A Whoops and a Rebrand

One of the best parts of being an indie author is that you are constantly learning. There is no handing your books off to professionals and trusting their judgement, the whole process is in your hands. Which is also the hardest part about being an indie author because sometimes you screw up.

And sometimes you don't find out about your screw up until after you've published it.

This was what happened to me this last week. Because I've been struggling with my current manuscript, I found myself wasting time studying the market for sweet with heat (aka, not quite clean) novels. Guess what? My covers stood out like a lime-green prom dress at a formal wedding! I was so far off market I knew I had to make decisions about my books and quick. I had three options:

Leave the covers I had and maybe rebrand in a year
Leave The Reunion's cover and rebrand A Suite Christmas and the Inn at Halfpoint series.
Rebrand both covers completely.

I consulted some pros, some author friends and a few cover clinic groups as I weighed my choices. As you can see, the final decision was to rebrand completely right now.

Was this the right choice? I have no idea. Time (and sales ranking) will tell. But I am happy with the new covers. I didn't think it was possible to love covers more than my old ones, but these ones make me smile and fit the market. Hopefully this will result in a win-win.

Now I just have to tackle the problems in my current WIP... #authorproblems lol!

What do you think? Did I make the right choice in rebranding now?

If you're an author, what is a hard decision you've had to make regarding your publishing journey? Any whoopsies along the way?