Alternate Book Cover: After The Virus

So I have received some feedback that the current ebook cover I am using for After The Virus is a little dark (aka doesn’t “pop” enough) and not as genre specific as it could be, but I find that I’m a little concerned about making a change when I have already begun branding the book with this cover (see right-hand side bar).

Scott Fitzgerald Gray, after he read and reviewed the book, volunteered to mock up an alternate cover, because he wasn’t sure the current one sold the book strongly enough, and this (above) is what he came up with – I think there is something really visually compelling about the white background and etched background lettering and, obviously, the bloody handprint really does pop in this version, but I am also not too sure that I like it any better than the current darker version.

Is different better in this case?

I am, however, seriously toying with the idea of keeping the current cover for the ebook and using Scott’s version for the print version, for which I have actually gotten a few requests. Side note: I might try to have a POD version out for September/October.

Do you prefer the current cover or this new version? Why or why not? Feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

After The Virus – now on iBooks!

After The Virus is now available on iBooks.

$2.99 (allowing for currency conversions) on all six i-Tunes stores:

iTunes Canada

iTunes USA

iTunes UK

iTunes Germany

iTunes France

iTunes Australia

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So please select one of the above links to read this post-apocalyptic love story via iBooks.

Synopsis: After the virus decimates 99.9% of the world’s population, and all traces of humanity along with it, Rhiannon and Will are forced to move beyond their past fame, fortune, and personal demons to rescue a mute girl from the clutches of two warring cults.

Keywords: post-apocalyptic, dystopia, survival, zombies, suspense, thriller, horror, love

Categories: Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Action-Adventure, Fiction

ENJOY!!

An Interview with Author Bryan R. Dennis

This post is part of a Blog Tour supporting Indie Authors and their self-published books. I hope you enjoy getting a little bit of insight into the writer’s mind & craft. If you like what you read, please consider supporting the author by checking out their work (links below).

Pitch us your book!

A self-deluded corporate loser encounters an eccentric woman from the desert who shows him another way of looking at life and at himself.

What compelled you to write this particular story?

I encountered a coyote on the way to work one morning. It stood on a hill in one of the last vacant lots of desert near central Las Vegas. From an aerial perspective, imagine a postage stamp of brown surrounded by an endless sea of clay-tile rooftops. That little square of brown was its home. Nearly every morning I used to see it there, chasing hares, transporting pups, sniffing around for grub. This time it was just standing still, watching the sun rise over the Strip. I never saw it again after that. The lot now lies beneath a subdivision of cheap, cookie-cutter tract homes, and the only wildlife left in that part of town are pigeons, cockroaches, and rats.

Did you stumble upon any interesting facts or trivia or insights while writing and/or researching your book? How did you incorporate this into your work?

I didn’t have to research much as I’ve lived in Las Vegas for over thirteen years, and four of those years were spent shuttling tourists around in a bus and limousine. While chatting with passengers I used to impart plenty of trivia and Vegas-related facts. Sometimes I got uncomfortable looks. Did you know that the Luxor is one of the most common places people commit suicide?

Pitch us your next book and/or project!

My next book, Saw a Rainbow, is a metaphysical thriller about an ancient general who wakes up as a homeless drunk, with partial amnesia, in modern Las Vegas. I love movies that mess with your mind: Inception, The Matrix, The Truman Show, Memento, Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you like those movies, you should enjoy my next book.

What are a few of your favourite things (books/movies/comics/hobbies, etc?)

I’ve mentioned some movies. I love books that make me see things differently — stories that whisk me away to strange mental landscapes. Books by authors like Haruki Murakami, Masanobu Fukouka, Douglas Adams, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver, Anne Rice. I love prose that is economical yet colorful. I like coffee and wide open spaces.

Favourite cookie?

Rosettes. Though I’ve never had a cookie someone made for me that I didn’t like.

Where can we find more of you (website/blog/twitter/goodreads, etc.)?

Indie Snippets — where I help promote indie authors.
Bryan Dennis – Blog
Twitter
Facebook

Check out Bryan’s novel, An Epitaph for Coyote, here:

AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
SMASHWORDS

I have not had the opportunity (aka time) to read Bryan’s book, but his sample pages are awaiting me on my iPAD. Bryan’s novel, A Epitaph for a Coyote, has some great reviews including this one:

“This is an intelligent and at times very funny novel as unpredictable as life, and as memorable. The “message” is so cleverly presented as well-written and engaging fiction that one may find oneself rereading the last few chapters, again and again.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Meet Steven Hardesty & his book, Running in Heels

This post is part of an Indie Author Blog Tour. Enjoy!

Thank you for the opportunity to join the blog tour for a chat on a blog that feels so comfortable. Strange words, maybe, considering the subject of “After the Virus”! I’ve been thinking about writing methods because I’ve got a problem. My first book just went on sale for Amazon’s Kindle – “Running in Heels,” a story of murder, mayhem and cosmetic surgery – and the more I think about it, the more the book frightens me.

It’s that weird feeling you get when you suspect something you’ve created has gotten completely out of control. The “Frankenstein’s Monster Syndrome.” I only began to feel it after people asked me why my book has a female protagonist when I am, well, not female. (“Nobody’s perfect!” said Joe E. Brown in the last scene of “Some Like It Hot.”) It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The novel started out with a male lead character. I still can’t figure how the heroine crept into the story and booted him out.

Oh, I’ve tried to piece together the evidence from previous drafts – not easy to do when dealing with electrons – and I think this is how it happened:

You see, I’m not the sort who can write an entire book in his or her head and then key it and zip it off to fame and fortune. Nor am I a writer who can outline in detail. Once I’ve told a story, in outline or summary, it’s dead to me and I just can’t write it. So I get an idea and a handful of characters and a rough target toward which I want the story to go, and then I come up with an opening paragraph and start in, excited to see what happens next.

I had this fellow in my head – he was lost in life, desperate, no idea how to change things. Suddenly, fortune and disaster. How does he handle all that, what changes could it make in him? I opened my trusty PC and began to key in the opening para. But he wasn’t in the opening sentence. No. There she was, instead, this strange woman. Staring at me out of the computer screen, daring me to carry on the story without her. She took over the story, lock, stock and down to the last exclamation mark, and believe me I was making a lot of exclamations at that moment.

Where she came from and how she did it, I don’t know. And it worries me. Because I wonder, Will she come back, and which of my next stories will she take over?

Part of my problem is that my writing methods are pretty chaotic – because I don’t write stories, I listen to them. They’re for me first. The stories I like best to hear are those of ordinary people – unlikely people – who do extraordinary things. People who, when their backs are against the wall, decide to be something special. Not to “do” something special, to “be” something special. They may win or lose, and their sacrifice may never be noticed by the world, but they have for that one moment been heroes.

In “Running in Heels,” Kathryn Teal starts the story a coward but ends it a hero. I think she proves Buster Keaton wrong – every now and then some man or woman really does achieve a kind of perfection.

Cheers!
Steven Hardesty
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You can find out more about Steve at his blog and buy his book on Amazon. I have not had the opportunity (aka time) to read Steven’s book, which he just published on June 16, 2011, but his sample pages are awaiting me on my iPAD.

2nd blog tour post for AFTER THE VIRUS

A. S. Anand has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his blogspot blog. Do take a moment to check out Aman’s book, 2032, if you head over there!

This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.

As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.

1st blog tour post for AFTER THE VIRUS…

Ken Badertscher has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his website, ebookfab.

This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.

As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.

AFTER THE VIRUS — 1st Draft Book Cover

After spending hours taking photos, photoshopping photos and fiddling with combining photos into a book cover, I decided to scrap everything and try out a text-based-only book cover.

And you know what? I like it. Very much.

What do you think?

Feedback welcomed and always appreciated.

Researching self-publishing

A Drive-by, link-filled, FYI post:

This is some of my research into self-publishing so far:

On the Web

Books

Read:

Currently Reading:

In my Queue:

Waiting for library copies:

Still sourcing:

  • Perfect Pages – want to read Aiming (link above) before I purchase this.

People

  • Amanda Hocking – I’ve been following Amanda’s self-publishing success story with much interest and took the time to read her young adult trilogy, Trylle. The books were interesting enough to hold my attention long enough to read all three, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them unless you are a true fan of the genre (young adult paranormal).
  • Michelle Demers – Michelle, a local Vancouver author, just self-published her book Baby Jane. And I hope to read the book very soon and then pick her brain over lunch next week!

Etc.

I have also looked into the possibility of hiring someone to proofread and do the layout, but feel confident enough to tackle the cover design myself.

I want to look professional, but this is, as all independents are (unless you are George Lucas), a shoestring budget sort of thing. It’s a balance of time and $$. Could I write another novel in the time it might take me to learn how to do all this myself? Perhaps (though hopefully this isn’t going to take THAT long!!). On the other hand, I think it is good to know the hoops even if you don’t plan to jump through them all by yourself.

Anything I’ve missed, so far, that you would consider recommended reading?