Feeling Bedeviled

My third book, “Bedeviled” is appropriately titled as it continues to bedevil me. The new cover art arrived last night and it is just wrong. I am sharing it with you, not because is so spectacular, but because t it needs so much work. I am entitled to two revisions from the artist. I just hope that they are enough. All help welcome!

The length is giving me trouble too. I love my characters, and the plot is fun and romantic. I added a hint of intrigue this time and perhaps I got in over my head. In my haste to solve the mystery, the book 20,000 words too short.

I know this sounds like an odd concern to you, but if I am creating a series of books, readers expect uniformity in the look, feel and writing style. One of the similarities is cover art (see disaster here), others length and style. I am pretty sure I have style covered, but length is giving me headaches. So I am editing and writing simultaneously, which is a challenge for me, fleshing out details I sacrificed in my rush to the finish line. Speaking of which, yesterday, while working on these details I learned about running a marathon, because our Alex runs in “Bedeviled.” Being a couch potato myself, I had to learn a great deal. I had the sole responsibility for determining a reasonable finish time for our hunky athlete – not first place but a good showing. I promise, Alex will do us proud. I can tell you, marathoners are impressive but crazy driven.

I guess I am a bit driven myself, just in a different direction. I want to write my books and get them to my readers. I want your feedback so that I can incorporate it into the next book, which I am then anxious to complete and get out to you, and so it goes.

But I am in so many different directions. I find myself hungry for advice on how to be a better author, marketer and self-publisher. And man oh man, is there a lot of advice out there. If you think authors make their money selling books, let me set you straight on that one. The real money is in selling advice to other authors on how to sell more books. Yep, you read that right. Tons of fiction writers are making a great living writing non-fiction books and video training courses on how to sell more books.

I am overwhelmed with offers. I used to sift through and subscribe to all of them. I thought I was gaining knowledge about my craft, but I was just getting buried in conflicting advice. Kind of like the once a day brochures from Viking Cruises. If you get those, you know what I am talking about. Seems I am not alone because now the offers to help me determine which products are scams are arriving too. Yikes! The delete key has become my salvation. I have gotten much more discriminating.

Frankly, I would so much rather hear from you than all these pitchmen. Would you be open to a little survey if I promised not to do one too often – I am not a cruise line, so perhaps twice a year?

I want to learn more about you so I can give you, my lovely readers, more of what you want to read. Do you want more of the characters you have already met? More mystery? A longer series so that we can learn the fate of Clarice or Ethan or other characters? I want to know the answers to these and other questions.

Perhaps a giveaway would entice you to answer my questions. A successful author just gave away a Coach purse. Over 350 people signed up to get signed copies of “Bedazzled” on Goodreads and that was for one of the three free paperback copies.

Hmmm, what would entice you I wonder?

Well, I am off to the Hudson River valley for five days of sightseeing, wandering and art. Perhaps I will be inspired for a giveaway from there, or perhaps for a story or two.