New Cover Design
Hello Friends,
The old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” applies to everything in life except…books! Based on some feedback I received from readers and friends, I took another look at my cover and decided it needed a redesign. Special thank you to Jen Ross who introduced me to renowned cover design artist Howard Grossman. The feedback I was getting was that I was giving too much of the story away.
I attribute it to my former career as CFO and always wanting full-disclosure in my financial statements and my detailed orientation to making sure communication was clear. Well, turns out that is not always the best policy when creating art. There needs to be some mystery, especially in a thriller novel!
Howard and I had a wonderful discussion about the book and what it was about, and the themes of mental health in sports and generational trauma. We felt focusing on the sports aspect rather than the dual images of Dr. Andrew Beck as a sports psychologist by day and a gambler by night would better serve the story.
I sent out the three mockups displayed here to my social media followers and I received a good amount of votes.
The fascinating part of the analysis was #1 was predominately favored by males and # 2 was predominately favored by females. But #3 was evenly distributed between males and females, and although #3 received less aggregate votes, it was close enough where I felt confident that the cover was appealing to both men and women.
In 2021, survey data on book readers in the United States revealed that 78 percent of female respondents stated they had read or listened to at least one book in the previous 12 months. The share of men who had read a book in that time frame was slightly lower at 73 percent, but marked an increase from the 67 percent recorded two years earlier.
According to Nielsen Book Research, women outbuy men in all categories of novels except fantasy, science fiction, and horror. And when men do read fiction, they don’t tend to read fiction by women, while women read and admire male novelists, rarely making value judgments (thank you Ladies!).
Knowing this, the female vote was very important. As well as the content of my book has what might be considered male themes. I purposefully approached writing Headcase in a way that would appeal to men, women, sports fans, and people who didn’t follow sports. I wanted you to experience everything Dr. Andrew Beck was experiencing. I felt that if I could make you feel what Andrew was feeling, tasting, hearing, seeing, and touching, then that would allow you to stay in the story regardless of the setting.
The one thing I didn’t think of was how interesting this insight to how men think and feel would appeal to my female readers. One comment from a reader Jeri S. said, “It’s a wonderful look into the male psyche.”
Being male, I didn’t think of that, but I’m pleased I could interest women by giving them insight into the male brain.
So I chose the third cover because of its balance, and again maybe this is my inner CFO screeming out for everything to be in balance, or my middle child syndrome and my need for everything to be fair, and nobody left out.
It was a wonderful experience, and Howard was wonderful to work with. Opening the box from Amazon with my new cover was another thrilling experience of being an author. Nothing like seeing my art in physical form.
I would love to hear your thoughts and I hope you enjoyed some insight into what goes into choosing a cover.
Thank you,
Chris K. Jones