My 60 published books had virtually no presence outside New Zealand until AI fortuitously entered my working life. Admittedly the lack of presence was of my own making, for I aspired to write solely about New Zealand. I recall seeing 12 copies of my book ‘Ghost Towns of New Zealand’ on sale in New Zealand House in London, and a few years ago my brother saw the same book selling on an American site for US $400. In 2016 the first Dan Delaney thriller ‘The Death Ray Debacle’ got a muted review online by a top Australian reviewer. But I was still only thinking New Zealanders for my Aotearoa-centric books.
My wind shift may have been prompted, as they say in AI, by digital librarian Diana Holmes suggesting I do more e-book promoting. I was slow to respond, still reeling from ‘The Death Ray Debacle’ rejected internationally because it had a swastika on the cover. Eh! It was all about the Nazis active in New Zealand from 1935. I had a light-bulb moment and got the swastika replaced by a question mark. But I was not happy about the cover.
Perhaps the covers could benefit from a consistent look? Diana suggested.
I had been proud to get those three flags including the swastika on the cover, along with a blurry image of the inventor at the heart of the true story. But when I looked again, I realised it was static. The penny dropped regarding Victor Penny, the name of the inventor, please forgive the pun.
Then I looked again at the seven Dan Delaney stories. They were all static. A nuclear warship dead in the water. The flaccid marble façade of Parliament and inert Nazi-red banners. Another blurry albeit genuine image of Bethlehem’s bells.
The Guardian Angel must have been on my shoulder when I mentioned my cover dissatisfaction to my website manager Jeff Simmonds.
I do covers, he said. Want me to have a go?
Why not?
He asked for a few sentences about each book. As if by magic, action covers appeared in my in-box. How did he do it?
The adjacent image was the four choices Artificial Intelligence produced when Jeff provided the following prompt for ‘The Death Ray Debacle’ based on what I said:
A cover for an exciting thriller novel. Dramatic set in New Zealand in 1935 about a German spy. A man with a 1930s headset is listening in on secret communications. Leave lots of room at the top for the book title.
I chose one and the text I wanted, guided by e-book covers Diana had sent me. Jeff provided choices of type and size and colour. I was favouring different colours, but he argued for white and that is what I went with.
It was not all plain sailing with AI. The Bodgie Bike image was the most problematic. AI kept coming up with radiant, apocalyptic landscapes with mystical flashing brass objects and clunky motorbikes that did not fit The Tears of Christ monstrance being stolen by a bikie. Finally, Jeff managed to haul in the AI possibilities to what I went with, a grunty bike and rider heading into a cathedral.
The seven covers all had the same look and were all action. Brilliant. But wait, there is more. Jeff also redesigned the back covers and the spines for print-on-demand, with a very good deal for authors; I now have all seven new-look Delaney thrillers at $8 and a bit each, plus $4 postage from Australia.
The Freebooksy promotion Diana advised for ‘The Death Ray Debacle’ generated to date 2137 Kindle orders within a few days. On the Amazon Top 100 Free the book reached No 1 in the categories of Espionage Thrillers and Historical Mystery, Thriller and Suspense Fiction. The other publishing platforms on Draft2Digital like Apple, Kobo and Overdrive added another 212 orders, mirroring Amazon dominance with 70-80 per cent of the market. Now for more marketing. Big thank you to Diana and Jeff.