Well, my first Blue Gentian experiment didn’t go that well. My husband suggested that he didn’t think the book blurb was punchy enough, so I rewrote it to sound a little more scandalous. No dice. I kept it up for several months, but my sales dropped dramatically during that time. Like, probably by half.
So, the old copy is back. No surprises there, and isn’t it wonderful to be a self-published author where I can change things on a whim to see what happens? And change it back in a snap when it’s wrong?
But, I’m still left with a book that I believe can sell better than it is currently. So I have plans to tweak something else.
I was discussing the cover with my dad the other weekend, because I was really torn by the poll on which cover to use all those months ago. Most people, including everyone who had read the book, liked the one I went with. But everyone who was a fantasy reader liked the second one, with the girl in the hooded cloak.
“You should go with the one that the people who didn’t read it liked,” said my dad.
And it hit like a revelation that he was probably right. I was thinking that because people knew the book, they would know what was representative of the book. But what I really needed to be thinking about was not book representation, but book desirability. Theoretically, the one that hooks and intrigues people who haven’t read the book is the one to go with. A side I hadn’t considered, but ultimately saw the truth in.
Sometimes my dad is pretty brilliant.
Also, you guessed it. Blue Gentian is getting a new cover, posted below. I’ll leave it up for several months and see what we see on the sales. I’ll report back when I have something to report. Cross your fingers for me that this works. I DO kinda love this new version…
I’m waiting for Amazon approvals before you can see it on the buying page, but I’ll let you know as soon as I know it’s live. I’m thinking about running a new cover celebratory sale, too. We’ll see.
Casey E. Hamilton 