UK Model Will Be The Face of Hannah Richards in FOREVER ME

U.K. Model, Zoe Harrington has signed on to be the face in the forthcoming YA novel by Thomas Amo, entitled, FOREVER ME.


Creating the right cover for a book is important, as it sets the tone, but finding the right face is crucial to giving the book a life of its own. 


Many authors don't like to use models to represent the face of their main character as they feel sometimes it stifles the reader's mental idea of what that particular character looks like. The argument might be, write good details and the readers won't need a face, but me personally, I am drawn to covers that use a face. It's no different than a movie poster, it is an enticement to draw a prospective viewer or reader in this case. Not that I can't imagine the characters in my mind but if the author has decided to show me, and I'm agreeable to it, then all the better for me as I dig into the story.


I'm sure there are as many books that do just fine with a plain cover, but me personally, I want to give the reader a serious reason to want to pick up my work, and let's face it (no pun intended) who doesn't like a pretty face?


Zoe is an author as well and she totally gets the idea of knowing what your characters look like from the outset. I was thrilled beyond words when she agreed to become the face of sixteen-year old, Hannah Richards. We talked about what Hannah was like, and her habits, then we shared some ideas and the result is going to be a gorgeous cover. The book is scheduled for a Spring 2012 release, pending edits. It is ironic that a model named Zoe is going to be the face of my next female lead considering my last novel is titled An Apple For Zoe. And yes there have been times where I nearly called her Hannah because whenever I think of Hannah, I see Zoe...I suppose the good thing is the model for An Apple For Zoe wasn't named Hannah! Then I'd really be a mess.

Cracking The Top 100 on Amazon.

Last week I did a free promo for my sixties spy comedy, "Let's Get Lade." This was my second time doing a Kindle select free promo. It's a wild ride in no uncertain terms. It seemed so strange to cheer for your book to be given away for free. Now didn't I get into publishing to make a living? So why would I be excited about giving my work away for free? Well in a blog several blogs ago, I talked about how freebies sometimes are the just the thing that makes your product buyable! It doesn't make any sense to me, but I suppose in a way, it's a way to let people give your writing a try, see if they want to read more of your work. I hope the readers do feel it was worth it. (even though they didn't have to pay for it.) However value isn't just placed in dollars is it? Time is valuable too. How many times do we stand in line, sit at a very long red light and lament about how we've been robbed of precious minutes of life we can never get back. Many readers feel this way too when they've invested themselves in a book that doesn't live up to it's promise.

Our world is becoming so very tied together now, it seems if we make a major blunder, basically everyone with a twitter or Facebook will know about it in less than five minutes. If readers don't like us, it will take no time to watch the fire of word of mouth spread.  While the internet is an amazing thing...it's still word of mouth (fingers a typing) that drives it all. So that being said...once people found out I had a free book...man did they ever go hog wild on the downloads.

Suddenly I felt like my book was a Wonka Bar! About every 15 minutes another 100 copies was downloaded. All I kept thinking was..damn what if this was paid? This must be what it feels like to be J.A. Konrath, lol. Anyway before the end of the first day I found out...I had cracked the coveted Top 100!  There was my name at #49! Not only had I got into the Top 100 I was in the Top 50! 

For some this is like Kindle Lottery...it makes their books take off. My first time I didn't make it into the top 100. First time I only saw 1505 downloads. This time I was 73 shy of 7000 downloads. WOW.

I have to give the bulk of that credit to ENT. (Ereader News Today)

with their amazing 240k followers on FB, they really made a difference. I am hoping the sales will continue. I have to say even for the Free Store it sure does feel good to be one of the writers that got to experience that!

Thank you everyone who grabbed a copy, shared a link or retweeted me! Now most importantly...I hope you like the book!

Get your very own copy of  Let's Get Lade on Kindle! CLICK HERE