Kill Your Children!

Haha! No, not really.   Teddy, put the butterknife down.  I'd like to talk about writing and covers.  It is no secret that a good cover is important for the sale of your book, but it is also  fatal weakness of many authors.  They choose something THEY like and THEY think is cool.   Not bad, right?  You should have a connection to your work.  It's all part of the passion.  

But here's the issue; you need to pick a cover that will tell your readers what they will be reading. It needs to scream from the rooftops "This is a Urban Fantasy with Magic!" or "This is  Science Fiction Book with Cool Space Ships". What happens a lot of the time, is an author sees an awesome, powerful image that speaks to them, but doesn't speak to the audience.    Then they do one of two things.

They change it, or they dig in.  

If you dig in? Then you've just made that cover (or whatever art item you just latched onto) into your children.   You will now be a mamma bear and defend those children to the death.   Ahem.   Appropriate word there.  Death.  You might have just strangled your own book.

But, but, but! you say.   What if you are wrong and just don't see the possibility in my work? What if this is the next diamond in the rough and people will flock to it, proving you meanies all wrong?  

Totally possible.  That's the beauty of ART is that it is subjective to the person viewing.   It is ALWAYS necessary to question and push the boundaries.  I've SEEN where fifteen critics will tell you it HAS to be a certain way, and they are just parroting what they've been told without thinking about it.   Trust me, the Author Community is full of that.   There's TONS of people who will love nothing but to tell you you're an amateur and hopeless. Well, screw them.

So, mister smarty pants, you just contradicted yourself.   Yep.  Sure did.   There IS a balance between following previously determined information, and hacking the system and the target point changes.    But, if you're clutching around your work like a mamma bear, you don't have the capability work toward that balance point.   

So! Push your precious children out onto the sands of the arena and make them fight the lions!