#YAIndieCarnival: The wolf pack

Other than our absolutely smashing readers who we adore (!), us indie authors usually have our very own wolf pack - a team of essential folk right behind us, that come in the form of book cover designers, beta readers and editors.
When I first started out with Raven, I had no money put aside to pay for any of these, so my book cover was a photo my husband took of me running through a little forest up our local mountain. I fiddled with it a bit in Photoshop and uploaded it to Smashwords and Amazon. Needless to say, when I look back at that image, I cringe! It really was pretty awful.

From this

Then this

To this... gorgeous!

Anyway, after several weeks (or was it months? I can't remember!), I decided it had to go so off I went to track down the perfect image for my new cover. I paid a stock photography site a few dollars for a picture I did like but I knew it wasn't THE one but with no money to fork out for a professional designer, I had to make do with it. The next two books I did the same, used stock images and then added my bit of flair in Photoshop (very little flair... I'm not exactly a pro!).
For my latest book, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw, I knew it was time to go pro and so, using some of my earnings (!), I found a fabulous cover designer (Ravven) who did a stellar job with a beautiful new cover which I adore. During the same week, before I'd even told anyone about my professional cover, I was approached by the gorgeous Emma Michaels, who is a YA author and cover designer. She offered to re-do all three of my Raven Saga covers. Naturally I jumped at the chance and I'm totally over the moon with the result! Gorgeous!
As for beta readers, I started off with a dear friend (a teacher) who offered to read Raven as well as a number of close friends who happen to be in the publishing business with some experience with editing and proofreading. They did a wonderful job. I still use them today, but I've also added to them with beta readers who I've found via facebook and other YA sites. In fact this morning, I received an email from a fan who offered to beta read for me. Delighted, I promptly sent her my latest manuscript!
I must mention Bryna Butler at this stage. Bryna very kindly beta read The Lost Soul for me and I am so grateful because she managed to stop me from making a fool of myself with a certain dinosaur. I had written that this dinosaur could fly... and of course, it couldn't! I am so grateful to her for that!
As for editors, I did hire one once and although she is a lovely person and did a decent job, I felt that my beta readers offered the same service for free so at the moment I am content to continue just with them.
For more stories about the important people behind us indies, check out my awesome fellow carnis...

1. Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series
2. Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series

3. Heather Self

4. T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5. Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga 

6. Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
7. Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog 

8. K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
9. Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series 

10. Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
11. Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey

12. Gwenn Wright, author of Filter  

13. Melissa Pearl, Author of The Time Spirit Trilogy
14. Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga

15. Courtney Cole Writes
16. Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.

17. Ella James
18. Maureen Murrish

19. Valerie Sloan
20. YA Sci Fi Author's Ramblings

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