So last night, I attended a very awesome Kindle publishing workshop with Stephen Lewis. His parting advice was very sage: do not, under any circumstance, start a flame war with a reviewer who doesn’t like your book. Eeek. On that note, for those of you who’ve read my book, please leave a review!
Finding Jamilah is up, and now I need to market it. It won’t sell itself, as much as I’d like to think! Stephen made a good point. If I don’t talk about my book, who will?
And now, my dilemma. My Author Central photo! Le sigh.
I’ve been doing some research, and it looks like most of the male authors have very serious photographs. I suppose it fits into the genre they write in (crime, thrillers etc). Look at John Grisham, for example. Grim! But very fitting. Compare his photograph to Nicholas Sparks. Do you prefer head-shots, or upper body ones? Aha, I like Robert Jordan’s photograph. That photo has character!
Female author photographs are very different! I’ve scanned through a few, and most of them are smiling. Some of them are leaning against trees or have some kind of greenery in the background. I like the ones with bookshelves in the backdrop. Hmm…
In my case, after I find a nice bookshelf to stand/sit/pirouette in front of, it all boils down to:
1) Which hijab do I wear?
2) Do I strike a pose?
3) Which cat do I pose with?
Decisions, decisions…
Raidah Shah Idil 