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...

A beta reader brings a reader's perspective  to your manuscript. Recently, due to union action, I found myself with extra time to invest in my writing. If you've ever been on strike, you'll know how non-productive it is, and for some of us, that is enough to send us scrambling for something to do. While walking the picket line, I reconnected with a lovely co-worker who just happens to have a Masters in English. My writing came up during our conversation like it usually does: "What have you been keeping busy with?" "Oh, still working away on my novel."  Do not feel unworthy of asking for help. You need readers to read your work. Usually I say this with a tinge of embarrassment because I've been "working" on my novel for quite some time. However, I was very fortunate. My colleague, Dania, offered to read over and respond to my current manuscript, The Fergus She . Immediately, I got that internal cringe of "Oh...