Writing a book is exciting. Any author will tell you
that. Developing the characters, plotting the twists and turns, and seeing the
story take shape, with you; the architect of it all. It can also be lonely; frustrating, and at times, discouraging. There will be many re-writes, dozens of
readings and endless editing.
I can only speak for myself, but once it is
completed, I kind of sit back and think, “Oh, …………. Hey I finished it”. It kind
of sneaks up on you in the end, and you finally realise that all the hard work,
all the sleepless nights where you wrote from midnight until 6 am have come
together and you have the raw makings of a new book. If you think the hard work is behind you, think
again. Now it begins in earnest. There is the foreword, the acknowledgements,
the synopsis, the biography, and all the editing, which goes into making it fit
for publication. I speak from experience when I say that writing a 300 word
synopsis has been known to cause me more aggravation than writing the 90,000
words of a book. I stare blankly at the screen, wracking my brains as to how I
am going to cram a description of this entire story into 300 words – you try
it, it's not easy!
Not least in all the preparation is the book cover,
which is incredibly important. I’m sure you have all heard the saying, “Don’t
judge a book by its cover”, but I’m afraid we do, we really do. How
many of you have picked up a book in a store simply because you were attracted
by the cover? I know I have. In the same way that I have ignored a book because
the cover put me off. I’m certainly guilty of judging a book by its cover!
With all three of my books, the cover was in my
mind long before the book was completed. For Known to Social Services, that sombre backdrop of high rise flats
was always going to be the cover. I also knew that I wanted the colour red to
feature as a sharp contrast to the suggested dreariness of the world therein.
The stark cover of Known to Social Services
For Gozo Is
the Grass Greener? The cartoon style animation of me, Steve and Ollie the
lurcher, was perfectly captured by Michael Martin who is the current illustrator
for Fred Basset in the Daily Mail. It was as if he had read my mind J
In complete contrast, the fun cover of Gozo Is the Grass Greener?
Caught in Traffic was no different. I had an image of a child on a
beach making sandcastles. I wanted to suggest a place of blue skies, and happy
holidays. The book then takes you into a frightening world, where carefree
holidays are shattered by the dark and sinister intrusion of the child
traffickers. More about the story in a future blog.
For now, I am very proud to unveil my latest book
cover, which has been beautifully designed and brought into reality by Samuel
Hurt. Check out Sam’s Facebook Page, Misty
Fell Productions and find out more about this talented young man. Thank you
Sam, excellent job J
Freya
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