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New developments at Kindle Press
Yesterday several Kindle Press authors had a surprise - they were told their covers were going to be updated, and were sent the new images. No notice was given, or permission asked for that matter. It has to be said that KP covers, provided by the authors and sometimes designed by them, run the full range from fabulous (like this one or this one) to dire - what my mother used to refer to disparagingly as 'loving hands at home'. It's encouraging that Kindle Press is showing itself willing to invest in its books, and we all know that the right cover makes a lot of difference when it comes to attracting readers.
I designed my own covers. Now, while I'd be delighted if KP commissioned substitutes that were clearly better, I'm incredibly picky about anything visual and to satisfy me, they'd have to be brilliant - Deranged Doctor or Damonza at their very best. Also, I prefer a 2:3 proportion, rather than the skinnier rectangle Amazon favours.
Here are some before and afters. What do you think?
Of these four, I prefer the Kindle covers. Better, more attractive visuals and in the cases of Evelyn Marsh and Random Acts of Unkindness, seem to provide a bit more story information. I do think Kindle made a mistake in leaving off "a Time Travel Mystery" as a tagline for Timeless Moments.
ReplyDeleteAgreed about the tagline for Timeless Moments. And with the original Random Acts's typography I read it as 'Unrandom'.
DeleteDid you notice I put Billy Twigg round the wrong way at first, with the new cover on the left? Corrected now.
No, I didn't! I like the "Star Wars Intro" type setting in the first one, but overall, those two are the least effective, imo.
DeleteI think the new cover may be very genre-specific, which never hurts sales. I still fret faintly that I didn't manage to fit a ghostly clock into the background of my time travel novels :o)
DeleteBilly Twigg is an improvement.
ReplyDeleteThe original of Timeless Moments has caught my eye several times when buried in a sea of other covers. The new one does look good though. I'll have to wait to see if it stands out in a crowd. I agree with Judith that I'd prefer to keep the descriptive 'A Time Travel Mystery'.
The other two look a bit messy.
Yes, and I think I prefer the original treatment of the title for Timeless Moments too. The author name on Evelyn Marsh could be brighter.
DeleteI like the new ones! It's always a bit of a shocker when you don't know its coming though, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI guess we should expect the unexpected - except just trying to do that makes me all jumpy and twitchy :o)
DeleteNew ones are HUGE improvements. Yep. The authors should be very pleased.
ReplyDeleteNone of the authors are unhappy, going by what's been said on our closed Facebook group - and with luck the new covers will sell more copies.
DeleteI think I prefer the 'before' images in most cases, the exceptions being for Jada Ryker,Katherine Hayton and Ninian Carter. I checked the Time Rats covers and see that they are unchanged ... wondered about the gun!
ReplyDeleteFirst impressions must be very subjective though, so I wonder how decisions to change these images are made. For me the title is more important with an author that I don't know. For example, if the book is a romance then a picture of a pretty woman or a hunky man conveys very little. Mostly I follow recommendations from favourite review sites and trusted reviewers.
Recently I have tended to buy audio books and like to follow favourite narrators and find the star-rating system at Audible quite useful. The sample narration is most important while the cover image counts for very little as long as its not awful
To answer your question Q, one KP author emailed Amazon re the covers. This was their response: "We’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to help our authors and their books reach new readers, and with the launch of the Kindle Scout Anniversary Sale, we had a short window to seize an opportunity to test out new covers our marketing experts recommended for a limited sample of titles. We’re closely monitoring the impact of these new covers, and we’ll be determining our strategy going forward based on our learnings from this pilot.
DeleteWe have no plans to make changes to additional covers at this time, and should we decide to move forward with further updates, we will do so via a new, formalized process in partnership with our authors."
Interesting to read your thoughts as a reader on covers. Much of the effect is subliminal, I think, and people are influenced without realizing it.