SK I Cover Chosen!!

Well after looking at over a hundred covers for my first YA novel and taking a poll of far too many people, I've finally chosen the cover.

Might I say once again that working with the designers from 99design was a total joy and such an incredibly easy process.

The cover was done by Brand Design on the site and he spend countless hours and revamps of the art making it individual and specific just to me and my creation. The figures at the bottom were hand-drawn and his suggestions and help was just fantastical.

I've read this book what feels like two hundred billion times and yet I'm going through it once more before starting down the path of uploading everything. This is a process that is rather straightforward and yet it takes creativity, patience and loads of perseverance. Oh man I dislike that last word...

I'm looking forward in a few weeks to adding link here and at my WordPress blog (www.lastarkey.com) letting my family and friends know that it's finally done and they can jump online and buy 10 copies.

I'm smirking with a bit of a sardonic smile just in case you think me to be delusional. :)

Without further adieu....

 

Thanks for taking the poll and wish me luck as I run through this project that is so near and dear to me once more.

LS

I'm thinking it's finally time...

My novels have been sitting on the shelf for a few years and I feel my old characters yelling for release like the images of your kids stuck in your iphone from 4 Christmases ago. Time to revive them and look into this thing called self-publishing.

So many questions and with all the information available on the web, how in the world can someone filter through the crap to decide?

What's better? Createaspace? Lulu? Something else?

And once that is decided, how do you figure out who can help really get the flavor of your book on the cover of the novel? I decide on books initially by the what the cover says and what it doesn't say. I'm a writer, an accounting, a singer and dancer, but an artist - heck no.

And should the novel's be edited by a professional as I'd really hate for my first book (who most likely 10 people will read) to be filled with grammar errors and things that would turn me off if I were reading a book.

How much do you charge?

Is it really true that you need a platform to get people to recognize you? That you might have to blog all of the time? That sounds exhausting after a ten-eleven hour day at the office, writing a book, starting a church and raising a family. Anyone want to make some cash ghost-blogging for me? *smiles*

Regardless of all of that jazz... it's time.

I love my creations to much not to share them and though I'm a better writer today than I was four years ago (be very afraid), there is still so much room for improvement. So as I TRY to come out of hibernation, tell me my writing friends of old... have you self published and if so, give me the low-down.

Jer - where are you buddy? Love that Book II cover like you wouldn't believe.

LS