Yesterday I finally got fed up with the cover of House with a View. I’ve written before on the trouble I had locating a suitable image for that eBook, and how an old artist friend of mine was going to paint a new, original cover.
It looks as if my artist friend probably won’t be able to work on it. He’s just too busy with other projects.
I’d heard too many publishing experts detail the importance of book covers in attracting potential readers. I had to do something because, as I’ve stated before, I hated the old cover. It was thrown together just to get the book up on Amazon in a hurry.
So, I changed the title. “Wait,” I hear you claim. “I thought we were talking about covers.” We were. But I hated the title, too. And
the new title let me alter my search for a cover image.
Now, “House with a View” is titled, “Rearranged”. Rearranged fits better. The home is being rearranged, the rehab work is being rearranged by the potential buyer, and the buyer is rearranging her life. And the cover is a young woman pondering the
rearranging of her life. Plus, she’s looking out a window…with a view. (Unless she’s a mime. Which she isn’t. Trust me.)
Everything works on so many levels I’m ashamed I didn’t think of it earlier. Like maybe when I was publishing it.
I will point out one caveat here. The face of the model in the cover image is clearly visible. I don’t like to do that. I’d rather have readers build their own images of the story characters based on the limited details I offer in the story.
I had to change the title page and copyright page to reflect the new title. And that necessitated uploading an adjusted, filtered web page to Amazon. I also had to change the book blurb on the book’s Amazon landing page, alerting people to the changes. Didn’t want any confusion with people thinking it was new book. And, of course, I had to upload the new cover.
The total time to affect all this work…about an hour.
So now you can recommend the book to all your friends without the embarrassment caused by that old,
stupid cover.
As Dean Wesley Smith asserts, we’re living in the New World of Publishing.
I love the new age of publishing and Amazon is leading the way.
Now if I could just finagle my way on to Kindle Singles.
- Chester
It looks as if my artist friend probably won’t be able to work on it. He’s just too busy with other projects.
I’d heard too many publishing experts detail the importance of book covers in attracting potential readers. I had to do something because, as I’ve stated before, I hated the old cover. It was thrown together just to get the book up on Amazon in a hurry.
So, I changed the title. “Wait,” I hear you claim. “I thought we were talking about covers.” We were. But I hated the title, too. And
the new title let me alter my search for a cover image.
Now, “House with a View” is titled, “Rearranged”. Rearranged fits better. The home is being rearranged, the rehab work is being rearranged by the potential buyer, and the buyer is rearranging her life. And the cover is a young woman pondering the
rearranging of her life. Plus, she’s looking out a window…with a view. (Unless she’s a mime. Which she isn’t. Trust me.)
Everything works on so many levels I’m ashamed I didn’t think of it earlier. Like maybe when I was publishing it.
I will point out one caveat here. The face of the model in the cover image is clearly visible. I don’t like to do that. I’d rather have readers build their own images of the story characters based on the limited details I offer in the story.
I had to change the title page and copyright page to reflect the new title. And that necessitated uploading an adjusted, filtered web page to Amazon. I also had to change the book blurb on the book’s Amazon landing page, alerting people to the changes. Didn’t want any confusion with people thinking it was new book. And, of course, I had to upload the new cover.
The total time to affect all this work…about an hour.
So now you can recommend the book to all your friends without the embarrassment caused by that old,
stupid cover.
As Dean Wesley Smith asserts, we’re living in the New World of Publishing.
I love the new age of publishing and Amazon is leading the way.
Now if I could just finagle my way on to Kindle Singles.
- Chester
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