Play On: (NEW) Cover Reveal

So, Play On is a hockey murder mystery.  And the cover I created with Amazon's cover creator really doesn't reveal what the story itself is truly about.  Since it's slowly growing in popularity, I knew I needed a better cover that represented the work.

Luckily, I managed to find an AMAZING cover creator and, in order to save on cost, my husband toyed around with his iPhone and a pair of ice skates, and this is what we've all come up with:

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Look at what a sick cover this is.  It's exactly what the work is about: hockey and murder.  There's more, of course; the importance of family, strong, independent heroines, sexual tension, hot hockey players.  But everything I want in its cover is encompassed and I am so, so proud of it.

Thank you, Katya.

Thank you, Frank.

(Katya is open to working with other for cover work.  If you're interested in contacting her, please check out her site: http://www.katyasarria.com/)

**You can purchase Play On here.

Stranger's cover reveal

Well, everybody, the day is finally here!  My first cover reveal.

I'm actually so excited to share this with you, and if your curiosity is insatiable, I don't blame you if you choose to forego the story of how I came up with the design in order to look at it.  However, since there may be some of you who are interested in self-publishing and might someday have to create your own book cover, I want to tell you what I went through.

At first, I had an incredibly complex cover in my mind.  I talked about it with my step-mom - a graphic artist who helped me with the cover design - and she pointed out that it just wasn't possible with our resources.  Instead, I took a few weeks to think about it and then went to some stock photo websites to look through some pictures in order to find ideas.

And then I found the picture that would be my cover.  It uses one element of my original idea, which I love.  It's simple but poignant, and illustrates what the book is about without throwing different elements at the reader.  I sent it to my step-mom and she loved it.  We both worked on toying with the font and the placement of the title and author, and managed to finish the entire cover in a few hours.  I sent it to my beta, Leighann, and she loved it too.

All it cost me was $19 for the photo.  Now, if by some miracle, my book sells 200,000 copies, I'll have to repurchase the more expensive photo because of distribution restrictions.  It's more expensive, but I figure if I can sell 200,000 copies of my novel, I can spend a couple hundred bucks on a book cover.  Luckily, I have someone who's good with Photoshop and can help me put covers together.  If you don't, I would ask for recommendations from people who self-published their own books.  Make sure you get your money's worth and get as much information as you can about a graphic designer so you don't get ripped off in the end.

If you have any questions about the self-publication process or specific questions about book covers, feel free to ask me in the comments or shoot me and email at heather.myers@ymail.com.  Just make sure you put something in the subject line relating to writing so I don't think you're spam.

Now, enough with talking.  Here is the cover for Stranger:

I'd love to know what you think of it.  If you have time, drop me a comment, and have a wonderful Sunday!