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6-3-2021 Bookcovers and Blurbs

Book Covers and Blurbs

(click to watch the vlog)

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 have any to spend. Were they right, though? Maybe. What could 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. Therein lies the real problem. 

The Ruiri Complete bookcover

Take the cover for The Ruiri Complete for example. It's 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. 

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's 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.

Magic Calls to Magic Book cover

See, I started out thinking that I was writing contemporary romance, which I am. Only that isn't the whole story. The steamy paranormal 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 and eventually gifted humans as part of the pack.

Now, this is where I'd made my mistake. When I wrote the back cover blurbs, I admit that I didn't know how to craft them. If you're new to my blog, then you'll laugh at the things I get blindsided by. But the truth is, I can write a great story. I had difficulty with the publishing, promoting, and marketing that goes along with Indie publishing. I'm not a salesman anymore than I'm a social media junkie. (Sorry to my Twitter friends, but y'all know that I just didn't get Twitter much. Hashtags ain't my thing. But I'm now including them.) I think I found where the disconnect was. So I was off to craft new book blurbs. Check out the new and improved ones on Amazon. By summer's end, you might see them all over the internet cause I'm going wide.

Behind the Scenes

In other news, I did my first Audio Book recording. Now I just need to craft it into a mini storyboard movie! That's next, maybe... 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've 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. 

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