DRAGONTIARNA, WRAITHSHARD, and GHOST IN THE VISION
Now that WRAITHSHARD: PYRE & FORGE is finished and out in the world, I’ve started on DRAGONTIARNA: CROWNS!
Currently I’m 15,000 words into it, which puts me on Chapter 4 of 31.
DRAGONTIARNA: CROWNS will continue the fine DRAGONTIARNA tradition of the books being long. There are three main plotlines, and all of them have pretty significant things to do. Additionally, there were a bunch of chapters with Tyrcamber Rigamond that were going to be in DEFENDERS, but I shifted them to CROWNS since they would have slowed down the climax of DEFENDERS quite a bit.
Anyway, here’s what I’m going to write over the next few months.
-DRAGONTIARNA: CROWNS
-WRAITHSHARD: WRATH & BATTLE (the final WRAITHSHARD book)
-GHOST IN THE VISION.
I’m 11,000 words into GHOST IN THE VISION.
One of my side projects will be to redesign the covers of THE GHOSTS and GHOST EXILE, since they’ve had the same covers for eight years now and are looking a little dated. Here’s the new cover for CHILD OF THE GHOSTS.
-JM
My initial impression of the new cover was positive, but it was also bothering me. Why is Caina holding two western style swords and carrying a sheathed katana & wakasashi on her back? Where are the sheaths for those two swords? Why does she have swords at all?
Yeah, I know. Picky, picky. Still, you’re the author, you don’t have the excuse the illustrators have of not knowing the source material. I’m worried that this gives the wrong impression. Caina isn’t a bad-ass in your face Red Sonja clone, she’s a spy, thief and assassin, especially at the start of her career.
The real test, of course, will be it it sells more, fewer, or the same copies in September as in August.
The new cover is interesting (do you know if it will replace the old ones in the Kindle versions?), but I’d agree with Justin. Feels just a bit off- and Caina’s covers have always bugged me in that she looks different every cover.
If possible (though I strongly suspect it would cost more than it’s worth), I’d suggest covers in the style of Sevenfold/Dragontiarna, where the McGuffin of the book is the centre point. If this cover helps sell new books, maybe have a cover-off and see what works best?
It’s the same challenge as audiobooks – Caina sounds (and looks) differently in everyone’s head.
The real test, of course, will be to see if the new covers sell more copies in September than in August.