Meredith Mansfield, Author

My main goal in e-publishing some of my stories has been to get a feel for marketing–on a shoestring (as in free and I-can-do-it-myself are essential). I’ve tried my hand at making book covers and trailers. The good new there is that at least I’m getting better at those. I’ve still got a long way to go on twitter and my facebook author page, but at least I’ve put a toe in the water there. And I know myself well enough to know I wouldn’t have without some skin in the game.

Almost everyone agrees that the cover is the most important thing in marketing a book. Well, my early covers leave something to be desired. The cover for “Heart of Oak” isn’t bad–until you try to view it in black and white. Then it’s just blobs. I’ll have to redo that one soon. The cover for BLOOD WILL TELL is . . . well, it’s busy. And the lavender background is somewhat questionable. I’m pretty happy with the cover for “The Music Box”.

So, task one is covers. I’ve got a pretty good idea what the cover for my next story “Becoming Lioness” will look like:

I also want to redo the cover for BLOOD WILL TELL. Here’s what I’m thinking about so far:

Much simpler. (The gold foot print on the right is meant to be a dragon track. Needs more work.)

Two other things I’m considering working on in the near future:

Voice recordings–I have the equipment to record myself reading part or all of these stories. Now that allergy season is fading, I need to get back on that. Worst case, I could use it as a marketing tool. Best case, maybe add audio books to my portfolio.  We’ll have to see. Maybe I’ll try that with “Becoming Lioness”. That’s one that would lend itself well, I think.

I’ve also heard the advice to keep putting out more work. “Becoming Lioness” will probably be e-published in November.

I’ve started work on revising the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL, but that one is likely to take a while. Probably not until next year. Originally, I’d hoped to have it done by now, but the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT took longer than I expected. That’s okay. Maybe that’ll be the one that helps me break into traditional publishing.