Erin’s Comments (group member since Jan 28, 2017)

Erin’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Are there any cool trends you're seeing in cover design? Is there any way indies can stay up to date or even ahead of the curve when it comes to this, instead of always waiting to see what the trads do? How are the trads influenced?

R.L. wrote: "Lol it ain't all that. Just super simple. I had like 10 covers for this book then I was like screw it and changed it altogether"

I had ten versions of one awesomely bad cover before I struck gold with the current one lol. I like your cover though!

R.L. wrote: "I feel you on the interracial romance lack of diversity when it comes to stock photography. Some are horrid and others very cheesy that's why I went with a jacket for mine. Simple and it has direct..."

OOh! *goes to check out cover*

Can you go into what makes a great boxed set cover? I hope to do my first boxed set for Christmas :)

Jessica wrote: "Erin - one thing you can always count on from me is that I *will* tell you if I think your cover idea is going to hinder you in anyway, so don't you worry there 😂

That's another good point to touc..."

*fistbump*

Jessica wrote: "Romance doesn't *have* to have couples on it, you can still make it apparent with the subjects you choose (sweet/clean romance frequently just has scenery, erotica frequently has a clean look with ..."

This is exciting news and I'm impressed/proud that you are in on the ground floor! I'm also really relieved by your answer because there are no people on my covers and I am so in love with the covers I've got lined up for my series. I feel like I don't have to change them now...although I am open to your honest opinion either way. I feel a lot better now lol.

My situation is somewhat different because I write interracial romance novellas and romance covers with women of color on the cover consistently sell less than other books. I'm not terribly concerned with that because I won't cater to a market that doesn't want to read what I write. Life is too short lol. The reason I don't put people (of any color) on my covers is that it feels too cookie cutter. Should I rethink this? Is there middle ground?

Great post, Jes! Is there a way to be original while making sure readers in your genre don't have to do any guesswork about what your book is about? This is what I'm struggling with at the moment.

I emailed you :)

Eldon wrote: "Erin wrote: "This weekend's indie author Q&A will be all about book covers with our special guest host Jes Richardson, cover designer extraordinaire and owner of Cover Bistro graphic designs. So ke..."

Was hoping you'd drop by! *fistbump*

This weekend's indie author Q&A will be all about book covers with our special guest host Jes Richardson, cover designer extraordinaire and owner of Cover Bistro graphic designs. So keep an eye out for her infopost which will go live sometime this evening or def by tomorrow afternoon. I know you guys will learn something new and get all of your burning cover questions answered - I know I will!

It seems that according to some of my reviews I have mistakenly given the impression that my Blaque Beauty novellas are a series and not a collection. In a book world heavy on series it is my fault for not making it crystal clear the all the books in the collection are stand alones with a completely different storyline and set of characters each time. Aside from changing the title on Amazon what to do? And change it to what? I still want people to be able to see that there are more books in the collection. Ugh. The second novella will be released soon and I'll probably have people saying why is she on a Montana ranch now?? From the first novella I've got people who want to know what Marlee and Marc get up to next. He!!, I'd like to know too!

When I did a blog tour I noticed that the same guy was entering my gift card raffle each day of the tour. I asked the organizer what that was all about and she said not to worry about it because some people are really into trying to win the gift cards. But what I'm wondering now after all these months is how in H E double hockey sticks did that guy know where my book would be blog parked each day...I just don't know...and I suspected but could not prove that one of my gift card winners was affiliated with one of the blogs...

If I'm talking about something that happened in the past the narrative would go like this:

I'd always hated the way he pouted when he had a cold.Even though I had always been the nurturing type, I felt there was no amount of whining that could get me to baby him just because he had the sniffles.

or you can use some present tense if you preface it with somthing to let the reader know you're referring to the past:

High school hadn't been easy. I was tall for my age and usually tried to overcompensate for it by slouching. It wasn't until my dad pulled me over to the side one day and told me to just be myself that I stopped doing something so obviously silly.

Um...my only book *blush*
Will shoot you an email lol.

Nicole wrote: "Erin wrote: "I don't have any sales or promos right now but I'd be happy to donate a few free download codes for you to distribute?"

I could say "reply to this email for a code to download Book X,..."

As long as I'm not throwing in a monkey wrench I'm cool with any idea you come up with. Just let me know...

Lol, I thin I may have to get in on the next one, but feel free to use me for any other individual promos you want to do. What a nice setup you've got! As a subscriber I'm looking forward to tomorrow's promo :)

I don't have any sales or promos right now but I'd be happy to donate a few free download codes for you to distribute?

That sounds awesome

Erica, email me and I will be happy to walk you through step by step. I love wp.org. here's my address: (view spoiler)[eldanielsromance@gmail.com (hide spoiler)]