Tuesday's Tips and Tweaks

This week author Jacquie Bigger joins us with her tip. Jacquie lives on beautiful Vancouver Island with her husband, and is grateful to do what she loves best—reading and writing.

Jacquie’s Tip

Today we’re going to be talking about publishing, marketing or selling tips an author should be aware of whether traditional or self-published.

In my opinion as an avid romance reader, there’s nothing more important than an eye-catching cover. When I browse for books, especially from new-to-me authors, the cover is the first thing I notice. It has to be strong, charismatic, and most importantly, not cluttered. If you’re writing a series each of the covers should have the same feel to them, so that readers get a sense of continuation. They can look at the front of the book and immediately know their favorite characters will be found inside. That’s buying power.

I don’t feel this is something you can scrimp on as an author. For my books, Tidal Falls and The Rebel’s Redemption, I used a well-known designer within the industry, Kim Killion. I felt it would be my best shot as an indie author at getting some early recognition. Anything you can do to get readers to take notice is a victory.

Excerpt from The Rebel’s Redemption

 “Miss Campbell, guess what? Jake’s here. He was outside when we went to get Susan. How cool is that?”

"That’s pretty cool all right. How’d he get here? And where’s Chris?” She’d grabbed up a napkin to wipe the ice cream from her lips, when a voice out of the past lifted the hairs on the nape of her neck and sent a shiver down her spine.

“He’s here. With me.”

The smooth tones rolled over her, and sucked all the air out of the room. Annie stiffened, then crumpled the napkin and slowly turned in her seat—yep, it was Jared all right. And Chris.

Oh.

My.

God.

He looked good. The random thought floated through her mind even as she tried to digest the fact he was finally back. Eight years too late, but he was here. She wanted to grab Chris and run. Run before what was obvious to her became obvious to everyone else. Shit.

“Hello, Annie, it’s been a long time.” Why was he looking at her as if she’d betrayed him? She wasn’t the one to cut and run without a single word in all this time. Goddamn him.

“Jared. Yes, it has been. A very long time. There were no phones where you were? Your mother probably would’ve appreciated knowing whether you were dead or alive.” Not to mention herself. She’d promised herself she wasn’t going down this road, the blame road. It was time to leave.

She turned her back on him, looked into Jack’s concerned eyes, and forced herself to smile as if her heart wasn’t shattering into a million tiny pieces. “I better get back. Tina needs to take her break. Call me later?”

He gave her waist a warm squeeze, and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek before sliding free. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but for what it’s worth, I’ve got your back.”

Near tears, she stood from the table, and without looking at either man again, grabbed both children’s hands and hustled them out the door.

Buy Link

http://www.amazon.com/Rebels-Redemption-Wounded-Hearts-Book-ebook/dp/B00SCNJDDW

You can find Jacquie at:

Website http://jacquiebiggar.com

Facebook http://Facebook.com/jacqbiggar
Twitter http://Twitter.com/jacqbiggar

Thanks Jacquie, for dropping by and sharing that great tip on covers.

Don’t forget to check back next week for another authors tip.