Why I redesign my covers…

I could wax lyrical on current trends in online readership and design strategies behind market domination but the truth is, the reason I changed the cover of my stand-alone adult novel
 An Island Lost is as simple as this:

It's both good fun and a vital part of the creative process!

I love designing covers. It's a pet joy of mine. I love playing with images and fonts, colours and embellishments to create the most visually appealing book I can. Not just visually appealing, but visually relevant.

Because I like my covers to reveal the essence of my book. 

Now that may seem like a no-brainer to you, but I am often disappointed by a book that promises one thing with its cover and delivers something entirely different with its content. You think, soft and dreamy and it turns out to be hard and dreary. Or vice versa.

And don't get me started on all the dreadfully dull crime fiction that is published by traditional publishers. It is as though they have said, 'Let's try to say as little as possible with this cover.' By trying to be all things to all readers, they end up with a cover that is boring, banal and blah!

Aussie paramedic-turned-author Katherine Howell tops that list of offenders and, sorry Harlan Coben, but you're up there, too. I love both authors' words, but their covers don't tell me a thing.

An Island Lost, an evolving tale...

I am known for changing my covers, it's true, but this particular book has seen several manifestations in its four years of publication.

I started with a slightly ominous, more masculine design in the early days which was done by a graphic designer by the name of Stuart Eadie. He did a great job, but I soon grew disappointed. It seemed too blokey to me and didn't really get the story across. It also seemed to alienate so many of my core readers—women.

So last year I did an about-face and redesigned the cover myself, this time with a very feminine look. I loved that cover, still do, but gradually have begun to wonder if it's a little too girlie. It looks like ChickLit and it's absolutly not that!

Back to the drawing board…

Recently, while pouring over images for my new Agatha Christie Book Club (cover reveal to come soon!), I found a photo that seemed perfect for An Island Lost—which is the story of a woman's journey back to her homeland, Papua New Guinea. The image is both fun and invigorating, and just slightly ominous. There's depth and there's illumination, and it's neither a book for men or a book for chicks. I think it encapsualtes the content perfectly.


But you be the judge! If you've read it, please let me know if you think this new-look cover better suits the book. If not, just let me know your thoughts, anyway.

Covers are not the most important part of a book, but they sure are fun to get right.

Happy (visually appealing) reading, everyone.
xo Christina

When a 'Mean Girl' strikes (ouch!)

I received a pretty nasty email last night. 

It was from a reader, a regular one by the sound of it. She was taking me to task, in no uncertain terms, for using a certain line 'too often' in my books. The line is fairly benign, can't quite understand why it's caused her such angst, and how that angst has forced her to not only seek out my email address but to pen a very demoralising and outright nasty letter.

She's entitled to her opinion. I should be grateful, I know, that she has even bothered. I'm sure she thinks she's 'helping'. But it got me thinking ... what kind of a person does that? 

And have they any idea what kind of a person I am?

Sensitive souls

If you're a creative type, like me, you will know the answer to that question, without ever having met me. I am a writer. Sometimes I wish I wasn't. Gee my life would be easier, and downright more lucrative, if I had a strong drive to be, say, a banker. Or a clerk. Or even a waitress. I'm sure I'd earn more, and probably feel a lot better about myself.

Most writers, by their very nature, are sensitive souls with non-existent egos and endless vulnerabilities. It seems a contradiction considering how we throw our words about, but many of us are one really dreadful review away from chucking it all in.

We feel life differently to many others. That's why we write. We see the nuances in every upturned eyebrow and casual throw-away line. We pick and plot our way through the world. We feel things so intensely we have to get it down, we have to share it with the world lest we implode. If we didn't, we'd just get on with our lives and be happy with our lot.

Instead we question and quiz and plot and play — all with words, which we hope will delight and explain and go some way to making sense of this crazy world.

Even the greats

Every writer is full of neuroses, even the greats. Read any interview, witness any author/poet talk and this is abundantly clear—from Sylvia Plath to Agatha Christie. At some stage we all read our work and think, 'Oh my God that's a load of drivel, why do I even bother?'

Maybe it's fleeting—Harlan Coben once said, "At some point in every novel, I fear that I will never be able to pull it together"—or maybe it's a constant battle. The great Tennessee Williams is quoted as saying: "I don't believe anyone ever suspects how completely unsure I am of my work and myself and what tortures of self-doubting the doubt of others has always given me.”

Whatever it is, however strong our self-doubt, to slam that ability to finally "pull it together" (and produce a work you can actually sink your teeth into) with a bitchy comment, while totally justified perhaps, can wither something so easily inside us all. You need to know that.

Speak out, by all means

I'm not saying you have no right to criticise. If authors want the praise—which we do, and often!—we must also accept the criticism right along with it. I know that, Harlan and Ian know that. I'm just saying, be careful how you criticise.

I have received plenty of wonderful gushing emails, I'm not short on praise, and I respond to each one like they've sent me a glass of water in a parched desert. They inspire me, they keep me thriving. I have also received the occasional critical one, but I have been equally as appreciative. I'm often told I use too many profanities in my books, but I stand by them. My stories are largely set in Australia and Aussies swear like bloody troopers. I thank the critic and get on with my life.

A few books back, a fan wrote to tell me how much she loved my work but had found some spelling errors and wondered if I was keen to know? I was! She has since edited several of my books and I can not thank her enough. That kind of criticism is valuable, it's imporant, it's appreciated. What's more, she did it with a kind heart and a helpful soul. She wasn't out to hurt me, she was out to help.

A sting in the tail

The email last night only had one intention. This person was clearly frustrated and wanted me to feel her pain. Well done, Mean Girl, you achieved just that. (You probably had a point, you know, but you did it so viciously, your point got lost amidst the pain.)

Please be aware, as you press 'Send' and get on with your life (one that probably doesn't involve writing novels and putting them out there for others to judge), that a nasty tone and a mean rant actually demoralises us. It doesn't help. It may even stop us from writing all together. And if, like Ms Mean Girl, you profess to reading all our books, why risk killing them off? Luckily, I'm made of sturdier stuff.

(Still, for every 10 positive reviews I get on Amazon and the like, I get just one slightly nasty, slightly tetchy one. And it's that one review I remember. Sad but true. It's the reason I have largely stopped reading my reviews, despite the fact that most are so wonderfully supportive. Almost every writer I know does not read their reviews for that very reason. It's usually the negative ones that stay with you, whether you like it or not.)

So tread gently, folks. We're human, you know? That's why you have a book to read in the first place.

Be a kind reader this month.
xo Christina