Interview with Our President--Debut Author Ane Mulligan. The Picture of Perserverence!

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, Ane has worn many different ones: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction (try saying that three times fast). She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband, her chef son, and two very large dogs. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Tell us about your debut book.

Chapel Springs Revival is a romp through miscommunication in marriage and in general. The town of Chapel Springs is in need of reviving to being back the tourists. Little did best friends Claire and Patsy realize their marriages are in as much need of reviving as the town.

Your cover isn't the run of the mill stock photo. Tell us how it came to be.

Not long after I was contracted, I was talking with my publisher about the cover

for Chapel Spring Revival. I knew I wanted the village instead of a person. As we talked, I mentioned my husband is an artist, and Eddie said he could do the artwork for the cover if I wanted. Did I ever!

However, when Hubs agreed, he didn't realize Chapel Springs only existed in my mind. Even there, I didn't have the visual of the buildings, but the feel of everything, the ambiance. He had quite a job of pulling that out of my imagination. I mean, there isn't a lot going on in there, except voices and stories, but somehow he did it. And one day, I walked into his studio and Chapel Springs sat on his easel. 

NR: Leave a comment for Ane and be entered in a drawing for a copy of her book. 

To be entered in a drawing for a giclee reproduction (print on canvas, ready for framing) of the original artwork for her cover (only 3 giclee have been made) go to here. 

Your writing journey has been a crazy wandering path. You've been around since Noah got off the ark. Tell us what happened.

It's true. I started writing novels in 2003. After about four years, I was going to committee, but every time something weird happened. Well, besides the fist few rejections. Then I went to pub board, but the acquiring editor retired and her hard drive was wiped clean. The hard drive on which my novel was waiting.

Then my second agent retired to go into publishing. They were publishing works that authors had received back their rights. I hadn't published the first time yet, so that was out for me. When I signed with Sandra Bishop, I warned her to be very careful.

But Sandra wasn't intimidated. She worked hard and finally, after close to a twelve-year journey, my debut book released yesterday.

What are the three main things that changed the way you write?

That's easy because these were real "light-bulb moments" in my writing career.

The late, wonderfully funny Ron Benrey's Magic Paragraph was the first. It has served a proven tool in my writing. With permission granted from Janet Benrey, here is the Magic Paragraph (and I highly recommend anyone get his book, The Idiot's Guide to Writing Christian Fiction)

        

1.    Signal which head to enter

2.    Twang an appropriate sense, emotion or mental faculty

3.    Show appropriate action

4.    Repeat if necessary

The next was Debra Dixon's GMC: Goal, Motivation, & Conflict. If you don't have it in your personal library, get it. Use the link here, because if you go to Amazon, it will cost you four times what it will on her site. What I got fro her book is motivation is the foundation for plotting. If you know the WHY the character does what she does, your reader will follow her through anything.

The third one is the "Lie" the character believes about themselves. This deepens motivation. If we know that, we can know the core motivation. This totally changed the way I saw my characters and plotting. Author Amy Wallace and I sat in a Starbucks when she taught me about the lies.

I'll climb off my soapbox now.

How much of you will we find in your debut book characters?

I think all characters have some of their creator's traits. Claire is like me in that she moves before she thinks. I'm forever getting hurt or into a mess because of it. Another trait of hers I wish I had is she speaks without a filter. I sometimes wish I had said what was in my mind, but I'm too inhibited. Quit laughing. I am.

What are three things most people don't know about you?

Are we sure we want them to know? Okay,

1) I'm the founding president of a start-up community theater, Players Guild@Sugar Hill. We just presented out first production this past weekend.

2) I once sat in England's former Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher's seat in the House of Commons dining room.

3) For several months when I was about four, I shared a car with my daddy and the German scientist Wernher von Braun every morning.

What's next?

The sequel to Chapel Springs Revival is done. It's called Chapel Springs Survival—can they survive the revival? It was a blast to write since it was written in retaliation. Our son got himself a modern day mail order bride and didn't tell us until nearly two years after her met her. I told him for keeping his mother in the dark, the story would go in a book. After all, it's not nice to fool Mother. It's not safe either.

ChapelSprings Revival

With a friend like Claire, you need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel.

Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It's impossible not to, what with Claire's zany antics and Patsy's self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is personal.

With their marriages in as much disarray as the town, Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives. That is if they can convince their husbands and the town council, led by two curmudgeons who would prefer to see Chapel Springs left in the fifties and closed to traffic. 

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Cover Art Development for the Indie Author

by: Heather Day Gilbert

Heather Day Gilbert enjoys writing stories about authentic, believable marriages. Seventeen years of marriage to her sweet Yankee husband have given her some perspective, as well as ten years spent homeschooling. Heather is a monthly contributor to Novel Rocket, and she's committed to bringing relevant and helpful information to indie authors.

You can find Heather at her website, Heather Day Gilbert--Author, and at her Facebook Author Page, as well as Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Goodreads. Her Viking novel, God's Daughter, is an Amazon bestseller. You can find it on Amazon and Audible.com. Her upcoming mystery, Miranda Warning, releases June 20, 2014.

Highlights of my Cover Art Process for MIRANDA WARNING

by: Heather Day Gilbert

Today, I want to take you "behind the scenes" tour of how cover art develops for the indie author. I'm using visuals from my upcoming mystery, Miranda Warning, releasing in just a few days (June 20th). 

Before I start, I'd just like to say that if you don't love the final cover as much as the other ones, please don't tell me. I know most of you wouldn't THINK of doing that. But when authors open up and share about how they choose their cover art (a very subjective thing), they have put hours into it and really don't want to hear "Oh, I liked that ________ picture/font/whatever MUCH better than the one you finally went with!"

Most indies can't afford to hire models and rent costumes that fit their book specifications. Therefore, we have to spend hours trolling through stock photo sites such as istock or shutterstock for just the right look. We might not know WHAT look we're going for until we see it.

In my case, I started with several pictures that embodied different elements of my storyline. I pinned these pics to a secret Pinterest board for my brother-slash-cover designer, Jon Day (who, as an aside, is also one of the most patient guys in the world, and the designer of my God's Daughter cover art, as well). Here are a few initial pics I pinned and thoughts on why we didn't use them. I'll link to each of their sites if you click them:

My initial direction with the cover was to go for a retro, Nancy Drew feel. However, there was only one stock image of this chick and I knew this was going to be a series. Also, it's hard NOT to make this girl look bodiless...

Since the title character, Miranda, is in a wheelchair in an assisted living home, I thought this pic could be made to look ominous. However, we veered away from objects on the covers of this series, since I'm personally drawn to people's faces on the covers. I figured my reader demographic would think much as I do.

Also toyed with adding these poisonous plants to the bottom of the cover. However...some things just give too much of the book away. That's all I'll say on that...

SO...I loved this pic, YEA--ADORED it. However...my bro and I both agreed it was waaaaay too reminiscent of the TWILIGHT cover pic:

So...we continued looking. And then I found this:

And I knew we were heading the right direction. PART of a woman's face would make it possible for us to change models on future covers. However, we couldn't seem to get this part of the face to work with the rest. At this point, we'd kind of decided to incorporate a face at the top, title in the middle, and mountains at the bottom (since this entire series is set in the mountains and it's a key element in all of them--thus, A Murder in the Mountains series title). The setup was a bit like this:

Somewhere around this time, I got cold feet. This is the juncture your cover artist probably wants to pull his/her hair out and you yourself feel like a small raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The thing is, most MYSTERY covers in the ABA world have an object or words...people on the cover--not so much. So I thought maybe we should retrench and go for a more recognizable mystery "look." Something more like this:

Those were some tough days for the author and her intrepid cover designer brother. And THEN! One night, while trolling endlessly through pictures of women and flowers, I found THIS!

Just like that, we both agreed we had a winner. Jon knows what will show up in a thumbnail on Amazon, and this girl would show up. However, my main character, Tess, has blue eyes, and a red rose is a sign of love. I wanted a symbol of death. So we changed Tess' eyes to blue and the rose to white, as you'll see in the finished cover.

NOW we moved on to the problem of font. After finding a mountain image to use at the bottom, we needed to find the perfect font to capture the mood of the book. Here are a few early tries:

Here, we had too much going on: foxglove around the words, curliques, and the font just didn't strike me right.

We both really liked this "Motor Oil" retro font, but with Tess' bob, it might indicate the book was set in the twenties, which it's not. So we continued moving along (note how the mountains are changing!).

I finally found this Optimus Princeps font (which I affectionately refer to as "Optimus Prime" font). THIS, we agreed, was THE BOMB. As you can see we tried some funky color combos on the words, trying to land on something that would show up in thumbnail images of the book.

AND FINALLY!!!

Possibly three months after we started all our cover art machinations, my brother and I decided on the final cover art. I couldn't be happier with it and when I saw it in softcover, I was blown away. 

.

(For a higher-resolution pic of this cover, please check it out on my website here: http://heatherdaygilbert.com/books-in-the-works/).

Me with my first proof of Miranda Warning! We decided to go with this matte cover versus the glossy. We've since lightened the background behind Tess' head.

And that, my friends, is just a bit of our brainstorming/cover art process. This doesn't really begin to cover what went into it. I know each indie author has a different process, be it going with a pre-made cover, making your own cover, or hiring someone to do it for you.

(Jon, I promise I am going to pay you back someday for all this...I OWE YOU!)

--Heather

Miranda Warning (A Murder in the Mountains, Book #1):

Child of the Appalachian mountains, Tess Spencer has experienced more than her share of heartache. The Glock-wielding, knife-carrying housewife knows how to survive whatever life throws at her. 

But when an anonymous warning note shows up in her best friend Miranda’s mailbox—a note written in a dead woman’s handwriting—Tess quickly discovers that ghosts are alive and well in Buckneck, West Virginia. Hot on a cold trail, she must use limited clues and her keen insight into human nature to unmask the killer...or the next victim might be Tess herself.

Tinged with the supernatural and overshadowed by the mountains' lush, protective presence, this twisting psychological mystery is the first in A Murder in the Mountains series. You can find it here on Goodreads. 

You can also read a four-chapter sample of Miranda Warning here on Scribd. Enjoy!

****Share your cover art thoughts here! Have you ever contributed to a cover art process? What are aspects you think you'd enjoy/dislike? And I'd love it if you put Miranda Warning on your To-Read list if it looks like something you'd enjoy!****

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Getting the Good out of Goodreads: Six Methods to get Your Novel Noticed

By: Heather Day Gilbert

(Goodreads illustration from Cass Co. Public Library)

I'd like to offer a few short and sweet tips on how to make Goodreads work for you; specifically if you are self-publishing, but much of this will also hold true if you're traditionally published. An alternate, yet equally effective title for this post could have been "Learning from Heather's Mistakes on Goodreads."

1) The moment your cover art and blurb are ready, list your book on Goodreads. This gives people time to get it on their To-Read lists, which will increase your visibility on search engine sites. I'd suggest getting your cover art and book blurb up about two months ahead of time to build buzz on all your social media sites. You can also post quotes from your novel, which is another effective way to draw people into the story. A fun way to do this is to use PicMonkey and edit free pictures (I got many from Morguefile), if you can find some that fit your fave quotes.

2) Give yourself an author page to link with your book, pre-publication. When you write your author biography, try to use action verbs as much as possible and don't make it all about the one book that is coming out. Take the long view of what kind of fiction you write and who you are as a person. 

You can also easily link your blog to your Goodreads author page, as well as upload vlogs, trailers, or YouTube videos so people get a visual picture of your novel.

3) Nominate your book for Listopia lists. Yes, even before it's released. Yes, it seems really self-serving, but it will help it get noticed sooner in its appropriate genre. Use judgment as to nominating your own book for "Best of" lists before it's even released/reviewed. I stuck to lists like "Eye-Catching Cover Art" or "2013 Releases." 

Oh, while you're poking around in Listopia, nominate your other favorite books for lists! Boost those authors, too.

4) Send out a Goodreads friend request to all your Twitter followers. This is something I did by accident, and I felt bad for asking all kinds of people to accept my Goodreads friendship. But it added a whole plethora of readers to my follower lists and increased visibility. In short, it was a brilliant mistake.

5) Join Goodreads groups in your genre, but READ the group regulations before linking to your book. I confess this is something I learned the hard way. I *gasp* got kicked out of a group, because I misunderstood their rules on sharing links to your own book. I felt like a heel and offered a personal apology, but never heard back. In short, I felt like a jerk. Make sure you keep your groups straight —if you're in several, it's easy to forget which ones allow author shout-outs and which ones don't. 

6) Once your book releases, if you have softcovers in hand, do a Goodreads giveaway. This is a GREAT way to gain exposure for your novel. You can't offer an e-book in a Goodreads giveaway, though—only hard copies. I would strongly recommend you offer at least three copies of your book to reach more readers, and run the giveaway for at least a month. 

I made the mistake of only offering one copy of my book for a two-week giveaway. I still got lots of requests, but I could've reached even more potential readers if I'd extended the giveaway and offered more copies. Bonus perk: when people sign up for the giveaway, there's a handy button they can hit to add your book to their To Read lists. I would rough-estimate that over 200 people added my book to their list in that two-week giveaway period.

In short, it's relatively easy to make Goodreads work for you as an author. You just have to spend time/effort getting your book cover/blurb ready ahead of release, fixing up your author page, and exhausting built-in marketing opportunities such as giveaways and groups. 

Here's hoping you go forth and get the good out of Goodreads!

Heather Day Gilbert enjoys writing stories about authentic, believable marriages. Sixteen years of marriage to her sweet Yankee husband have given her some perspective, as well as ten years spent homeschooling her three children. Heather is the ACFW West Virginia Area Coordinator.

You can find Heather at her website, Heather Day Gilbert--Author, and at her Facebook Author Page, as well as Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Goodreads. You can find her Amazon best-selling Viking historical novel, God's Daughter, here on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

***Question for you: If you're an author, what's been the most helpful aspect of Goodreads for you?***

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Do You Judge a Book By Its Cover?

Photo by Tom Murphy VII

You know that old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” It’s an old saying that makes sense because it’s something we typically do. We DO judge books by their covers. Their covers and their titles.

I know I do. I may be an author, but I'm also a reader.

When I’m walking through a bookstore that’s exactly what I’m doing. Cover after cover, title after title. I only pick up ones that grab me or peak my interest. It doesn’t mean I’ll buy them, but they don’t even stand a chance if the cover doesn’t work.

Obviously, I’m talking about books by authors I don’t know or haven’t read before. If I know and love the author, I’ll buy the book whether I like the cover or title at all. But I’m always on the lookout for a new book and new authors and, with them, the covers and titles definitely matter.

This issue often creates a challenge between authors and the marketing folks in traditional publishing houses. When authors finish a book, we’ve typically spent between 6 months and a year on it. For most of that time we’ve been calling it something; often referred to as a “working title.” It’s called that because the author’s title rarely survives the marketing process (unless you're a mega bestselling author. In which case, you get to call all the shots). My books are selling well, but that's not my situation.

I have 8 published novels on the shelf now, 2 more due out in Sept and next April. Both have official covers and titles already fixed. Of those 10 books, guess how many of my working titles made it onto the actual books? Only 4. Six of my titles are not mine. Some (won’t say which ones) I didn’t even like. I will tell you which titles were mine: The Deepest Waters, Remembering Christmas, The Dance and What Follows After (the one due out next April).

As for my covers, I’ve liked all but 4 (won’t say which ones). My biggest gripe is probably when we settle on a cover that, to me, seems to have absolutely no tie-in to the book. I’ve actually gone back with a couple of my books, after the cover was decided on, and added several paragraphs to the story so the reader won’t be asking, “Now what in the world does that cover have to do with this book?”

I’m curious…how much do you judge a book by its cover and/or its title? Does it matter much to you when considering a book by an author you don’t know? Have you bought books with covers and/or titles you didn’t find appealing? Do you have any pet peeves about covers and titles?



While I’m asking questions, I’d like to get some feedback from you on a couple of title matters. My 2nd book with Gary Smalley comes out in September, called The Promise. I wanted to call the book The Broken Portrait. That got nixed because the marketing folks thought it might be too negative. I don’t think it is and, to me, it works much better for the story. Be honest, would you consider buying a book called The Broken Portrait?

To my fellow published authors, do any of you struggle at all with this? Have any similar challenges? To everyone, can you think of any books you actually bought just because the cover and/or title were so good?

Okay, let me have it.

Dan Walsh is the award-winning and bestselling author of 8 novels, including The Unfinished Gift, Remembering Christmas and The Dance. He's won 3 Carol Awards and 2 Selah Awards. Six of his books were named Top Picks by RT Reviews. Two were finalists for Inspirational Book of the Year. Dan is a member of ACFW and Word Weavers. He lives with his wife, Cindi, in the Daytona Beach area where he and Cindi love to take long walks. To connect with Dan or check out his books, go to: http://danwalshbooks.com. He also blogs weekly with fellow male fiction authors Jim Rubart and Harry Kraus at: http://3menwalkintoablog.com.

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