Do I Have A Book Cover?

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Before you wonder who Alexandra Lynn might be, it’s me — or part of me. It’s my middle name and my husband’s middle name, combined to form a pen name. This was decided spontaneously.

An inner voice telling me that it might be better to not use my real name. After all, I am writing about homelessness and poverty. Especially in the second part (or second book), when I share how we bounced back, when I admit we were not perfect. When I openly share the incident when we took advantage of a person. All that made me wonder if protecting my name might be perhaps the best way to go.

Alexandra Lynn…looks foreign to me, too. But I like it, I think I could get used to it. It feels like the time after we got married. When someone called me Mrs. Newlywed and used my new last name, I never reacted right away, either. It took a couple of seconds before reality hit. Oh, wait, I am Mrs. Newlywed now. Gone was my old last name, in with the new.

Perhaps I should go with Bridget Alexandra, or maybe Bridget Lynn. How about B. Lynn? The Happy Quitter? Oh, how wonderful. To say it with the voice of one of my favorite characters, Yoda, in Star Wars:

“No clue I have!”

I wouldn’t have started this book without my blog. Writing about this time in our lives started here on The Happy Quitter. About four years ago, I posted weekly installments about it because I thought it could help someone in the same situation. COVID and the lockdown, recession, and inflation. Tomato or To-MAH-to? Life happens to many of us.

Possibly, I just needed it out of my system. Writing the post about ‘Losing it All’ turned out to be an online therapy session. I have around five thousand therapists, but between fifty to hundred really listen —approximately ten give advice or comment, sometimes share parts of their own lives and their opinions. There is never judgment.

When I started researching self-publishing, I was quickly confronted with the truth —and I needed it. Yes, I will not be a best-selling author. Instead, my book will be part of an ocean of millions of books, and I will have to consider myself very lucky if I sell ten and can only dream of selling fifty copies.

Hard pill to swallow, but then it darned on me. I am not writing this for success. I am writing the book to perhaps reach the one person who might need to read it. I am not writing my blog for success either. I blog and write to share, to reach out, to think out loud, to provoke, to laugh, and to cry with others. Maybe the book is more for me and my husband. May we never forget, and how could we?

Let me be very realistic, I doubt I could even sell fifty copies of my book, because as we all know, Alexandra Lynn — Bridget from the Happy Quitter — is outspoken but shy, and she likes her privacy. She shows herself only on very rare occasions, and she doesn’t mingle on other social media sites either. There you go, self-promotion, you just flew out of the window. 🙂

Having all this said — or confessed — we are not houseless anymore. We have made it out of the misery/poverty. We have lived through one of the worst nightmares that can happen to a person or a couple, but, in all honesty, we are still part of a middle class that can very quickly fall off the cliff.

I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on a hobby, like writing a book that nobody will read.

Designing my own book cover? Nope! Not going to happen. Painting my own book cover? Nope. Letting AI do it. A very strict “NO” on this as well.

Not knowing what to do, I searched for a designer forum and voila. I found one. Fiverr…a website where designers (freelancers) from all over the world offer their services. They have star ratings, and after only five minutes, I picked three of them. Two women, one man. Deep down, I already knew I would go with a woman because this women-loyalty thing has risen up deep inside me (again).

How about a title? Should I stick with “Losing it All?”

Someone said first you describe your book in 100 words, then in 50, then in 10, and then when you shorten it to four words (or less), that’s when you have your book title. That’s how I came up with the short description on the back cover and the four lines on the front cover.

I introduced myself to the three designers on Fiverr. Two of them offered the service for $40, one of them for $99. I was asked to introduce my book. What genre? Memoir? True story? Biography? Storyline? I used the text that I had written for the back cover.

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All three of them sent a message back quickly. A standard text, only one designer made a personal comment. Ira, a young woman in Ukraine, thought the story sounded fascinating. Of course, I picked her. Of course, “fascinating” was probably part of a standard text as well, but it doesn’t matter. I liked her. Another gut feeling.

Slava Ukraini! – Viva Ukraine!
Viva, Ira!

Today, Sunday morning, I found an email from Ira.

What do I think?

She got my vision. She delivered! I have only small revisions, but other than that, I am happy. $40? Are you kidding me?

My revisions: I don’t like the white sparkles in the title. I suppose they are stars, but to me, they look too clustered, too speckled. They threw me off. For sentimental reasons, I would change the last four digits in the license plate to 1127, the house number out of houselessness.

And now I would like to know what my fifty therapists think, please!

Oh, I forgot, you haven’t seen the back cover. Here you go!

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Do I have a book cover?