Cover Design: Curb Appeal for Readers

First impressions make a difference when it comes to selling anything in today's marketplace. In most areas, supply still outweighs demand. Whether you are selling a home or the next Great American Novel, you must create interest at the first glance.

While the focus in home sales is often on what can be improved on the interior, many sellers neglect the outside of the property. However, most buyers form an opinion on whether they like a home before they step in the front door.  The same is true for book sales. The work you do in the kitchen or the updating the fixtures in the bathroom of your home is a lot like editing and fine-tuning the interior of your book. It may be great, but by that time it may be too late.  If you want to maximize your property's value, you need to focus on curb appeal. If you want to maximize your book's appeal to readers, you need to focus on the cover design.

Improving the exterior of your book may not be as exciting as trying to figure out what to do with the plot or how to motivate a character, but in many ways it is more important. At first glance, you want your book to have a wow factor.  At a minimum, it shouldn't turn off a large majority of readers. Your book cover is your three-second introduction to the reading public.  When readers are browsing the bookstore shelf or the internet, your book cover needs to grab their attention, but also make a promise about what readers will find on the pages inside.

One of the most important things to consider in good cover design, is your title. Place yourself in the reader's shoes when making your final decision for your book's title. The title should be legible at a glance, so you should avoid small or faint text as well as busy backgrounds. Make sure your title conveys your message clearly and simply. Be straightforward.  Sometimes creativity can interfere with clarity.

Choose a strong image that helps people remember your book and integrates with your title.  A single image usually has a stronger image than multiple images. The image should not overwhelm the title, so beware of overpowering your words with pictures.

Just as many home buyers will associate the condition of the exterior and landscape with the condition of the interior, the same is true for readers.  In fact, curb appeal is so important that if a potential buyer thinks that the exterior is unattractive, they won't even look at the inside.

You may have spent months and maybe even years working on your manuscript.  Make sure you take the time to give your cover the attention it deserves.  After all, it is the first impression most readers will have of your book.

Watch for the cover release for my new book, The Steel Canyon Legacy, in June.

Guerrilla Marketing for Authors

Like most writers, I hate marketing my work.  Even with publisher-backed works, it still falls to the author to do much of the marketing. There is a high degree of snobbery in the publishing world today. After all, it took Rowling years before she was able to realize her phenominal success. But it is even more difficult for indie authors. The assumption is that because a work is self-published, it is somehow not worthy. Sadly, it is up to authors like us to change that mentality through the quality of our work.

I am convinced that the key to getting recognized as an independent author lies in our ability to create a personal brand for ourselves, and the best way to do that is through some of the creative and innovative, low cost strategies used in guerrilla marketing. This technique involves high energy and imagination and focuses on grasping the attention of the public at a more personal and memorable level. Guerrilla marketing is designed to cut through the clutter of traditional advertising so that there is no mystery about what is being advertised. The message is clear and concise.  "This book is unique and different from all the others in this genre because ________."

This type of marketing works on the subconscious mind where most purchasing decisions are made. But keeping the book in the mind of the the consumer means repetition is needed. The challenge with any guerrilla marketing campaign is not only finding the correct time and place to launch the operation, but also investing the time to sustain the operation. You must promote regularly. Prospective buyers need to see or hear your message multiple times before it will drive them to purchase your book. You must create a buzz around it so that it will be shared among friends and acquaintances. This increases engagement with readers and improves the likelihood that they will share the memorable experience with others. The key is to reach the most people in your target audience as frequently and inexpensively as possible.

As a final word of caution, beware of expensive programs that promise to make you an Amazon Bestseller.  These programs take a fraction of the money you pay them and use it to buy copies of your book. While this may make you a temporary best seller, it usually doesn't affect your long term sales in any significant way. 

But take heart. Indie authors and Publish on Demand (POD) is changing the face of publishing in the world. Just 15 years ago, there were legions of travel agencies and agents ready to help busy people with their travel plans. Online travel planning and ticket purchases essentially sent those agencies into extinction.  Literary agencies and agents are already feeling the economic heat of self-publishing, and are next on the list. Groups that ignore self-published works will eventually find themselves in the history books along with Western Union Telegrams.

 

Heroes and Villains

As a writer, I am also a student of human nature.  I expose human frailties through my characters.  It’s what identifies some as villains and some as heroes. Villains often feed off hatred or utilize hate to manipulate others. They are often hate mongers who utilize the lowest aspects of human nature to provoke feelings of hatred in others and seek nothing more than to spread hate throughout communities, nations or entire worlds.

How they use hatred varies. They may tap into hidden prejudices in other people’s hearts and use it as an advantage, or they may directly feed the hatred from their own hearts to amplify their powers.  Adolf Hitler used hate to his advantage.  His method was simple and straight forward.  He said, “I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.” He used bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and misogyny to promote violence.

Hate raises its ugly head when we feel under attack or threatened.  It seems as though we, as human beings require a scapegoat.  It’s as if we need someone or some group to look down on, to blame for the ills in our society and our own inadequacies. In fiction, this weakness is exploited to manipulate the reader’s sympathies in favor of the hero.  He refuses to stand idly by and, by his silence, let this hateful message be perpetrated.

The conflict arises out of the need for the hero or heroine to combat this hatred.  It is tempting to pit the hero against the villain in a classic battle of good vs. evil.  However, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” This makes for a more difficult plotline.  The winner is not always clear and sometimes the hero must lose the battle to enhance the outrage against the villain, and in this way, incite the masses to action against him.

In this year of political upheaval, it is important for us to guard against the volcanic eruption of political propaganda that feeds on human passions and emotions. We must remember that all propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.  Hitler recognized this weakness when he said, “How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.”

Therefore, I urge you, if you are going to make an important decision regarding religion or politics, listen to many points of view and not just those of the hate mongers. Be a hero.

Flawed Characters

Character flaws. We all have them, and most of us struggle to overcome and control them. However, they are also a badge of our humanity. It gives us humility to admit our imperfections.  We take comfort in the fact that others also struggle. We sympathize and empathize with their struggles because it allows us to accept our own imperfections. It gives us courage to continue to strive for perfection knowing that others are also working against the same odds.

In literature, character flaws give a character credibility and likability. Since humans are inherently imperfect, we can't identify with characters who have no flaws. But character flaws by themselves are not enough.  Characters must have some redeeming quality that makes us hope, against all odds, that that even the worst villain will recognize the error of his ways and repent. When he doesn't, we can accept whatever fate befalls him.

As in real life, some characters suffer from a tragic flaw. This flaw is so overpowering that no matter how hard they struggle, they are unable to overcome it.  It becomes inevitable that this flaw is stronger than the individual and eventually they succumb to it. We feel sad when this happens, but we also feel vindicated.  The character's failure to persevere sends the message that we must continue to struggle against these flaws or perish.

While some character flaws are off-putting, others may actually provide comfort and draw people in. This is the power behind support groups.  Knowing that one is not alone in his or her suffering and that others have had similar experiences can provide one with the strength and courage to continue the struggle. Even fictional characters can provide insight and understanding during one's time of need.  As characters struggle to overcome their fictional difficulties, it can provide direction to those who struggle in real life.

If literature is indeed the mirror we hold up to life, then our characters should also reflect the complexity of human nature, including all the burrs and bristles.

Junk Drawers and Memory Boxes

It's January. Time to clean out the junk drawer. You know what I mean.  It's that drawer in every house no matter how big or small where we throw all the things we accumulate during the year that we don't know what to do with or are too busy to put in its rightful place. Some of us have several junk drawers scattered throughout the house.  We manage to get that close to actually putting something where it belongs and then get distracted and into the junk drawer it goes.

Today I tackled the junk drawer in the den.  I took a deep breath and opened the drawer to really look at all the stuff I had thrown in there over the past year.  To help with organization, I sat down to sort through the mess with a trash can and a box to put those things in that I just couldn't bear to part with - a memory box.

I tackled the easy things first:  an airline ticket stub, a half eaten candy bar, a Christmas card with a misspelled name, a broken paper clip, scraps of messages long since delivered or forgotten.  These things went right to the trash can without a second thought.

Next came the greeting cards with simple "I love you" messages scrawled in childish hand from my grandchildren.  There was a silly love note from my husband that made me smile. A candid shot of family members at the beach, and another snapshot of a trip to Alaska caused me to stop and smile in remembrance of a happy time or a shared smile.  These things had no real value except for the pleasant memory they evoked. They went into the memory box.

I saved the hard part for last.  There was a small box filled with trinkets that reminded me of my mother, worthless artifacts of a life no more except that my mother had treasured them.  As I touched each one, I felt as if I were touching her.  There were newspaper clippings and other remembrances of friends and relatives who had passed. These would have to go in a special place.

I spent about an hour cleaning out a drawer that should have taken much less time, but each item there caused me to reflect on the past year. There had been happy times and bittersweet times mixed with a few sad times.  But we had survived and thrived as a family. I looked down at the empty drawer.  This time next year, the drawer would be full again and I would clean it out, throwing away the trash and keeping the memories.  

Time to get started.

Blue Christmas

I live in Southern California just a few miles from the site of the San Bernardino shooting that took the lives of 14 innocent people.  The news coverage of the shooting has blanketed the headlines in large print, overshadowing all other events.  It hits you like a cold slap in the face. “How can this happen?” you ask yourself.

This is the time of year for peace and goodwill. This is the celebration of light and love. And yet tragedy happens. For many the approaching holiday does not bring with it the joy and happiness that is advertised on television or in greeting cards.  The tragedy in San Bernardino brings home to us the fact that even during this time of joy and renewal, people are suffering loss and sadness. They may be facing a holiday after the death of a loved one or after a divorce.  Perhaps they have been unable to have a child, or have suffered through an emotional trauma.  Or perhaps they feel pressured and overwhelmed by holiday preparations. For them, the holiday is the most difficult time of the year.

Who doesn’t remember the sad strains of Elvis’s “Blue Christmas”?  For many of us, the song is a melancholy reminder of those who are gone or must face the holiday far from home or loved ones.  Most of us collect memories around holidays and seasons. For those who have experienced loss or hardship, there is a sense of absence during this time of year.  The memories are still there, but the human beings are missing or the rituals have changed.

Across the country churches and houses of worship are starting to recognize the need for Blue Christmas services.  These are sometimes called the Longest Night services because they tend to be held around the time of the winter solstice with the least amount of daylight of the year. On this night, we remember those for whom the holidays are not joyful; they are lonely, in mourning, feeling alienated and cast apart from family celebrations.  They are experiencing depression and sadness and yet are often compelled to “put on a happy face” for others, denying their true feelings. On the surface, they go through the motions.  They put on a smile and pretend all is well.  They may even attend a holiday party, but their heart is not in it. 

These services provide an uplifting experience to remind us of the love we had for those who are no longer with us. They also provide a time to show support for those who are grieving or just a time to escape the stress and commercialization of the holiday. It’s a way to celebrate quietly with a focus on light and warmth and comfort.  Such services are reflective, accepting where we really are, and holding out healing and hope.  They remind us that even though it is a dark and difficult time, there is always light.

I urge you to remember those for whom this holiday is not a joyful time and reach out to them with hope and understanding.  Be the candle that helps to light their way out of the darkness.

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Carousels and Roller Coasters

Remember your first visit to an amusement park?  If you were like most of us, your eyes were drawn to the bright lights and colors. You were enticed and entranced by the overly sweet smell of cotton candy mixed with the saltiness of popcorn. And the sounds!  The lilting music of the carousel and the rattle of the roller coaster overhead. All of this mingled with the sound of laughter and the squeals of fright and delight. 

Where did you begin? Were you drawn to the brightly colored horses on the carousel, suspended in time and motion? They seemed to be moving in time to the music, but in reality, they just kept going in circles.  Parents were always nearby to protect you from falling and soothe your fears. It appeared very predictable and safe.

Or were you drawn to the excitement and thrill of the roller coaster?  It lulled you into complacency on the steep climb to the top and then plunged you into the frightening unknown. There were no parents to protect you through the jerks and bumps or the sharp twists and turns.  You had to hang on tight and face your fears until you finally screeched to a stop safely back where you started. Then your momentary fear was quickly forgotten and you couldn't wait to start the journey all over again.

I like to think of this as a metaphor for the paths we choose in life. However, sometimes those choices are taken out of our hands. One may prefer the safe predictability of the carousel, and then suddenly find himself or herself on a roller coaster of unpredictability.  Life is like that. Our tendency is to turn and run back to the safety and security of the past. But the way back is blocked. There is no turning back. The key to our success in this new endeavor lies in whether we are able to change and cope with this sudden change in our circumstances. Those who cling to the safety of the past will find it difficult to adjust.  They will be miserable. Those who let go and make the effort to adapt to the change and face their fears are more likely to persevere and overcome their fears.

This is the predicament in which I place my characters.  They must navigate their way through life and deal with unexpected hardships as well as changes in social and political mores. They experience the extreme highs and lows of life.  Their struggles reflect those most common in life:  relationships, prejudice, financial security. But most of all, the characters must struggle with their own moral dilemmas. They must adapt or perish. 

Do the characters choose the path of righteousness or the path of least resistance? What motivates their choices? Do we respect or condemn them for their choices?  These are the questions only the readers can answer. And in so doing they will reveal a bit more about the values and morals that affect their own choices in life.