Yep. I'm using you as a focus group today. We're working on the cover for our first YA contemporary fantasy novel coming out from Bell Bridge Books (08/08), and we have not one, but two covers we like.
What to do? Which to use? I have a favorite and I'm hoping you folks will support my cover.
Marilee Brothers, author of Moonstone, has a fabulous YA voice. Wry, compelling, heart-warming and just plain fun. Allie Emerson is living in a twenty-four foot trailer with a mother who has decided to Retire From Life. Not exactly the sort of environment you'd think would produce a girl destined to save the world. Allie's barely managing to survive high school. She hasn't got time to believe in prophecies and evil. Until evil makes it personal.
(Please do not blame our marketing department for this blurb. They'll do a much better job when the time comes for the real blurb. And now you know why I don't write the blurbs. I leave that to others except in blogging emergencies.)
Which cover floats your boat? Which one do you reach for?
Regardless of how you vote one "reader" and one "writer" will get some goodies.
Our writer will be offered a 25 page critique from me. Seems oxymoronic to consider the "picking apart of a manuscript" as a prize, but we writers are an odd determined lot. And nope. You don't have to have a synopsis. I don't care what genre.
Our reader will receive any four (4) titles from either the BelleBooks or Bell Bridge Books catalogues. (http://www.bellebooks.com/) The Bell Bridge site is still building but the offer of 4 books is good through the fall as the rest of the Bell Bridge Books hit their pub dates. The Southern titles from Bell Bridge will be cross-listed for sale at both BB and BBB websites.
We have some great Southern fiction lined up for July and the fall:
Booth's Sister is a beautifully written novel of Asia Booth, who endured the wrath
of a nation when her brother killed Lincoln. Jane Singer, noted Civil War scholar, has masterfully imagined the family dynamic and intimate dilemmas that led to one of America's most fateful crimes and left a sister's life in shambles. (Did I mention beautifully written?)
Egret Cove by travel writer Margaret Nava is a
fun romp with a mature woman as she makes a new life in Florida just when she thought life was through handing out exciting surprises.
We also have Jacquelyn Cook coming out this fall with The Gates of Trevelyan, another of her richly detailed Southern historicals.
Fear not. Eventually, we will get the next MOSSY CREEK novel out the door. I've been a little busy, and the editor insists I have to finish a story for the book. And the corporation insists that I negotiate the foreign, domestic and audio distribution contracts and all that other boring business stuff.
(Yes, our titles will be coming out in audio as well.)
And as a final plug we have a dark, scrumptious, "Anne Rice meets Laurell K. Hamilton" epic vampire series that will launch in September. Rich. Textured. Epic. We first meet the clan centuries ago. We posted on every blog in the world that Bell Bridge wanted contemporary urban fantasy, but when this came in the door, we all decided there was room for a voice and a story this big. A great lush read. With more to come.
There you have it! Lots of yummy goodness for readers who aren't afraid to step up and vote for their favorite Moonstone cover. Tell me why you like it. And let me know what you think about any of the upcoming titles. TELL ME IF YOU'RE AFTER the WRITER prize OR READER prize.
Our first digital audio titles are up on iTunes, Audible.com and Amazon! Yay. And the prices are stupidly cheap. Like, I'm emailing with Audible to figure out why the prices are so cheap because we think there is an error. So, if you like audio, run get them now!
