They say don't judge a book by its cover but in reality, people do so you have to have a great cover. When I was working on my books I put a lot of thought into the cover and with the last cover 'Born for Life: Midwife in Africa,' I had to pay a copyright fee to use it. It was worth it though and I was pleased I found out who owned the image when I found the cover. It is a stunning cover as is my first books cover, 'Born for Life: A Midwife's Story.' It's worth investing in to get a superb cover. I remember when I was sent a few covers for the first book I gasped when I saw it as it was so moving a perfect for my story. I have had many positive comments from both my covers. The title is also important and has to be short and to the point and grabs the readers interest.
As an indie author, I have had to do everything myself from writing the book to marketing. Not an easy task so what I feel is success is when people discover, read and review my books. I find if the sales are steady and ongoing I am happy and feel successful. If someone leaves a review I am even more thrilled and feel successful. I don't have to be on the bestseller list to feel successful but the orange stickers that appear on the Amazon sale page of my books really give me a buzz and am thrilled when I receive one. My first book 'Born for Life: A Midwife's Story' is still selling and it has been published more than four years now so I regard that as successful. I used to say even if only one person was touched by my story then it was worth it.
I read all my reviews. They are very precious to me and I am grateful to anyone who has spent the time reviewing my books. If I know them or I find out who reviewed my book I do like to thank them. Sometimes I never know but if a reviewer lets me know somehow then I always want to thank them. If I receive a bad review I cannot lie and say it doesn't affect me as it does but then I look at the positive aspects of the review. I try and learn from the review and make it positive. I value people when they are honest so initially, it might take me back but then I find positive things from it. The reviewer often puts some positive comments in as well which is nice. I also know that even really great books have bad reviews so it's not a bad thing to have a range of reviews from 1-5 stars.
If you write from the heart and draw on your emotions then that will come out in your book. The book has to move along and not be boring for the reader. The reader must be engaged enough that they want to keep reading and not put the book down. It does mean as a writer not to have too much writing that is just padding the story out. I think that is a mistake. Also, the author must after they have edited the book as much as they can get a professional author to edit the book. This is a must do. There is nothing worse than having errors and mistakes in the book.
I was inspired by my daughter to write a book about my life. I had been through a lot in my life including my baby daughter dying at birth when I was aged 20. I started thinking about it and felt that my story might help others who have also struggled in life. Once I started it just flowed and I couldn't stop. It was very emotional and I felt that I tapped into my emotions as I wrote my story down.
Both my books had emotional content. My first book tells of the emotional roller coaster I went on when my second baby died at birth. To write I had to go back to that place where I had felt so much pain and suffering. I wrote in short bursts over that time. Putting everything into the story so my readers felt as I felt and could experience the emotion I had gone through. By taking a break from the writing when I needed to and not pushing myself during that time helped me write as best as I could when I was writing.
