So as my proofer is kindly correcting all my mistakes for the next book, Hope Is A Six Letter Word, my lovely designers (http://blushcreate.com/) have sent me ideas for the next cover. They sent me fifteen rough ideas for direction, based on some keywords about theme and mood, for me to select which we go forward with onto the development stage where we can talk colour, font, changes etc, and I narrowed it down to eight, as some were great images but just not the right fit for the book, and the eight initial ideas I longlisted are above. Ny next stage is always to send out to a number of people I trust, to get their views and crucially, to get a range of opinions on what might and might not work. Some of these were beta readers who knew the content, some writers, some graphics people and some, crucially, primarily readers.
I’ve posted before about marketing, and particularly about marketing on Amazon, and the next post will do the same, so I won’t go over my thinking again, but I need something that will intrigue and get people through to the blurb. I also want to fit in with what’s popular in the genre, but not be too derivative or populist. D is a very fashionable style for example, but I don’t feel would stand out, and isn’t the best indication of the story. I love G, but in terms of a thumbnail I think it will unfortunately be too small to show off the detail which would work well just in terms of a paperback. H is getting a lot of love in the feedback and, while it may sound odd, I like F except for the colour, font, and actual image, but I like the mood. I know what I mean anyway! So the next step in the process will be to narrow it down to four, and think about how they might be changed to better fit At the minute A, D and E look likely for the chop but I have a couple more bits of feedback to come. Tomorrow is serious consideration day. If you have any thoughts please feel free to use the feedback function of tweet me. I’ll keep you informed of the progress.
Stay safe
Kit