One of the very best pieces of advice I've ever received is that to be successful, you should make sure you're surrounded by talent. If you have good, talented people working for you, becoming successful is so much easier.

Writing doesn't necessarily start out as a principal form of income for many authors. It's often just a side-line or hobby to begin with. As such, you tend to be quite frugal in your approach and try to get things done for as little money as possible. That's OK to a point and there are many ways you can keep costs down if you know where to look.

There are some aspects of writing and publishing a novel, however, that are so important and so crucial to the success of the novel, that it makes sense to spend more time and energy. These are the editor and the cover artist. Above all else, the quality of the writing and the image on the front of the book will determine the success of the finished product.

In writing and publishing Forestium: The Mirror Never Lies, I've been extremely fortunate to have scored a bullseye in both these critical areas. Not only has the exceptional quality of the writing and editing been featured in some of the reviews I have received, but the cover art has also just been mentioned in the March edition of TheBookDesigner awards.