The Ambitious Author

A Book by Its Cover

Posted on October 31, 2017 Updated on October 30, 2017

If you follow any writing or book marketing blogs – or if you happen to love reading – you’re surely quite aware of how powerful a good cover can be! I’ve discussed the topic in several posts, including What makes an Amazon Bestselling Novel? and Finding Your Target Reader. I won’t drone on about the subject here, because I hope I’m preaching to the choir by now (pardon the cliche)! but I thought it would be fun see the before and after of a recent cover change, and take a look at the results!

The first book I ever wrote, The Rancher Takes a Cook, was published by Prism Book Group in 2015. I was having good success with the other indie titles I had released during that time, and chose to individually publish books 2 & 3 in that series.

I knew it would be critical for the covers of books 2 & 3 to match the traditionally published book 1, so readers would be able to find all the books in the series.

Here’s a look at the three original covers for the series:

In July 2017, I received the rights back to book 1, so I knew it was time for a facelift for all three covers. I worked with the incredible Kirk DouPonce of DogEared Designs for the new covers, and here are his final creations:

Aren’t they amazing? You can see them in more detail here.

But the best part is that with the new covers, sales of that series more than doubled! I was also able to move the series into KDP Select, so counting page reads, you could say sales of that series almost tripled. Without any advertising, these books became my best sellers.

Why have the new covers been an overwhelming success?

1. They draw an emotional response from my target reader. Not only are the cover models beautiful, but the use of light and setting make my readers want to be right there in that story.
2. They clearly show the genre. The new covers fit the Christian historical romance genre perfectly, and readers get an idea of the storyline in each book. There’s a smooth connection between each cover, the book blurb (product description), and the book itself.

Changing the covers wasn’t cheap, but the new covers more than paid for themselves within the first month. I’m so thankful I put forth the money and effort!

What about you? Have you experimented with new covers on a book or series? Was the change beneficial?