Month: February 2016

Geeking Out: The Tap Awakens

This video combines two of my favorite things: tap dance and the music from Star Wars.  And, of course, I LOVE how everything from the incredible taps to the light saber bows/trombone slide feed my inner geek.  Postmodern Jukebox and Sarah Reich are a perfect combination; add in The Force, and I’m in love. For me, this is 100% adorkable :).

Hope you enjoy!

Cookie O’Gorman

Choosing A Cover Designer

This week I wanted to go into more detail about the cover for Adorkable and how it came into existence :).  The first thing I knew I had to do was find a fantastic cover designer.  A lot of indie authors make their own covers, but I sadly was not blessed with this talent, and I felt more comfortable leaving it up to the professionals.  There was a good bit of research involved, some soul searching, and several opinions from my most trusted advisers (aka my family!).

After narrowing it down to four…then to two…I finally selected Stephanie Mooney of mooneygraphics.  I chose Stephanie for several reasons:

  1. I am a huge fan of her previous work.  I knew she’d done the original covers for both Abbi Glines’s Vincent Boys series and Tamara Weber’s Easy (one of my favorite covers ever).  Love these books and their covers definitely stood out in my mind.
  2. Her cover gallery has great examples of romantic, light-hearted, swoonworthy covers.  A lot of the designers I researched seemed to be more focused on the dark and sexy, which simply would not work for my humorous romantic YA.  Stephanie had a great sampling of covers, and I loved the variety.
  3. Her website is very transparent.  It’s the most transparent of any of the designers I researched.  Everything from pricing to a rundown of the step-by-step process is outlined.  As a first-time indie author, I wanted to know what I was getting into, and even before I contacted her, I had a very good idea of what I’d be signing up for with Stephanie.  She was just as fantastic and transparent throughout our correspondence.
  4. My family and I loved her vibe.  This one was my deciding factor.  When I asked my family who I should go with, all of them said Stephanie.  I already had a gut feeling, but for them to have the same gut feeling?  That sealed the deal.

I felt so incredibly lucky when she responded to my inquiry and agreed to work with me.  The cover she designed for Adorkable is exactly what I had in mind.  Love, love, love <3.

If I had it to do over, I would make the same decision.  I’m so thankful to Stephanie for all of her talent and help.  Hope I get the chance to work with her again in the future!  If you’re looking for a cover designer, all I have to say is go with your gut–and your heart.  Most of the time, they will steer you in the right direction.

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

P.S. People have actually added my book on Goodreads!!!  It still surprises me–in the very best way :).

ADORKABLE cover reveal

Hi there, today I’m revealing the cover for my debut YA romance Adorkable.  I’m so excited because I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  Stephanie Mooney, the cover designer I worked with, did an amazing job and got the feeling of the book just right.  I found the picture; she worked her magic; and the result was everything I’d hoped for and more.  I’m so happy to finally share it with the world.

Hope you like it, too…

…and…

…without further ado…

…here is the cover…

…for Adorkable :).

adorkable-final

Isn’t it just gorgeous?  *sigh*

I love the fonts, the colors, how the models are positioned, the bench, the placement of my name and the tagline.  Here’s the link if you’d like to add ADORKABLE on Goodreads :).

image

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

Goodreads and Good Harry Potter Karma

I uploaded the summary for my debut, Adorkable, and joined the Goodreads Author program.  Here’s a screenshot–and no, I didn’t bribe anyone to put the Harry Potter ad right above my head.  It will probably change to some other ad soon, but I don’t care. I think it may be a sign, and I know that my main character Sally, a die-hard lover of all things HP, would approve :).  And yes, the book does have a cover–and I LOVE IT!–but hey, I already have Harry Potter in this post.  I have to save some of the awesome for later.

Goodreads_Adorkable

If you want, here’s a link so you can add my book to your Goodreads TBR pile.  Wow…that’s so cool to finally say.  You can add my book to your Goodreads.  Geez…starting to feel real…

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman