Taking a break-- or not

Although I said with my ten contemporary romances now on Kindle that I would take a break from writing/editing fiction until the fall, I can't seem to leave it alone-- addiction apparently. I did resist taking my computer on a recent family outing, but my mind went to the writing whenever there wasn't something going on. My thinking is not on the ones out there. I'm happy with where they are right now, but those set in the 1800s where I am not yet decided whether to publish online.

The one with which I am most emotionally involved right now was set in Arizona 1883 between Tucson and Tombstone. I wrote it probably twenty years ago (although I am guessing as I would have to do for the beginnings of most of these stories). As I have begun looking at it actually it's in good shape without seemingly any big editing job ahead.

Although I just said that, it seems no matter how many times I do these books, I always miss something, but it's usually minor these days. In the case of this book, it looks as though it will mean tweaking the way a sentence is put together more than its meaning.

What I also have been doing is beginning to create a trailer, a process which I already admitted has proven to be addictive. When I was in Arizona last trip I  collected quite a few images I knew I'd need; so I have most background stills. Now it's been looking through the photos I have purchased for ones I can change to meet the need of the heroine and her transitions as well as finding new ones for the hero.

As I visualize several secondary characters I am trying to decide if any should be in a trailer.  It's pretty unusual for me to use them in trailers that are 60 seconds. Then it's looking for main characters, their primary motivations and the setting of the story as 12 or 13 images are about all I can use. Doing the longer trailers are more rewarding in terms of story-telling but also evidently far less popular  when the project is aimed at selling the book to potential readers.

It's surprising me how much help doing a trailer can be to the writing especially for something like this where I am beginning the trailer before I get into serious editing. It gives me a visual reality to the characters and story; and in this case getting me back in sync with what was happening. I think this will help me be sure the plot and people hold together when I do begin the serious editing.

I should wait for the fall. If the weather continues as good as it is, I might because plein air painting will be more appealing. To add to it, I still haven't decided whether I even want to publish it online. This is one story that never saw a publishing house. I wrote it simply because I loved the story and characters, loved the setting and that was enough. Now, I am not sure...

Incidentally-- summer seems to be going way too fast. Of course, in my neck of the woods, it just began.

Hidden Pearl-- free today and tomorrow

This business of giving away books is more nuanced than it might seem. On the one hand, Amazon simply doesn't have a way to show books that don't sell. Selling isn't giving away; but if you give away books, they are seen, which leads to selling. No giving away means the books go farther and farther into the darkest corners of Amazon. I have mixed feelings for how I feel about giveaways.

A big negative side for me is what about readers who just bought the book? It makes me feel like when I have gone into a store, bought something at full price and a week later, it's half that price. I don't like it. I don't like it for those readers and it's no wonder if a lot of readers hold off buying anything for that thinking-- it's bound to be on soon.

But if I do no free days, have no give aways with good ratings for how many are taken, it hurts the chance my books will to be seen by anybody who might buy them after the giveaway is over. These times always improve sales after they are finished and do bring the ratings closer to a place where an ordinary reader might stumble across the books-- at least if they do a search for their general category.

There is a satisfaction in the giveaways in knowing 10,000 readers (guessing at the numbers as I haven't actually tallied it up but about that) have the books to read and if they ever get around to reading them (who knows how many read books they are given?), it might mean they look at others I have written and buy one of those.

Four of my books we are taking out of Select (still at Kindle for sales) with no give aways possible. That is being done so they can be put into other media such as Kobo, Barnes and Noble and wherever else we can figure out. But that leaves six than can be given away.

For today and tomorrow one will be Hidden Pearl.  It seemed a good time for it with its new cover.

I like this book and hope some of you, who haven't already read it, will give it a try while it's free. It's a story of a search for a missing person but ends up being a search for a self and what really has value-- hence the title. Things of value aren't always easy to see, find or keep.

It is all set in Oregon mostly between Portland and the Umpqua country to the south in both the big city environment (well, it's big to us), and that of the backcountry as well as inside a cult that is on the rise.

The information I put into this book regarding the cult comes out of research but not having actually been in one myself (I have been in religions though and the motivations can be somewhat the same). Oregon had a rather famous cult some years back which became quite unpopular which led to it striking out against others and eventually leaving the state. There are other cults that stay quiet and are little known.

What interested me was what makes them succeed, what might be the motivation of their leaders, and what are people hoping to find who join one? Exploring that kind of question seemed like a good place to set a romance of two people not in the cult but investigating it for different reasons.

The cult itself in Hidden Pearl is totally fictional-- not about any real cults now or in the past and set in area I have no reason to think ever had a real cult. The title Hidden Pearl comes from the idea that I believe people join such looking for that of great value. Perhaps some find it and later the cult becomes a successful religion... Who is to know? ;)

The do, re-do, and do again

Probably everybody knows this can be an issue with painting-- just can't call it done. I recognized it could happen with books as you keep seeing something you missed in an earlier editing. What I didn't know is how powerful that urge can be where it comes to creating covers for novels.

Writers in the past (or those today coming through a major publishing house) never had this issue. A publishing house decided on the cover, and I guess the more powerful authors get/got a thumbs up or down but less well known pretty well took what was offered. Not to mention they would assume the publishers knew best.

Well with indie writers, you either create your own or buy someone else's skills who you trust to know how to do graphic art and find the heart of your book. Even then it is your say so whether the cover is the right one-- although if you paid for one you hated, there might be incentive to stick with it.

From the beginning I knew I'd want to do my own covers because I am an artist and after all isn't that what a cover is all about? I had been doing digital painting for several years; so I thought I could pull it off.

Turned out the readers didn't like what they perceived as amateur paintings which I guess is anything a graphics artist didn't create. I liked my original ideas. I liked the ones that came next, but I will say that as I found pressure to create different covers, I saw more pluses to doing it.

When you create a cover, you have to think of the essence of your book. You are looking for one image to say it all. That's not easy, but it does add to your grasp of what your book is all about.

For fun I thought I'd post here from the various lifetimes of one book cover-- Hidden Pearl. As I thought more about what image really would say it all, I stayed actually fairly close to my original concept but with a more polished twist to it. I should add here that my publisher (also my husband) always critiques and gives suggestions and additions to these covers. I think everyone needs some second thoughts from outside their own head.

If someday I became a well-known, best selling author (I won't hold my breath), I could put up any covers I liked and who knows what they'd be. As a beginning, independent author,  I have to stick to what I believe the reader wants. Marketing is the only way a book is ever seen by anybody who might love it-- if they found it.

The first two are my own digital paintings. Second two come out of stock photo site and my own photographs. The object in all of these was to show a very important location in the book. It's where not only the couple come together but also where the hero finally comes to peace with who he is. Nature and love are key points and in different ways, I think each image shows some of that.

I am actually happiest with the last one-- but I guess I always think that. Since this is one of my plot driven books with the romance important but not the main point of the book, it seems this kind of setting and dress suits the energy of the story. Also this couple look very much as I imagined them looking when I wrote them.

Hidden Pearl explores the question of what is really most important in life, what is it that we will die and even more importantly live for? Many are ready to tell us the answer to that-- most strongly cults. But how do we find it for ourselves?

There is also a trailer for this story which is on Rainy Day Trailers.