time thinking what kind of faces would work, but if it's seem as amateur or slapped together by a reader, none of that matters. I recognized that if that cover doesn't demean the book, I can do it. Once a writer gets past that hurdle, once they decide they have to do what they need to do, then it's all about the challenge of what would work?

I've begun this by spending hours looking through stock photos and finding reasonably priced ones that would give me a legal right to use them on my covers. Since I have made some money on my books, I can reinvest that in these images.

One advantage for me is I have a lot of my own photographs, probably more than most writers would have. I have landscapes of all sorts in the areas where my stories are set and pretty nearly any type of animal that one might want to use; but where it comes to people, I have to have permission to use even someone I shot at a distance. This gets tricky and the stock images seem a smarter way to go.

Yesterday I looked through one of the stock photo sites for male torsos (my idea being a male torso without a face doesn't detract from the image of the character in my head), and even looked for faces that might work for different characters as I decide for which books should I do this first. Women appear to be harder to find than men right now.

There are, in case you didn't know, some very very ugly male bodies out there in the male torso arena because body builders are apparently what many people want. There are also a multitude of expressions that would never fit any cover and yes, there is one site that puts together images expressly for romance book covers-- and I might say does a good job of it if you want a certain type of romance cover.  Since I have seen that site, I recognize the covers on many a book.

To be totally honest, if I was younger, I'd use me for the women and could adjust to the need as well as shadow out what didn't work, but a nearly 69 year old woman just cannot pass for someone in their 20s or early 30s; so I am looking at other sources and hoping to buy what I see that would work... I hope. I thought about trying to find models to hire but that would require advertising for certain types, then if I got responses, not only paying them but getting releases. I think it would end up more expensive than stock photos where I  pay a set fee to use an image 500,000 times on a book.

Humorously some have worried about that last limitation and the answer from more a experienced writer was-- if you sell that many copies, you can afford a good graphics artist to do the cover next time. Good point! As long as I don't spend too much money, I can afford to play-- and play I will be doing because after I get the images, I will have to fit them to backgrounds. It's a learning process-- and something I never could have understood without doing it myself.

And if the next book I write turns out to be about senior citizens, you'll know why...