Double Cover Reveal: Enlighten Me and Becoming Me (Part 1)

I know most authors will scour the internet for blogs and other authors to help them host a reveal party. They spend hours...weeks, dedicated to revealing the cover of their books to the public. 

I know. I was one of those authors once upon a time. 

It can take weeks to set them up and be just as hurtful as submitting to the slush pile. You enter into the whole rejection situation again because not everyone cares about revealing the cover to your new book. Some blogs won't even reply with a yes or no. And I understand why they don't when they receive 300 requests in one day. They have to manage their time, too.

Am I saying this because I'm bitter. Absolutely not. I've consciously chosen to forego all the hoopla with my reveal because I personally don't have time for it. I work full time and have a family to attend to. I have to be wise with my time. It's a precious commodity. 

Truthfully though, at first, I was ashamed. I felt like I was doing this all wrong. Everyone has official cover reveals. Right? They contact those event sites and hire them to do all the work. They make a big fuss, do Thunder Clap promotions, and all that to announce they have a book releasing soon.

Well, I decided to go against tradition. I'm not hiring anyone to do anything. I'm not rich and I'd rather invest my money into the cover themselves, or the editing, or the formatting. Sure, I know that eventually, I'll spend money on some form of marketing (I've actually got a written plan) but I just don't feel like it's necessary to do so now. 

Sometimes, people in this industry can be bullies. They bully authors into believing their books, their life's work, will not be successful unless they do XYZ like everyone else. Listen up authors, you don't have to conform to be successful. Do what you want. 

Think out of the box. The most successful authors are probably those that take risk and go against the grain anyway. 

I think the biggest reason I've decided against all that is, I want to write. I love it so much. This passion that explodes out of me and makes me crazy gets put off constantly. You know when I'm at my craziest? When I can't do what I love. I want to write. I'm a writer. But every time I get pulled away from writing to work on the business side it sucks. Yes, I know that's just par for the course with Indie Authors. Maybe if my books start to earn well, I'll start to contact a site to host an event for me. Until then...

I'll reveal both covers tomorrow here at my blog. 

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh.