This super fabulous awesome cover was created for me by Thai Braddick. Thai is a 15 year old (man they teach them younger than even I was to use photoshop nowadays) free-lancer who has been creating covers for NaNo participants for their NaNo novels. The kid's a genius, that's all I've really got. Hopefully, I'll be able to have the other two Realm novels covered by him as well as then they'd match and not look all o.O
Check out Thai's website and portfolio here: http://funkelnpartei.tumblr.com/
Katherine Lampe's 'Caitlin Ross' Series
Katherine is an author who's work I've admired for a long time.
And now all of you are looking at me like 'Huh? The woman just published, what are you smoking.....and where can I get some?'
I betaed Katherine's works, starting with 'The Unquiet Grave' all the way through to her current masterpiece 'The Parting Glass.'
I didn't know what I was in for when I started reading 'The Unquiet Grave,' but the more I read the more I got sucked into this amazing urban paranormal that didn't require vampires, werewolves or whatever the current trend of teenage paranormal fan-crazed, phenomena piggy-back ridding was.
It was new, it was fresh and it was freaking awesome! I've a total, undeniable addiction to Katherine Lampe's works like I do for some of my 'Big 6' published authors with one slight difference between her and them...
I GET TO FREAKING HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH HER!!!
You see, unlike with the authors we adore in physical copies, I can actually talk with an author I like and not have twelve burly men in suits with glasses wall me if I even attempt to get within six feet of their pinky for fear I may damage their income....you don't need a pinky to type, by the way.
Okay, off the tangent and back on track now. I can honestly say I've waited for the day to see Katherine's works out there in the world to be shared with other people. She has a talent for writing that I admire and a very cool back story to how she knows what she knows in order to write her 'Caitlin Ross' series. The paranormal elements draw on how life used to be using magick's and religions that once were revered by people and not considered to be myths. I implore each and every one of you to purchase a copy of 'The Unquiet Grave,' - and the rest of the series - and see for yourself how exciting and thrilling her novels are.
I spoke last time about how Indie Authors cannot afford their own editors mainly because the logistics are not the same. The writers who chose self-publishing have no lesser merit just because they do not choose the traditional route however it is agreed that editing plays an important role in both sides of the issue.
Thus bringing me to the role of a Beta Reader. A Beta is similar to an editor, however, there is a key difference: Editors often have degrees and demand payment while Betas may or may not have degrees and do not demand payment (they may ask for a novel swap in which you review their work in return but they do not ask for money).
A Beta can be of great importance to your writing process, especially if you can find the right Beta that fits you and your work. Some writers have more than one Beta depending on their genres of writing and also depending upon how much of a kick in the pants the writer feels their work needs. Some Beta's will only provide certain services and most will not be able to help you if your work hasn't even been edited by you, the writer.
It's very, very important to remember to review your own writing first before pawning it off on other people to help you. There are people who don't mind putting in the effort but if you, the writer, aren't going to help yourself, then these people aren't going to bother helping you either because they will see it as you having a lack of pride.
There's a few websites that can help you connect with Betas so that your work can be at a similar if not parallel quality of a traditionally published author.
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/
http://www.perfectimagination.co.uk/
http://querytracker.net/forum/
