Learning from one's mistakes

OK, I haven't posted here for a while.

Pike is undergoing a makeover at the moment. My original cover was the subject of some derision, and when I held a printed copy in my hand I had to agree that it could be better. I changed it to the now familiar "Pike nose-to nose with Horse" version and went ahead and published the paperback version.

Sales have been slow. VERY slow.

When my own sister read the book she said words to the effect of:

 "I delayed reading it but when I did I really enjoyed it - that'll teach me to judge a book by its cover!"

- it was time to take action. So I've changed it again. The print version is temporarily unavailable while the changes are made (should be back in a few days) and the Kindle/Smashwords versions are happily downloadable (although the Amazon site hasn't updated at the time of writing this). 

And now, the new cover reveal is here:

I shall not be changing it again any time soon! 

Click HERE to check out purchase links.

The story so far ...

The new proof copy arrived on Tuesday, much to my delight. Pretty impressive stuff, I have to say. The print quality is great and it feels really good to hold a paper copy of Pike's Quest in my hands and to look at the cover art over which I have lost sleep.


Ardent followers of Pike may have noticed that the cover has recently gone through a series of iterations - from the orange-coloured silhouette, through to the clean-cut Pike in yellow tunic, going head-to head with a brown horse. Then Pike's hair grew, and Horse remained brown.


I started to read the proof and realised that it was not the fully corrected version. Dammit!


When I formatted the paper copy it turns out I did so with the last but one script of the Kindle versions, which contains around about 6 errors/typos. I can't remember what they are. I only knew of this when in the first chapter, Moorlock the Warlock says, "Look at your mouth ..." The proof copy still contained this - "Look at your youth ...", which is slightly confusing, to say the least.


I have found two more of the errors, and the hunt is on for the final ones. I have to say, it's easier to read the book and check for them than it is to reformat the corrected Kindle copy.


Finally, the cover art has had another make-over. In the book, Horse is a piebald stallion. My cover image showed him to be plain brown, and probably not big enough (in fact, the promo video that I have in the back ground, waiting for the paperback release, still will show a brown horse so it doesn't distract from the overlaying text [EDIT: or maybe I'll change it!]). Also, because of the bright yellow tunic on the right, from a  distance you can't see that there actually is a horse in the picture: it was tonally imbalanced. I have also had to lighten the image for the print version, as for some reason, the CreateSpace cover print comes out several shades darker than what I see on my screen and what I see when I print it on high quality photo paper at home.


So now I can reveal this - positively the last version of the cover (for the time being)!

Pike, with long hair, a piebald stallion and a sparrow.
Don't make me re-do it again.