I have long wanted to create a “brand” for my four books to unify them. Make them look like they belong together. My books are not a series, but they share enough similarities that they do indeed belong together. But the covers do not demonstrate that.
Here are the front covers as they exist now — in the order published.
They do not look like they belong together, though the first and the fourth are close, and my intention was to redesign the other two to match.
When I Killed My Father was easy, though I have not uploaded the new cover to the two sites where I publish my books — Amazon/KDP and IngramSpark. (One of the benefits of self-publishing is that authors can upload new covers and corrected manuscripts at any time for no cost. It can be time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be.)
Wasted has not been easy. Over the last number of years, I designed more than ten different versions of the cover and was not happy with any of them. Now I’ve got three that I think are better. I welcome your feedback.
When I designed the Wasted cover in 2015, I was pleased with it. I’d been a graphic designer for decades, but I did not realize until later that there are “rules” about book covers that I did know, one of the most important of which is that the cover telegraphs to the reader its genre. Here’s what designer Joel Friedlander, former president of Bay Area Independent Publishers Association (BAIPA), said about the Wasted cover:
Obviously the designer is skillful, but the big fail is that the book looks like nonfiction or a corporate publication, and has no trace of what must be the excitement and drama in the story.
Guilty as charged
I’ve been messing with all sorts of cover ideas for a while, and when I sought feedback on them a two years ago, more people liked the one I considered ugly than any of the others. But I didn’t like it.
This is the ugly one.
I recently created another version of the cover that I like better. Then I took the existing cover, the one that looks like a nonfiction primer on recycling and adapted it to fit the brand. Rules are made to be broken, right?
Below are these two new versions. What do you think?
So here are new front covers that all share the same branding.
And then I had another idea, to make the branding more explicit by including the tagline: “Page-turner with a Conscience.” I have used that line many times in marketing the book, during book talks, in this author letter, on my website, and on sites where I sell my book. So I took another pass at each of my novels and added that to the top.
What do you think? I value your feedback. I’m too close to my books to be as objective as I need to be. Please share your feedback in the comment area below or contact me via email at johnbyrnebarry@gmail.com.
One way or the other, I am committed to branding my books.
Now that I look at them at the small size most people will see them, the “page-turner with a conscience” is barely visible, so I probably need to scrap that idea or make it bigger.
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
P.S. You may wonder whether devoting all this time to redesigning my book covers might not have been better spent writing my current novel. The answer is surely yes, but designing taps into a different part of the brain than writing and it’s “fun.” That’s my excuse anyway.
I would love to hear from you, even if you don’t have an opinion on the covers.
For most of the past year, I’ve been hawking my fourth and most recent novel, Pirates of Sausalito.
But this month, I’m pitching my first novel, Bones in the Wash: Politics is Tough. Family is Tougher.Set during the 2008 presidential campaign in New Mexico, Bones is one part political thriller, one part family soap, and one part murder mystery.
If you’re interested in politics and presidential campaigns, but feel overwhelmed by the news of the day, you might enjoy a fictional escape. Bones is full of dirty tricks, sleazy voter suppression, and the like, but it feels downright innocent from today’s vantage point.
(Speaking of innocent, I admit that in 2008 I believed that if the voter suppression tactics were exposed as what they were — attempts to limit voting by people who were more likely to vote for Democrats — that they would be discredited. How naive I was.)
Freedom! Now I have choice back for how I spend my free time, after 5 days of being enmeshed in this compelling story. Congratulations to my friend, J.B. Barry on this wonderful novel! I was actually a bit surprised, since it’s been a while since I wanted to read fiction, and even longer since I picked up a political thriller. And then, drawn in from the very beginning, I found myself “addicted,” reading after breakfast, on my commute, again after lunch and more before I turned the lights off to sleep over the last few days. —Roy Schachter
I was going to cut this one because it’s long, but once I reread it, I thought, no, I want you to read the whole review. 🙂
This is one of those unusual novels where you end up talking about the characters as if you knew them well—which itself makes for a wonderful read.
The setting is the 2008 presidential campaign in New Mexico, complicated by the romance, rage, and lives of two fabulously dysfunctional families.
From one family is the charming young Hispanic mayor of Albuquerque, Tomas Zamara, chair of the New Mexico Republicans for John McCain. From the other comes the astute, attractive, a tad plump but sexy Sierra Léon, an activist in a liberal nonprofit, who has been tabbed by her organization to run its campaign for Barack Obama in her native New Mexico.
Drawing on his own role in political campaigns, Barry deftly evokes a realistic sense of the heady thrills of a campaign, one that is sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks.
Sierra’s group bites back, once with a hilarious mock demonstration by “Billionaire Lobbyists for McCain,” complete with signs for NAARP, the National Association for the Advancement of Rich People, and other sarcastic taunts.
As the subtitle says, “Politics Is Tough. Family Is Tougher.” Zamara gets tangled in an affair with an attractive and brilliantly horny woman, Tory Singer, while he’s trying to rearrange some skeletons locked in the family closet. His autocratic father and his now-dead wife (it’s her bones in the wash) had cut shady deals with drug dealers and money launderers, which demands some deft maneuvers from Tomas.
As for Sierra, she has to cope with her depressive mother, her narcissistic dad, her cad of a boyfriend, and a reporter who’s desperate to get into her panties.
Zamara turns out to be the most interesting character, though some will not find him believable, because he’s a Republican who actually has integrity! —Bob Schildgen
★★★★★Five Stars I didn’t want to have to put the book down when I had to. —CACW
Here I am on April 9 after my talk with Cheryl Popp at Sausalito Books by the Bay. (Where you can buy Pirates of Sausalito and support our local independent bookstore.) Photo by Cheryl Popp.
My New Favorite Review
When I know someone has bought or read my book, I ask for a review. It’s impossible to know if or how much they help sell books, but they do provide social proof, and I know plenty of people who pay attention to reviews for everything they buy, from books to tents to coffee thermoses. I appreciate it when a friend posts a positive review, but I’m aware their praise may be overstated because we’re friends. But when a stranger posts a positive review, well, this one below made my day.
★★★★★A Soulful, Stirring Trip Into a Forgotten Chapter of Rebellion
Pirates of Sausalito isn’t just a story, it’s a time capsule. Set in the twilight of the 1970s, it captures the raw spirit of a community fighting for its right to exist, to create, and to live outside the lines. The houseboaters of Sausalito, who were considered outsiders, artists, dreamers, stand their ground as the tide of development threatens to wash away their world. What begins as protest and performance art slowly spirals into something darker when a stabbing rocks the shantytown. The writing is immersive and sharp, but what lingers most is the idealism, the messiness of chosen family, and the fragility of freedom. With cozy mystery vibes, this novel somehow balances joy, danger, and nostalgia in equal measure. A beautiful read for anyone who’s ever loved a lost place or been part of a movement that felt like home.
Why I’m Grateful for Every Reader
It’s been one year since I launched Pirates of Sausalito, my fourth novel. Like my previous novels, it took several years to write, even though I adapted it from a play.
In the past year, I’ve sold almost 300 books and received more than 60 ratings and reviews. Which, when I’m discouraged, feels paltry given how much time and energy I’ve devoted to the writing, the publishing, and the promotion.
(I’ve also given away about 30 paperbacks to friends, family, and beta readers, and almost 2,000 free ebooks through various promotional sites. Though it’s impossible to know how many of them read the book.)
Since I launched the book last spring, I’ve also given ten author talks, which I very much enjoy.
I frequently wish I had more readers, more sales, and more acclaim, but that would be the case if I sold ten times as many books.
I cannot control Amazon’s algorithms, however, or who sees my posts on Facebook or Bluesky, or how overcrowded the marketplace is. Every year, there are more than two million books published worldwide.
In my more sanguine moments, I remind myself of that, and I am grateful for every reader I have. Despite the million options available to them, they chose to read my book.
And a good review, like the one above, can boost my mood for weeks. (Hint, hint, if you haven’t written a review, you still can.)
What I can control are my own actions — my discipline, my focus, my organization. In the past dozen years, I’ve written two plays (and directed them as well) and four novels, and I’m working on a fifth novel. I’ve given dozens of author talks. I write and send this author letter regularly. I’m in a writing group that has been meeting twice a week for more than ten years. And while I don’t write every day, I write most days, at least something.
I also remind myself that most of the time I love the creative process — sometimes I’m literally thrilled by it — and I especially enjoy the imaginary universe in my head. Sometimes ideas percolate all day long, whether I’m walking to my crossing guard corner, taking a shower, or drifting off to sleep. And when I read or listen to a book or watch a movie or TV show, I’m always paying attention to how the creators put it all together, and I borrow ideas as appropriate. Not all ideas are good, of course, but coming up with new ones is exciting. If I can’t write them down, I open up my voice memo app and dictate them.
Regardless of my visibility or sales, I am living the life of an author, of an artist.
I don’t like to throw around the word artist because it can sound pretentious, but in my heart of hearts, I’ve always wanted to be an artist and now, in the third act of my life, I am.
I am forever grateful if you’ve read any of my books, and if you’ve written any reviews. (Well, not forever, but you know what I mean.) If you’ve done neither, well, what comes to mind is the old saying that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago and the next best time is now.
—
If you haven’t seen any of my talks about Pirates of Sausalito, below is a video of my first one, a year ago, at the Mill Valley Library, and co-sponsored by the Mill Valley Historical Society.
It was the first of my talks and the most well attended, and while I’m not the kind of person who brags about the size of my crowds, there were a lot of people there and even more have watched the video.
The talk is more about the true events that inspired the book than about the book itself, because that’s what the Mill Valley Historical Society asked for.
(Thanks to the Sausalito Historical Society and Bruce Forrester for permission to use their photographs for the slide show. And special thanks to Franklin Walther, Digital Services Librarian, for a fantastic job editing the video and integrating the slides into the narration. Far beyond the call of duty.)
Over the decades, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people for news stories, profiles, book research, and more. But I can count with my ten fingers the number of times I’ve been interviewed as an author.
And one of my favorites — “Setting That Works” — was not a true interview where someone asked me questions and I answered them, but an interview I wrote myself and forwarded to a writer who did a light edit and then published it.
So, since I have answers ready, but no one has shown up to ask me questions, I’m going that route again. Here then, is my interview with…well, me.
How did Pirates of Sausalito come about?
I live in Tam Valley, two miles from the Waldo Point houseboat harbor, in Sausalito, where close to 300 floating homes are docked and where, for decades, there was conflict between the artists, hippies, and squatters who lived there and the police, city leaders, and developers determined to evict them and build docks to attract more affluent residents. What became known as the “houseboat wars.”
The more I learned about the turbulent history of the houseboat wars, the more I thought it would make a promising setting for a murder mystery. Conveniently, I’m an actor in a local community theater troupe called the Tam Valley Players, which has performed a murder mystery every year for almost two decades.
I pitched the idea for the play to the troupe and got the green light.
But how did your play become a novel?
That’s an easy question. I finished writing the play in the summer of 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, and I had no idea if and when live theater would ever come back, so I thought, well, if we can’t perform this, why don’t I turn it into a novel?
That turned out to be harder than I expected.
Why was it harder?
I’m glad you asked. First off, it was easier than starting with a blank page. No doubt about that. I had a story full of drama, snappy and funny dialogue, and colorful characters. There was lots of action too — like the houseboaters resisting eviction by jumping into dinghies and pushing away police boats with oars. Also a sword fight.
In the play, I went for laughs, and the play was funny, when we finally performed it, in March 2023. We got lots of laughs, and that was more important than three-dimensional characters or cleverly placed clues.
The challenge in translating the play to a novel was tone. Here’s what one beta reader of the novel, who also saw the play and very much enjoyed it, said: “The play works well as a farce works because the action is fast, and it’s Saturday night and we’re all ready for a laugh. We’re happy to watch comically farcical characters played by actors free to go over the top. But reading a novel is different.”
My problem was that I wanted to keep as much of the humor as I could, but so much of it was embedded in the farcical elements of the play, and relied on ridiculous caricatures instead of three-dimensional characters.
How did you address that?
The primary way was by delving into the interior thoughts and emotions of the characters — there’s none of that in the play. I narrated the story from ten different points of view, including the murder victim and the murder. That changed the novel significantly because some of the characters became different than they’d been in the play, and one in particular, the police chief Tin Holland, turned into the main character.
I was happy with how the multiple points of view gave the characters more depth, but it made my life as a writer harder.
When I shared the almost-final draft with beta readers, I realized I had more to do. There most common theme to the feedback was that too many characters were not realistic or sympathetic.
In my rewrite, I “fixed” that problem by first toning down the farcical elements more than I already had, and then, more importantly, by finding opportunities to show the characters having empathy for other characters. I ended up with a 12-page document titled, “Add depth and empathy to characters.”
For example, my self-absorbed pirate character Honest reflects on his sister Fate’s grief and guilt over their parents’ car accident. Which created more sympathy for her as well as for him.
I understand you narrated an audiobook of Pirates of Sausalito. Was that your first time?
Yes, and it was thrilling to read my words out loud into a professional microphone and audio setup. The audiobook was produced by Pro Audio Voices, and its founder, Becky Parker Geist, a friend and colleague I know through the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association (BAIPA), narrated the women’s parts. I narrated the men’s.
The audiobook brought the characters to life again. Like the actors did in the play. Though I reviewed the audio enough times that I lost all perspective. I look forward to listening to the audiobook again in a year or two when I’ve forgotten enough of it that I can appreciate it more like a new listener.
The audiobook is available wherever you find your audiobooks.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Pirates of Sausalito is my shortest book and one reason is that it started as a play, and my experience as an actor was that our plays were frequently too long. No audience member ever said, “that was terrific, but too short.” But the biggest reason is that because of the pandemic, I had two years between finishing the first draft and starting rehearsals, so I kept cutting, and every cut made the play better.
I used to have trouble cutting my precious words, but that’s no longer the case. I want readers to keep turning the pages, so I keep things moving. I did the same with the Pirates novel. It’s hard to know if I sacrificed literary merit for pace, but if I did, that was intentional.
That seems like a good time to end. Thank you for your time.
But I have more to say.
We’re already at 1,000 words. Save it for the next interview.
One more final thing. Indulgent perhaps, but fun. When I’m not writing novels or interviews with myself, I might be acting in murder mystery at our local community theater. We just performed “Murder on the Bocce Court,” where I played a pompous French bocce player. I also designed the yard sign and program. Here are a couple photos and short video.
The audiobook of my fourth novel, Pirates of Sausalito: Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery, is now available widely. Here’s how it got produced and what I learned from the process.
1. Hire a Professional Audiobook Producer
Before the pandemic, I had never listened to an audiobook. My first one was The Perfect Spy, by John LeCarré, which was fabulous, and I was dazzled by the virtuoso performance of the narrator, Michael Jayston, who brought to life so many intriguing characters, each with their own distinct voice, accent, and cadence.
A couple years ago, once I was a regular audiobook listener, I explored the possibility of recording my first novel, Bones in the Wash: Politics is Tough. Family is Tougher. I reached out to Becky Parker Geist, a friend, author, and fellow board member of BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publishers Association). She’s also founder and president of Pro Audio Voices, an audiobook producer.
Bones in the Wash is a longish book — 122 thousand words, 420 pages — and an audiobook would be more than 15 hours long. There’s a wide range in what professionally produced audiobooks cost per finished hour, from $200 to $800, or even more. I decided a Bones in the Wash audiobook would be too expensive.
Hiring a professional audiobook production company is not the only path. I could have recorded it myself, and, now that I’ve done it once, I might consider that option in the future. But I was grateful to record with the help of an experienced team — most of my writing, publishing, and marketing is a one-man show. I also wanted it to be as professional sounding as the John LeCarré audiobook.
It’s also possible to hire narrators who are paid through a cut of the sales, usually about half. But experienced audiobook narrators are wary of such revenue-sharing arrangements for good reason — they don’t want to put in their time with no guarantee of a reasonable return.
2. Choose a Shorter Audiobook Because It Costs Less to Produce
My fourth and most recent novel, Pirates of Sausalito, is also my shortest. Only 70,000 words, 308 pages, and about 8 hours long. So it cost significantly less to produce. Plus it was adapted from a play that I wrote and directed in 2023 — “Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery” — and it retains a lot of the play’s dialogue, so it’s well suited for an audiobook.
I took the plunge. I love listening to audiobooks and I wanted my novel to be available in that format.
After discussing the various options, Becky and I agreed on what’s called a “full cast” audiobook, with two narrators who give each character a distinct voice. She would narrate the women’s parts. I would narrate the men’s.
3. Buy High-Quality Recording Equipment
Once I signed on with Pro Audio Voices, I got an orientation, over Zoom, with Becky and production coordinator Elias Khalil.
Elias created a recording script from a pdf of the novel, marked up with sound effects and other relevant notes. He also set up a meeting for me with Tristan Wright, who helped me pull together my home studio setup.
Tristan recommended the Rode NT1 Studio Kit, which included a microphone, audio interface, shockmount, pop filter, and cables. That ran me $350.
Becky would be recording in her professional studio in Portland, and I would be in my “study,” a seven-foot by eleven-foot shed next to the house, crammed with books, which, according to Tristan, are good for absorbing sound. There was a less expensive option for the recording equipment and I asked Tristan if paying $200 more would make a noticeable difference. He said it would, so I went with his recommendation.
Becky and I each had our own microphone and recording software, so when we were recording, over Zoom, my track was recorded on my computer, and hers on hers. We both wore headphones, so when Becky read her lines, my mic did not pick up her narration and vice versa. The audio editor mixed the tracks together to produce the final audio.
4. Develop Distinct Voices for Different Characters
I am an actor and played one of the roles in the play, plus I’ve read every scene in Pirates out loud at least once to my writing group. I was confident about delivering the lines dramatically, with oomph and feeling, but worried about creating distinct character voices for the six primary male characters.
I emailed Becky about this concern and she responded not with an email, but a voice memo, going over about a dozen different ways to distinguish voices. Here’s a brief excerpt demonstrating three of the ways.
Becky Voice Memo
I came up with voices for each of the characters. Some were easy, like greedy developer Fenton Felton, the melodramatic villain, who’s determined to evict all the hippie houseboaters to build his luxury marina. I used a gravelly and bombastic voice for him.
One character voice I had a tough time pulling off consistently was Huck Hennessee, Fenton Felton’s sniveling sidekick. I delivered his lines with a low-pitched voice, lower than I ever talk in real life. That low pitch made it harder to project, so I had to be sure my mouth was closer to the mic.
We started recording at the end of last May, with one two-hour recording session the first week, three the second week, and two the third. I enjoyed the recording, though it was demanding, especially the chapters where I narrated multiple characters. I liked the sound of the words coming out of my mouth and I felt good about the tightness of the writing and the cleverness of the dialogue.
5. Use Music and Sound Effects, But Don’t Overdo It
When I adapted the play into the novel, I decided to tell the story through the first-person point of view of nine characters. That was tricky because one of those characters was the murder victim, another was the murderer, and almost all the rest were suspects. I like reading books with multiple points of view, but it can be challenging for readers to keep track of who’s narrating. To address that, I put the point-of-view character’s name and a brief description at the beginning of each chapter.
For the audiobook, we decided to add a musical “sting” at the start of each chapter to help the listener track which character was narrating. A sting is a short musical phrase used in broadcasting and films to introduce or end a scene or amplify the drama. One sting we’re all familiar with is the “Dun dun duuun!” in suspense movies.
Elias and Becky proposed musical stings for all the characters and some of their suggestions were perfect, like the pirate riff for Honest, the houseboat pirate. But many were more symphonic than I imagined and did not evoke the late 1970s as much as rock and roll would.
Fortunately, there were many other options available, and I listened to hundreds of music clips and agonized over what worked best for each character. I was happy with how it turned out.
You can hear the musical stings and description for each character below, in the cast list that comes at the beginning of the book. Each chapter starts with one of these musical stings.
Cast of Characters
One change, which we came up with while we were recording, was the maniacal laugh of my villain, Fenton Felton. In the play, there were five or six times when Fenton Felton unleashed this laugh. But when I adapted the play into the book, I had to describe that laugh. For example: “He laughs, a deep, loud baritone laugh, like a maniacal melodrama villain.”
Because we were recording the book, we decided it made more sense to deliver the laugh instead of describing it. Like this:
Fenton Felton’s Laugh
We started with more sound effects than we ended up with. Some, like a clip of water lapping that faded away as the narration started, worked well to establish the Sausalito waterfront where much of the story takes place. But there were also sound effects like truck wheels screeching on gravel that seemed distracting, so we cut those and stuck with the descriptions from the book.
6. Don’t Sweat Mistakes, Just Start the Sentence Again
I was worried about making mistakes during the recording, but I needn’t have. We both made mistakes, but not that many, and there was some noise from leaf blowers. We stopped, paused for two seconds, went back a sentence, and started again. The editor deleted the mistakes and the pauses.
The editor also flagged sentences or paragraphs that we needed to re-record, usually just a sentence or two here and there. I was sent what they called a “pickup packet,” which identified each new block of text to record again and the reason for having to redo it.
7. Proof, Proof, and Proof Again
I have been proof reading since I was sports editor of my high school newspaper, but never before have I proof listened.
This was the most tedious part of the project and took longer than the recording. When I found things I wanted changed, then I needed to review the audio again, after the changes were made. The kinds of nit-picky changes I asked for included shortening some of the musical stings, removing some sound effects, and deleting pauses that seemed too long.
Once everything was finalized, the Pro Audio Voices team took over and got the final audio distributed to the various places where potential listeners can find it — Audible, Spotify, Apple Books, AMPlify Audiobooks™, and more.
All told, it took five months, though that was partly because of my traveling and other commitments.
I’m thrilled with how well it turned out. It was a pleasure working with the Pro Audio Voices team. Thank you so much to Becky, Elias, and Tristan for an enjoyable experience and a fabulous product. Here’s a clip of one of the chapters, between Fenton Felton and his vengeful ex-wife, Alice.
Chapter 12: I Hated You Before I Met You
8. The Marketing is More Challenging Than the Writing or Recording
The recording and production are done and in this new year, 2025, I’m focused on marketing. I know — because I’m one of them — that there are millions of audiobook listeners out there. The challenge is how to find them and let them know about Pirates of Sausalito.
If you know anyone who loves listening to audiobooks, please spread the word.
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