The importance of Covers

JDamaskremake

To celebrate Halloween Fox Spirit books offered a free download ofHeart of Fire by J Damask yesterday. Which made me happy, since it had been on my wishlist for a while. Despite the godawful cover.

I truly do not like the original cover. So much that I began to think of how to remake it. And… I figured out how to do it. I thought about it some more, before I decided to do it. Basically, I simplified the cover.

I made the background white,  purchased a stockphoto with an Asian woman and one with  a chinese dragon. It took me roughly a hour to design the cover. I am really happy with it. Sure, it isn’t as perfect as the covers I make for my books, but it doesn’t have to be since it is for my own use.

The remake also got me thinking about cover design.

In today’s market covers, especially when it comes to e-books , is the first thing a reader notice. Which means that the cover has to tell the reader what the book is about and the genre. So making a cover that mimics a Warhol print isn’t a good idea, even if it has chinese dragons on it. Because it doesn’t matter how great the book is if the reader take one look at the cover, cringes, and go and buys something else.

That said, I can understand the desire to want to break the mold, to create a cover that isn’t a copy of the other fantasy and science fiction covers out there. Except readers are used to that kind of covers. More,  they are there because other publishers had seen that is what sells.

So if anyone from Fox Spirit Books read this, please take time to consider what you want for 2015. Do you want readers to Ooh over your covers, and snap up your books, or do you want them to cringe?