Let’s Judge a Book By Its Cover

If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written (thank you), then you may have noticed that I like to throw in a cliché or two now and then. 

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger . . . possibly my favorite of all.

Read between the lines . . .always.

You don’t know what you don’t know . . . . ain’t that the truth.

I published my first book almost six months ago.  Statistically (from what I’ve read; I’m a sucker for statistics as well as clichés), the percentage of people who write a book—or attempt to write a book—and then go on to actually publish said book is less than 1%.  And now here I am in the 1% club, searchable on Amazon, with complete STRANGERS buying my book—feeling pretty darned accomplished.

And BAAAM! Some know-it-all suggests that I may want to redesign my cover.  What?  No way.   I love(d) my cover.  I designed my cover.  My cover was everything I wanted it to be.  There’s no way that my cover, the cover of my FIRST book, the cover that put me in the 1% club, the cover that I loved, needed a redesign.  So, I did what any mature 1% adult would do in such a case—I pouted.  And then one day I stopped pouting and started thinking. Because guess what?  That know-it-all really does know it all.  That know-it-all was/is an industry expert sharing expert advice. It was good advice; it was just hard to hear.

 So, I did it.  I contacted a cover designer, gave her my thoughts, and within a couple of days my book had a brand-spanking-new cover.  I didn’t want to love it (deep down I think I was still pouting), but I couldn’t help but love it.  It was amazing.  As one of my colleagues said, “It’s the cover that your book deserves.”   The cover redesign didn’t kill me, although it’s something I plan to avoid in the future.  Book number two (currently in process) will have the cover that it deserves from day one.

After all, You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover . . . . but wait, we do; and sometimes we should.