Support for Indie Authors discussion
Archived Workshop No New Posts
>
Seeking advice on my existing covers
date
newest »
newest »
I think the cover are great. Well done. The preview pages are good as well. What kind of marketing have you done? Promos?
You may want to consider aligning your categories differently.
Nice covers. Is that a fly on the ceiling or a fan?I think you have the same problem I do with my own books. The covers don't scream the genre. At first sight, I thought your books were thrillers. When I looked closer and saw it could be a strange bug then I said ok, could be sci-fi.
As India said, it may be more of a pain to change the covers at this time. Some authors do a revamp after a few years (not sure about a few months) and it works for them, So it really is up to you.
The covers are nice so it'd be a shame to change them and maybe waste money when your problem could very well be just a lack of marketing.
They look like they could belong to the thriller genre. I don't see anything wrong with them. They're quite appealing.
I notice they're pretty much the same cover with just different text and color schemes.
I don't think the problem is with your covers. After all, there are tons of downright gaudy or bad covers out there with books seemingly selling like hotcakes.
First, looking at the amount of so-called ratings, reviews and purchases of other authors as a measuring stick for your own success is dangerous. There's no telling if those are legit, even the ones with purchases. I happen to know of a few authors who are running scams to inflate their standing and "sales."
Second, I don't know what your budget is but maybe instead of spending money on new cover designs you could spend that on advertising, entering contests, creating unique book trailers. There are so many things you could do with that allotted budget which could gain notoriety for your books instead of just getting a new cover. I mean, after that happens, then what's your method of getting those new covers seen? Does that make sense?
Your problem is the same as nearly every other indie author. Visibility. We've all got a blow-horn and usually it's the one which blows most frequently that get the conversions.
My Facebook has only recently started paying dividends. I've had more sales over the past month that I did over the first year and a half. And it's not just sales. I'm getting boat loads of Kindle Unlimited reads. Over the past month, I've had 10k pages read of my books.
Still, I'm far from breaking even. What's worse is those people don't leave reviews. The ones that do leave good ones at least, so I'm happy with that.
I anticipate it has something to do with my rather involved strategy I've been running since October. It's too long to delve into here, and honestly there might even be other ones with better ideas.
A lot of people seem to like Twitter, but I don't really care for it. It's just a crowded sea of screaming mess that refreshes every 5 seconds. I prefer Facebook, which gets a more involved fan base and gets you in front of more people. I average about 190 views per post, and that's without paying. I have 400 likes on my page. So, for Facebook, that's pretty good. Considering they hide your page's posts from most of your followers in order to get you to pay, that's not a bad number.
I also don't run a website. Everyone and their dog says get a website. Maybe it would help me. I just happen to treat Facebook as my default website and then partner with other bloggers when I have content I want to promote or publish. This allows me to use their audience, they get content, and I don't have to fudge with managing a website. I just put everything new on Facebook. It also has the added bonus of buying me goodwill with bloggers and other authors. Which is really the most valuable thing.
Build strategic partnerships with other authors. Together, indie authors are more powerful. Help everyone you can. I try my darndest to do that. If someone I know cracks the next tier, hopefully they remember me when they do. I know I'm forever grateful for those who helped me, and I'll be sure to remember them if I'm ever lucky enough to make it big.
All that is to say, your problems aren't with your cover.
Good luck! Keep me informed of how it goes!
G.G. wrote: "Nice covers. Is that a fly on the ceiling or a fan?I think you have the same problem I do with my own books. The covers don't scream the genre. At first sight, I thought your books were thrillers..."
You stole my thoughts on his thrillerish covers GG!!!
I guess I should write shorter responses to get credit. Bwahahaha.
JK. You're still my favorite!
Nathan wrote: "You stole my thoughts on his thrillerish covers GG!!! I guess I should write shorter responses to get credit. Bwahahaha.
JK. You're still my favorite!..."
Great minds think alike. :P
Hi E. J.,Those are nice covers. I read SF and pretty much agree with India's son. The blue looks SF. The green could look SF but the title doesn't really enforce the idea. The red looks more horror. (IMHO for the green and red (especially the red) to say 'SF' the titles would need to come right out and say it ('Alien' something, just for example).)
The one I would think most about changing is the red, because even though I 'know' it is SF, on another level I'm not going along with it. I also found the insect confusing. On one hand it's nice but on the other hand I think I had too much focus on what it was and second on what it meant.
Good luck! And congrats on a trilogy, that's a fantastic achievement.
When you say "nearly flat" do you mean leveled off at a constant place or flat as in flat-line, dead, zero sales?When is your next release?
I thought they were thrillers too at first glance; had no idea it's sci-fi. However the covers are cool though.
Good covers, but to me they look either hard core crime - serial killers etc - or even horror, especially the red one.
E.J., it's great that you reached out. Sometimes you just need others to tell you you're barking up the "right" tree! As your fellow indie authors...we'll let you know! You're fine~ and you know what else? I like what you said, "it's about the 3p's- platform, promo and patience". What else can you do? Even the big publishers use those! ;-)
Wishing you continued success with your trilogy E.J.~
Hi E.J.,I read your description of the first book and it it does sound like a good read. I have read a lot of Sci-Fi in my time, and as a reader, I would have to say that the covers don't jump out to me as belonging to that genre. As others have said, it looks like a mystery/thriller. When I read the description, I imagined an alien planet with some interesting looking natives or possibly a view of the planet itself from space with a crashing spaceship.
Hope this helps.
The only books I have read with a similar theme are Warhammer 40K novels. One that comes to mind in particular is "Guant's Ghost," but there are a lot Warhammer 40K books that have both guns and swords mixed together very nicely. I would suggest checking those out. they may help you to develop some ideas.Oh and if you enjoy sci-fi, I would recommend the "Soul Drinkers Omnibus." Not relevant to the conversation, but talking about Warhammer reminded me of some great reads.
The cover for City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett does a nice job of combing both SF and fantasy with more emphasis on fantasy.
Your covers are fine, IMO. And yes, I believe 7-months is too early. It is natural when months have passed and things are quite what we expect, to want to do something, but I would advise against it. Perhaps the hardest thing for us authors to accept is how little control we actually have over the factors that most influence sales, and the urge fiddle with those few thing we do control can become overwhelming. But in reality, that mostly means reacting to "noise", and it is often difficult to gauge the effects of our fiddling. So not only do we face the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" issue, we can't even reliably say what "broke" is or what "fixed" might be. All the indications you've mentioned are positive, so it seems reasonable to conclude things aren't "broke" here. So (again, merely my opinion), the best course is to keep writing and stay in the game.
So, while doing research into my own cover, I googled best seller book covers, or something to that affect, and came across something that mentioned colors for different genres. I also agree with the 11 yr old. the blue looks sci-fi, but the red does not, again, as others have said, it looks thriller. There is a cover artist who's stuff I saw on Kboards and a lot of his stuff looked like they could easily be a crossover sci-fi/fantasy... it was great pictures.I can't remember who, but it shouldn't be too hard to find...? anyway, all the best of luck with it!
E.J.I'm gonna just jump in here, without reading all the other posts (I'm in a hurry tonight - sorry gang).
First, I like that you took the time to have a unity across your books, to help me know as a reader that they are a set/series. Unfortunately, I would never have guessed that they had anything to do with a fantasy story - even a sci-fi fantasy. That I believe is the weakest part of them - they don't convey what your story is about. This does not mean they have to be fancy or elaborate, but I would probably pass them up. They look like they might be about some kind of insect plague or some kind of horror/contagion story.
Hope that helps.
I learned this cool tip, which might help. It's called UsabilityHub.The first go-round is free but after that you have to do tests or pay for testers.
It goes like this you upload a picture (cover) and ask questions of the testers (What genre is this book? What do you think this book is about? Is this a professional cover? Would you be interested in reading this book?) You will get responses on your questions in ten minutes or less, they are at a glance responses.
I'm knew to the group, and this may have been said, but the very first thing I thought of when looking at your book covers, was The Silence of the Lambs... That may give you a different insight.
Yes, agree wtih C Erskine, that's why I thought the genre would be crime/serial killer because of the insect.Anyway, re phatpuppyart.com. Stunning art, but it looks very 'soft' fantasy to me, e.g. fairies etc. Just a suggestion of SF type ideas - these are premades, and you obviously want your series to have an identity - but try looking at The Cover Collection for suggestions maybe. There are a lot of designers producing premades reasonably, and some offer a series look. Or will do custom covers reasonably, $75 or so.
So not sure if your interested, and I hope it is okay to post a link here, but that cover artist from kboards?, I found his website, I have nothing to do with this person, so hope he is okay. anyway, check out the fantastic cover pics....http://www.jeffbrowngraphics.com/
Also if you've already spent quite a bit on your first covers, looking at the prices including typography, a cover is going to set you back $650. You will be able to get good genre-indicating covers for a lot less than that.
I agree that the genre seems like thriller from just looking at the covers. Might be worth making a new series of three.
A 11 year old boy's perspective - I asked my 11-year old who is into sci-fi, star wars the whole kit and caboodle. He says the first one looks great - he wants to read the book. The second and third look 'okay' - sorry I'm repeating his words. When I pointed out it was all the same design, his answer was it was all in the 'colour and contrast'. The first cover (in blue) looks like a science fiction but the one in red doesn't.
In my view, you shouldn't change covers at this stage. As it is a trilogy, the readers of the first book would be able to identify it easily through the similar cover theme. Stick with it and see how it works. I hope this helps. Good luck!