Back in 2007, author Wayne Smith sent me this little note that really made my day, "I thought you'd want to know....I entered Third Eye in the Writer's Digest annual contest. Although no awards, the cover design, on a scale of 1 - 5, got a 5 rating and special notice/comment from the judge."
We have since designed a second book cover for Wayne.
Shades of Gray by Jessica James won 2nd place for historical fiction in the 2010 Stars and Flags contest. Shades was also a 2008 IPPY Awards finalist in the Best Regional Fiction Category. Shades of Gray has received fantastic reviews from civil war buffs and romance readers alike.
Jessica's second book is set to be released soon and I had the pleasure of designing that cover, as well. I don't want to post it until she announces it, but it was a particularly fun project for me since I got to use my own background photo of leather, an old Bible cover from the 1800s that I scanned and I even got the fleuron I created for the first cover on the new book!
Laurie Todd's Fight Your Health Insurer and Win was featured on the news and like all things of interest, the segment can be found on YouTube.
I was also more than a little pleased when I learned the cover tied for second place in the Bay Area Independent Publishers' Association 2008 Book Awards.
When we interviewed Laurie back in 2007, and she was pretty happy as her book gained recognition and sales increase.
"Today I went to visit my book. It has found its way into the most prestigious place in town — the University of Washington Medical School Bookstore. I have to chuckle ... they must not know yet what is IN the book!
In any case, I met with the bookstore manager to discuss events, etc. He said, "I have seen a lot of self-published books in my time, and this is the best one I have ever seen." Kudos to us all.
"The book was prominently displayed by the cash register. I want to tell you, Cathi, that that beautiful cover was visible from halfway down the aisle," she adds.
It seems our authors can't help but win awards. Willard Thompson of Rincon Publishing and author of Dream Helper: A Novel of Early California, won Gold in the 2009 IPPY Awards in the West-Pacific – Best Regional Fiction category.
Willard has just published the second title in the series, Defina's Gold.
I had the pleasure of meeting Willard and his wife when they visited Halifax a few months ago.
A big congratulations to Wayne Lionel Aponte, whose book, The Year of No Money in Tokyo has just made it to the number one spot for Kindle sales in Japan. Wayne is a delight to work with and his book is the remarkable story of how he triumphs over some amazing obstacles (being broke and American), in Japan, during that country’s worst recession since the Second World War.
Wayne is a journalist and a teacher. He has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post,The Wall Street Journal,The Financial Times (London), and The Nation. He has lived in Japap just over 20 years.
There are many reasons to avoid independent publishing and more people who will quickly list them if you suggest it. But one of the most valid reasons to self-publish or to create a micro publishing company, is to take advantage of a strong niche market. Books that target niche markets are often overlooked by larger, traditional publishing houses because they don’t appear to have the commercial potential other books might have. This is often not an accurate assumption, but it’s their money and what can you do?
I’ve worked on several such books and each of them has been successful. No, not Random House-sold-50,000-copies-in-the-first-month successful, but certainly successful enough that most authors would gladly do it again. And many go on to have second and third books within a relatively short time frame.
Author Chicoro, is a great example of this success. Her first book, Grow It!, written for women with Afro-textured hair, has been in the top 5 of hair books on Amazon since December 2008 and as of the writing of this article was enjoying the number one spot in the hair category. It’s not luck that got her there, however. As my grandmother would say, she’s “one smart cookie.” She knows her market very well, stays focused, professional and produces a superior product in a genre that was in desperate need of some down-to-earth, been-there-done-that information.
There is nothing wishy-washy about Chicoro. She’s one of those rare individuals who can put her artistic side on hold while her business side gets down to…well, business. When I politely suggested she use her real name, instead of “Chicoro” on the front cover, she insisted we go with Chicoro and she was right. It is now a “brand” for her books and people immediately recognize it. This will surely serve her well as she closes in on the publishing date of her second book.
Author David Hilzenrath will be serializing his book in the Washington Post, where he works as an investigative reporter. You can read the currently available chapter and other information about the book on their website.
I designed the cover using an image the publisher supplied, by photographer Dave Bartruff, licensed from Corbis.com.
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