Does changing a book cover grow sales?

About a week or so ago, my publisher, Mike O’Mary of Dream of Things, suggested we change the cover of the ebook edition of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. I suspect the main reason was that sales were falling off, and the book needed a little boost. However, in his explanation to me he said:

“I decided to recommend a cover using a photo of Paul. I picked the photo of him as a college freshman. It's a great photo of Paul, and I think a lot of potential readers will be hooked by the image of a handsome young man who looks happy and healthy. He looks like someone you'd want as your own son or brother or partner. They will identify with him before they even know what the book is about. 

I think all of that will be enough to get more people to read the description of the book -- and once they read the description, I believe they will want to read the book because they will be stunned that such a thing could happen to a person who could have been their own son or brother or partner.”

At first it was hard for me to let go of the original cover – especially since I’m so connected to the young woman who took the photograph. However, I liked Mike’s argument and gave him the go-ahead to make the change. He said it’s very easy to change an ebook cover, and true to his word, he put a new cover with Paul’s photo up on Amazon for the ebook within a few days. Here it is.

 As soon as it went up I shared it around my Facebook network and got some wonderful feedback:

“I like it. I think it adds a new dimension to the book putting Paul on the cover. The book is a tribute to him and the cover reinforces that.”

“IMO, this picture of Paul as a vibrant young man brings home the depth of your loss even more. it also pays tribute to him in a more direct way.”

“I love this. It is such a poignant photo of your son and really sets a mood for the book.”

“The other cover is generic. This one is very personal. It gets my vote!”

"Additionally, the B&W image poetically states the fine line that we walk when something like your story happens."

“This is a beautiful photo of Paul. I agree that this adds to the emotional impact. Bravo!”

“I like this cover. The text makes it very clear as to what the
 reader will find in content and may relate to. The beautiful photo 
touches the heart and makes this memoir very real at first glance 
at the cover. May the book continue to find its home with many.”

“I love your new cover, Madeline - love it. xoxoxo” (This says it all.)

Since it looks like book sales have climbed a bit in the few days the new cover has been out, the question now is, should we change the cover on the paperback edition as well? Please let Mike and me know what you think.

Book marketing - is there ever enough?

Okay, I’m on to another marketing project. 

I was overwhelmed and indeed impressed by the numbers of blogs Jessica Bell is going to visit during her two-week book launch blog tour for her soon to-be-released, String Bridge. And that got me thinking I hadn’t visited nearly enough blogs at the time of my book launch. I visited one blog a day for about three weeks, and she’s going to have interviews and reviews on up to seven or eight blogs a day for two weeks. Plus she’s going to have a whole lot of these same folks and more hit Amazon on the day of the book’s release. Now that’s using the network to the fullest, I would say.

With my friend Susan at my book launch 

with Ben in the background

I asked her how she amassed such a list and she admitted it was a lot of work. She reads and comments on all the blogs on her list regularly. And that’s why she felt she was justified in asking them to do this book marketing favor for her.

I know that’s true. Jessica visits and comments on my blog consistently, plus she read my book and wrote an incredible review that she posted on her own blog, The Alliterative Allomorph and on Amazon and Goodreads. That’s what I call being supportive. The goal of it is to sell books and not just one’s own.

As she sees it, we can all play a part in promoting each other’s books. On Tuesday we’ll all get a chance to do that on the Internet Book Fair. I’ll not only promote mine, but I’ll pick a couple of my writing colleagues’ books to promote as well. Come back on Wednesday and you’ll find out which ones.

So now that I have all this information and this need to be a copycat, it’s time to do something about it. Yesterday I started a list of blogs I’m familiar with, and today I transferred the list into a two-column word table with the name of the blog owner and email address in one column and the name of the blog and its link in the second. So far I’m up to over fifty candidates and still counting. I really was surprised how many I have just in my own frame of reference, and Jessica says I can go to hers if they seem appropriate for my book. Looking at her list, I’ve already found several that we have in common.

But that’s just the beginning. I need to, as Jessica suggested, be more consistent in reading and commenting on all these blogs. That’s the hard work. And that’s why I need quite a bit of lead-time.

I had originally thought I’d schedule this second blog tour at the six-month anniversary of the launch of my book, but that’s way to soon. Now I’m thinking I’ll kick it off at the time my eBook comes out – sometime next spring. That way I’ll have time to develop and reconnect with the blogs on my list and the ones still to be added. I’ll also need to set up a plan, after contacting everyone, about whether I’ll provide a guest post or answers to a questionnaire. Plus the blog owners who will review the book will have time to read it.

All that will take a lot of coordinating, so I’m thinking of asking my high school senior girlfriend if she’d like to assist me. I know I’d do a much more thorough and complete job if I have some help.

I think the moral of this story is that it takes lots and lots of time and attention to details to market a book. If I let myself I could be at it all day without any time left to write. I need to enter into this project with time for both.