People on the Cover Redux

I’m putting people on the covers.  Oh, the joy of being able to change my covers!  I want people because

1) I think readers like people covers better for romance.

I know I do. I really like it when the images resemble the character(s) I’m reading about.

2) It helps readers identify the subgenre and content of the book.

I underestimated how important it is.  I did as some of my cohorts have done, wanting artistic or nonpeopled covers to broaden the market for my work.  This is so majority readers are more likely to pick up the books, read them, and possibly discover a new author they like.

This is a mistake. I’ve discovered it is a big mistake.  I hope I’m big enough to admit I was wrong. Yes, the big legacy publishers had it right on the AA niche all along.

What an author needs is for their readers to be able to easily identify and discover their books.  My core readers want to find and identify my books quickly and it behooves me to help them do so.

Those other folks?  Not my core readers.  It is far more likely that readers new to my sub genre will become upset when they read something other than what they might expect.

I want my readers to find and read my books!  So to make it easier for my readers to find me, and those who aren’t my readers to avoid me–I’m putting people on my covers!

People that become upset when they find something other than they expect from my sub genre usually will never, ever buy a romance with a different sort of person on the cover.  It’s win-win, really.

I was sick of my bland and simple new site, so made another new site to showcase my new peopled covers.

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