My series of novels set in an English bookshop - book cover designing and planning updates

THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM SERIES

BOOK COVER DESIGNING

I'm really solitary so I like to hide myself away and write and design all my books by myself.
I've really enjoyed designing the first six novels in my bookshop series over the past several weeks. I've slipped into solitude to work away and been able to do some writing and book cover designing. I always like to have the cover of a book I am writing finished before (or during) I write as I find it inspiring. The trouble is that, I am keen to get on to later books in the series such as 'Halloween in the Secondhand Bookworm' which is already planned.

I have been designing my covers using Microsoft Word since the beginning because I like to keep things as simple and user friendly for myself as possible (I'm not that great at learning new software etc...). I also like to do everything myself where possible, so discovering Kindle and Amazon paperback publishing a few years ago was brilliant. It helps with my hermit-like brain and yet allows me to put my books out there for others to discover and read.

I do have a friend who proof-reads my finished manuscripts for me but I write, plan, design and publish all of my own books through Amazon, especially on Kindle. I write for fun and am really enjoying writing the bookshop series.

When I first wrote book one, 'The Secondhand Bookworm', in 2008 just for my work colleagues, I designed a cover using Clip art. Since I cannot use these images due to copyright, I have been using specific artwork suitable for publishing commercially as I have reworked my first two early novels and am currently midway through the third book in the series.

Each book can be read as a stand alone but they follow on from each other too.

I wanted to write 'Christmas at The Secondhand Bookworm' during the Christmas season so as to get an authentic feel of the festivities once more and I visited my cousin in my old bookshop for some fresh experiences (and lots of mince pies). I had written much of it about six years ago but haven't picked up the thread since then since I have been busy with other projects.

These past couple of weeks I managed to play around with the covers for books five and six in The Secondhand Bookworm series which are:

Halloween at The Secondhand Bookworm

and

Valentine's Day at The Secondhand Bookworm.

I have my chapters planned and chapter titles and plots and events for these and am keen to get writing but I am presently only half way through book three in my series - Christmas at The Secondhand Bookworm. Here are the first six in the series so far:

Some readers have been saying such nice things about my books - the ones I have in paperback and have passed around. Hopefully I will get some Kindle readers who like them and share their comments too.
Ten years ago I used to sit in the bookshop making notes and planning my writing, dreaming about one day having my bookworm novels available for anyone to discover and hopefully enjoy.
Having them available on Kindle and in Amazon paperback is a dream come true.
I was my own first customer for my paperback editions and treasure them on my shelf. I love to read them as it brings back memories and inspires many more.

My books are available through Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and in paperback.