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Reconstructive Surgery - the book's look

I like knowing things already - don't you? The thrill of learning is great when it's an armchair activity but not when it comes to publishing books. However, I am not learned in this area.

Now young adult novel experts say I have problems. They say the title and the cover for "The Wych of Lyper Cove" is not so much intriguing or entertaining as overly confusing. The book is being renamed as "The Witch of Leper Cove."

Lots of early language spellings are being changed in the manuscript to go along with the more modern language theme. "Lyllie" is "Lily" - "Alys" is "Alice." No more "Lundin" -- instead "London." I thought I would hate all these but having taken a look at the changes - I like them. They let the story move along faster with less translation work. And it's the story that counts.

Then there's the cover. It's getting a facelift. A complete facelift. A professional book cover maker is at work making it a Young Adult cover complete with the heroine, the forest, a distant cathedral and yes, a wolf. My quiet "vaguely medieval" cover did not have the effect I thought it would. It did not attract readers of various ages.

The experts say you have to choose a target audience and hope other readers find you anyway. I am going with the Young Adult crowd, but please if you are younger or older try me anyway. But I am much less sanguine about the new cover than I am about the text because I do not know this stuff. I must rely on experts.

The experts do seem expert and they are both generous and kind so perhaps this will all work out. I'd like to post some potential covers here and get your feedback - what do you think? Does it take a village to put out a good book? Read More 
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the Age of Techno-Wizardry

On the one hand - they walk you through it. If you publish on KDP or via Createspace I can tell you first-hand they make it easy...and I have no reason to think Smashwords or the other options would be more difficult. KDP and Createspace give you lots of information -- "units" sold, average price and of course royalty info. They offer you the ability to change things quickly so you can experiment with what might bring your book to your readers' attention. Their email customer support is so good I haven't had to call them yet, but from what I hear the phone folks are splendid too. SO what's my problem?

It's the other hand. The larger techno world where many ebook readers hang out. I am not a total luddite but I speak computerese about as well as I speak French. "Je suis tres desole, madam, je'ne pas parle la francaise tres bien..." (and yes, I know my French spelling sucks as well.) So when someone in-the-know says I need a MAP I think of a charming illustration for the front part of my book, a map of 13th C England showing Aldinoch and Guildsford (pronounce it Gyfford), but that is "defiantly" not what they mean. It's some kind of computer talk for making my various twitter, facebook, tumblr etc. feed link up. At least it might be that.

Educating myself about this is part of the job - one I am taking a step at a time. This website is fairly rudimentary (notice there is no RSS button for you to click to subscribe and the link on the right hand side of this page DOES NOT WORK so to subscribe you have to bookmark it and choose the "subscribe" option or click the RSS button in the webpage address if you use IE as a browser. But then, you knew that....because all of you are more hip than I am when it comes to managing the machines that manage us. Anybody who has wisdom to bestow on an old woman is welcome to comment - and have a great day out there. In Pittsburgh the freeze is letting up and we are starting to hope...now off to the gym!

PS -kudos to the sitebuilder folks who fixed the subscription link. it now works Read More 
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