Tactical Switch in Kindle Book Promo?

I’m seeing a trend!

Actually, I'm more than a little slow, because the trend has been around for a decade or two. What most readers are reading! Anything fantasy and noir, from horror, to thrillers, to vampires (noir fantasy). Since the Ann Rice explosion in the 1990s, this seems to be what readers clamor for. My friend and prolific author Michael Sims did a successful tour earlier this year for his new book Dracula’s Guest (He’s always in on the cutting edge). Another friend, Sallie Bissell has had good success with her thrillers.

The advent of eBooks has made the abundance of these genres even greater. I know these are the subjects most of the authors on Kindle boards and other forums are writing and promoting. These are what the best-selling eBook authors offer. Romances are always in the mix, of course, although I’m seeing more Paranormal (think vampire) Romance titles. That puts those of us who don't write these genres in the same boat we were in before the electronic "revolution"—up the promo creek without a sales paddle.

I think I'll try a tactical switch and rework the tags and the promo on a couple of books to include words like haunt, ghostly, dark reality or disembodied, and the expected paranormal. How's this for a new Blood and Bond description?

Eddie CloudRunner has been living a relatively normal life, until the dark specter of a dead relative begins dogging his every step. He experiences paranormal knowledge about the lives of several new arrivals in his community of Lamp Creek. Add to this the dark reality of deadly environmental changes in the valley, and Eddie is compelled to venture into spiritual depths he has avoided for decades....

Of course, now the cover isn't creepy enough. Or maybe this for Child of the Mist:

After the death of her father, Juilan Pranss lands employment that takes her off planet—for the first time. She immediately begins having strange dreams that continue, even after Rodrig Ferstan kidnaps her. She is fearful she has been possessed; she can't stop the visions, even when awake. And some are terrifying. Once she is rescued from Ferstan, her benefactor, Trenner Cerambac, promises to help her with these mental anomalies. But Juilan also learns that a economically-powerful, sadistic psychopath is stalking her every move, waiting to capture her so he can become omnipotent ruler of the culture.

Ach! This is so beyond the way I think! But every word I've written is a crucial element of each of these stories. Maybe I'll try these out on the Kindle edition descriptions—see what happens.

Ah, the writer’s life. (sigh)

Proofing Page Proofs of the Fortune Book

The page proofs for The Adventures of Elizabeth Fortune came in this week. Here, the moment of truth. Was the editing really topnotch? Did the layout go the way it was planned?

This is the second printing of this book, the first done more than 10 years ago by a company long out of business. I utilized the original print copy files and did a bit of tweaking—such as putting in the several paragraphs of dialogue and other text that had become "lost" in the first printing. No, not edited out; lost. The editor even called me to ask if I had made some changes in the text (didn't tell me what they might be). Editor didn't have sense enough to look at the original and plug in the "lost" text.

You might be wondering why I didn't I see this when previewing the first edition. I didn't get to preview the first edition! The publisher was pushing for a deadline, and assured me all was in order. "No time to send blue lines. Don't worry."

Humpf! That'll teach me.

Hence, when these second-printing page proofs arrived, I decided to scrutinize them. I began with the lost sections I had put in place. Everything fine. Then I started from the bottom of the last page and painstakingly worked my way to the front, not just of the text, but the front matter and the title page. I've found that By perusing the manuscript back to front, there are fewer chances of seeing what you know should be there when it isn’t. You are looking at groups of words and punctuation, not really reading. I found misspells and other things wrong, and verified, by looking in a copy of the book, that these errors had, indeed, gone out in the first printing.

Again, the importance of proofing is confirmed.

The proofs have been corrected and sent off. The Kindle edition of this book had been from the same text copy, so I made the corrections and republished that. I must say, however, that I have no belief that the book is error-free. Someone will surely see what they consider a misplaced comma, a bad transition, a goofy word choice. But without my proofread, I couldn't say I tried my very best.

Front cover, Back cover: Both are Difficult

I finally finished the layout and design of the back cover for The Adventures of Elizabeth Fortune. I had made a new front cover when I published the book through Kindle and developing the concept art was difficult. Relief when I finished.

     This is one of my out-of-print titles I'm putting back into circulation. New ISBN; new barcode. I used the opportunity to correct goofs the original publisher had made, such as "losing" several paragraphs of text in several different places. The cover art had to be new, and that meant a new back cover to go with it. How to arrange everything? How much text? Which colors to use? Does it blend with the front?

       These aren't complaints, because I enjoy this kind of work maybe even more than writing. Once I completed it, I checked the printer specs and, lo, not quite right, so I redid it all, added the required crop marks, et cetera. It all went off to the printer today. (Yea!) I hope I don't get a message that something wasn't done correctly. (Booo!)