Wednesday, December 25, 2013

A BOOK COVER DILEMMA: MYSTERY SOLVED

NEW COVER
You’ve heard the mantras often enough:

The cover sells the book
The cover is all important
Poor cover, poor sales 
 
But what happens when the cover you use is something you like, really like, for several reasons, but the cover doesn't translate well to the computer monitor or e-Reader device? For me, it was a mystery with no apparent solution. In fact, it took me two weeks to resolve the dilemma. 

Often, I would awaken in the early morning hours with visions of my original book cover dancing in my head, without the benefit of sugar plums to dress it up. The cover sported my choice of colors, but the layout was too dark to be appealing or easily visible on an electronic device. After spending hours designing a new cover, I would revert to the original. Because, beyond logic, I still liked it. 

Tuesday morning, at 0438 hrs. to be precise, I crawled out of bed, accompanied by those dancing visions again. If I didn’t want to keep losing sleep, I knew it was time to get serious about changing the cover on my latest Pepper Bibeau mystery novel, WITH FIERY VENGEANCE. 

Now, finally, I have a new book cover, all dressed up for the ball, so to speak. No, it won’t be attending any of the parties slated for President and Mrs. Obama’s visit with ʻOhana here in Hawaii (the talk of the beauty parlor on Monday!) but I’d lay bets they would like the new design. 
 

 
The reason this cover is appropriate for the novel is because the through-line focuses on Pepper's fourteen year old son, on circumstances occurring over the years that led to current situations, and how the boy is affected by events unfolding during Pepper's stay in Hawaii.
 
 
All of the Pepper Bibeau mysteries are available in ebook and trade book format at Amazon.com
 
The novels are free-standing, but if you want to start with Book 1, FOR EVERY ACTION in ebook format is available for 99 cents from 12/26/2013 to 1/1/2014.
  
 

1 comment:

  1. Is it possible book covers hold an inordinate amount of sway over sales?

    ReplyDelete

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