Ever grinned so much that your smile muscles hurt? That is my current condition after receiving final art for the cover of my steampunk novella, Stealing Time. Oh, I cannot tell you how good, and giddy, and scary it feels to finally have a cover to go with the manuscript! It cements, somehow, that the e-Book is approaching completion; i.e., it is real! Best of all, I love it!

All the happiness aside, I got to thinking about how lucky I am to be with a company that has an in-house artist who listened to my suggestions, as well as added her own artistic impressions to interpret my story to into a lovely picture.

However, what if I wasn’t with a publishing house?

Someday, I’d like to try self publishing; but guess what? You either have to create your book cover art yourself, or pay someone to craft it for you.
After looking into it, I found that for about $300 to $400 you can contract an artist and buy yourself some pretty nice cover art. Not too bad.

But for this Write to Pub Wednesday, I want to tell you, even though I will try self-pubbing one day–just to see if I can do it, sort of like I had to see if I could write a story and get it published (yep, can do! Whew!)–I’m damned happy not to have the worry of searching out the perfect artist, or painting and photo-shopping cover art myself, because I write scads better than I draw or paint! For right now, with all the social networking that needs attention, plus writing sequel and other WIPs, I’m truly grateful to my free in house artist at Musa Publishing, Kelly Shorten, for the creation and formatting of my first book cover art. I think it is outstanding.

My point here is, going it on your own is possible, sure, but there is much to be said for belonging to a publishing house, even if it is a small one, for the benefits that come with it. Pros or Cons, you have to weigh what works best for you in the Write to Pub biz.

So, back to my happy-toe dance under the desk as I write–Holy mackerel! My book has a cover and it’s gorgeous! Lol! Oh, and look for my steampunk novella, Stealing Time, available from Musa Publishing.com and Amazon.com, August 10, 2012!

Cheers!

C.K. Garner