![](\"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/CynthiaW_PicSML.jpg\" "\\"CynthiaW_PicSML\\"")
<\/p>\nFirst, I like to do a giveaway when I blog.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little incentive for my readers to leave me a comment.\u00a0 The giveaway for this blog is a $5 Starbucks card.\u00a0 All you have to do is answer the last question in this blog.<\/p>\n
When I look at a cover, I expect it to show me a little bit of the story.\u00a0 If there is a hot guy on the cover I expect one in the story.\u00a0 If there is a hitching rail in the background, there had better be a cowboy in the book and it better not be set in New York City.\u00a0 You get the idea.\u00a0 Covers are the first contact we have with our reading public and we need to be honest with them through our covers.<\/p>\n
I also want a cover that is eye catching with colors that pull at you even when they are in the thumbnail size.\u00a0 That\u2019s the most important part of a cover.\u00a0 Since most readers will only see it as a tiny variation of itself, the cover must rock when it\u2019s small.\u00a0 I have to admit my older covers don\u2019t necessarily do this, so I\u2019m having them redone.<\/p>\n
As authors we need to be flexible and find the cover that works.\u00a0 If your sales are bad, then the first place you need to look is your cover.\u00a0 Can it be it\u2019s not doing its job?\u00a0 If you discover that to be the case, then you owe it to yourself and your potential readers to redo it.\u00a0 I read somewhere that J. A. Konrath, an uber successful author had his covers redone like twenty times before he found the perfect ones and who knows how long they will stay perfect.\u00a0 Tastes change and our covers need to change with them.<\/p>\n
Also, we need to remember that everyone is not going to love our cover and in the end it is us who must love it.\u00a0 We have to be the first and most enthusiastic fans of our covers.\u00a0 We should want to display them everywhere and to everyone.\u00a0 I carry trading cards with me of my books and then hand them out to people I meet.\u00a0 Face it, if I don\u2019t love my covers who else is going to?<\/p>\n
Do you love your covers?\u00a0 What do you think makes a good cover? \u00a0—\u00a0Cynthia Woolf<\/p>\n
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Cynthia Woolf — Today’s Guest Blogger<\/p>\n
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Thank you so much for blogging with us today, Cynthia! <\/strong><\/p>\n Readers, check out Cynthia’s latest book in her Swords of Gregara<\/em> series. \u00a0-Kara<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Amazon – \u00a0http:\/\/amzn.com\/B00AS4MOJI<\/p>\n BN – http:\/\/bit.ly\/Y7WjVc<\/p>\n Kobo – http:\/\/bit.ly\/VaYWFD<\/p>\n Smashwords – \u00a0http:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/267920<\/p>\n Excerpt from Swords of Gregara — Honora<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOww\u201d a woman\u2019s voice awash with pain reached his ears.<\/p>\n \u201cYou disappoint me, Honora.\u00a0\u00a0You continue to try to escape me.\u00a0\u00a0When will you learn?\u201d asked a whiney voiced man.<\/p>\n The whip struck flesh.\u00a0 Again the woman moaned but didn\u2019t scream.\u00a0\u00a0She didn\u2019t scream.<\/p>\n When he woke again he was not alone but the man with the whip was gone.\u00a0\u00a0Chained across the room from him, hung by her wrists, was a woman.\u00a0\u00a0He could see the lash marks on her back.\u00a0\u00a0Lash upon lash, new over old.\u00a0\u00a0They obstructed the beautiful tattoo of a dragon on her back.\u00a0 The blood hard to see within the red of the dragon.<\/p>\n Crawling to her he released her hands from the chains holding her up.\u00a0\u00a0She collapsed in a heap on the floor.\u00a0\u00a0He crawled back to his side of the room as darkness overtook him once more.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n The dried blood on her back cracked with each movement, but she worked through the pain as she stretched.\u00a0 Breathed deep and accepted the pain.\u00a0 Her sword weighed heavier in her hand than usual.\u00a0 More evidence of the lashing two nights ago.\u00a0 She looked down at the unconscious man at her feet.\u00a0 A new recruit.\u00a0 A Zolthor,\u00a0 like herself.\u00a0 Another reason Perdor punished her for her attempted escape, her sixth try in as many months.<\/p>\n This last punishment was the worst.\u00a0 Five lashes.\u00a0 Not enough to incapacitate her but enough to make her remember.\u00a0 Perdor wanted her to be able to train the new slave.\u00a0 He wanted them to be a team, good enough to take on all contenders.\u00a0 He\u2019d be the only owner with two Zolthor fighting for him.\u00a0 Not just one, but a team.\u00a0 He was practically wetting himself in anticipation of the beras that he\u2019ll win with a team of Zolthor fighters.<\/p>\n Again she looked down on the naked man.\u00a0 Long brown lashes lay against his cheek.\u00a0 A nice contrast to his golden blond hair.\u00a0 What color eyes did they hide?\u00a0 Blue?\u00a0 Green?\u00a0 Brown perhaps.\u00a0 She\u2019d find out soon enough.<\/p>\n He was a beautiful man.\u00a0 Well formed.\u00a0 Broad shoulders.\u00a0 Trim waist.\u00a0 Long muscular legs.\u00a0 He looked like a warrior.\u00a0 Would be a good fighter.\u00a0 Maybe even a good lover as he appeared well endowed there as well.<\/p>\n He\u2019d awakened from the drug induced sleep long enough to crawl over and release her from the chains.\u00a0 For that she was grateful.\u00a0 Her wrists didn\u2019t hurt as much as usual because of him.\u00a0 Using her blade was easier than it had been after her previous punishments.<\/p>\n Time to wake up the sleeping man and get him trained.\u00a0 Time was short and she intended to make the most of it.\u00a0 He would learn or he would die.<\/p>\n ****<\/p>\n NOTE from Kara: I’m testing out a new comment filter–so far so good–but if your comment does not show up right away, know that we’ll be checking throughout the day. Have no fear. If a ‘feared –shoot me an email kara@karaashleydey.com \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0-Kara xxooxx<\/strong><\/p>\n First, I like to do a giveaway when I blog.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little incentive for my readers to leave me a comment.\u00a0 The giveaway for this blog is a $5 Starbucks card.\u00a0 All you have to do is answer the last question in this blog. When I look at a cover, I expect it to … Continue reading “Covers! What do we want from them?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-505","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1148,"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/505\/revisions\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/karaashleydeyold.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/swords_honora-copy1-640x1024.jpg\" "\\"swords_honora")
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