Showing posts with label Pre-order. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pre-order. Show all posts

Anatomy of an Erotic Romance Cover: Malice of Wasteland


Oh boy, this one was tough.
The cover and the story itself went through many, many changes.

As you might know, when I'm not writing porn, I'm watching and reviewing it. On one such occasion, I was watching something, which I cannot recall, I do recall making the comment that whatever I was watching wasn't as good as Malice in Lala Land, or Wasteland. Only, I had typed "Malice of Wasteland"

And then a book was born.

Malice Of Wasteland (Working title, simply Malice), started out as a story about a girl who fucks an entire band to get a spot in the band. But, then, I thought about it more and fleshed out the band itself, particularly the lead vocalist, Nick Scratch. 

And I fell in adoration with their lust for one another.

But if the vocalist was still around, how would Malice get the gig? So I had to make Nick vanish.

At first, he suffered a coma from a car accident, but I didn't want to deal with the pesky recover, the physiotherapy, the stress of healing. I have enough stress in real life, and I write smut as an escape.

So, in the second version, he simply ghosts everybody.


To make the cover, I had to capture the essence of Malice. She's a tough, standoffish woman who has secret insecurities and a soft side. I struggled to capture that while I looked for a suitable image. 

 

I fiddled with placement, as you can see, but decided on the cover on the right. I liked the clothes, the bustier in particular gave her an edge, but I wasn't in love with the hair or the peircings. Still, it communicated the basic idea and I liked the hand up, because it gave a certain kind of grace and was more interesting than Malice just standing there. The image on the left had too much empty space.

But then, I wrote a passage in the book, describing the cover of Malice's album. She mimes opening her own chest.

Then my editor made a joke about making band t-shirts and other merch and DAMNIT KAGE!

So...

I asked some of my model friends if they knew anyone who'd be interested in modeling but it was a time-sensitive matter, and I was already shoulder-deep in Depositphotos.

So I found this.

Original image by Elisanth

Okay, it's more in line of the pose I wanted. Not quite as edgy, but interesting. Then I started to play with the layers, and filters, and colours


It's intriguing, but a little too intense.


And then this happened.
It had a good balance of the reds and blacks and pale colours. It sort of bridged the gap between the super dark cover of Crossfade and the calm pastel cover of Crescendo. I still worry that the gloves make it look too sweet and gentle, but hey, over-all, this story is about letting go, and allowing people to see your vulnerabilities. So in that respect I feel it works.

Welcome to her Wasteland. She really, really likes it...

When exotic dancer Alice Masterson is purchased for a private dance by Nick Scratch, the intimidating but charismatic frontman of the death metal band Wasteland, their mutual attraction causes them to break all the rules. After two nights of searing, kinky passion, Nick ghosts her.

And the band.

And everything else.

With Nick gone without a trace, Wasteland sends out an open audition for a new lead vocalist. Adopting the stage name Malice, Alice answers the call.


Touring with the band revives Alice’s lust for life and her alter-ego can’t get enough of the endless stream of groupies that throw themselves at the band, the top-shelf booze and the parties that rage all night long.


But death metal is a hard road to walk for a woman. Is Malice strong enough to endure the slag and vitriol? Will she be able to keep her two identities separate? And what will become of the band and Malice when Nick Scratch returns?


If he ever does…

MALICE OF WASTELAND is part of SILVER CITY STORIES and is a hard core, kinky BDSM erotic celebrity rockstar romance intended for adults only. It deals with dark subject matter, and celebrates sexual expression between consenting adults.
MALICE OF WASTELAND (Silver City Stories #3) is available for pre-order as soon as Amazon approves it.

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Anatomy of an Erotic Romance Cover: Crescendo

Here we are, once more my friends, with "Anatomy of an Erotic Romance Cover V".

I'm sort of dreading writing this one because publishing Crescendo was a somewhat unique process.

If you've kept up with this series, you know that I begin working on covers before the final draft of the manuscript is even finished. (To that point, I have tentatively finished the cover of the third SILVER CITY STORIES book and I'm only about 8,000 words into the draft...) While it didn't take me terribly long to write what I now call Crescendo, personal issues had delayed the editing process.

During this delay, my mind started concocting other stories related to Crescendo, four of them, to be precise. And so SILVER CITY STORIES was born. Crescendo would be the first book of a series.

Except it wasn't. 

Somewhere along the way I got the idea for Crossfade, which, chronologically would take place before Crescendo. I based the cover for Crossfade off, what was then, the final cover of Crescendo.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's start with the working title. I didn't have a title nailed down until very late in the process, so the working title was AprilMay, after the two leads. At first it was going to be called Music Box but that made no sense, then One Night Only. 

I was trying for a sort of promo flyer/punk vibe.

But that too, didn't make sense because the heroines don't spend only one night or performance together. They're always together, doing press, or making appearances at parties, and so forth. Somewhere along the way I decided on Crescendo for the title. It stuck. 


Dutch Angles are all the rage.
Ok, I kind of like this! It has the indie label feel.

Then, I found that fluorescent light font

Nothing says high class like neon!

Behold! A cover for a novella. Isn't it beautiful? It would have to wait to see the world,however because by now, I was in the middle of writing Crossfade. I modeled the aesthetic of Crossfade's cover to this one. 

And then I published Crossfade and once more looked at this cover. I realized it looked like some sort of Young Adult runaway-from-home-and-became-super-heroes-or-something cover. It had to go.

Once more into the trenches of free images. Then, I found an image of a girl in a gown at a piano and it looked like it was ripped directly from a scene in Crescendo. The exact scene I used as a teaser in the back of Crossfade, to interest people into buying the book and continuing on with the series.

So, this became the final cover. 

Original image by Ashley Byrd

So, what have we learned from this dive into book cover creation for fun and profit? Same thing as always: be flexible. Sometimes going to square one is for the best.


In an era of Britneys and Christinas, 17 year old April Lee hit it big with her debut album "This Girl Punx", and the hit singles "Skid Sister" and "Confusion".
She was top of the charts and took the pop-punk world by storm. Now, at 22, she's hit rock-bottom.

May Hart is a Victorian goth fae princess. She’s all tortured wailing and flowy skirts. Snow white skin, jet black hair, ice blue-grey eyes. She’s part Ice queen, part murder of crows. As front-woman for the band Ethereal, her haunting vocals made hits out of the songs “Plastic Garden”, “The Eternal” and “Take me from Death”. Now is the time to go solo. Can she succeed? Of course she can.

When both women are tapped to record the theme-song to a new super hero movie, they begin to grow close. But the business is very two faced and both April and May carry with them dark secrets. Can they look past each other's hurt and find love and stellar careers?

CRESCENDO is part of SILVER CITY STORIES and is a first-time lesbian erotic romance intended for adults only. It deals with dark subject matter, abuse, violence and celebrates sexual expression between consenting adults.

CRESCENDO (SILVER CITY STORIES #2) is available for preorder for 2.99 USD or FREE with Kindle Unlimited
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Anatomy of an Erotic Romance Cover - The Unicorn Knight

Well, looks like this is a series now!

Writing and publishing your own book is a very involved process. I'm lucky enough that I have some artistic ability so I am able to do all my own covers as well.

I started writing UNCHAINING THE UNICORN KNIGHT before I even knew what the final title would be. I had a premise, and certain scenes visualized in my mind, but the title and the cover were mysteries to me. It went under the working title KNIGHT or UNICORN KNIGHT.

Due to things outside of my control, writing UNCHAINING THE UNICORN KNIGHT stalled for a bit, but I hate stagnation, so I did what I could to keep the project going.

I made a cover.

The original Unicorn Knight cover.
Fun fact: it's surprisingly difficult to find good royalty free, Creative Commons images of unicorns. They're all so cartoony.

The original concept was a sort of knight's flag drawn on parchment or maybe scratched onto leather, but there was an obvious Photoshopped quality to it that always vexed me. Also, it was very brown for being all about a knight who's main colours were white and silver. Still, this had been the cover for months, and I figured I could tweak it when the time came to published.

But then, I was struck by inspiration, so I looked up "chains" and "Lock" and "Key" on Unsplash and Pixabay.


The second cover.
The second cover is once again going for that Sylvia Day/50 Shades/Twilight type style, but with a unique feel. Personally, I loved the cover, for a time, but when I showed it to others, the love wasn't shared. For one thing, it had nothing really to do with the content of the book. Still, I preferred it to the first version, and while I was formatting UNCHAINING THE UNICORN KNIGHT, I was set to use this one, damn the nay-sayers.

And yet...Even I wondered if there was something else out there...something even better.

Perfect. Just perfect.

I found the image of the woman hidden under the fabric on Pixabay, and a chain from a necklace on the stock image section of DeviantArt. Did some creative colouring, and came out with the perfect cover image. Pink is not a motif colour in the story, but I find the pop of colour alluring. All in all I feel that this cover is mysterious, hints at the content of the book, and is sexy.

The first version is not always the best. Be flexible with cover ideas. Sometimes the right image is just a few clicks away.

UNCHAINING THE UNICORN KNIGHT is available for pre-order from Smashwords and Amazon and can be added to Goodreads. It is available on April 12th.



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Read Sexy Samples Now on Goodreads!

We've put up samples of both MY BROTHER'S BEAST IN ME and  GIRLS OF GLASS on Goodreads.
Click below to read them.


MY BROTHER'S BEAST IN ME
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Read Free Sample - Add to Goodreads - Pre-Order on Amazon









GIRLS OF GLASS
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Read Free Sample - Add to Goodreads - Pre-Order on Amazon










Both short stories will be released on July 31st. $0.99USD or free on Kindle Unlimited.
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Pre-Order Ecstasy In Chaos (The Mythophilia Series #2)

This book is for an adult audience and contains graphic depictions of sex and violence. +18 only.





ECSTASY IN CHAOS
By Lilith K. Duat
Pre-Order it: Amazon
Add it: GoodReads
Release Date: February 1st 2016
Price: $2.99 USD
Genre: Erotic romance, Mythological romance
ASIN: B019LQAIX2
Platform: Kindle/Mobi
Heat Level/Trigger warnings: M/F, M/M, F/F, Multiple partners, Threesomes, hand-jobs, fingering, oral sex, anal sex, vaginal sex, deflowering, dubious consent/coercion, tickling, slapping, choking, bondage, toys. This story contains several explicit sex scenes involving characters with animalistic qualities, death and gore.


Synopsis:
Ourania and Pandemos, two aspects of the same goddess, dual aspects of all love. Together, they are Aphrodite. Apart, they oversee separate parts of love - of man and of woman. Yet the love they both seek for themselves is that of the war god Ares.

Finally, the time has come to decide which of them may claim Ares and become the true goddess of all love. In a contest of lust they must one by one select scrolls with the names of gods, monsters and man to prove their power over love. The rules are in place, challenge is accepted and may the best goddess rule.

Ecstasy in Chaos is a followup to Balance in Chaos and book #2 of The Mythophilia Series. It features explicit scenes of erotica and is for mature readers only. Reader discretion advised.
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Pre-Order The Disturbia Ritual

The Disturbia Ritual is now available for pre-order for Kindle. The official release date is OCTOBER 31ST 2015. Don't have a Kindle? Not a problem!






This book is for an adult audience and contains graphic depictions of sex and violence. +18 only.



Title: The Disturbia Ritual
Release Date: October 31 2015
Pre-Order it: Amazon
Add it: GoodReads | Library Thing | Shelfari | Booklikes
Price: $1.50 USD
Genre: Erotic romance, Horror, Monster Erotica, Supernatural, Paranormal
ASIN: B0164KLJ90
Platform: Kindle/Mobi
Synopsis
You're grown up now and the monsters are real. Only they're not under your bed...they're in it.

Ever since his wife, Ava, was taken from him in a brutal car accident, Corvus Deryn yearned for death. The only thing that keeps him from killing himself is the fear of ending up in Hell, without the possibility of seeing his wife again.

But tonight he is visited by a strange, supernatural entity calling herself Midnight. Part sugary calavera, part porcelain ballerina, she offers Corvus the chance to be reunited with Ava... if he does a job for her first.

The job? Come with her to the paranormal city of the dead called Disturbia, become the prime attraction in Midnight’s brothel and pleasure an elite selection of monster women. Only then will Midnight lead the way to Corvus’ wife.

The bargain seems simple enough, but Corvus begins to think Midnight isn’t being entirely truthful. What is she hiding from him? And where, in the twisted spires of Disturbia, could Ava possibly be?

Released especially for Hallowe'en, pre-order now and expect this kinky goodie to drop into your e-reader October 31st, a holiday treat for adults.

THE DISTURBIA RITUAL is an erotic romance drenched in gothic horror and supernatural sex-appeal. Reader discretion advised.


Special thanks to Caelyx, Kyle Cong and Sarah Mysynuk for developing the cover image for us.

One down, onto the next.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Tumblr and Goodreads for updates.
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Pre-order Balance in Chaos Now!

The time has come! You can pre-order BALANCE IN CHAOS, Kindle edition now. The official release date is MARCH 31ST 2015. Don't have a Kindle? Not a problem!






This book is for an adult audience and contains graphic depictions of sex and violence. +18 only.


Title: Balance in Chaos
Release Date: March 31 2015
Pre-Order it: Amazon.com | Amazon.Ca | Amazon.Co.UK | Amazon.Co.Jp | Amazon.De
Add it: GoodReads | Library Thing | Shelfari | BookLikes
Price: $2.99 USD
Genre: Erotic romance, Mythological romance
ISBN: 978-0-9939892-0-9
ASIN: B00U4IKXIC
Platform: Kindle/Mobi
Synopsis
Discordia is chaos incarnate and while Greece invades Egypt, the African sands are hers to turn bloody. When Anup, stoic judge of the dead, tries to plead with her to leave his lands in peace, her fires burn brighter until he finds a solution; transform her bloodlust to proper lust.

Soon, Discordia begins to crave Anup’s touch, finding it brings a thrill that chaos cannot provide. As the two continue their forbidden engagements, Discordia gradually comes to realize Anup believes she can be more than just destruction and a puppet to war. Inspired by Anup’s faith in her, Discordia begins to feel more than just hunger for the Egyptian jackal god and is willing to change everything to be his...



We worked very hard over the last few months to perfect the story. We feel it's the best product it can be, and are very proud of it.
But it wasn't just Lilith and Maria alone. Many people helped to make this story a reality.
Thanks to J. Lee Kage, Kyle, Caelyx, Rebecca, Ratslag and CM Loveage. You all helped a great deal, even if you don't know it.
Special thanks to Teonova for allowing us use of her beautiful Leather Jackal Mask for our cover and promotional media. Her work is amazing and you should all check it out.

No time to rest, on to the next book. We have such plans.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Tumblr and Goodreads for updates.
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