The Madame Chalamet ghost mysteries series by Byrd Nash now has print book editions with new covers! Retail price for all six books is $90. However, for Byrd Nash newsletter subscribers, I will be offering a special price which I’m sending out announcement about today.
Front print covers for the Madame Chalamet Ghost Mystery series:
Back print covers for the Madame Chalamet Ghost Mystery series:
Why new covers?
I know I just put out a blog post about the updated ebook covers for this series, but I knew those images would not work for the print books, and it is why I’ve been stumped all summer about what to do.
Since some of the stories are novellas, I needed to make the decision on if I would combine volumes. I looked at the different print options for that and it ended up costing more (for me and the reader) to combine them. This is because printing starts to get costly once you go over 300 pages .
I also worried that I might confuse readers if the print editions didn’t match the ebook titles. So the eventual six volume set is 5.24 by 8 in size to match my other books like A Spell of Rowans, and the page break down is as follows: Ghost Talker 178 pp; Delicious Death 194 pp; Spirit Guide 186 pp; Gray Lady 226 pp; Haunted Grave 216 pp; and Ghastly Mistake 280 pp.
Originally, I thought of commissioning artwork for the covers, but couldn’t find an illustrator that I liked for the project. It was also super frustrating to only find AI generated interiors to use as the background (I’m against AI generated slop and won’t use it). Interior photos of mansion rooms that I would have liked to use were marked for Editorial Use only (meaning they could only be used for news articles, not illustration purposes).
So I spent some time digging into possible photos that I could use and experimenting with what I could do with them in Photoshop. I came up with these super-saturated color covers which I adore. While the main female character isn’t a perfect match to how I envision Elinor, she is pretty close and captures the mood of the books.
I wanted something fun that you would enjoy seeing on your bookshelf so I hope you also loves these covers as much as I do.
New interior artwork for the print books
I did design these books with interior art with a full bleed Gothic pattern on the left of the first chapter. Each chapter heading will have a lily, as this is the symbol of the Morpheus Society that trained Elinor to become a medium.
My thoughts about print books
Nothing can compare to having a BOOK in your HANDS! The cover art, the weight of it, and the smell of the print is just something that an ebook simply can’t give you. Despite my need for space, I’ve kept my favorites and always will!
During the pandemic, the cost of printing books skyrocketed and unfortunately I have not seen those prices come down. So while I do offer print books I know they are out of reach for some readers.
With that in mind, I am thinking of offering special deals to my newsletter subscribers where you can get my print books at a discount. I can only offer this to readers who are loyal newsletter subscribers and who are willing to commit to a pre-order because buying print books out of my own pocket without a chance of selling them is not really feasible for my budget.
Be sure to join my newsletter to know about these deals when they become available.
ebook cover collections offers two choices
I’ve had some readers like the original ebook covers better so on my webstore you can get the classic, original covers or the new covers via an ebook collection that contains all six books of the series.
My personal choice? ebooks
I personally have moved to using a tablet for most of my reading. Don’t get me wrong, I love print books, but for my lifestyle I need something I can take on the go to read at any time especially when our life was in turmoil with selling our house, renting for a year, and moving again out-of-state. We’ve also downsized our living space so having a lot of bookshelves isn’t realistic. This is probably true for a lot of apartment dwellers and renters.
Ebook prices also let me buy new authors who I may or may not like; and if I don’t like them, I can remove the book easily from my tablet.
Ebook prices are now at the cost of what a mass market paperback was back in the 1990s. I’ve actually decided not to offer perma-free (always free) books at booksellers because in the long run that costs me money. Book cover art, editing and formatting ebooks, and putting them online does require some money to get done in a professional manner.
However, remember, you can request any ebook you want from your local library (even mine).
If you are looking for books on sale, I personally subscribe to Bookbub (is great for new releases, books that have price drops, and following authors), OHFB (they have a nice curated list that is generally top quality), and Early Bird Books (this newsletter has a lot of older titles that are being moved into ebook formats).
There are many more newsletter deal emails but these are my top three that I use a lot. If you have a favorite one, post it in the comments as I’m always on the lookout.
