A freelance writer and journalist, Anne Stephenson spent much of her childhood reading about other people's adventures. Now she makes up her own. When not writing for nine-to-12 year olds, Anne is busy plotting how to commit murder on the page.
Read moreFeatured Author: Toni Kief
Toni Kief is a small town Midwestern nomad from a family of high spirits and laughter.
Read moreFeatured Author: Jamila Muradasilova
Jamila Muradasilova’s life experience is the source of ideas and inspiration for her books.
Read moreFeatured Author: Terence O'Leary
Terence O’Leary is an Irish-American author and speaker.
Read moreFeatured Author: Writers Cooperative of the Pacific Northwest
The Writers Cooperative of the Pacific Northwest is an author-owned, author-operated cooperative made up of writers, storytellers and creative minds dedicated to the craft of writing, publishing, and marketing intellectual property,
Read moreFeatured Author: Linda Curry
Linda J. Curry is an author, speaker and teacher in the areas of spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.
Read moreFeatured Author: Enid Mallory
Enid Mallory has worked as a social worker and librarian and mostly as a writer.
Read moreBook Cover Reviews: All Things Cease to Appear
The recently published All Things Must Cease by Elizabeth Brundage is a dark, riveting, beautifully written book—by “a brilliant novelist,” according to Richard Bausch—that combines noir and the gothic in a story about two families entwined in their own unhappiness, with, at its heart, a gruesome and unsolved murder.
Read moreBook Cover Reviews: We've Already Gone This Far
As regulars on this site will know, sometimes I like to write about some of my favorite recent book cover designs.
Today, I'm admiring this beauty from Lucy Kim for Patrick Dacey's We've Already gone This Far. Lucy is a New York based designer working for Henry Holt. Prior to that, Lucy was at Penguin Group for 14 years.
Read more
Over to you: Your stories of creating/selecting your first book cover - Part 3
I asked some of the lovely authors over at http://www.kboards.com/ to share their experiences of developing their first cover. Some decided to do it themselves, some worked with designers. All of them learned from the experience and have shared their thoughts here so you can learn from them too.
Read moreOver to you: Your stories of creating/selecting your first book cover
I asked some of the lovely authors over at http://www.kboards.com/ to share their experiences of developing their first cover. Some decided to do it themselves, some worked with designers. All of them learned from the experience and have shared their thoughts here so you can learn from them too.
Read moreReviews, Teasers and Taglines – What to put on your book cover?
agline reviews and teasers are used frequently on many of the bestsellers, but seem strangely absent in indie book covers. This is partly down to the often cited advice that everything on your cover should be legible at thumbnail size. This is simply untrue.
Read moreBook Cover Reviews: My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir
Two days ago we rummaged through Shackleton's bookshelves to explore the books people take on expeditions to Antarctica. Today's book cover review focuses on a very different pile of books.
Read moreBook Cover Reviews: Unforgettable
Unforgettable is a debut novel by Charlie Maclean. The cover has been designed by Sinem Erkas. The cover was created, not through clever manipulation in Photoshop, but by typsetting the book and then cutting / tearing into it. The end result is eye-catching and gorgeous!
Read moreThe Six Faces of Biography – with Flowchart!
What do you put on the cover of your biography?
An obvious answer of a photograph of your subject. But what if the subject isn’t instantly recognizable? Do you stick with the large photograph and hope that people will pick it up? Or do you opt for a different design?
Read moreBook Cover Reviews: Pax
The cover for Pax, the bestselling new novel by Sara Pennypacker, grabs me every time I see it. Aimed at children aged about 9+, Pax is a "moving story of the extraordinary friendship between a boy and his fox, and their epic journey to be reunited".
Read moreColoring Book Cover Art
A quarter of the Amazon best seller list for 2015 comprised of Adult Coloring Books. Publishers Weekly observed that in 2015, “for the first time, adult coloring books were the most successful players on the trade paperback lists”. This trend is set to continue in 2016 with more coloring books being published by self-publishers and the big publishing houses.
Read moreRecovering the Classics
All too often, classic literature is left with cover artwork that doesn’t reflect anything but “Classic Literature” – a small title on a solid background or pattern, perhaps an old painting. The lucky few recently turned into films may have stills of the main characters. But most covers don’t try to lure in potential buyers. Why bother?
Read moreThe Six Covers of Romances
What better way to spend Valentine’s Day than browsing the covers of romantic novels? There are six basic types of cover that are used on romantic novels, and although designers occasionally break the mould, most stick to tried-and-tested. Readers of romantic novels, it seems, are creatures of habit.
Read moreBook Cover Review: A Song for No Man's Land
I love this cover for the newly-released A Song for No Man's Land.
The first in a series of dark fantasy novellas by Andy Remic is set in the trenches of World War I...
Read more