They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but on this occasion, I’m happy if you do!
I’m thrilled to be able to reveal the cover of The Suffering, which was created by the extremely talented Covers by Christian, after consultation with my fantastic team at Wicked House Publishing. Here it is:
It feels a lot more “real” now that I can show the world what my little book is going to look like. My neurotic brain has been convinced somewhere in the dark recesses that something would go wrong. That somewhere along the way plans would change, or that the book would be randomly dropped for no reason. Something deep inside me has been holding a little reservation, not getting too excited just in case.
But, now that I can shout it from the rooftops, I am going to embrace it as fully as I can! I already have a print order for 2 different sets of flyers and some bookmarks ready for promotion. It’s time to pluck up the courage to head into every shop and establishment I can think of and ask if they would like one for their staffroom. Better yet, a noticeboard. In public. Eek!
I think this quote from Zadie Smith sums it up:
It’s such a confidence trick, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself. This is hard to do alone.
Zadie Smith
Having such a beautiful cover and such a great team behind me is definitely going to make this next part easier, the part my introvert ass has spent a lot of time dreading (promotion). But, you know what? Now I’m getting kind of excited about that part, too.
It’s really happening, guys. This is not a drill.
This time last year, I didn’t have a publishing deal. I’d been querying but getting nowhere – not even a hint of a bite. Looking back through my posts from around that time it’s easy to tell how disheartened I was getting. I’m going to elaborate a little more on this in an upcoming post later this month, but for now I just wanted to remind anyone who is querying or facing a lot of rejections that it really only takes that one hit to change everything. The only way you can be sure you’ll never get there is if you stop. So keep going.
The Suffering is coming in February 2023! Which ghost will haunt you?