Author of Immigration, Race and Survival Cecily Alexander was featured in The Caribbean Camera!
This memoir is a collection of many journals she has kept over the years. She uses journalling as a way of working through feelings and emotions and of learning from her experiences. She has had a career as a dietitian for over forty years. Her career has included academic writing, and she has one previous book publication: a book on nutrition and weight loss called “Just Eat Less: Easier said than done.” She has a master’s in business administration specializing in organizational behaviour in addition to her nutrition degree from the University of Guelph. She has taught at both the university and college levels. She lives in Southern Ontario.
🖤 Find the cover of Country Hearts & Willow’s Ridge 🖤 Select your choice of digital review copy 🖤 BookFunnel will send you your free download right after!
Tellwell book-cover designer Benjam Mosquera has been a valued member of the Tellwell team since 2018. He has ten years of book-design experience and is passionate about creating covers that draw people in at first glance. Read on to learn Benjam’s favourite book cover-design trends and hear his advice to authors working with book designers for the first time.
What inspired you to become a book-cover designer?
I began my book-design career working as an interior book designer. I was really inspired seeing beautifully created cover designs by my teammates, in bookstores and online. It led me to learn how to artfully create book covers. I have been enjoying creating book covers for a decade now.
Where do you draw creative inspiration from?
I am often inspired by film posters. I’ll search for the designer’s name and look through their work for more inspiration.
What advice do you have for authors working with a book designer?
Clear instruction is really key. If an author has a specific vision for their book, then it’s important for the author to relay detailed instructions for the cover designer. That allows the designer to more easily visually interpret the instructions.
We are also creative individuals who love taking a concept and running with it. So if authors don’t have a clear vision for their book cover, that’s OK. That’s why we are here, to put in our professional touch and create magic. Showing covers that you love and want to emulate also go a long way.
Fall has officially arrived, and with it our excitement for Halloween! In honour of the spooktacular holiday, the Tellwell team pulled together our top spine-chilling, hair-raising reads for October! 🎃
From horror books with demons and plagues to psychological thrillers with a thirst for revenge, we think you’ll love these eerie excerpts below. 👻
The Plague by Ryan L. Canning
She turned and ran. There was no end in sight. The bodies, the tents, the smell, they went on for miles.
The apartment filled with sounds from another world. Screaming, shouting, music with an unearthly twisted tune played out of the walls. A chorus of suffering, a background of nightmares and fears. It was angry, insulted and outraged.
Poppy Seeds on a Grave: A Collection of Short Stories by Mirko Markovic
Every ounce of blood in this man’s body drained from his skin and he froze in time, a statue paralyzed by the shock of what he had just seen.
– Mirko Markovic, Poppy Seeds on a Grave: A Collection of Short Stories
Get your copy of Poppy Seeds on a Grave: A Collection of Short Storieson Amazon.
The Book of Nodd: The Dreamwalker by B.S. Thompson
Suddenly he heard a snap and an electric bolt of pain shot down his arm, but the cottage did not stop rocking, and it would not be much longer before it collapsed on him completely.
– B.S. Thompson, The Book of Nodd: The Dreamwalker
Get your copy of The Book of Nodd: The Dreamwalker on Amazon.
Chains by M Todd
Before him, strewn about throughout the cavern from ceiling to floor, placed within the bluish rocks, were hundreds, or thousands, of human bodies. Men and women, their faces contorted in masks of horror and pain, frozen like macabre cadavers in a monster’s freezer.
Without thinking, I knew what I had to do. I tugged my sister out from behind me and moved her around me until we had switched places, me behind her with my hands on her shoulders. “Take her,” I said, and gave her shoulders a little shove forward.
Squinting, he focused with laser-like intensity to see what he could of the corpse below. He marvelled at the kaleidoscope of colours and textures the mangled body had created all over the urban canvas.
Was my mom a criminal? Did she know something or do something that helped ruin this man’s life? Did Mathis know? Was it even true? There was too much to think about all at once.
So you made the decision to create an author website – FANTASTIC! A website functions as a modern online business card, and not having one can impact credibility. You will use your website to share information and news about your book, let people know where they can buy it, and offer other ways of connecting with you by including your social media links. Ultimately, your website is the foundational building blocks of your brand! But, what should you be doing with it and how can you help get traffic (views) to the site?
Unless you are creating regular content in the form of a blog, uploading new resources, or doing something unique on your site, it can be hard to drive people to visit your author website frequently or at all. So what should you be doing?
Here are 4 key elements to follow to get the most out of your author website:
Tellwell Publishing is partnering with talented entrepreneurs and non-fiction authors to bring you some motivational and insightful reads to level up your business and your life! We have 13 books available completely for FREE from August 26 – September 26!
Featuring two Tellwell business authors and entrepreneurs – Paul Sacco and Jack Lumsden!
Tellwell children’s author Rachel Greening’s book If My Oak Tree Could Speak tied for second place for Best Picture Book (5 and under), and received an honourable mention in the poetry category for the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards!
Stephanie Hewitt’s books Where did Luna go? and Luna Loves Biscuits – received honorable mentions from the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards in the new author – fiction category. Congratulations!
Author Rishma Govani is getting lots of positive hype for her book Sushi & Samosas. Check out some of her interviews here: katethismomloves & twosouls.onejourney
We’re introducing something new, folks, and we’re very excited about it! We will now be offering free ebooks on the Tellwell blog and newsletter!
Tellwell authors have partnered with other authors in their genre to offer their books completely for free – for a limited time. This is part of Tellwell’s new marketing service for authors. Here, we are partnering with authors with similar content to leverage each other’s audience and expose each book to new readers, building the author’s email list in the process. If you are interested in participating, get in touch with your publishing or marketing consultant.
Read on to learn more about each book and how you can enter to receive a free copy.
Ben’s Final Checkmate by Laura Sandor
Toronto-based psychotherapist and author, Laura Sandor shares the tragic story of mental illness, murder and suicide which tear apart her unsuspecting family in her new book.
Readers are calling Ben’s Final Checkmate impossible to put down!
Laura has partnered with other talented non-fiction authors who bare it all in their stories. To get your free copy, all you have to do is click here. Bonus, you can download any of the other 11 books from this giveaway, too!
A really great book cover is one that captures the book inside it in some fundamental and, perhaps, unforeseen way.
Von Langoyan, Tellwell book cover designer
What do you enjoy most about designing book covers?
I enjoy the creative process of capturing and evoking the essence of a story through visuals. The cover needs to both intrigue a reader and give them a sense of the book’s genre and content. I enjoy staying up to date on design trends and using them in my process so our covers look fresh and contemporary.
Our authors sometimes have a vision for how they would like their covers to look, and I work with their input to create something they would love, and that is also captivating and current.
Where do you get your design inspiration?
Social media and the Internet, in general, are great for inspiration. I follow artists and designers who I admire to see what they are working on.
What have been some of your favourite covers that you’ve created for Tellwell? Tell us why.
I’ve had the pleasure of working on several book covers for the talented fiction author Monique Gliozzi, who lives in Australia. Monique’s books Foresight, Vestige and Diversity are paranormal thriller/mysteries and we wanted the covers to evoke a sense of supernatural spookiness.
Monique had a clear idea of what type of cover she wanted and provided us with really great, detailed instructions. I used a number of design elements to create a sense of haunting and mystique, such as the illusion of depth, partially hidden titles and objects, and surrealism.
For May’s Mental Health Awareness month, we are acknowledging some of our Tellwell authors whose books include themes of anxiety, depression, insecurities, and emotional expression. These books aim to give the reader a better understanding around mental health and how to recognize and communicate various feelings.
I Don’t Want to Go To School is a book that is intended to help children and families deal with separation anxiety, especially when it’s their first time at school. For some children, every day is like the first day because they are afraid their families will not return to pick them up. I wrote this book to reassure children who are still working on a secure attachment, that school is fun and families always come back because they are loved. Most books that address these issues use animal characters, but I chose real-life illustrations that the children can relate to. Lastly, this book will help teachers present classroom transitions to little children more effectively.
A story about a young girl who has a worry bully that keeps visiting and making her tummy and her head hurt. Whether it’s when she’s trying to join a game with friends, speak in front of her class or go for a check-up, he keeps showing up. He seems to be EVERYWHERE! But with help from some people who care and a big dose of bravery, she begins to learn just how to send her worry bully away.
