Tag: spelling

Can you judge a book by its cover?

As I am in the process of launching a new book, it got me to thinking about covers, naturally.

With The Dog Under The Bed I actually used my own dog as the cover model, partly because he was very cheap to work with, as in some biscuits and a pat on the back and he was happy, but also because it saved costs for royalties. Some covers don’t need much more than this to stand out, but some genres are difficult to pin down, and their covers are many and varied.

It reminded me of some recent covers I had seen on Instagram, for paperbacks and hardback books. Not only were there very colourful, but they were embossed, and the nature of them stood out so much I was very much intrigued to find out more about them.

It also made me thing of other books I have read in the past, and what drew me to them. I thought of Clive Barker’s Weaveworld, and how that cover suggested something interesting within. As it turned out, the cover very much matched my expectations for the read ahead, and it left me with an indelible impression that has lasted to this day. Not only of the cover, but of what I read. So it shows how an impressive cover, as long as it somehow depicts what might lie ahead, can really enhance a book, and draw us to something worth reading.

So I would think in some ways, yes you can judge a book by its cover. Perhaps the better quality of the cover and its artwork, then perhaps the better the quality of the book.

If only that were always true.

I intend to put this to the test with my new book, as I have commissioned a very high quality cover, and hopefully I can match expectations with what I have written.

We will see.

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Email: djcowdall@gmx.co.uk
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The differences between US and UK spelling and grammar, plus new book

For my new book I decided to employ a professional editor to fully copy edit my book. Some things stood out for me:

Firstly, as much as I edit my books, and am very careful about it, I’m only human, and of course there were things I overlooked, one or two mistakes. They happen, but with my new editor’s aid I believe we have ironed out all spelling errors, continuity errors and such. This should make the reading experience much better.

Secondly, I must admit to being shocked at the amount of words spelt very differently in the US compared to the UK. I made the mistake of thinking it was only a few words, and not so important. How wrong was I?!
Other things such as standing and stood, being said differently, and plurals and singular, the differences are so many. Clearly editing for a different market are important. lesson learned.

One thing about doing things so much more professionally is it adds to the time before publication. Thankfully I am at the end of it all now, and my new book should be launched within the next week or so.

The genre is quite a departure for me, dealing with family and emotional issues, which are complex and subtle. Writing something like this can be emotional for the writer too, but I feel if I am experiencing an emotional connection with the events in the novel, and how they effect the characters, then hopefully that will feed through to the readers. Time will tell.

Of course, the work never stops, and my next project is going to be the final part of The Dog Under The Bed. It will be simply subtitled: What Happened Next, and concludes it all.

I have been very pleasantly shocked and surprised at the reaction to the first book, at the time of writing this it has 148 reviews on amazon, and a huge amount of ratings on Goodreads too. Clearly it is a much loved book, and worthy of a good conclusion.
I can say the final chapter will be very loving, full of fun and humour, and a wonderful way to send Arthur off to his new home, with his new family.

Roll on next week, when I begin writing it, I can’t wait!

Email: djcowdall@gmx.co.uk
https://twitter.com/djcowdall
https://www.facebook.com/DJCowdall
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15502553.D_J_Cowdall