PUMPKIN SPICE, 90 DEGREES & SPACE ZOMBIES

Hey Y’all,

October is among us! It’s time for pumpkin spice and all that crap…

Actually, I am a bit jealous because when this time of year hits, I always think, “Yay, fall!” I get excited that I can wear long sleeves and not feel like I am dying when I wear long-leg pants. That never really works out much for someone who lives in Tampa, Florida. It just means we have a couple of more months of hot weather before we get a little less hot weather for about a month. I know I shouldn’t complain, but honestly I like the seasons. All of them. We only really have one and a half here.

Pumpkin spice just doesn’t hit the same in ninety-degree temperatures.

COLD HARBOR, book four of the Humanity Shattered series, is currently available for pre-order on Amazon. I am very proud of how it turned out. I feel like I have grown as a writer, and it is starting to show.

I wanted to share my process for choosing a book cover. When it comes to covers, I start with some concepts. The concepts have to be appropriate for the genre. This involves looking at what else is out there in science fiction. Specifically, military-focused science fiction. I often look at the top-rated science fiction books on Amazon and go from there.

As I write, I tag scenes that I think will make a good cover for the book. I create anywhere from five to ten potential covers from those scenes and use Canva to make them. Canva is a great service for editing images and creating material for digital and print release. When they are done, they are pretty good mock-ups to review.

I almost always have a favorite in the bunch, but I don't trust myself enough to leave it to chance. I include the mock-ups in this newsletter and ask for feedback. Thank you for that! I never seem to have a clear favorite from that alone, though. A few always run close in the voting.

So I take it a step further.

I create Facebook and Instagram ads that will run with each version of the cover. The copy is the same on each ad; the only difference is the image. I run it for a week and see what happens. Every time, a clear winner emerges. It's never been my favorite of the bunch either, so I guess that is part of why I don’t trust myself to do it without a process behind it. The winner is determined by how many people click the ad; it is that simple.

COLD HARBOR releases on October 14 as an ebook and paperback. Tony is working on the audio version. I don’t have a timeline on that yet. So I hope October is awesome for you. My wife and I are heading to the mountains of North Alabama to camp at the end of October, and I am excited to get out of the heat for a bit.

Shamon

P.S. You will hear from me again this month when COLD HARBOR releases.