Cheryl Cowtan on Writing

Category: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > International Mystery and Crime I am going to use the book cover comparison feature of Pronoun’s book publishing application to help understand which design elements are trending in the International Mystery and Crime category. I used Pronoun to prepare my Dark Fantasy novel, Girl Desecrated, for publication, and many features such as category comparison, placement, keyword achievability and popularity, all helped me place my novel in the best position of discoverability for my target reader. I n this research, I’m looking for trends and consistencies in the book covers of the International Mystery and Crime category to determine how to best design a book cover for this genre. I have taken screen shots of Pronoun’s view of top ranking book covers of both traditional and indie published novels. I should note that many top-ranked traditionally published books in this genre are by the same author, David Baldacci, which c...

"If you want me out of your life, you'll have to paint me 100 more waifs--100 more Keanes". How does it happen? How can someone take over your art, your heart's-work, and pass it off as their own and you just let it happen? If you've ever wondered how people get themselves stuck in situations that don't serve them, and often harm them, you need to watch the movie "Big Eyes" on Netflix. The film is based on the true story of Margaret Keane, artist of the "big eyes" waif portraits. For 10 years, her husband claimed he was the artist who created her work, and though he couldn't paint, he was a genius salesman and was able to make quite a bit of money and gain a lot of fame through his sales skills. Walter never painted a thing. His wife produced all the paintings for him to sell, often working herself to sleep in a small studio in their house. Even Margaret's daughter was lied to. The film succeeds, for me, in the way it s...