They enjoy telling me now about how I’d pick my books quickly, never once opening any of them up or reading the backs to find out what they were about.  No, I judged my books by the covers, which made the selection process simple and easy.

Now that I’m all grown up… well, I do the same thing.  I’ve read some awful books that had cute covers, and I’ve probably missed out on some amazing books that had bad covers.  But most of the time, the covers have been accurate representations of the books, so I’ve not felt the need to break my childhood habit. 

I judge the books by the covers.  It can’t be helped.

I was thinking about this during last week’s Book Bub ad and the ensuing sales numbers.  Judging by the question I got asked by one family member about “how are you going to make money if you’re giving a book away for free?,” I’m guessing that most people don’t realize how that kind of marketing works.  If I give a book away for free so that a big company like Book Bub will advertise it, ALL of my books are exposed to many, many, many readers that I had no way of reaching on my own from my little corner of Texas.  Because I’ve written more than one book, giving one away has the potential to lead to sales of the others.  And would you believe that on a giveaway day, there are readers who don’t even start reading the free book before they’re buying up copies of the others?  There are!  There are LOTS of them!

(And don’t even get me started on the Select numbers.  My books are all enrolled in the KDP Select program, where readers who pay for the subscription can read as many of the KDP Select books as they want.  I’ve had readers tell me that they’ve read all of my books through that program.  I get paid based on page numbers read, so when a book is featured on Book Bub, numbers on pages read for ALL the books jump up exponentially.  So awesome!)

So, last week was pretty exciting in terms of all that.  But I noticed that one of my books just wasn’t producing numbers like the rest.  Beyond the Game wasn’t getting picked up, which is a real shame because I think it’s one of the best.

“Why is that?” I asked Wes, to which he responded, “the cover stinks.”

He’s the one who did the cover, so I guess he can say these things.  But still.

“Oh, it does not!”

“Yes, it does.  It always has.”

“Nooooo…”

Then, he asked me a good question.  “Would you buy this book?”

To which I answered, “Yes, because Jenn Faulk is a close, personal friend of mine.”  (Truth.)

To which he responded, “If you weren’t friends with her… would you buy this book?”

And I had to tell him no.

I judge books by their covers, and in a world of cute chick lit covers, my book covers can’t compete.  Which is sad because I think the content can.  (Or maybe I’m not seeing things clearly because Jenn Faulk is my close, personal friend and all.)

“We can’t change it, though, because all of my books look alike!” I protested.

“We can change all of them.  Watch this.”

Then, he went to work on the computer.  And half an hour later, he presented me with a new cover.

“Would you buy this book?”

“There’s a cute boy on the cover holding hands with a girl.  Yes.  Yes, I would.”

It’s just that simple, y’all.

I’m willing to bet that there are other readers out there like me, who need cute covers to grab their attention.  So, we’re going to give my books a little makeover and see if new covers draw in new readers who may be missing out because a cover with one of my running shoes thrown into the basketball goal at church just isn’t their thing.  (Eh.  We tried our best.)

Stay tuned for some new looks…