Cover Love...

Quick ROW update:  I've gotten all my feedback and I've plunged into hardcore editing for Aeris.  I'm hoping to have the majority of my cuts and edits done by early in the first week of May (not this coming week, but the week after).  After which it will be shipped off to the proof reader's and then back to me for formatting.  Then it will be out, out, out!
When that is done, there is the super secret writing project to finish and then I will get started on Terris.  Not quite sure how long this next book will be.  I'm thinking it will be somewhere in between the first book and the second.  So, maybe about 300 pages or so?  I haven't finished my outlines yet, because I started editing, so that will be another task to get to when Aeris is completed.

This has been a week of upheaval for my favorite book bloggers.  If you google "The Story Siren" and plagiarism, you'll see why.  I don't have a lot to say about it, because I'm not a book blogger, but plagiarism sucks.  It happens all the time in the indie writing world.  Kindleboards are filled with people whose books have been ripped off and sold under a different name (or the same name) on Amazon.  All that to say, I sympathize, and I hope all my favorite bloggers are feeling better soon.

I also ran across some interesting articles full of commentary on covers, particularly for either YA fiction or Paranormal romance.  Basically, the criticism is: men are portrayed as powerful and pose in more realistic poses.  And no, it is not just women saying so.  In fact, two of the more hilarious posts are by writer Jim C. Hines.  His posts are on Women and Fantasy Covers & Posing Like a Man.   But if you are interested, there's a great post by Emily Asher-Perrin on the sexy, over the shoulder shot for women, HERE.   There another blogger trying more insane book cover poses, HERE.   Then there is my personal favorite, by my favorite blogger Kat Kennedy at Cuddlebuggery.com and some of her insightful commentary on YA Covers.

There is a growing trend in YA fiction, to make covers like magazine covers- pretty white girls who most of the time have nothing to do with the content inside.  That sounds harsh, but it's like a parade of pretties.

Let me just say, there is NOTHING wrong with a pretty cover.  I do worry, a little, that YA books are really going to end up like magazine covers, all about the pretty.  Almost as though a pretty enough cover will forgive any literary flaws.

Thank goodness for Hunger Games! :)

Have a great week, all.  Hope to have some good news for Wednesday's check in.

Happy Reading!