What inspired the cover image of your book?

According to experts, the cover artwork is one of the most critical tools an author has to attract readers and entice them to pick up and open their book. The challenge is to develop an attractive and relevant cover image that represents the story within.

As my book, That Which Cannot Be Denied, is a story spanning 130 years, four generations, and four

continents, it was incredibly challenging to select a compelling image that effectively represents the story.

Rather than create a collage of images that represent the totality of the book, I decided to develop an image to represent the most poignant and powerful event in the book. That event took place when I was eighteen years old, hitchhiking alone in the middle of the night, in the middle of a snowstorm on a deserted road in the mountains of Yugoslavia during the Cold War. Other than the arrogance of youth, I have no explanation for what possessed me to embark on such a reckless and dangerous journey.

It was the time when I came as close as I ever have to death and experienced the first of many miracles I have been blessed with in my life. If you want to read more about that event, please subscribe to my site and download the free chapter.

I want to thank Beverly Anderson for assisting me in selecting concepts for our cover and the Koehler Books team for developing the cover art which so effectively represents that night, and all of you who participated in the cover poll to select the final image on the cover of the book today.

#RogerMHughes #ThatWhichCannotBeDenied #TWCBD #writer #WritersLife #AmWriting #WriteTip

How did you prepare to submit to publishers?

Once the manuscript was complete and edited, I researched standards for manuscript submissions. These included standards for the cover page, font style, font size, line spacing, paragraph indenting, page numbers, footnotes, etc.

Then, I reached out to published author friends for referrals to publishers and advice on submission procedures. I received referrals to four publishers my friends had worked with and who had previously published the type of book I was writing. My friends advised me to select and submit to my top three to four publisher choices and give them three months to respond. They recommended that if I hadn't heard from anyone in those three months, I should assume the answer was no, and I should then submit to the next three to four publishers on my priority list.

I studied the website of each of my top four publisher candidates and prepared the required submission packet for each. Though all of the publisher's requirements were roughly the same, each had slightly different requirements. All the publishers wanted an author bio and a book synopsis. Some wanted the entire manuscript, and some asked for only the first few chapters. Some also wanted a marketing plan. All of the publishers advised authors to review the submission requirements carefully and to adhere to them for consideration. They all stated that more submissions were received than they could handle and that authors who had not received a response within three months of submission should consider their submission rejected.

Then came my painstaking preparation and double-checking to ensure my manuscript submission met the requirements of my top four publishers. I then submitted my packets, and the wait for replies began.

#RogerMHughes #ThatWhichCannotBeDenied #TWCBD #AmWriting #WriteTip

How long did it take you to write the book?

I began writing the book in the summer of 2016 and completed the manuscript roughly six years later. I wish I could say that I was very organized in my process, but that would not be true.

The original source of my family history came from my grandmother's bible. It contained dates and locations for; births, marriages, and deaths of family members. Another invaluable resource was boxes and albums of old family photographs. In addition, I used ancestry.com, google, and Wikipedia to fill in some of the blanks. I then got busy writing the story.

About a year into the project, I met a published author who introduced me to my area's California Writer's Club. She also invited me to join a group of authors who met weekly. Their mission was to provide advice, counsel, and accountability for one another. Being a member of these groups was exactly what I needed to learn more about the craft of writing. I learned how to organize my book at a high level, using an outline format to examine and improve the flow of the story.

Over the years, I shared my process with the other writers in our weekly group. I also consulted my lifelong friend Steve Ladd for help researching and fact-checking dates and events that I remembered or that were part of our family folklore.

When the manuscript was nearly complete, I hired a fellow author from our weekly group to edit the manuscript. She was invaluable. As she reviewed each chapter, she offered additional advice on the craft of writing, using active vs. passive voice, details regarding punctuation and paragraph usage with dialogue, and much more.

Though writing is primarily a solo effort, I feel blessed to have had the support and expertise of other authors in my debut effort.

#RogerMHughes #ThatWhichCannotBeDenied #TWCBD #writer #WritersLife #AmWriting