See?! Dreams Can Come True!

Tomorrow is the cover reveal of the next book in the Akasha Series, ‘Air’.  But for today, an interview with Air’s cover designer, Keary Taylor.  I am so excited to be interviewing Keary, she is a very talented graphic artist and indie author.  She created the button on the right, by the way – feel free to grab it! Keary recently released some exciting news that more than trumps my cover reveal – and I couldn’t be happier for her!  Keary is an indie author of the paranormal romance ‘Fall of Angels’ trilogy and the post-apocalyptic thriller ‘Eden’.  Now on to the news:

Q: Ok, I’ll just come out with it.  The film and TV rights to ‘Eden’ were just negotiated.  Wha- what?!  Talk about every author’s dream – or many author’s dreams, anyway.  How are you not bouncing off the walls right now?  Tell us how this whole thing came about!

Haha, it certainly is beyond exciting!  I was contacted by KK&P on November 1^st so I had to keep everything a secret for over a month!  But yeah, Kami Garcia (co-author of Beautiful Creatures/producer) read Eden, loved it, passed it to Mark Morgan (producer of Twilight and Percy Jackson) and he loved it too.  So they contacted me, said they wanted to represent Eden for film.  We went through some contract stuff and here we are!  And amazingly enough, KK&P wasn’t the only production company to contact me about Eden!

Q: When did you first self-publish Eden?

In June of this year.

Q:  For us author types, what marketing strategies worked best?

You have to be pretty smart about your advertising.  Whenever I have a new book come out, I send ARC’s to book bloggers and do a bunch of interviews and giveaways.  I also promote on Goodreads.com as well as Facebook ads.  Sometimes, you just get lucky I think and things take off.

Q: For us reader types, what can we look for from you next?

I just finished the first draft of a YA contemporary I’m hoping to release in the spring (I’ll be doing an announcement of the title and cover on my blog probably around the same time this interview goes up).  After that I have a science fiction I plan on working on.

Q: Will you send me an autograph movie poster of ‘Eden’, you know – when you have hit it big?

Haha, we’ll talk when it gets to that point 😉

Q: Ok – on to your graphic talents.  You’ve done an amazing job with your covers, my covers, and many other indie author covers.  Here are a few (more can be seen on Keary’s design page):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve gotta say, ‘Awakening’ is my favorite out of the bunch – after ‘Water’, of course! Does design come naturally to you?  Do you have professional training in graphic design?  How did you learn the trade?  Is this a part of the ‘job’ you really enjoy?

I guess you could say it comes naturally to me.  When I started reading so much, I really started paying attention to covers, picking out things I really liked about certain ones.  I have to admit, I don’t have any professional training.  When I started self-publishing I just started playing around in Photoshop and watching different tutorials and just picked it up!  I loved it!  And so I started offering other authors to do it for them and soon I had people coming to me!  I don’t know if I’d call the graphic design a “job”.  While I do make a bit of money from it, I mostly do it for fun and to help other authors out.

Q: Tell us your thoughts on the importance of book covers.

Oh man, I can’t stress enough how important a good cover is.  Being an independent author is hard enough without a bad cover working against you too.  A cover is what people see first and even though they say “don’t judge a book by its cover” people always do.

Q: Have you ever won any awards for your graphic work?

None that I know of, lol.  But I do get a lot of compliments and the cover for my book Eden was listed on a TON of best of 2011 covers.

Q: And back to the film rights for ‘Eden’ (because I just can’t stop thinking about it).  What are the next steps?  Is there a timeline?  What info can you give us?

I really can’t say too much right now.  There should be some more news to share in the next six months or so.  As of right now it’s about getting a screenplay done, looking for actors, and studios.  It is certainly exciting though!  A total dream come true.

A big thanks to Keary for doing the interview and an even bigger thanks for all my great covers!  Please check back in tomorrow to see her masterpiece!

About Keary:

Keary Taylor grew up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in love. She now resides on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two young children. She continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps her up at night. She is the author of BRANDED, FORSAKEN, VINDICATED, AFTERLIFE (Fall of Angels series), and EDEN. To learn more about Keary and her writing process, please visit http://kearytaylor.com.