You May Not Be Able To Judge... by Betsy Ashton

... a book by its cover, but you can identify a series if the covers are done right. I love series, often reading several books in a row. Covers with a common look help me zero in on the next one.

Take a look at my friend Terry Maggert's The Fearless fantasy series. Each bookmark and cover have beautiful women and muted backgrounds. Not hard to see that he writes paranormal fantasy. Not hard to identify his books on Amazon or on a bookshelf in a bookstore as belonging to the same writer and series.

Think about the great Sue Grafton. Her Kinsey Millhone mysteries are branded with a large single letter befitting a series that began with A Is For Alibi. Small changes in variations of shading on the letters, but overall the typescript is similar. Ditto are the backgrounds similar. Bold colors with no images hidden behind under the letters. No one can pass a Sue Grafton book and wonder who wrote it or if it is part of her series.

My good buddy, Michael Murphy, writes Jake and Laura mysteries set in Hollywood's heyday. His book covers scream Hollywood noir,  whether it's Yankee Club, the first in the series, or All That Glitters. The reader knows at a glance what to expect. A hint of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett oozes from the cover and flows into the pages. (Enough of the purple prose, Ashton. Get on with the message.)

And now look at the covers my publisher pulled together for my two Mad Max mysteries. The bookmark accurately depicts two different looks. The top one, Mad Max Unintended Consequences, carries the essence of a rich woman with the little black dress and pearls. The gun warns that this has mystery elements. And the pearls and drops of blood hint at violence and, well, death. That's not a spoiler, because my publisher put, "And when her daughter is murdered" on the back cover. Bad boy!

The lower one for Uncharted Territory doesn't look like it's part of a series, other than it picks up the red lips from the first book in the red lipstick shotgun shell. Again, the shotgun warns of danger.

My publisher is excellent when it comes to working with his authors on cover designs. We tried to keep the black band in the middle with the shotgun and shell in the loser third for Uncharted Territory, but we couldn't find an evocative image for the top third. Since the book takes place in post-Katrina Mississippi, we tried images of desolation, actual photos from after the tidal surge, an Air Stream trailer, a fancy RV. All are part of the story, but the images didn't work.

With book three in progress, I wonder what we'll do for the cover. Book three takes place in a hospital. I'm thinking of a hypodermic filled with blood...

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max, Unintended Consequences, and Uncharted Territory, A Mad Max Mystery, now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Thoughts from a Newbie

By Betsy Ashton

Yes, I'm a newbie to this group. I'm honored to be here and share my weird sense of the world with you all. Two seconds of commercial: I'm a published author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences. I'm involved in three writers groups. Two are critique groups, one at Smith Mountain Lake, the other in Roanoke. And I didn't duck when asked to be the president of the state-wide Virginia Writers Club. Commercial over.

I think about where we get ideas for stories all the time. Nothing new for those of us who write because we must. I must breathe. I must write. But, sometimes stories pop up where they're least expected.

I'm testing the best way to market my novel. Book signings. Social media. Book fairs. I don't know what works best yet, but I'm learning with each venue. Last weekend I went to a two-day book fair. I sold some books. I signed some books. I don't think this was my audience, though. Still, I was fascinated by the insularity of the people who came to the book fair.

Without telling you too much, the fair was part of a street festival in Appalachia. Most of the buyers were from the local area or the mountains of North and South Carolina. Many were transplants from the North. They were like me and were interested in my story. I didn't find much new material from them, though.

What was of interest were the stories from the locals. Most spoke about living on the mountain or down the mountain. Most lived within 50 miles (or less) of where they were born. High school teachers caught up with students who had books for sale. Lots of mountain music, with a dulcimer-and-banjo-playing couple who were joined by a writer who played fiddle. Lots of writers flat-footing in the open space between rows of tables. What got me to thinking was what would it be like to leave one of these insular communities, only to return later after having seen the world.

What would the escapee learn? Why would she return? What would she bring back to her community? Would she be an outcast? I used the windshield time coming home to think about how to weave this into a plot. Since I'm working on a serial killer piece in my spare time, many of the sounds and smells from the weekend can make their way into this WIP. Some of the phrases will, no doubt about it.

Will I return to the venue next year? I don't know. Maybe if I need validation for the WIP. Probably not with the idea of selling tons of books. Maybe to keep my name in front of potential readers. Probably not for both days, though. That was a huge investment of time.

My current book is about a socialite who returns to Richmond to care for her injured daughter and decide if she's going to help raise her grandchildren. Not Appalachian at all. Book two in that series takes the socialite and family to post-Katrina Mississippi. Not Appalachian at all. But the serial killer work might sell well. What do you think? Ideas, fellow Roses?