Book Cover Design and Editing

Now that my husband is getting close to having the words done for the novel, we are starting to think of how to get it edited and find a cover design.  We do not know of any graphic designers, so we are going to have to rely on friends of friends or doing something through the internet.  Since this is his first novel, we don't have a lot of money to spend, so we want to try to find the best cover for the best price.  I know people say "Don't judge a book by its cover", but people totally do.  Even I do.  I find myself on Amazon looking at all the free books (because I'm cheap right now, and I'll download a free ebook or go to the library - then if I find a book I like, I'll go back and buy it...), and I don't really even slow down unless the cover or title is appealing to me.  So a good, engaging cover is very important.

With that said, I have heard of a website called Design Crowd and apparently graphic designers will bid on doing your design.  You give them a project and some ideas you had, and they will draw their vision and hope you pick their design.  I've never done this before, but it seems pretty awesome.  It's a way to connect with a lot of graphic designers in which we do not have access to.  We'll also be reaching out to friends to see if anyone knows any good graphic designers who are willing to do a book cover for a decent price.  What I'm really hoping for here, is to find the gem of an artist who is just starting out - so we'll get an awesome cover but for a low price because the person is just starting out.  But I don't know if we'll get that lucky.  But what I liked about Design Crowd is there are people all over the world bidding on these jobs.  A colleague of mine had a bid and chose someone from Cambodia!  How awesome is that?  The money that he makes is going to go pretty far in Cambodia. And she would have never had the chance to see his designs without this website.  So I think it's a neat idea, and we'll definitely check it out.  If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, we'll gladly accept!

We also have to figure out how to get it edited.  I will obviously read through it and try to flesh out the bad grammer or typos before it goes to anyone.  But we'll really need someone to edit it more for content.  I'm not an editor so I don't know how a book should be put together, like the percentage of each piece of the story.  I can tell when a story isn't moving, but I don't think I can give advice on how to make it better, or what pieces to take out or how to build a character better.  Editing I think is going to be one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle.  I see all the time where people give a book a low rating solely on the fact that it wasn't edited.  I feel like poor editing is definitely jarring, but to give a book 1 star when you say it was a good read is just ridiculous.  I would say a book should lose 1 star from your rating for poor editing, but not drop the whole rating to 1 star.  But since people are like that, you have to pay for the editing.  I have no idea where to go for editing.  If there are any independent authors out there who read this, do you have any recommendations on editing?

Book Review: Tiger's Voyage

Tiger's Voyage
by Colleen Houck

Date Read:  06/07/2012
Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I may have leaned more to 4-4.5 starts just due to the fact that it took a long time for this book to start. But the action once you got into was good, and I really liked the growth of the characters, even though it might have been a little slow. So I still gave it 5 stars, because it was very good.

The action in this book was REALLY good! Now, it took about 250 pages for them to start their quest, but once they started, it was great. The dragons were so unique. Each dragon gave them a quest or hurdle they would have to overcome to get the help and direction they needed. My favorite was the dragon that made them go through the hunt. The descriptions were amazing.

The first 250 pages, while good, were a little slow. Basically it just focused on the love triangle. Now, I absolutely hate love triangles, but at least this one has both guys as decent people. Even though Ren had forgotten her, he still falls in love with her again. Now, he gets physically ill and hurts when he touches her (yes, a little weird...), but he is still drawn to her. If he fell in love with her once, he will obviously fall in love with her again. But of course, something happens and he isn't able to help save her, so, being the selfless man he is, he backs off and tells her to be with Kishan because he can't touch her, he can't save her, etc, etc, etc. Stupid boys always think that is romantic or whatnot...but she doesn't want to be with him!

Eventually she starts spending time with Kishan and opens her heart to him and closes her heart to Ren. It's sad really, watching everything fall apart. But Kishan's personality has changed so much since we met him in the first book. I actually grow to really like him in this book. It doesn't mean that I don't still know Kelsey is MEANT to be with Ren, but at least I don't want to punch him in the face like I did Jacob in Twilight.

They finally get on their quest, which as I said earlier, is a lot of fun. I really liked some of the stories that were told in this book. [SPOILER: Then about 50-60% through the story, Kelsey decides that Kishan is a good person and she does love him (albeit not the same way she loves Ren), and kisses him. That is finally the trigger!! Ren remembers, but of course, it's too late, and she's already closed off her heart to him. Sigh. But Ren is persistent, as he has always been. She admits how much she loves him, but can't choose between them. Even though she opened her heart to him again, she is scared he'll leave her again. C'mon Kelsey. After all that you've been through, do you really think he'd leave you again? It's so obvious how devoted he is. And he KNOWS Kishan would move in as soon as he left again. Give me a break. So toward the end of the book, she is scared, and makes the safe choice and tells Ren that she wants to be with Kishan, not him. Stupid girl. But we all know she is supposed to be with Ren. With that connection they have, the way he makes her swoon just by grazing her skin, his poems, the way when they touch he makes her stronger. Just cut the crap and be with him.The ending is quite a cliffhanger. I had 13 pages left, and another battle started, and I thought to myself, "Crap, there's going to be a cliffhanger. No way this will be over in 13 pages," And I was right. But what I really liked was how the epilogue was from Ren's POV. Though it was short at only like 3 pages, it was still nice to see from his POV how desperately he needs Kelsey. Now I know that some people think it's bad to show young girls that you have to find this all consuming love. But what I say is, love makes you stronger. Having someone by your side through bad times helps you get through things. This is just a little more of an extreme, and I'm pretty sure everyone knows that you won't find someone where you have this tangible connection (it's fantasy, there are men that turn to tigers, magic lightning power...) but it is similar. You will find someone that you love and do have a certain connection to. Someone that is hard to live without. And if Ren is a better person and she's his reason for living, he will end up doing so many wonderful things because he has his woman at his side. It's a book people. And it's fantasy. Just relax and enjoy the story.]

This story is really good. I'm really enjoying watching how they break this curse, one book at a time. However, in the next book they should find all 4 gifts...so what is the fourth book going to be about? Will it be a final showdown with Lokesh? I don't know. I'm a little saddended that I have to wait 3 months for it to come out, but in the scheme of things, that's not that long. I'm looking forward to it, and sure hope that Kelsey comes to her senses. And I think if Kishan knows how much she loves Ren, that eventually he'll back off too. But I really hope he finds someone to be happy with too. He really does deserve it. And I sure hope they best Lokesh, he's a creepy guy!

A Writer's Wife Blog

I have created this blog in order to blog about what it is like being a writer's wife.  My husband is just starting out writing his first novel.  He is almost done writing it and will then have to have it go through quite a few edits.  I've been enjoying learning about the process with him.  I had no idea how much went into writing and publishing a novel before this.  I have a new appreciation for how long it takes for a novel to be released!

I will also be blogging about other books I read and anything else that I feel like writing about!  I look forward to meeting new people.