I have a lot of friends on Goodreads. Some I care about, others randomly found me and don’t seem to share similar tastes, and I probably should just delete them. Usually those people are authors trying to promote their tiny press books or self-published titles. But I could rant about smart online marketing later. That’s not what I’m talking about in this post. This post is about the importance of attention grabbing covers.

See, I have so many friends that every one of those update e-mails has *a lot* of books in it. Now, I do look at which of my friend’s update list is showing at the moment while skimming. For example, pretty much anyone who friended me through this site, I pay attention to what they are reading. But, even then, I have quite a few of those friends.

So what I do is I look at the covers. If the cover, in that tiny thumbnail, grabs my attention, then I glance at the title. If the title and the cover get me, I click on the link to the book and I usually end up putting it in my amazon shopping cart. Because I know exactly what the cover of a book I’m interested in should look like. It’s not something I can describe exactly, but I know it when I see it. Look at the cover of Inkspell or Eragon. Both of those covers, even in a tiny form, jump out at you and tell you exactly what they are about. Even just think about the colors. In that tiny thumbnail, you can tell the difference between a kid’s book and a classic title.

For book marketers and designers, thumbnails are yet another thing we have to think about online. Too detailed of a picture, and it won’t show up. Or there should be an element that stick out on the cover, that the author or someone else can grab and use as a thumbnail instead.

If you’re interested in book design, look down your goodreads bookshelves, or go look at mine, and see what each of those covers tells you about them at a glance. Chances are, even for books you don’t know, you’ll be able to figure out genre and age range from most of the covers.

And for those of you not on Goodreads yet, go check it out. It’s a great way to find out what people with similar tastes are reading. And I know that if a book is suddenly showing up on everyone else’s list, I’d better go find a copy.

The Trouble with Kings by Sherwood Smith Release Date: Buy it Today Ebook Print Book - December 2008 Samhain Publishing Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase on My Bookstore and More.(ebook)

Now Flian must determine who are really the villains and heroes in the political and courtly games that surround her, while all she really wishes to do is retire to her room and play music.

This was a very enjoyable ebook for those of us who love Sherwood Smith’s writing, her romance and politics, and who have read Crown Duel so many times we own a second copy. It’s hard for me to say what someone who isn’t familiar with her work would think, except that I worry this book might confuse them in parts and wouldn’t keep their interest long enough to get to all the great parts. Because I’ve loved her other books, I slogged through my format problems with it being an ebook, but with another author I doubt I would have had the patience.

…read full article…

Publisher’s Weekly has a great Q&A with Diana Wynne Jones, talking about her books, the world of Howl, and House of Many Ways.
Full Interview
(interview might contain what some people consider spoilers about various of her books)

Some of my favorite highlights -

You’ve said you don’t start out with a thoroughly plotted-out book. What do you start out with, when you begin writing?
I start out with people very often. Also some very, very clear scenes from the middle of the book. And usually a notion of how it’s going to go in the end, but that isn’t always the case. But it’s the clear picture from the middle that’s the important bit, I think. In the case of House of Many Ways, it was the bit when Peter first comes in out of the rain into all the bubbles in the kitchen and Charmaine reaches out and shuts his mouth with a clop. Because that for some reason was a very enduring image and I knew that was in there somewhere. But as I say, the Lubbock, which came just before that, was completely uncharted.

Over the past several years, you’ve returned to the world of the Chrestomanci stories frequently. Is this an easier place for you to return to, than Howl’s world?
Well, no. It’s just that—or perhaps it is. It’s not a matter of returning to the place. It’s the kind of stories that fit there. It’s very difficult to make sure that Howl is in his own kind of place, that isn’t in any way coinciding with the Chrestomanci books. And that’s the thing. You have to keep them separate, because they are very separate kinds of universes. And yes, I suppose I’m generally more at home in the Chrestomanci world, but only because so many stories seem to fit there, not because of the nature of the world at all. I don’t know what it is, really. But I was very glad to be able to return, because I had always felt that there were several more Howl stories in there, somewhere.

Well, I was delighted that you returned there.
Yes, I was ever so pleased, too. It was enormous fun to do. There’s another Howl story that I’m sort of darting about with. I don’t know whether it will ever come to anything. I’ve had about three tries at it now. And that is my own take on The Tempest. I really want to do this. Because it seems to me that poor Miranda gets such a raw deal. One of my daughters-in-law is called Miranda and she thoroughly agrees with me.
And I think Prospero was horrible. Very few people seem to agree with me on this. What a managing, crude man he was. You know, enslaving creatures and things. And I don’t like that, and I want to have a revolution there. But I don’t know whether I’ll ever get that done, but Howl would certainly come in there.

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones Release Date: June 10, 2008 Greenwillow (HarperCollins) Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase at Powell’s. Find independent bookstores.

Charmain finds herself house sitting for a wizard, in a house where every door leads to multiple places, depending on which way one turns. Between the magic house and her new job at the royal library, she becomes entrenched in magic and the search for the missing royal treasury.

In this sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, we once again move to a new continent, but we see the return of old favorites like Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer, as well as a few characters from Castle in the Air, namely Jamal and Princess Hilda.

When this book showed up in my mailbox, I excitedly pulled out all my Howl world books and reread them in anticipation of House of Many Ways. I probably need to reread it before truly judging it, but upon finishing it I didnt’ feel as much of a need to reread as I did with Jones’ other books. The story is complex, but not as intricately laid out as the first two. There were certainly plenty of things going on and creative magic, but still I felt like something was missing.

…read full article…

Every review I write is edited by my friend Chelsea Campbell. She’s also a writer whose young adult superhero novel is making the rounds via her agent. Now, she has had her first interview, so I decided to celebrate by linking it here. When this book, The Rise of Renegade X, gets sold (and in my expert opinion, it blows most the other teenage superhero/villain books out of the water), I’ll be celebrating with lots of information on it!

Plus, I wrote the elevator pitch mentioned in the interview ^_^
Elevator Pitch -
Damien’s set to be a supervillain, just like mom, until he meets superhero dad and gets dragged into suburban hell. Now he has six weeks to prove he’s not a hero, but how can he do that while saving his new family from his mom’s evil plans?

The interview is part of Tara’s Road Trip to Publication series.