Fill-Me-In-Friday - The Best Writing Links of the Week!

 

It's that time of week where I round up my favorite posts (and shamelessly re-pimp my own). Hope you all enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

 

On Writing and Publishing:

Writers Must Write First by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Number One Overlooked Skill for Every Author by Writer Unboxed

Reasons Not To Self-Publish in 2011-2012 at The Millions

Platform and Social Media Must Not Be Your Center by Jane Friedman

The New Media Melee - 5 Indisputable Truths of Author Marketing by Idyll Conversation

Can SEO Help You Sell More Books? by The Creative Penn

Is the Traditional Book Dead? by Jim Devitt

My Twitter Retweeting Policy by John Scalzi

Are You Blogging to the Wrong Audience? by Meghan Ward

When Do Readers Trust You? by C. Hope Clark

What You May Have Missed Here: 

 

by Sierra Godfrey
What You Missed on the Author Blog:
Those were some of my favorites, what were some of yours?

 

 

 

“...a sexy, sizzling tale that is sure to have readers begging for more!" –Jo Davis, author of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION

 

 

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!

Read an excerpt here.


All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

 

The Big Reveal: I Have a COVER!!!!

 


I'm so excited about sharing my cover with you guys today that I barely even have the patience to write this post. I just want to post the picture and jump up and down like an over-caffeinated tween at a Justin Bieber concert.

 

So all I'll say is that so far on this publication journey, nothing has made it feel as real as when I opened my email two days ago and saw this cover with my characters images and my name on it.

I'm not sure I've ever felt such a rush. I loved it at first sight. It was exactly what I wanted and I bow down to the Berkley Heat art department. Their covers always amaze me, but seeing my own was seriously a dream come true.

I asked for a couple and for rain (because a pivotal scene of the book happens in the rain), that's about all the input I gave. And this is the ridiculously perfect cover they graced me with.

*drumroll please*

Here is the final cover for CRASH INTO YOU (Berkley Heat, Jan. 2012), which now is also available for preorder on Amazon!

 

 

So what do you think? :D Isn't his hand placement so hot?

Book Covers: What Sucks You In?

I'm heading back home after a weekend in New Orleans to stand in my sister's wedding, so today's post will be a quick question inspired by Sarah Skilton's post on this topic. Most people admit that a great cover can suck them in to buy a book, but what kind of cover do you prefer?

Do you want a full face to put with a name, like this:

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, Book 1)

Or do you prefer the body part method and leave the rest to the imagination? Like this...

Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls)

Or a combo, some characters seen, some not.

Inside Out

Or the romance standby and a personal favorite of mine, the yummy male torso...

The Perfect Play (A Play-by-Play Novel)

Or something more abstract...

Wake (Wake Series, Book 1)

What catches your eye to most? And do certain kinds of covers make you NOT want to buy a book? Which type of cover do you prefer? What do you picture for your own book?

Book Covers and Race

Okay, so this just totally shocked me. Author Justine Larbalestier blogged about book covers and protagonists of color. Apparently, her book Liar has a black protagonist, but the publisher insisted on this cover (supposedly for marketing purposes) in the U.S., which clearly features a white girl. (The cover behind it is the Australian version.)

Seriously? I really have my mouth hanging open. What were they thinking? First of all, let me just say that I'm not a fan of faces on covers anyway. I hate when the cover tries to force me into an image of what the character looks like. I'd rather create my own image in my head. However, I'd be super pissed if I picked up a book and the cover image was completely unrelated to the book. It's a betrayal to the author, to the character, and to the reader. Plus, there are so few YA books with protagonists of color to begin with, shouldn't they promoting that this is one? Craziness.