The Seal Cove Theoretical Society launched today. I hear a faint fanfare, muted by distance, and drowned out the white noise of modern life (politics, COVID, and the avalanche of email). The SCTS (as I’ll refer to it here to save long repetition) was my attempt at an ensemble piece. I’m a great admirer of Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 SCOTLAND STREET series, which rotates through about a dozen characters like interweaving warp and weft. I had a devil of a time trying to make all of the character arcs resolve at the same time. It effectively stalled publication by a year. Of course, no story is really done. The author could keep on tweaking it into the grave, but at some point, you just have to cut the umbilical cord and say “The End.” The strange thing about this story is that this morning, the morning of the launch, I awoke with a conviction of how I could have made this a better book.
In retrospect, I would have cut the characters of Wexler and Rosalind, and I would have cut out the party. Doing that would have made it a novella, and would also have made it a somewhat predictable sweet Romance. Would that have been better or worse? Either way, I think it would have been more satisfying for the majority of readers.
This launch has been a bit of a disaster. This is the first book with which I’ve “Gone Wide,” which is to say I’ve gone to wide distribution instead of going exclusively with Amazon. Sales of my other titles have dwindled on Amazon, so I thought it best to try wide distribution and see what came of it. As it turns out, sales of my earlier books have picked up. But this launch of SCTS has fallen painfully on its face. If I were 30 I would be panicking. However, I’m of the ancient regime and really have nothing to lose. Win or lose, everyday above ground is a winner for me. I hope I don’t disappoint you, dear reader. I’m doing the best I can.
The Seal Cove Theoretical Society is set to launch in two weeks. I have no idea how, or even if, it will fly. It will depend on whether or not readers form an attachment to any of the characters. I have no feeling for how others may see them. Will readers be sympathetic? Will they want more plot? Will they miss the lack of a villain?
Instead of external villains, characters are kept from realizing their dreams by their own internal shortcomings and will have to change and grow if they’re to move on. Will that be enough to keep readers engaged? I have no idea. But I do believe that every book has an audience, and it’s left up to me to find it.
More than any other element, the cover design is paramount. It’s the first thing that potential readers see, and it will either turn them off, or inspire them to open to the first page.
For this book I turned to a professional artist. Years ago I bought my wife a print dress with a fabric design by Debbie Mumm. You’ve most likely seen some of her work, as her designs can be found on a variety of products, including fabric, greeting cards, and calendars. This particular design featured lighthouses. The Seal Cove Theoretial Society is set in a fictionalized version of Moss Beach, where I’ve lived for 40 years. Appropriately, at the end of my street is the Point Montara Lighthouse, which looks like this:
Debbie’s lighthouses are more whimsical or fanciful. If I did my job, the atmosphere of the book also conveys a sense of whimsy and fancy. The cover, then, will attract the right kind of reader.
The art I’ve employed for the cover is entitled The Celestial Ocean. The original painting is square, so it took some photoshopping to get it to fit an ebook cover, as well as a wrap-around paperback cover. Here is the result:
If you’re of like mind, you can buy it on pre-order at Amazon; Barnes & Noble; Kobo; Apple, etc.
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