OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
One of the main reasons for self-publishing is creative freedom and control.
Today I'm talking about changing book covers because within a few hours, you can completely change the look and emotional impact of your book. When authors like Polly Courtney have resigned over the cover branding for their books, this seems like the ultimate indie freedom.
It gets brilliant reviews, so once people read it, they love it. But not enough people were trying it … sure, I haven't done any specific promotion, but based on my other book sales, it should be doing better.
The ‘aha' moment
Russell Blake, the author who has sold over 400,000 thrillers and now writes with Clive Cussler, wrote a post in Feb 2014 about tweaking his covers. Russell changes covers in order to “find one that resonates with my readership – as expressed in increased sales.”
He changed the cover on one specific book, Fatal Exchange, four times before settling on the latest iteration – which moved from a theme based to a person based cover.
“COVERS ARE STOP SIGNS. They should quickly reveal as much info about your book to the reader as possible and this did not. As soon as I changed the covers to the current version, sales shot up … Short version: I was really stupid. Don’t wait 9 months to change covers or descriptions on books that aren’t preforming.”
These two fantastic indie authors provided me with an ‘aha' moment, and this is what I decided.
My mistake #1: Theme over character
I always have a strong theme in my books, and for Desecration the main theme is anatomy and whether the physical body actually defines who we really are. Yes, this is a deep and meaningful topic and I explore the use of the physical body in life through tattoos, body modification and alternative nightclub Torture Garden. I also write about the use of the body after death in medical specimens and corpse art.
But mainly it's a murder mystery with a British detective, Jamie Brooke, whose daughter is dying. Jamie will do anything to protect her daughter in life … and in death.
For the second cover, the brief was: grieving mother who will do anything to avenge the wrong done to her daughter, and to bring justice to the murder victim. It was all about character.
My mistake #2: Not meeting genre expectations
Desecration is a crime thriller, with an edge of horror in parts. It's certainly not for the squeamish. It has a dark tone and a
People have also said the original cover looks very arty, very literary fiction. The font down the side is beautiful but not easily readable and the word ‘Desecration' is difficult for some anyway. It's the HM Ward mistake – falling in love with the art, and not thinking of the reader expectation first.
The white cover also didn't really fit with my other J.F.Penn books which are all dark. The new image of all my books together looks a lot better with another dark book in the frame, as above right.
Comments from Derek Murphy, my cover designer
“We tried a lot of ideas with the first round for Desecration, using mostly symbolic elements. Joanna previously had been adverse to using people on covers so we kept things simple; the final cover she chose is interesting and unique – but wasn't selling well. Here are some reasons why:
1. No emotional connection. Emotion is mostly a matter of scene, color and contrast, although adding characters can help a lot as well.
2. People usually sell covers. Even if a little cliche or overused, stock photo models seem to increase sales.
3. No genre identification. Symbolic covers are better for non-fiction. The stern white, while clinically suitable, probably seemed too much like a non-fiction book. At the very least it was unclear what the book was about – this could have been improved with a tagline.
4. No depth. Adding a scene lets readers know more about the setting and feels more like they can ‘walk into' the story. It's tough to pull off a flat, symbolic cover (even though major bestsellers seem to use them, like the Game or Thrones series, Twilight, Shades of Gray, etc.)
You can find Derek at Creativindie Book Covers, and he also has this great post about DIY Covers in MS Word, as well as a fantastic program to help authors with book cover design. You can find more cover designers here.
The new cover
I am really happy with the new cover!
I spent over 5 hours trawling through all the image sites looking for my idea of Jamie Brooke, the main character. This model totally fits the bill. Of course, British police detectives don't carry guns, but I decided a little artistic license would suit the American audience more 🙂
I've also just uploaded the new print covers to Createspace, so if you have one of the older cover print books, it is officially a limited edition!
In terms of results, it's difficult to say yet. The ranking on the Amazon.com store has moved from ~200,000 to ~50,000, but I have also been involved in other promotions this month. It will be best to wait a few months and see how the average sales are over time.
Tweaking my other covers
I also searched hard for this model, who fits incredibly well since my Dr Morgan Sierra is closely modeled on Lara Croft!
Although it's hard to do any kind of split testing when you only have one book, I have now had two free runs on BookBub for Pentecost.
The first run resulted in ~20,000 free downloads. This latest run with the new cover resulted in over 30,000 downloads. I can't directly attribute it to the addition of the female figure, but at least it shows that the cover change wasn't detrimental, and could mean it was a positive move. Pentecost is still free on all stores if you fancy trying it.
OK, I would love to hear what you think. Firstly, what do you think of my cover change? Do you think the new covers are more effective? Also, have you changed your own covers and has this impacted sales? Please leave a comment below.
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1 2 3 … 5 Next »When I first saw the original Desecration cover, I'll admit I was rather jealous, because it's gorgeous. That said, it did put me off buying it :) The new cover looks more like what I'd like to read.
I prefer the original Pentecost cover, the woman looks a little "pasted on". I'm not sure I'd think that if I hadn't seen the original, though.
Thanks Russ - I still think the original is gorgeous too :) but the new one is more representative of the book.
Interestingly, my German translator wants to keep the original Pentecost without the woman on. I wish we could have different covers for different markets as well - like trad pub. I suppose we could by uploading the same edition and selecting different rights .... hmmm, will think about that
Very interesting. I am absolutely your target audience with Desecration, but with the new cover and without knowing you, I wouldn't have given it a second look. The original cover, on the other hand, basically screams at me "Silent Witness" (the credit sequence) and I would have clicked on even if I hadn't known the author.
On the other hand, I do se the point about the white not quite working - I think the old design could have worked on a dark background. The best covers in this field by a country mile are the ones for Thomas Harris' Lecter quadrilogy, and they have very "symbolic" imagery with a strong feel and dark colours running through.
Also agree with Russell about the figures - they don't work for me - they take the darkness out of the covers (in a way that is way more likely to confuse readers about the horror content than the original cover. I would see the point if this kind of figure were a stock requirement for covers in this area, but I'm not sure it is? I think it works better on Pentecost, which is an action thriller where it will help if people identify with the main character (though showing the face is a controversial thing to do, raising all the questions about people preferring to use their imagination - the very best covers I've seen with characters on that are anywhere near the genre are Lee Child's, and Reacher always stays mysterious - I can't recall too many in the Dan Brown/Michael Cordy genre that have figures at all?), but really not sure about Desecration. Will be very interesting to see how the reviews come in with the new cover, whether people are more or less surprised at the content.
Anyway, apologies for rambling!
Hi Dan - we can't compare unknown authors with luminaries like Lee Child and Dan Brown, Michael Connelly etc - since their books will sell even with a plain cover!
I agree on the face thing - it's why I was so resistant before - but you know I am more interested in playing with commercial aspects than how I FEEL about things. It's a tough one, but I want to play with it for a while and see what works. The US market is still our biggest income, and although I think the original may be more European, I'm aiming for a broader US reach right now.
Playing is definitely worthwhile - and absolutely, if you're looking to the US this may be much more the thing (I love that Waterstones now has such a large US import section - it gives a real insight into the different cover tastes - Murakami covers, for example, are unrecognisable as being by the same author in the US and UK)
... we can’t compare unknown authors with luminaries like Lee Child and ...
I completely agree with this. I have a copy of Red Phoenix by Larry Bond, which features a T-72 tank with a rifled gun. It's a techno-thriller, and so I expect (accurate) technical detail in the story. If I didn't know Larry Bond, I wouldn't have bought the book (the T-72 has a smooth-bore gun, not rifled). I bought the book despite the cover, because the name carried a lot of weight with me. If your not as well known, the cover image will have more relative weight.
There's a novella called 1000 Yards by Mark Dawson. It's constantly showing up in the promotional newsletters. It's an assassin-thriller. I see it a lot but I'm unlikely ever to buy it. Why? The title implies a long-distance sniper. The cover does indeed show us a man with a gun ready to shoot.
Unfortunately, it's a handgun.
Unless this is a techno-thriller about a new form of pistol that can drop a man from more than 100 yards (it's not), that's a complete fail. The problem is that I wince every time I see it, from the apparent lack of good judgment of the author. Makes me automatically distrust his writing, even without trying it.
Hard to buy a thriller when you laugh at loud at the lameness of the cover. So being in-genre isn't the only thing to worry about.
Experts in weaponry are definitely the hardest to please! I did just look at that cover and actually I quite like it, but you're right in that it's clearly not a sniper weapon :) Getting great reviews though and as a permafree book, it's doing well. I'm actually getting the sample since it is a UK James Bond style fast read! It's here if anyone else wants to take a look: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DUFCJ10/
The point of the cover is to make you look further. That 1000 Yards cover makes potential readers reject the work our of hand on the grounds of incompetence in the subject matter.
I wish the author well, and all that, but we're talking about effective covers here...
Hi Joanna,
I just can say that you are right about the Covers. But one point Nov 2014 is future not past ;-) - Have to smile, because it happend to me too in a Blogpost.
Thanks for your interesting Posts
Kerstin
Thanks Kerstin - I have updated that :)
Yes - I love the new cover and agree with your decisions why. At one point it was considered wrong to change up covers but now it's almost par for the course. :)
I've read a few articles on this topic lately, and I think you made the right choice in changing your Desecration cover. While the first cover is beautiful, I'd definitely buy a book with the second cover long before I'd buy a book with the first.
With that said, I'm torn on the idea of having people on covers, at least in certain genres. Your Desecration cover would still be great without the woman and I feel she actually stands out a bit too much, meaning her pale skin against the dark background seems like a bit too much contrast. I feel similarly about the Pentecost cover, in that I don't feel the woman fits with the feeling I get from the background elements.
Those are just my thoughts though. In the end it's up to the author to decide what they want, and if those covers produce better results for you and you like them, then why not use them!
This article is causing me almost as much anxiety as my son's spelling bee tonight! I'm currently running a design contest for my first book cover and am choosing between artsy, iconic/symbolic, and "stock model". I've been leaning toward the symbolic, but now you're making me second guess myself.
My meager 2 cents: the old cover of Desecration is beautiful, but I immediately think of a Michael Crichton style medical thriller. The new one says "Detective thriller with grave robbers".
As a reader, I'm not a fan of models on covers because they never match my mental image of the characters. In general, though, correct genre probably has to come first.
Now I have to go neck to agonizing about my own cover. Thanks for the food for thought!
Sorry to give you angst Gary :) So you feel better, I am still agonizing over this even as we are discussing it here! I love the old over, and I personally like the theme style cover more than the stock model cover BUT/ evidence seems to point to people and genre specific covers being better for sales. I trust HM Ward and Russell Blake more than my own emotion :) BUT/ remember, you can always pick two and change them over later :)
Very nice post, Joanna, thanks for sharing the telling details of cover designs. I too tend to get lost in my head when designing things and forget to make sure the obvious ("It's a crime thriller!!") is obvious first.
The first cover is gorgeous but it doesn't fit you. Killing your darlings doesn't always refer to the words, I'm afraid. However, I'm also not sure comparing the two will provide an answer regarding character or theme based. This is not a series, so the woman on the cover doesn’t have any meaning to the readers. The main difference is the light vs dark theme. The dark theme in general fits the genre better. I think a better comparison would be a similar first cover with the dark theme. I am intrigued on how a change in covers affects sales. I’ve struggled with covers as well and deep down hope that the decision you eventually make won’t have a significance impact on sales. This is certainly a topic worth exploring further.
Hi David- this is actually the first in a new series - so when Delirium is out, the woman might make more sense. I'm also fascinated in how covers affect sales, I think they are so critical and am stunned when people just use basic covers with no effort. Unfortunately, it is very hard to split test unless the testing is done on Google Adwords or Facebook - as Tim Ferriss did with The Four Hour Work Week years ago.
New covers both look great. I was thinking especially with Pentecost, the original cover, without reading any blurbs or reviews, gave me the impression of a strictly religious genre book, probably set in biblical times. The new cover certainly destroys that assumption. I don't read a lot of thrillers myself, but I can't imagine that this new version of the cover wouldn't attract a lot more attention from people who do. Same with the new Desecration cover, for different reasons of course. Both of them now seem to clearly say, "If this is the kind of book you are looking for, here it is!" I really look forward to a follow up in a couple of months on your sales results. I'm hoping/expecting great things for you from this.
Thanks David - and I am definitely keen to make it clear it's not a religious book, but equally want it to be attractive to fans of Dan Brown :) I'm glad you think the change is effective, and I will report back with sales results later this year. Of course, we can never be sure, since so many factors go into discoverability.