The two book covers, two languages same novel

The German edition of my novel came. As I ripped open the package, I was curious what they would do with the cover. They had already told me the would change the name from The Card to the Christmas Card and bring it out in October to capture the Christmas trade. I trust their knowledge of the market, but I don’t like the cover as much as the American edition cover. The baby photo on the cover is almost identical to one I have of my daughter and since my teenage character Kate, although not my daughter, had the same wit and kindness of my daughter, I just was more drawn to the US cover.

Now some people will say I am crazy, but it is only the past few months I have felt like a real writer. Is that laughing I hear out there? I know I’ve wanted to be a writer since childhood. I know I made my living as a wordsmith be it in the corporate or the journalistic world. And yes I spent hours and hours creating stories and novels.

When my first book was accepted half of me thought it was a fluke. Okay, I had submitted it to at least 40 publishers, but wasn’t it just possible that the U.S. postal service paid the publisher to print it so they wouldn’t have to lug the manuscript around? And yes, my agent was able to sell it in Russia and Germany, but that could have been a fluke too.

The second novel, the one in the photo, well that could have been a demi-fluke, but by this summer when I signed the contract for my third novel, I now feel, notice the word feel, I am really a writer not someone who writes.