Last week I received my book cover from Books on Demand for my novel „George The Man Who Lost Himself“. My book will be published there in the coming weeks.
The actual drawing was designed by a friend and then it was packed into a neat cover by BoD. I’m absolutely stunned by the result, because the book cover is kind of edgy and therefore, stands out from the crowd. That is at least my hope. In addition, the drawing hits the mood of my novel extremely well. The advantage here clearly was the fact that the draughtsman and I know each other and therefore could swap ideas.
I am very happy to go down this path of self-publishing and invest my money in this matter with complete conviction. Even if I run the risk of not getting the costs out of it. Not making a profit doesn’t drive me over the edge. What would go with not making any profit, however, would be the fact that my novel won’t go down well, that it gets lost in the crowd. I wrote this story over a long period of time and ultimately it reflects many phases of my life. A second course of study, which had made me very unhappy – after all, I finally came back to writing due to that time – as well as the termination of my teacher training program, which I still think was absolutely liberating. During my short trip to that traineeship, I did not come to write at all and as a teacher at a grammar school with two writing-intensive subjects it would not have gotten any better. With the termination of my teacher training program and thus the teaching profession itself, with complete commitment I decided for myself, for a life as an author.
Back to the actual topic. After having quieted my training program I of course had more than enough time and I used it to finally finish writing George. It was a wonderful time. This story is very special to me and very close to my heart. And that is precisely why the coming time also causes me so much sorrow.
I hadn’t found a publisher for my novel, the first self-publishing platform I used initially hadn’t brought me anything and now this is the next – the last – attempt. Of course, this won’t be my last book, because I have enough ideas and material, but I am concerned about this one story. I sincerely hope that George sooner or later will reach many readers. For this I also have to take many steps out of my comfort zone and continue to tackle the vexed topic of self-marketing. I don’t know where to start.
But when I look back on this year, I sure can be proud of myself, because I have already taken some steps that have demanded from me to overcome a fair amount of willpower. What can I say, I’ve survived.
In this sense: take a deep breath and get to it!
Martina Writes 