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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about cover appeal.

Wednesday, I went to our Borders’ going-out-of-business sale (which makes me sad) and picked up a book for my teenage son. I looked at the book, briefly read the cover copy and bought it. When my son saw the book that evening, he glanced at the cover, which depicted a dystopian scene of apocalyptic disaster (left). He said, “This will work. Thanks.”

Which bothered me a little. I made him read the back cover copy and he repeated that he would enjoy it. Then I thought about it…I’d really done the same thing. Looking at the cover, I knew in a second it was dystopian—his favorite genre. It seemed similar to other books he’d enjoyed—even down to the male and female protagonists on the cover. It made me buy the book, much as I hated to think it.

One of my editors called me about a cover earlier this week. She was preparing for the cover conference for the first quilting mystery and wanted to ask me what the Civil War quilt I mentioned in my manuscript looked like.

I hesitated. “Well, in my head, the quilt wasn’t very attractive. It was just old. How about if I sent you some attachments with some quilts that look similar to the one I imagined? And if it needs to be a pretty quilt, that will work fine. I never wrote that it was an ugly quilt.”

I knew that something attractive needed to be on the cover.

Then I’ve been busily working with a designer for the ebook I’m about to release. She wanted to tie in the book with the feel of the first, traditionally-published book in the series. She used the same colors, a similar font. I liked the simplicity and the humor in the cover. And….it looked good in a thumbnail, which is becoming more and more important.

I still like to think that covers are just a small part of a book’s appeal. In reality, though, I’m not so sure.

How important do you think covers are to a potential reader? What do you think the qualities of a good cover are….and, are these qualities changing with the digital revolution?

You can usually tell when someone really loves to write.

The writing seems animated, sparkling, sharp. When I volunteer at my daughter’s elementary school, there are some stories that even really young children have written that just pop off the page.

But frequently I’ll read passages in books that seem really flat to me. There’s no passion at all in it…just a straight narrative.

Sometimes if we overthink what we’re writing, we can mess ourselves up, too. It can also be a sign of over-vigorous editing.

Infusing Life in Your Writing:

Consider your voice. Is the delivery flat? How you tell the story is uniquely yours…but you need to discover that voice.

Get your characters moving. Are your characters spending too much time sitting at diners and talking? Maybe it’s time to kick your characters in the rear and get them to move around a little. They don’t have to be jogging or anything—they could be looking for something they misplaced and be absentmindedly answering the protagonist’s questions. They could be washing their car. Change the scenery, use some verbs. Give them some action to respond to or have them instigate action.

Cut out the dead wood. Is there a scene that’s really pedantic? Is it necessary? Pinpoint the information that the scene is there to convey. If it doesn’t advance the plot, develop conflict, or assist characterization, then why is it there? Cut it out. If it does advance the plot, see if there’s a way to rewrite the scene to give it more feeling.

Create settings that pop. Make your setting pop by using vivid words and imagery.

Change the sentence structure. Are you stuck in a subject-predicate pattern? Try switching the arrangement of your sentences a little. Start a sentence with a verb, prepositional phrase, or adverb.

Consider your choice of words. Are you writing in an accessible way? What kind of an impression is our vocabulary or style giving the reader? The worst thing to do is sound pedantic or as if we’re talking down to our reader. Plus, it’s not drawing the reader in. And, usually? It reads very woodenly to me.

Use more dialogue. A conversation between characters that moves the plot forward or provides some character development is a great way to liven up a wooden scene.

Use both long sentences and short sentences. Mixing up the sentence length lends the text a different rhythm and pace.

Show, don’t tell. Instead of telling how a character feels about something, show the emotion through the character’s actions. There are times where telling is better than showing (action sequences, for example), but for the most part, it’s more interesting for the reader if they can draw their own conclusions instead of being spoon-fed information.

Consider the project itself. Have you lost interest in it? If you’re writing woodenly day after day, it could be symptomatic of a problem on your end. Have you fallen in love with an idea for a different novel? Have you written yourself into a hole? Assess what’s changed.

Has your WIP ever sounded flat? What did you do to fix it?

I went to see the new Smurf movie with my daughter and her two friends yesterday. :)

When I go to kids’ movies, I try to be a good sport. I channel my inner child, I suspend my disbelief, I try to get into a sillier mood.

I’m aware that sometimes I might be a pain to go to the movies with, so I have a rule that I keep my mouth shut if I feel the need to be critical.

So when Gargamel dumped a huge load of Smurfy backstory on Azrael the cat, I just made a mental note of the transgression and didn’t make a peep.

It was a pretty obvious dump—he explained how Papa Smurf had 99 boy Smurfs and then ended up with one girl—Smurfette. It was information that, to me, was distracting. I’d always just assumed, as a casual observer (I was a little old for the Smurfs when they debuted on US TV…my little sister watched them) that Papa Smurf was some kind of tribal leader. Did I need to know that the Smurfs were related (except, as more backstory reveals later, Smurfette)? Not really.

These are some questions I ask myself when dealing with backstory:

Is it necessary? Can I edit it out and not lose anything?

Can it be used suspensefully, if I need to include it? Can I reveal it later in the story and use the information to make readers turn pages to discover more?

Can I reveal the backstory to a newly introduced character in a more natural way?

Can I include a small amount in dialogue (without making it sound like Gargamel’s conversation with Azrael?)

Can a small amount be included with my character’s thoughts or in her memory?

Can I matter of factly slip in concise information as a tag? Mark’s sister, Tina, or Mark’s sister Tina was a nurse at the regional hospital.

And, by the way? If you’re nine, you’ll probably love the Smurfs. :)

How do you work in backstory?

Saturday, I mentioned that it was difficult for writers to locate and sort through the wilderness of editors, designers, and formatters.

I suggested, in fact, that there should be some ebook Sherpas to help give guidance. :)

Since there’s a distinct lack of ebook Sherpas at this point in the game (I’m sure there will soon be some entrepreneurs in this field…maybe even former agents), I thought that at least we could provide a spot for professionals to announce that they offered services for self-publishing writers.

The editor, designer, and formatter should be the ones to leave their contact info, though—I know most of us know some people in this field (I know a handful, too), but maybe they wouldn’t want to be added at this point by a writer (they could be too busy, or wanting pursue another field, etc.) But writers could email or tweet them and ask if they wanted to be added to our list.

This will probably be a list that will grow as we go. :) So I’m leaving the post open.

If you’d like to be added to the list, please either email me at elizabethspanncraig (at) gmail (dot) com or comment on this post. Websites or blogs would be especially wonderful to leave a link to, so we could get a better sense of you or your work.

I’ll sort the different professionals into categories (cover designers, etc.) and will open up a new blog with a page for each category, as a sort of directory. I’ll link to it on my sidebar and tweet it a bit. I can’t be a Sherpa, so this will be an effort such as a writer-with-very-little-time might come up with. :) But I do like the idea of having some sort of Yellow Pages for writers with these kinds of services in one place.

If you know of anyone, please ask them if they’d like to be listed.

I wrote a post on Saturday that covered the different things I’d learned in the process of preparing a book for e-publishing.

But although I mentioned the fact that many of my friends and family have been surprised (or confused or even concerned) that I was going to put a book out myself, I didn’t really talk about the reasons behind my choice to self-publish a book.

So consequently, I’ve gotten some emails asking me why I am. And if I thought that’s what all writers needed to do.

I don’t. I think writers should pursue traditional publishing. This is, I think, a fairly controversial opinion! I’ve seen other authors expressing different opinions.

Positives of Traditional Publishing:

You learn a ton with a professional editor.

Your books will be distributed to stores and can find readers who don’t own e-readers.

You learn the particular kinds of errors you’re prone to.

You learn how to correct your errors.

You learn how to be part of a team.

The mechanics of book production are handled by the publisher.

If you’re agented, you might receive new writing opportunities from your agent (it happened to me.)

You gain confidence as a writer.

You’re likely fulfilling a lifelong dream.

That being said—being traditionally published isn’t up to the writer. It’s up to professionals in the industry.

These days, getting rejected doesn’t mean that you can’t share your book with the world anymore.

My reasons for self-publishing:

I’m self-publishing two books (one now, one as soon as I get it whipped into shape.) Both are part of a discontinued series. I received the rights to the character back and I’ve got readers still emailing me asking for the next story. I decided it didn’t make sense for me to sit on books that I could be making some sort of profit on. Plus, I love the characters in the series and wanted to share more of their stores.

But I’m continuing traditional publishing, too. I’ve got a new series debuting with Penguin next year.

Positives of Self-Publishing

Traditionally published authors who have a backlist that they own the rights to can resurrect series that are no longer in stores.

Writers who don’t write commercially viable or easily-defined books can find readers.

Writers have more control over their books and content.

Writers receive a higher profit margin.

Writers who are overwhelmed by the process of querying agents and publishers can avoid it.

The important thing to remember:

We all need to write books that are worthy of readers. Have we edited until we’re sick of it? If the book isn’t any good, it won’t be accepted by publishers…and it won’t find readers, even self-published.

I think the best thing we can do as writers is to write as much as we can. If we’re traditionally published and keeping up with deadlines, that might mean writing a short story collection or a series written especially for e-publishing.

If we’re new writers, that might mean trying to pursue traditional publishing, but continuing to write new books or short stories during the query process (stories which can then either be queried or e-published.)

We should keep writing, keep improving, keep enjoying the process. I really do think this is a very good time to be a writer.

Have you considered self-publishing? Are you still planning a traditionally published career? Have I missed any pros or cons of either choice?