My Life as a Writer

When you browse through the book shelves or the pages of your favourite website what is it that first attracts you to a book? What is the first thing that catches your eye and draws you in encouraging you to delve deeper and find out if that is the book for you? The Cover is one of the most important elements of attracting readers to your book, it’s the first impression your work will make so it has to be a good one. There’s an art to cover design, a fine balance of the right image, the right text, the right font and the right colours.   It has to convey the story implicitly, in a way that not only catches your eye but promotes the story in its intended form.   I’ve always said I’m not an artist, I’m a creative, I can put pen to paper and weave images but hand me a pencil and ask me to draw and the most you will get is a stick figure.   So for cover design I rely on an artist.   Over the last few years I’ve worked exclusively with Jeanie Henning,...

How do you imagine a writer works? Is it all just about laying out the words on paper from the first to the last? Does a writer simply scribble away, with multiple crossings out until that final moment when the work is willing to be shared? Well the answer is yes, but with a caveat for independent self-publishing authors, when the words are done there is more work to do. I’m a planner, a list person; I have a to-do list almost every day! So it would make sense to me to multi task in order to reduce the time taken to publish once my work is done. Those other non-writing tasks I have to consider are;  Book Cover   Jacket Copy   Dedication   Editing  Proof reading   Layout /structure for publishing formats   Publishing retailers / Exclusivity   Marketing plan   Pricing  Giveaways / Competitions   Reviews  Right now, as I’m about half way through the first draft of ...