I haven’t written about Juárez Dance in a couple of weeks, but that’s not because nothing is going on. To the contrary, there’s been a flurry of activity as I dealt with artist JT Lindroos on the design of the book’s cover and spent some time poring over the manuscript one more time to make sure nothing has been missed.

The cover was a key part of the equation and I’m very glad it’s done. Let me say now that I’m very impressed with Lindroos’ work and his pricing is second to none. If you have a book cover you need done, whether it’s for print or e-publishing, you owe it to yourself to visit Lindroos’ site and drop him an email query. He works fast, he works well and he won’t rob you blind.

So what does the cover look like? Feast your eyes.

Lindroos gave me a couple of designs to choose from, but I felt this was the best in terms of color and content. I think you’ll agree that it’s quite nice. Unfortunately regular Kindle owners will never get to see anything but a grayscale representation, but Kindle Fire folks will be able to take in the full-color glory of Lindroos’ work.

You may wonder how other aspects of the self-publication process are going. Now that the cover is finished, I can contact a couple of different companies that handle ebook formatting and get estimates from them. You’ve already heard about 52 Novels in this space, and I will definitely get in touch with them, but there’s also eBook Architects, the folks who did this work for my friend Craig McDonald and his first self-published novel. I hear great things about both places, so whichever one earns the job, I will more than likely get an excellent product.

When is all of this coming out? Well, that depends on a couple of factors. First, and most obvious, is that I must wait until the file is properly formatted before I try to sell it. That’s a duh moment if there ever was one. Since both of the formatting businesses are busy, it could take months before the work is completed. I had always planned on a late 2012/early 2013 release date, so this isn’t a game-changer.

As you know from reading this blog, The Dead Women of Juárez is coming out in the United States in September, followed by the UK release of Tequila Sunset in November. I had toyed with the idea of putting the ebook out in October, just slipping between the two release dates and making a solid quarter where a new book was available each month. I have reconsidered.

The first priority is for my traditionally published books to sell. I make my money from selling those works, whereas self-publishing earnings are purely theoretical. I must be certain that my efforts in the self-publication arena do not conflict with those on the traditional end. Consequently, I’m not going to step on the release of Tequila Sunset by putting out another book right before it comes out. That would be dumb.

So right now a December release is not out of the question, but a January release is probably more likely. I know it seems like a long time to wait, but I have to play this as smartly as I can, and rushing things out the door just for the sake of doing it would be a boneheaded move.

How about that cover, huh?