Every once in a While

Every once in a while, I will get a cover done, and be either completely stunned at how different it is than what I envisioned, or a bit disappointed because it didn't turn out quite the way I hoped.

One of those was for The Chalice of Life. Here we have an author eager to really make a difference in the book world, and a little outside it--committed to learning and growing--and the cover didn't quite meet expectations. So we sold out the print run, and I am pleased as punch to be posting the working version of the new cover. It's not often that we will go back and redo a cover, but we did this time, to help support both her efforts, and ours.

Karen asked what I thought the impact of the new cover would be. And here's my thoughts on the matter: My firm belief is that covers sell books. I know that I will often pick up a book in the bookstore based on a cover. Whether I buy it or not is another matter, but I will pick it up because the title or cover look interesting. I think this cover will sell books. The girl on the front (yes, I know her name but it evades me at the moment... and I did mention we needed to reprint because we're out of books, right?) is a little light-skinned compared to her description in the book, but we're going with the fact that she is lit by the fire of the dragon's breath. The chalice itself is now a jewel of note, and the dragon wraps it all up. Lynn Perkins and Christina Yoder pulled this one together (They've also done Sojourn and Virtual Evil for me), and they've done wonderful job.

I'd like to point out that the previous cover wasn't a bad cover -- it just didn't fit with the feel of Dragon Moon. I tend to go for a more commercial appeal in my covers (and as anyone will note in the next year, I like dragons... but that's a no-brainer, right?), and the previous one didn't have that feel for me. So, by changing it up, I hope to see sales increase, and I think that is a no-brainer :)

Drop me a comment--tell me which one you prefer!

New Links to our Books

So, I finally got my butt in gear and got three more books ready and posted up for you lovely readers. It's been a long few weeks, mostly with personal stuff, and I've not done as much as I should have. I've been experiencing a bit of the blues, and I don't know why. I think I've been overwhelmed with everything going on, including the sheer volume of correspondence I've been getting. I don't even want to look at email any more. How the heck did we work before email? And how the heck to do we survive it now??

Anyway, here's the titles loaded up....

Sojourn is here! The first of the Time Rover series, this book has now won 7 awards total... as Jana put it "one for each letter in the title". We think it's going to be a challenge then to match that level of success with Virtual Evil (Bk2) and Madman's Dance (Bk3) given the number of letters in those titles! Go Jana Go.

The Gryphon Highlord by Connie Ward. Also a winner this year - and Gold at that! Way to go Connie!

And not to be outdone by the ladies of the team...

The Darkling Band by Jason Henderson was an award finalist himself with this one! Yay Jason!

It was a banner year for awards for us, and it's all because of the great writers writing great books! I'm very lucky to have such wonderful authors!

Links to Our Books

And apparently, for SEO, I should link to these in the actual posts:

Alien Deception is here for you... followed by Alien Revelation

The Longevity Thesis who's cover is apparently a hit with young girls (they love the skeletons)

The Chalice of Life, to which we've ordered a new cover because readers where confused as to genre

Small Magics (very popular at Canadian bookstores)

and last, but not least... the book that just arrived yesterday Darwin's Paradox (copies shipping shortly)

The Compulsive Link Follower

Ok, so that describes me... I can open explorer to check something out, and hours later realize I've got about 50 tabs open and have learned tonnes of stuff, though not necessarily what I set out looking for.

So here's today's offerings, pared down and shared with you...

John Kremer, the self-publishing guru, sends out a weekly newsletter. I get it because being a small press really isn't that different from self-publishing. We face all the same challenges on a daily basis. (I've assisted hundreds of self-publishers through the process, and I KNOW it's no different than what I face every day!). And in John's weekly newsletter this week was a couple of links that had me clicking. The first was to visit Author ARCS which is a new website being set up to help promote author's books - by allowing readers to read them before they hit the shelves, or kindly, in our case AFTER as well as before, since it's part of our regular offerings. And in a shameless plug, click here for a copy of the very well recieved and reviewed Virtual Evil, now shipping everywhere. This is the full book available to you in PDF format.

Of course, once at Author Arcs, I had to check it out. So I wandered off the K. A. Konrath's site. I downloaded his free, unpublished ebooks, and meandered off to his blog. You must all go there. Authors, readers, publishers alike. Go. It's worth the trip. Of couse, I then popped over here to tell you about it. Now I have to go back and see where I can mosey on over to from there.

Why a 100,000 Words?

If you get a bunch of writer's in a room with a publisher, and you start talking about the submission process, the question always seems to come up... why 100,000 words? It's a fairly easy answer really... it's the word count that usually gets us the right page count, at our favourite font, at the right page size to make an economical book. Because book sales are price sensitive, it's important that we get the right print cost, as well as all the other costs associated with publishing the book, into the formula to make the retail work. Retail is usually determined by taking the print cost and multiplying by a factor of 8 or 10. This allows us to then work backwards from the retail subtracting our costs (distribution, which can come in at a whooping 68-70% of the retail price, royalties, production, labour and overhead are just some of what is calculated in) - and hope, pray to the book gods, that we will come out a few pennies ahead. Sometimes we do, other times we don't, but the average needed word count is 100k to meet that goal.

Here's something that throws a kink into the whole darn thing... and right now, since I am in the middle of laying out the first three books for spring I'm noticing it (all of them significantly over 100k hmmmmhmmm people!) that word length is one thing. Two other factors that affect this are the number of chapters, and the number of POV shifts. Too many of either and the page count balloons, and then I'm forced to use an itty bitty font size instead of something bigger and looser. So I'm stuck on these three with 10pt - sorry readers! On the other hand, they are worth a little eye-strain! so do get a copy when they hit the shelves please! (sorry for the shameless plug!)

So, some words of advice.

1. Stick to the publishers submission guidelines, including word count, as much as possible. (I absolutely cannot stress this point enough)

2. Don't have a million chapter starts. Please, we're begging you. Write longer chapters.

3. Try not to use POV shifts. If you have to, minimize. While they can be very strategic and important to the story (particularly complex stories, and I realize that they are sometimes very necessary) it has an impact on the overall cost-effectiveness of publishing the book. And that means it can have an impact on whether or not you get published.

Eventually, it gets to the point where as a publisher you don't really think of these things, it's just such a normal part of day-to-day life, so we may forget that the info is important to you writers. If you've got a question you always wanted answered about how or why we do something, ask away. If I can answer it, I will.

And the concensus is... we have another winner

Sequels are a tough business, as I am sure most writer's will agree. Tough to write, especially the second in a trilogy as it's a bridge between the beginning of a story and the end of the story, but it has to still stand on its own. They are also a risk for a publisher for those same reasons. If done well though, they can be a huge load of fun. And that's what I'm finding with Virtual Evil. I, being the lucky publisher in question, would have thrown the entire manuscript at Jana if she were in the room when I got to the end (even knowing ahead of time how it finished). But it's ok, I will plot my revenge another way. Oh yeah, back to Virtual Evil. The link at the top of my blog will lead you to a full copy pdf if you'd like to give it a try (Sojourn will be posted shortly in case you've not read it).

But the reviews from the pro's are starting to roll in. And while I knew the book was going to be great (even after the early draft I read), you always worry how others will recieve it. Well folks, the wait is over.... 4 1/2 Stars from The Romantic Times Book Review! Plus we're getting others. So yippee!!! See the publisher dance... and a word to you all... the reviewers kindly refrained from throwing the book at Jana too, at least in public :) Read it. See what I mean!