Random Drivel--Mules and Enticements

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

Have you ever wondered about mules?

No, not those poor smelly critters or the human/animal ones used to transport illegal drugs across borders.  I'm talking about the women's shoe mules. 

These shoes usually have a solid toe box area, but don't have any method of keeping the wearers heels in place.  Yesh, these mules.

Clogs are also a type of mule shoe, but without a nice defined heel.  Anyhoo, ever wonder why they're called mules? 

Actually, I haven't really given the question a rat's patootie until church this last Sunday.  A lady walked down the aisle and her mules provided the most amazing clip-clop sound.  So if you've never heard a horse walking on pavement, find a chick wearing these and ask her to prance a bit and then you'll understand.

My next piece of random drivel has to do with book covers.  Granted, I never gave them much thought other than, "Wow, what a cool cover!", or "Well, that one's not going to sell many books.", to "What were they thinking??"  But now, I'm all about book covers.  Since I'm e-publishing, there is very little a writer can do to attract a potential buyer, except have a really cool title and cover, well, that and good marketing, but that's a topic I'm not about to touch quite yet. 

The cover is the first thing a buyer will be looking at.  They don't care about what's inside the book . . . yet. 

--First, they have to be visually stimulated--have a freakin' awesome cover and title helps!
--Second, they have to be enticed by the blurb--basically, the back cover copy.  Not too much info, but enough to make the reader wonder what happens next.
--And third, the writer had better hook them on the first page--if you've interested the reader, then they will flip to the first page to see if your story is interesting.  Writing style plays a huge role here.  

A trifecta, of sorts, if I do say so myself. 

To that end, I've been working hard all week with my cover designer, Laura Morrigan, to find the uber-fantastic design.  The first problem we encountered was what to call my series.  After many puke-o-rama titles, I came up with THE GOBLIN'S APPRENTICE.  This will be my series logo, similar to Fablehaven or Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

So with that taken care of, Laura started designing the background and lettering for my logo.  This logo will appear on all of my Kyte Webber stories, including the one already out, Lost Leprechaun Loot.  Don't worry, the logo for my short stories/chapter books will be smaller and off to the side since they aren't a part of the series, per se, but more of a tangent to the main story series.

Even though there is a ton more work involved with getting a story e-published, I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.  Many, many writers NEVER have any input about their covers.  Sometimes, it's a 'too bad, so sad' this is how it is.  Or the condescending publisher pats said writer on the head and says, "You do your job, I'll do the selling."

Though for the most part, publishers know their reading clientele and do an excellent job of selecting cover art that entices the public to buy books, which is why you will see drastically different covers for various countries.

In other words, if my cover sucks--it's my own darn fault.

We've settled on the look I wanted, but a whole lot of our emails have concerned finding the right font.  Yep, FONT. There are a gazillion fonts out there, but which one will have the look I want to carry over to all my books throughout the years.  I don't want it too frilly, or fancy, or hard to read, or too modern, or too old-fashioned, or too generic, or too goofy, or too *fill in the blank* . . . 

Now, you get the picture?  Fonts were freaking driving me crazy . . . and then Laura found THE ONE. Yep, I'm pretty happy with it.  There's still a lot more to do with this cover before I unveil it, but then again, I still have to chop chapters one and two and rewrite it. 

No--I haven't worked on it.  I've been celebrating the sunshine this weekend. Today, the child will go to school and I'll go to work.

Later, Peeps!
Hmmm . . . .Peeps . . .  *drool forming at corners of mouth*