2016 #authors , #bookcovers , #mistake 0 Comments

Creating or choosing a book cover for your story is fun, exciting, and hard work.

It’s fun because you can play around with the ideas you have and then bring one of them to fruition so the world can literally see your vision.

It’s exciting because it represents the story you wrote. You created something out of nothing, and that’s pretty damn cool.

It’s hard work because of the process it takes to make it happen.

When you decide on a cover for your book, there’s one major mistake you don’t want to make: Don’t choose or create a cover that doesn’t fit the genre your story is in—even if you fall in love with it.

I’m going to show you an example of my recent mistake and what I did to correct it.

Last January I released Ameerah, which is a paranormal thriller. Here’s the original cover.

Gorgeous, huh? I love this cover. It’s stunning. My cover artist did an amazing job. I fell in love with it and thought since Ameerah was a flapper gal in 1925 before she was murdered, this cover was fitting.

Wrong!

Yes, I received loads of compliments and people gushed over it; however, I discovered there were readers who thought Ameerah was a historical romance, not a paranormal thriller.

Damn.

They were right.

Why didn’t I see that when I decided on this cover?

I know why.

Love is blind.

I never even took into consideration the image didn’t reflect the genre Ameerah’s tale was in.

*slaps forehead*

I then did a do over. At first, it hurt. I mean, I really love this cover, but I realized if I didn’t fix this, I’d be losing sales.

I love Ameerah.

The world needs to know about her story; therefore, I had to do what was necessary and in my power to make that happen so I did.

Here’s the new cover.