New Collection: Sister of the Hedge and Other Stories
I spent the weekend working on a new e-book collection titled Sister of the Hedge and Other Stories. Like Kitemaster and Goblin Tales, this one will be $2.99, and will be available on as many platforms as I can get it.
I have a little work left to do, but I’m hoping to post it for sale by the end of April. (To forestall any questions about why it’s not on Amazon yet.)
The stories are:
- Sister of the Hedge
- In the Line of Duty
- Heart of Ash
- Bloodlines
- Images of Death
- Ours to Fight For
“Sister of the Hedge” is one of my first stories about the Sleeping Beauty myth, and while it’s not canonical to the Princess books, readers will recognize a lot of the ideas. “Heart of Ash” is the story of a dryad, one with striking similarities to a character from Libriomancer (though again, this isn’t a canonical prequel).
Overall, these are some of my more serious stories. Each one includes an author’s note at the end. Author notes may or may not be serious.
Jenn Reese at Tiger Bright Studios helped me put the cover together. I’ve made some tweaks based on feedback I received on Facebook, but I’d love to hear what folks here think of it.
Mitaukano
April 2, 2012 @ 2:13 pm
Can’t wait to read it =D my 2.99 will be well spent when it comes out.
Jim C. Hines
April 2, 2012 @ 2:16 pm
Thanks! 🙂
Sarah Wynde
April 2, 2012 @ 7:34 pm
I think that the most important cover size is a thumbnail and that this cover — although lovely at this size — is going to be nondescript as a thumbnail. Do a screenshot of a list of books on Amazon, put a thumbnail of the cover into the list, and see if it pops. If it does, okay, good cover. If it doesn’t (and I’m betting this one won’t), it’s worth re-thinking. The most important place for the cover to stand out is in the list of “people who bought this” on Amazon (IMO) and for that, vibrant colors really work best. The simplicity is right though, but I bet the face gets lost in a thumbnail. Either way, though, this isn’t the size that matters — you want to know what people think of the size that most people will see first and need to choose to click on (or not).
Annie Bellet
April 3, 2012 @ 11:46 am
I think it looks pretty good. I didn’t notice the face at first, but once I reduced the cover to thumbnail, the face popped more (that’s how I even noticed it), so I think it’s pretty good as is.
liz
April 4, 2012 @ 9:30 pm
I LIKE IT! It has a sort of surreal, sinister quality. Kinda like walking in the woods in the middle of the night. You know you aren’t in danger, not really, but you never know for sure. The faded face enhances this I think. If this is what you’re going for, you got it spot on.