Saturday, May 29, 2010

Thoughts on covers

I mentioned a while back that Bella Andre had released a couple of her backlist books onto Kindle. She obviously understood the power of the bare male torso (over the years, many of her books have featured one!), but her first indie covers weren't particularly striking otherwise. Here's the only (dinky) version I could find:
Not bad, but not especially eyecatching. Today I chanced to glimpse the same book, and look at the new and vastly improved cover:

Very nice. Same stock photo, but the lettering is much, much better. I like the big name (big author names tell readers that they need to buy the book just because you're you!), and the overall look of it. She's also redone her other re-release in a similar style, so that the books have a branded look:

I haven't been following her sales rankings, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they'd gone up quite a bit since she redid her covers. The new ones are really nice.

And as a side note, note that on her site she's got both books on the front page. I've said before that you don't get the greatest benefit from putting books on Kindle and then treating them like redheaded stepchildren. It's best to treat them like you would any other release and put them right up front on your site. Ms. Andre seems to be doing that, and I bet her sales will reflect it.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for putting up this post on covers, Ellen, it's really made me think. I follow your journal since seeing your comments on JAK's blog. I have two HisRom print books I'm putting onto the Kindle, and sorting covers is the biggest headache ever. The books are both 'sweet' so don't want acres of flesh which the USA market seems to love (I'm a Brit, so we are odd about these things) but your post is making me look closely at other covers. Thanks.

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