Good evening everyone and welcome to my spot on the blog tour where I have a fantastic guest post to share with you.
A Flicker Of Steel in the second book in The Avalon Chronicles and is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy of both here.
Before I share my guest post with you here is a little bit about the book.
Book Synopsis:
Avalon stands revealed, but the war is far from over. For Layla Cassidy, it has only just begun.
Thrust into a new world full of magic and monsters, Layla has finally come to terms with her supernatural powers—and left her old life behind. But her enemies are relentless.
Sixteen months after her life changed forever, Layla and her team are besieged during a rescue attempt gone awry and must fight their way through to freedom. It turns out that Avalon has only grown since their last encounter, adding fresh villains to its horde. Meanwhile, revelations abound as Layla confronts twists and betrayals in her own life, with each new detail adding to the shadow that looms over her.
As Layla fights against the forces of evil, her powers begin to increase—and she discovers more about the darkness that lies in her past. As this same darkness threatens her future, will she be ready to fight for everything she holds dear?
Guest Review: Why Are Book Covers So Important?
There’s an old saying that I’m pretty sure everyone ever knows, that says “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. While the sentiment of not judging someone by how the look is a noble one, when it actually comes to books the whole thing breaks down.
The entire job of a book cover is to be judged. That’s it. It’s to sell your book to anyone who looks at it. It’s to entice a new reader and make them think, “wow, this looks awesome.” If that weren’t the case, book covers would just be a blank page.
Along with your title, and the blurb on the back, the book cover is there to sell your work. Those three things need to sing in harmony together. A bad title, blurb, or cover might well cost you a sale, but if all three suck then there’s an excellent chance that your book isn’t going to do as well as it could.
When I self published my first book back in 2012, the cover was all down to me. No one else had a say, and if I’d stuffed it up it might well have gone horribly wrong, but I think it worked out okay. Now that I’ve been working with my publisher, 47North, for the last 8 published books, I’ve come to know more about what is and isn’t possible on a cover.
Yes, your artwork might be amazing, but you need to think about how it looks with your name and title on it. And more importantly, it needs to look good in a tiny window on places like Amazon. Your cover doesn’t only need to be good, it needs to be able to scale too. You don’t want to shrink it and it all look like a blur.
I don’t get final say on covers anymore, although I do still get to take part in that process, which I’m very grateful for. And I’m okay with that. The author doesn’t necessarily know what will make the best cover for their book, and there have been several occasions when I’ve been asked for what I’d like to see, and they’ve looked at me like I’ve lost my mind. Which is probably an issue for another day.
So, make your cover sing. And along with a good title and well thought out blurb, you’ve given yourself a much better chance of someone looking at your book and thinking, “yeah, that sounds interesting.”
Writing a book is hard. Publishing and selling a book is just as, even not more difficult. So, if you’re self publishing, you want to do everything in your power to make it work. And if your traditionally publishing, work with your publisher to create the best cover you can. Even if it wasn’t how it looked in your head, it’s better to be working alongside people than stood at a distance having no say over what happens to the cover of your story.
About The Author:
Over The Rainbow Blog 