Book Cover Art

Writing books for me is enjoyable - dealing with the cover art is not! My brick and mortar Tarot books had their covers done by my publishing company (Schiffer Publishing Ltd.). The first book that I co-authored with my friend Brad Tesh featured a teapot on the cover, and we ran a contest to find a teapot that would work for us. That was really fun! ("Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti") The second book that I co-authored with Brad he really had to work to make the cover art fit the self-publishing parameters. We both cussed a lot! ("Invisible Me - Journeying Through The Soul") Other books I have simply used text on the cover, as opposed to any images.

I have a three book series that I have just started writing. (Okay - I have been writing it for a while, but am still less than half done with the first book!) Since metaphysics is deeply involved in the plot, the possibilities for amazing covers are there. And I do want the three covers to fall in line with each other. I have an artist friend by the name of Andrea Aste that I am going to ask to do those covers. His work is mind-blowing! You can find Andrea here. 

Why obsess over a book's cover? Because what the reader sees first is the book's cover. This is what will initially grab their attention. Then it goes one step further, and sends sneaky little messages about the content of the book. The cover of a mystery book will look a lot different than a romance book, or a police procedural. A little thought given to a cover can exponentially increase the sales for your book!

(c) September 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited wihout written permission from the author.

Publishing With Amazon KDP

I just finished writing "Invisible Me", with my friend and co-author Brad Tesh, We took our time, so this has been a year-long project. Brad and I both enjoy writing, and we were very happy with the subject we chose to write about - our spiritual self. The editing was not even too difficult ... just time consuming, even with two pair of eyes. Then it came time to submit. We both have books up on Kindle and the former Create Space, now merged as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP Publishing). We knew that it was going to be a bit trying ... but it ended up being more than a bit trying!

The submission process to KDP goes something like this:

• Upload a formatted manuscript.
• Create a cover.
• Define keywords and categories.
• Decide if you want to use your own ISBN #, or get one free from KDP. (E-books don't need ISBN numbers, print books do.)

KDP has great software out now that will format a book for you. It is called Kindle Create, and is free to download. This I did appreciate, as the last time I submitted I was running in the dark and praying a lot! With Kindle Create you can format for three basic types of books: (1) text heavy, (2) image heavy with complex formatting, and (3) comic or graphic novels of low complexity. With next to zero techie skills, I managed to get our essentially text-only book up without too many problems. We did include pics with our bios, but they loaded easily. 

Kindle Create has three formatting themes to choose from: Classic, Cosmos, and Armor. Elements can be formatted by type: Chapter Title, Chapter Subtitle, chapter first paragraph, Book Title, Book Subtitle, Author Name, blockquotes etc. The system is easy to use, and we only had to make a couple of tweaks with it.

Now, the book cover - that was another story! Brad basically did the work here, with me just adding in the text for the back cover. I have to say, he did a marvelous job, and I had a meltdown! (Only one meltdown for the entire process of the book, so that is good! Perspective, people!) You can choose to upload your own cover, or you can create one with the imagery KDP provides. We choose the latter. We ended up with a slightly different cover for the print version - basically because the cover would not play nice! 

"Invisible Me" is up on Amazon in e-book format, while our print version is being "reviewed". (Now why don't I have a good feeling here!)

I am happy that we choose to self-publish (we did look into other options), and my hope for other writers is that if they want to self-publish, they check out the KDP system. (It has its issues, one of which is do not choose "auto fit" when adding text to the back cover - it doesn't work! Set the font size that you want o use.) But, overall, our book is up, and we did it ourselves!

(c) March 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author.

Where You Can Find My Work

As an author, I am probably not alone in this: people do not seem to be finding my work. So the command decision was made to put up a post that gave my readers the links to where they can find me. Bored? Then move on while I chat away!

My website is Bonnie Cehovet - Author

My Facebook page is Bonnie Cehovet

I have specific blog sites set up on Word Press is where I put anything related to my music interests:

Bonnie Cehovet is where I place non-Tarot reviews.

The World of Flash Fiction is where I place my flash fiction writing. Generally under 100 words, there are a couple of longer pieces.

The World of Tarot is where my Tarot related reviews can be found. 

Books that I have either written or co-written include:

Tarot, Birth Cards and You: Keys To Empowering Yourself

Tarot, Rituals & You: The Power of Tarot Combined With The Power of Ritual

Surviving The Holidays

Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti (Co-Written with Brad Tesh)

The World of Tarot As Seen Through the Eyes of the Interview

 

Now you know where to find me!

(c) April 2017 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction is prohibited without written permission from the author.

Holiday Promotions

Barely into July, and I am already thinking about promoting my work for the holidays! Not really all that unusual ... I have to decide how I am going to promote, where I am going to promote, and then find out how much it is going to cost. And I want the promotion to start soon after the beginning of November, so that people have the time to order my books, get them, then send them out as presents. 

I am going to be doing half-page ads in  the October edition of Attune Magazine, a quarterly devoted to personal growth, poetry, and metaphysical themes. I am also going to be doing videos for my site pages and to pout up on You Tube. Okay ... I am not going to do them myself, I am going to have them done by Mary Nale, the founder/editor for Attune Magazine.

Here is a link to an awesome video that Mary did for co-author Brad Tesh and my self for our book  "Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti". If you want to see more of Mary's portfolio, click here.

I will also be promoting through my Twitter, Facebook, and Google + accounts. If I get terribly brave, I might even chance trying to set up a Google + Hangout! That is still in the "iffy" stages! ;-)

And yes, I still have to WIP's ongoing: an e-book on decision making, and another e-book ... the first in what I hope will be a series of mysteries. I am looking at an issue here, though. I want to self-publish, and Create Space wants bucks per page after an author hits the 110 page mark. That will one heck of a short mystery! ;-) Do it in parts, perhaps? ;-)

Paying Attention To Life

 

So often we do not pay attention to life. This happened to me this past week, when I received a post from a friend who was at the end of her financial rope in continuing to keep open two well used and significant tools within the Tarot community - Attune Magazine (she is founder and editor), and Attune Magazine Radio on Blog Talk Radio. Aside from her time, it takes money to keep these venues going. I was appalled that I had not seen this situation coming, and immediately took what action I could take. I also placed a challenge out to the Tarot community, and this was their response - Thank You! I am very proud of the Tarot community, and its ability to step up. A small plug for Mary here - If you would like to place an article/interview/review/poetry/video/ad in Attune Magazine (this is a quarterly magazine, next issue due out in July), or if you would like to be interviewed on Mary's radio show, click  here -  Attune Magazine.

Speaking of gentle promoting - my friend Jennifer Sieck invited me to an event called the Fishbowl on Facebook. The event will be going on all weekend. All we do is introduce ourselves, and place a post and a link on the event page. Jennifer also suggested making up a free card at Vista Print to add some pizzazz to my posts, so I did that too! I get to read about other practitioners/counselors/artists, like their pages,and they in turn like mine! What a deal! And what a group of very nice people!

There are a couple of links that I would like to share with you. The first one is very close to my heart - Kindle Formatting. I have a couple of books in the world of Kindle, and wish that I had known this before I very haphazardly managed to get them  up! Future books will go up with much greater ease!

I dearly love the lady who wrote this post - although we have never met, and never spoken. She is so clear, and so organized - her work is a pleasure to read! Second Thoughts On Publishing Your Print Book.

What a year! My co-author Brad Tesh and I have been promoting our book, Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti on several Blog Talk radio shows (thank you to Mary Nale, Maggie Lukowski and Jean Maurie Puhlman, Melinda Carver, and Jennifer Sieck!), and even managed to get a page up on Facebook - Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti. Next up for me - promotingmy new Tarot book - Tarot, Rituals, and You.

One last link, for those of us that are self-publishing - Write and Promote Your Indie Book Quickly and Easily .

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

(c) 2000 - 2013 Bonnie Cehovet

Republication in any format prohibited without written permission from the author.

Promoting, Promoting, Promoting

 

The past couple of weeks have been focused on promoting "Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti", the book that I co-authored with Brad Tesh. Our interview with Mary Nale of Attune Magazine Radio can be found here - Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti. We have an upcoming interview with  Jean Maurie Puhlman and Maggie Lukowski on Personal Empowerment For Your Soul, and two more radio interviews scheduled for May (I will place links here at a later date).

We offered our book as a free download on Kindle this past weekend, and had a very good response. We will do this again in a few weeks - it lets people know who we are, as well as have access to our book. While the free download is for the Kindle version only, we do have a print version through Create Space. The books can both be found here - Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti.

A work in progress for me is getting a book page up on Facebook. Then we will have to map out a plan of action to keep people talking about the book. There are many ways that we can do this - including sharing excerpts from the book, or discussing points from our "Toss the Confetti" section at the end of each chapter. This is a section that suggests ways in which people can actively place joy in their life. 

Brad and I are both very excited about this book, and feel that the first step is just to get people talking! We really don't realize the lack of joy in our lives until we start to loo for it ... and find it amongst the missing!

My next book,which will also be an e-book, addresses the subject of decision making. The ability to make decisions is where we empower ourselves. Understanding how to make informed decisions, and take decisive action, is what manifests our dreams into reality! Stay tuned!

(c) 2013 Bonnie Cehovet

 

Small Steps

 

Small steps is what it has been lately ... but small steps do get us where we want to go. I am co-authoring a book on Joy with Brad Tesh. As any writer knows, writing the book is only the first part of the process of getting it out there. We are working with Create Space, which I really like. It is a template format, and works well for me. We have the interior (text) up, the cover is done (thank you to Roxi Sim for allowing us to license one of her images!), and all of that is in to Create Space for review. We have keywords up, and will be working on how to promote the book next. We are getting there! :) (Note to self - create a page on your site for this book!)

One of the things that I am looking at is upping my presence on Goodreads. Well, more like creating a presence! I am on the site, but have really done nothing with that. It is more important now than ever, as Amazon has just purchased Goodreads. You can read more about that here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/02/amazon-purchase-goodreads-stuns-book-industry, http://www.salon.com/2013/03/31/amazon_buys_goodreads_were_all_just_data_now/ , http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/its-about-time/2013/apr/1/amazon-grows-its-book-retail-empire-purchase-goodr/ .

What I am looking to accomplish over the next quarter (we are already into the second quarter of 2013!) is to firm up a social media strategy for my books, to promote the book that I co-authored, and to continue to promote my existing books. I have one more e-book to get out this summer - on decision making, and will devote the third quarter to getting my first mystery on board.

I have not been making any use of my Amazon.com Associate affiliation. I am strongly considering adding that to my pages.

A lot of work ahead of me ... but it's all good! :)

(c) 2013 Bonnie Cehovet

No reproduction allowed in any format without my written consent.

Long Nights

This has been another of those very long nights. Not complaining - I do my best work at night. But this has been a labor intensive, pay attention to detail marathon to put together the book that I am co-authoring with Brad Tesh. It is finally together, and we know what we need to add to it. Then it will need to be proofread a few times, edited a few times,and formatted for submission. Of course, submitting the book for distribution is the beginning of another process - promotion. This is a process that I don't like really well. 

I did the change-over from my Google Reader feed to a WordPress app - I m not very impressed with it. The exporting of info from the Google Reader went very well (thanks to a lady in the Google + Women community!), I just don't like the WordPress format. LOL I will continue to follow my Google Reader until they take it away from me on July 1st!

I am getting ready to start another e-book - this one on  the Art of Making Choices. Quite excited about this project!

Heads up on a very interesting lady - Mary Nale of Attune Magazine. Her near future plans include a series of writing broadcasts on Blog Talk Radio - you can access the schedule here. She is also accepting submissions in diverse categories for her quarterly, Attune Magazine.   

(c) 2000-2013 Bonnie Cehovet