Wednesday 15 July 2015

More than just a book cover


Becoming an author has been one of the most exciting adventures I've ever embarked upon. In nearly three years of publishing my books, I've had some amazing surprises come my way, Taking a few risks has rewarded me with some unexpected windfalls. One of my most recent ones was in the preparation for the cover of my book

After the volume of work I have put into writing this story, I wanted the perfect cover. For months I've been scrolling through thousands of pictures of tattooed muscled men ( pure research of course) trying to find the perfect face of my character and never quite getting there, until one night... he was there. The face, body and sexy look that I needed. It was just a pic on someone's website and with a little detective work, I tracked this man down... only to find out that I was far from the only person who appreciated this man. Surprise, surprise.


Of course, he had already donned the front pages of magazines and had a gazillion fans. Any hope I had of having him on my front cover was looking a bit like a pipe dream, but I had nothing to lose... so I emailed him. I put a rough picture together of what I expected my cover to look like with him on it, gave him a link to my website and explained I write erotica.  Not in a million years was I expecting to even hear back from him. And that's what I love about taking risks. Sometimes you win. A few hours later, I was absolutely stunned to see a very positive reply in my inbox.


Alex Minsky would be very happy to be on my book and gave me the email of his amazing photographer to negotiate a contract. Many emails later with a very kind and helpful man, I had my image and I was on top of the world.


It was then a simple matter of sitting down with my own much loved photographer, Leah, who has been my co-artist for the covers of  The Line Trilogy, and I couldn't be happier with the result.


One of the best things about being a self-published author, is being able to be in charge of your whole book, not just the story, but how it will be presented to the world. It becomes more than a book. It's my creation, my passion and my art, I may never get to a New York Times bestselling list, or make a million dollars, but the adventures, rewards and surprises I've had on this journey, and the wonderful people who have come along for the ride, are already priceless to me.





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