Win a Free Book

Win a free copy of The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen before it even hits the shelves at Nereyda’s beautiful blog, Mostly YA Book Obsessed  http://booksandsparkles.blogspot.com/2012/04/fairy-tale-blog-hop-giveaway.html

Interview at Alice in Readerland

Ever wondered how I came up with the idea for The Fairytale Keeper series? Well, I’ve answered that question and many others on the lovely blog, Alice in Readerland.  Check it out at  http://aliceinreaderland.wordpress.com/category/author-interviews/

A Review of The Fairytale Keeper by Jamie Z.

Check out Jamie Z’s review of The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen on her blog Funk’s House of Geekery.

Everyday I’m Tumbling…

A huge thanks goes out to my cousin Kayte-lynn for making a wonderful Tumblr page for me and The Fairytale Keeper series.  Check it out…and then forgive me for the horrible title of this post. www.andreacefalo.tumblr.com

Win a Free Book!

Want your very own autographed copy of The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen?  Enter the Magical Giveaway on The Anfractuous Bookaholic Young Adult Book Blog and you just may walk away with a free copy.

Author Talk at Hillcrest High School in Ms. Esrum’s Art Class

I had a great time yesterday visiting my art teacher from high school Ms. Eva Esrum. She really inspired a love of art and history for me. It was so nice to see her again and talk to her students about the writing process and careers in publishing. They were a great audience.  I think there might be a few future authors and illustrators in that classroom!

Reviews and Interviews

Well, the ball is really rolling on this project! Many blogs are going to be hosting an event called Fairytale Fortnight, in which they review upcoming fairy tale retellings. The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen is to be featured on quite a few of those. In the next three weeks, I expect to see between five and ten more reviews and I’ll post links to those as soon as I get them. My author interview with Alice at Alice in Readerland was recently posted and a review by Vicky Culbertson, Sanders Middle School’s Media Specialist, was posted to my page on Amazon.

A Crazy Month

March has been a whirlwind for The Fairytale Keeper!  I received my first copy of the book a few weeks ago and since then have sent off a dozen or so copies to reviewers.  I started a Facebook fan page two weeks ago and already have 450 fans.  The first chapter was posted about a week ago and the reviews have been very positive so far.  In fact, I was the featured author on The Secret Writer on March 22, 2012.

I’ve been talking to wholesalers, distributors, and the like to make sure my readers can order my book from independent bookstores, major book sellers (Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Borders), and online retailers (Amazon, Createspace, Apple).  And I’m happy to say that on June 1,  anyone who wants a copy should be able to get one pretty easily!  Here’s hoping that April is just as productive a month as March!

Mommy Approves

So my mom finished reading my manuscript yesterday.  I’m floating on cloud 9 right now because it seems she couldn’t put it down.  When I gave it to her on Tuesday, she told me to give her a while to finish it (which I assumed to mean a few weeks).  She finished it in two days!!!

I’m sure some of you authors out there can relate to this: Having an unpublished novel is like having read an amazing book and having no one to discuss it with.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t talk about it anyways, but this one-sided conversations usually ended in someone changing the subject with good reason, I suppose. A huge thanks to my mom for giving my book  a general thumbs up, giving me some well-needed feedback, and giving me someone to talk to about my baby.

My Cover Art Inspirations

We’ve all heard that old adage. You know which one I’m talking about: Don’t judge a book by its cover. But the truth is readers DO judge books by their covers. So I know that if I want my Fairytale Keeper series to sell, my cover needs to compel readers to pick it up.

In order to come up with the concept for my cover, I went straight to Amazon.com to do a little research.  I looked for titles that I felt were similar to my book and have sold well.

1. Phillipa Gregory and I both write about female protagonists fighting against the restraints of their rigid historical settings, so I looked at several of her book covers.  Overall, I love her use of close-ups.  The model’s gaze on this cover hints at the self-righteous, ruthlessness that was the essence of Margaret Beaufort, while the use of historical garb lets the reader know the time period.  It piques interest while informing the reader of what to expect.

2.  The cover art for the Fallen series by Lauren Kate has helped make her a huge hit.  The stormy skies and eery trees make the reader aware of the dark tone and drama.  Personally, I am a sucker for misty forests, black and white, and a beautiful protagonist.  Apparently I’m not alone since Torment was listed number 25 of the top 100 Best Book Cover Art list by Good Reads.

3.  Since my novel weaves in Grimm’s fairytale retellings and my main character is  Snow White, I had to check out other fairytale adaptations.  First Bite by Laura Briggs and Sarah Steinbrenner really appealed to me. The apple hints at a Snow White element, but the text and colors illustrate that this is a dark retelling.

So I guess if you take different elements from each of these book covers you end up with mine!  Now that I see these covers so close to mine, I can tell that I need to brighten the reds on my cover a little bit.  Below I’ve put some links to great posts on cover design, including Good Read Best Book Cover Art list.  Feel free to leave a comment about your favorite book cover!