Book Covers and Blurbs!

#indieauthors #writerslife #amwritingromance #RomanceReaders #paranormalromance

Two things, Book Covers and Blurbs. I was told several times by people who sell professional book covers that I need to buy them. I thought about that a lot. They need to make money. I don't really have any to spend. Were they right, though? Maybe. What could really be done about it? Not much. I could go back to the drawing board and scrap my existing covers and start again, but it took a lot of effort to craft the ones I had. The ones that spoke of the contents of the book. There in lies the real problem. 

Take the cover for The Ruiri Complete for example. It is the forest, right? I mean yeah it has my branding on it, but the cover image is simply the forest. Only it's not. It's a perfectly balanced symmetrical pristine forest image. It's tight, finished, and all but impenetrable except for one winding thin road. That book is about finding the last of the seven kings that Luke needs to begin building the mor tuath. He needs that magic to defend Draoithe and Eli from whatever is out there. The evil has shown itself, but the true scope is still unknown. The cover holds all this symbology in a single image conveyed by the text. 

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So I rethought it. What was I missing? Because if I'm missing it, then the reader is missing it too. This is why Indie Authors struggle. There is no one to explain how to do it. We just have to wade through the murky swamp and hope we don't sink, drown, or get eaten by a hungry alligator. I looked back at my ranking for contemporary fiction fantasy number 37. (That still looks good.) Click, click, and pull the trigger. There isn't anything wrong with my cover. It's the blurb that's off. It's written without the cover in mind for the wrong genre.

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 See I started out thinking that I was writing steamy paranormal romance, which I am. Only that is not the whole story. The romances are heavily embroiled in an epic saga fantasy adventure. Look at Magic Calls to Magic. The Council  that Luke needs has been formed. Fox freely gave Luke and Javier the magic that Luke needed to build what he needed to affect the balance of magic in the dream and defeat his enemy. So like clouds gathering for the coming storm, Luke begins effectively calling diverse magics to him with the offer of safety that they can't refuse, even if he himself has to accept the idea of non shifter immortals as part of the pack.

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Now this is where I have made my mistake. When I wrote the back cover blurbs, I admit that I did not know how to craft them. If you are new to my blog, then you will laugh at the things I get blindsided by. But the truth is, I can write a great story. What I have difficulty with is all the publishing, promoting, and marketing that goes along with Indie publishing. I am not a salesman anymore that I am a social media junkie. (Sorry to my Twitter friends, but y'all know that I just don't get Twitter much. Hashtags ain't my thing. But I am now including them. If you need a good chuckle, check out the blog where I talk about Twitter misunderstandings.) But I think I have found where the disconnect is. So I'm off to craft new book blurbs. Let me see if I can locate the desktop first.

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In other news, I did my first Fireside Read recording. Now I just need to craft it into a mini storyboard movie. Let's see if it works. I want to upload it to Pinterest and YouTube. I might have missed the mark on blurbs, but what I have figured out is that Draoithe needs a bit more exposure. That I might be able to manage without too much money if I can leverage the programs that I already have. There always has to be a balance between time and money. 

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For an Indie Author, the scales invariably tip toward time. Speaking of time, a good book is definitely in order. If you have a few minutes, read. If you finish a good book, be kind and leave a review. Even if the book already has a few. New ones are more relevant and valuable to the author. Thanks for reading my epiphany on blurbs today. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee