Why I Updated My Book Covers (for the millionth time)
You may, or may not, be familiar with my Presley Thurman cozy mystery series. If not, please check them out here. I currently have 12 in the series with a #13 planned for release in July. I started this series back in 2009. I released the 12th book January of 2017 before taking a short break from fiction to focus on building my Writing Warriors Collective membership site.
This site is designed to help other authors. I’m passionate about helping others, and while I love writing fiction, I needed to focus on one thing at a time.
When I made my business plan for 2018 one of the many things I realized I needed to do to hit my goals for the year was to update the covers in my Presley Thurman series. I felt they needed to reflect a more current cozy mystery look.
Best decision ever! My cover designer, Molly with Breezy Reads, and I have been working on them since the beginning the year. She just delivered the final ones, and I couldn’t be happier. You can see them all here.
Now I’ll admit this is the 4th time the cover of my 1st book has been redone, the 3rd for several, and the 2nd for the rest. Obviously, the older ones have had more cover changes because they’ve been around longer.
You might be thinking this is a little excessive. Trust me it’s not. Don’t get me wrong. I liked all my book covers when they were made. But I know so much more about book marketing now than I did then that it’s made sense to evolve my covers as my brand has evolved.
When I started, my series didn’t have a continuity to the covers which is really important to catch the readers eye. The first time I had them redone, it was to achieve that continuity. After that, it was about the appeal to the reader. I don’t think my first few cover iterations were genre specific. They didn’t scream fun, flirty cozy mystery. This most recent cover update has already spiked my sales even without much advertising. Because they do a great job at positioning my books in the right market.
And that’s key. A book cover is your calling card. Your first impression. It’s important to connect with your readers at first glance.
I also plan on updating the Trixie Pristine series covers this year as well. But first I need to finish writing Diamonds & Disguises!
Until next time.
Happy Reading!
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