Judge a book by its cover

After getting up with the intention of being dynamic and starting to move furniture back into decorated rooms, I've just spent the last hour browsing book covers on Amazon's Kindle site.


Thank you all for your comments. I understand now that when you read an ebook you see the title in black and white but by then you'll have bought it so it doesn't matter. If I want to attract readers who don't already know me and are buying it just to be nice and make me feel good, then the cover is important.


I've come to the conclusion that you can tell a lot about a book by its cover. (Has somebody said that before?) Some are obviously 'home-made' - but that isn't necessarily bad - and some you wouldn't touch with a barge-pole. The title needs to be big and clear unless you're a famous author in which case your name will take centre stage.


So, of my three choices, I am discarding number 2 because it looks unprofessional. I still like number 1 but I'm not sure it's eye-catching enough. So I'm coming down in favour of number 3.


Yes, I know it's very girly but my audience will be primarily female. Also it needs to fit into an Amazon genre and Romantic Fiction comes closest even though it isn't first and foremost a romance. It's not family saga and it's not literary fiction.


It's in diary form and covers a year in the heroine's life. I did toss around some page from a diary idea and might still have a go at that before finalising the cover.


But now I really ought to go and shift a sofa.

Your opinions, please

Number 1: For some reason transferring it between programs made some of the bits move off the picture. Must be shy. Anyway that's the one I was working on yesterday and you get the general idea. I think it's too 'small' now.

Number 2: I wanted a different colour background but gave up after all my efforts failed. 

Number 3: Elder Son's first effort for me. He threw it together in a spare moment before I told him I'd finally settled on a different title. It looks more professional and good as a thumbnail but is it too obviously girly? Although I imagine my audience will be mainly female.

On the road

But not to Devon. No, I'm talking about a different road, one I've been journeying along for far too long but one I think might just have a happy ending - to mix a metaphor.


A couple of weeks ago Elder Son emailed me with a link to an article by a man who'd self-published his book on Kindle. ES said, 'If you've given up sending it to agents you have nothing to lose doing this.'


So that's what I'm in the process of doing: preparing my manuscript and starting the process of turning it into an ebook that will be available on Amazon. The manuscript of my first novel that is.


I began writing it about 8 years ago and I've been through highs and lows with it, the highest being when an agent asked to read it all after enjoying the first three chapters (I tell you, I'd selected the cast for the film version before she finally said no) and the lowest being a critique I received that was so bad I couldn't take what she'd written seriously.


I continued to have faith in my writing and in my novel, though it was a faith that wavered at times. Indeed when  I started reading it again when preparing to edit it for the ebook I got through the first chapters and thought, 'This is terrible!' But I think that's because it's over-familiar. I've worked, re-worked, amended, edited and changed viewpoints till I'm sick and tired. As I continued reading my opinion improved and lots of it made laugh and some moved me. And I think that's pretty promising.


So that's what is taking up my time at the moment. I've just about finished editing and now I'm working on a front cover. Elder Son asked me what the themes of the book were and he drafted a cover, which I loved - but then thought it might be a bit girly. But he's introduced me to the world of vectors and I'm driving myself crazy trying to work with a new drawing program. (When I tried to download the software I found myself with monkeys instead of a drawing program; it took me a while to find out what I did wrong - and I still haven't got rid of the monkeys.)


I'll be asking your opinions soon.


But I'm excited. I wrote the novel hoping people would read it and even if it's only a handful, if they enjoy it, I'll be happy. (Although happier still if I become a world-famous millionaire author who could ask for Alan Rickman to be cast as leading man.)