More Idle Thoughts on The Struggles and Rewards of Self Publishing

You’ve finished the story you’ve been working on for months and months. Re-read it twenty times, put it through your spelling and grammar programs and even let a  friend or two read it. A back cover synopsis now has to be written. Only a few paragraphs but for some of us that can take a few days.  (I think the next time I am going to write this first and then see how close it comes to the finished product).  But then—-

You have to pick a cover. I have had several books out there and they have gone absolutely nowhere. I don’t think they were bad, but they did have boring covers.  With the Cozy books we have an editor who takes care of that sort of thing. She picks a few and sends them to us to choose the final one and when we agree it’s a done deal. I love her for this alone.

I don’t have that luxury with my self-published books and I can’t stop writing them. I think they are getting better and I love the writing part. But I have decided that I need better covers and that means actually paying money for one.  That means I will have to take a gamble and actually sell so many books at x amount to make the y amount I spent equal to my bottom line z even before I make any money to blow on a pedicure. (High finance has always intrigued me.)

So I am looking at a cover that has either a scantily clad couple or a guy half naked with great abs and maybe a loose tie around his neck or just tight jeans. Whatever. I think this is what really sells books today.  The promise of totally naked guys.  And I am talking adult romance books here so all the naked bits are a given.  And it’s not like I’m ready to hit the publish key. It will be after the first of the year. And I’m not really sure I am grousing about any of this. It is a process after all, and one I guess I like or I wouldn’t be doing it. I guess self publishing is a lot like real life. Looking for the right half-naked guy for the cover of your book is a lot like looking for the right half-naked guy period.  Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. The point is you keep on looking.  And writing. And self-publishing.

As ever,  Annie