by Lois Winston
As those of you who read my post last month know, in addition to writing the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries for Midnight Ink, I've recently embarked on an indie publishing career, making available as ebooks some of my older romances and romantic suspense books under the pen name Emma Carlyle. My backlist will also be available shortly.
I'm lucky that I have a design background and a son who knows just about all there is to know when it comes to designing on the computer. Scott is an animator and does post-production work for TV and the movies. My skills were learned way before PhotoShop, Quark, Publisher and all those other programs were a glimmer in some geek's eye. They were honed back in the prehistoric age when we actually had to spec type the old-fashion way -- using {{shudder}} math formulas!
So what's this got to do with why I'm grateful I'm not a surgeon? I'm getting to that.
For the indie books and my backlist I need cover art. I've been coming up with the concepts and finding the perfect artwork and photos to incorporate. Scott has provided the technical skill to execute the covers. I've been very pleased with the way the covers have turned out.
However, some of the covers need to have Lois Winston as the author and others, Emma Carlyle. A couple of weeks ago Scott created the perfect cover for Lost in Manhattan, a romantic suspense where the heroine is suffering from amnesia after being hit by a taxi. I spent days searching through royalty free photo databases because I had a very specific image in mind. I needed a photo of a red-headed young woman with a French braid. I finally found the photo. Scott took a shot of the Manhattan skyline and merged the two images. The cover is exactly what I'd envisioned.
I spent a lot of time looking at that cover. I had to resize it for the various ebook platforms where I was uploading the book. I had to add it to my website. I pinned it on Pinterest. Copies started selling on Amazon and other places.
Then one night after the book had been available for several days and sold about a dozen copies, I received an email from Scott just as I was about to power down my computer for the night and go to bed. He had noticed that he put the wrong author name on the cover!
I couldn't believe it! I must have looked at that cover a hundred times and never noticed that Lois Winston is listed as the author and not Emma Carlyle! I'm trained as an artist. I'm supposed to have a critical eye when it comes to visual elements. I'm not supposed to miss something so blatantly wrong as this.
So I quickly uploaded a revised cover and waited several days for the various sites to refresh the image. Of course, during that time, the book kept selling with the wrong cover. I'm now waiting for the nasty reviews to arrive. Then again, maybe like me, no one will notice.
And that brings me to why I'm glad I'm not a surgeon. I screwed up because I was rushing and not paying as close attention as I should have. But my screw-up, in the greater scheme of things, is a pretty benign screw-up. No one got hurt. It may have been a devastating error for me, but in hindsight I can slap my head and laugh about it.
But it got me thinking about how a mistake made by someone else can have all sorts of horrible consequences for other, innocent people. At least I didn't leave a medical instrument inside a patient, and for that reason, I'm very grateful I'm not a surgeon.
And speaking of surgeons, this is the perfect segue into a topic near and dear to my heart -- breast cancer research. To celebrate the availability of the five Emma Carlyle books, instead of throwing a champagne and caviar party, I'm making a donation to breast cancer research. And guess what? You can determine how large a check I write. Throughout the month of August, I will donate $500 for every 1,000 Emma Carlyle books sold. You can find blurbs, excerpts and buy links on the Emma Carlyle website.
Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. Visit her at http://www.loiswinston.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Visit Lois's romance writing alter-ego Emma Carlyle at http://www.emmacarlyle.com.
As those of you who read my post last month know, in addition to writing the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries for Midnight Ink, I've recently embarked on an indie publishing career, making available as ebooks some of my older romances and romantic suspense books under the pen name Emma Carlyle. My backlist will also be available shortly.
I'm lucky that I have a design background and a son who knows just about all there is to know when it comes to designing on the computer. Scott is an animator and does post-production work for TV and the movies. My skills were learned way before PhotoShop, Quark, Publisher and all those other programs were a glimmer in some geek's eye. They were honed back in the prehistoric age when we actually had to spec type the old-fashion way -- using {{shudder}} math formulas!
So what's this got to do with why I'm grateful I'm not a surgeon? I'm getting to that.
For the indie books and my backlist I need cover art. I've been coming up with the concepts and finding the perfect artwork and photos to incorporate. Scott has provided the technical skill to execute the covers. I've been very pleased with the way the covers have turned out.
However, some of the covers need to have Lois Winston as the author and others, Emma Carlyle. A couple of weeks ago Scott created the perfect cover for Lost in Manhattan, a romantic suspense where the heroine is suffering from amnesia after being hit by a taxi. I spent days searching through royalty free photo databases because I had a very specific image in mind. I needed a photo of a red-headed young woman with a French braid. I finally found the photo. Scott took a shot of the Manhattan skyline and merged the two images. The cover is exactly what I'd envisioned.
I spent a lot of time looking at that cover. I had to resize it for the various ebook platforms where I was uploading the book. I had to add it to my website. I pinned it on Pinterest. Copies started selling on Amazon and other places.
Then one night after the book had been available for several days and sold about a dozen copies, I received an email from Scott just as I was about to power down my computer for the night and go to bed. He had noticed that he put the wrong author name on the cover!
I couldn't believe it! I must have looked at that cover a hundred times and never noticed that Lois Winston is listed as the author and not Emma Carlyle! I'm trained as an artist. I'm supposed to have a critical eye when it comes to visual elements. I'm not supposed to miss something so blatantly wrong as this.
So I quickly uploaded a revised cover and waited several days for the various sites to refresh the image. Of course, during that time, the book kept selling with the wrong cover. I'm now waiting for the nasty reviews to arrive. Then again, maybe like me, no one will notice.
And that brings me to why I'm glad I'm not a surgeon. I screwed up because I was rushing and not paying as close attention as I should have. But my screw-up, in the greater scheme of things, is a pretty benign screw-up. No one got hurt. It may have been a devastating error for me, but in hindsight I can slap my head and laugh about it.
But it got me thinking about how a mistake made by someone else can have all sorts of horrible consequences for other, innocent people. At least I didn't leave a medical instrument inside a patient, and for that reason, I'm very grateful I'm not a surgeon.
And speaking of surgeons, this is the perfect segue into a topic near and dear to my heart -- breast cancer research. To celebrate the availability of the five Emma Carlyle books, instead of throwing a champagne and caviar party, I'm making a donation to breast cancer research. And guess what? You can determine how large a check I write. Throughout the month of August, I will donate $500 for every 1,000 Emma Carlyle books sold. You can find blurbs, excerpts and buy links on the Emma Carlyle website.
Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. Visit her at http://www.loiswinston.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Visit Lois's romance writing alter-ego Emma Carlyle at http://www.emmacarlyle.com.
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