I Did A Thing!

Stupidly, I was discussing book covers with another author, saying that I prefer people on covers rather than the boring, non-peopled covers, and yet readers prefer non-peopled ones (the author mentioned had done a poll asking a FB group of over 125,000 members for cover preference, and 64% of those who participated liked non-people covers, 28% or so didn’t care, and less than 3% preferred women or dude covers. Pretty hands-down obvious that non-people covers is the winner). And this author asked ME for suggestions on what kind of non-people covers I would recommend so that her covers would stand out.

NEVER ASK ME FOR ADVICE, Y’ALL! No matter how sane I sound, I am an anxiety-ridden mess whose books don’t sell no matter how BOOTIFUL the writing is (lol kidding… halfway).

NEVERTHELESS! Lo and behold yours truly going in search of what makes a non-people cover stand out.

All I discovered, though, was that NONE of them stand out? Even the ones I thought were gorgeous (the ones on the left below) somehow blend in with others when I put them side by side. What’s your judgment?

And, y’all, THREE of the above covers are in the top 500 of the entire Kindle (Amazon) store! That’s, like… insane for me to imagine.

Looking at those covers, though, and then looking at the fantasy romances that have people covers and are like in the Amazon Store Wasteland (TM), like mine, my Sonya Brain Gears started dangerously cranking, and then…

Sonya Brain: “Change your covers.”

Me: “Huh?!! Um, dayjob? Needs doing?”

Sonya Brain: “Covers.”

Me: “Dayjob? So I can actually eat a few weeks from now?”

Sonya Brain: “No food! No need food. Do covers.”

Me: But–

Sonya Brain: “COVERS COVERS COVERS COVERS…”

DAMN IT!

And SO! Off Sonya trotted to Canva.

Sonya, a graphic designer you are NOT!

And yet, since I can’t pay for anyone to do new ones, here are the new covers. [Consigns these three books to their fate.]

Honestly, though, I AM looking for a psychiatrist or psychologist to help me, because not working the dayjob and doing book things instead is kinda a problem 😀 Not to mention I still don’t have any source of income after my last day at the dayjob on Feb 29th, and apparently the very thought of finding a new job is making me have panic attacks that involve self-destructive ideas and uncontrollable crying. Fun times lol. So far, though, all the psychoanalysts I’ve contacted are booked full.

Thrice the shadow! [Nope, I still don’t know what that means.]

Be kind to each other this week, y’all!

And if you want to support me, read my books and recommend them to those you think will like them (or sign up to my ARC list if it’s still open at the bottom of this page). Or if you want to throw money at me, you can ‘buy me a coffee’ via buy me a coffee or support me regularly via the patreon (though I never post anything there cuz I suuuuuuuuck).