I wish I could report that I’ve not blogged lately because I’ve been lazing by the ocean and dreaming up lovely stories, but the truth is I’ve been in hell. Well, a hell of sorts. I ran into some trouble formatting the ebook versions of An Illusion of Trust. When I finally escaped, I found the world had moved on without me.
My problems developed because I tried a different approach this time—taking Word-generated html directly to Calibre for conversion. That process works easily for others, not so for me. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’m persnickety.
I want more control over how my books look than ereaders let me have, which is why I so much prefer formatting books for print. But I’ve learned to compromise on some things and, after progressive steps of simplifying the html, I finally got Calibre to produce the .epub and .mobi files I wanted. I’d done the print formatting weeks ago, so the only thing left to do was create the cover.
I’ve been fiddling with the cover for ages, trying versions with other stock photos before I found the perfect image for this book. But again, for me, it wasn’t suitable out of the box. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. Eventually the changes become minute adjustments and then it’s done.
I revealed the cover to my newsletter subscribers on Sunday. Now, I’m revealing it to you. Just click An Illusion of Trust at the top of this page to see the cover and read a few teasy bits from the book. The countdown to publication begins.
Linda Cassidy Lewis 
Love the cover and the short excerpts!
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Thank you, Natasha. Nice to see you out and about. 🙂
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It turned out so well! I hear you about formatting. I hate that crap. My publisher used to do it on their own and now they hire a company to do it. Smart choice because if I had to do it on more than a few books I’d go completely mad! I’m happy you got it all sorted out!
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Thank you, Michelle, your opinion means a lot to me. And I confess at one point I was ready to just not publish the danged book. 😉
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You’re almost there! Of course I wish you much success with the new launch.
When you’re famous and someone asks me to describe you with a single word, I’m using Moxie!
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Thank you, DS. 🙂 Moxie? RFLMAO
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What a beautiful image, well done! I really like how you used the font to hint at the idea of illusion!
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Thank you for taking the time to look and comment, Cathryn. 🙂
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The cover looks fantastic. I’ve given up trying to format the “correct” way, and just do it the same way I have. When I preview, it looks fine so I’m all for that. As long as it’s readable, I guess that’s all I’m shooting for.
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Thank you, Anne. 🙂 Actually formatting the way I did this time was easier—once I understood it. I judge my formatting by the Kindle because that’s the only reader I have. I can only hope it displays well on the others.
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