I had no intention of changing the cover of A Stolen Heart. Everyone loves that adorable little cutie on the front. But after I uploaded the story to Radish, a site where readers can pay for a book one episode (chapter) at a time, they gave me 7 days to change it.
Oops. Seems Radish stories cannot have a minor on the cover. I had read that requirement and agreed, but for some reason, my toddler with the curly hair didn't click with me as "minor." I know Senth as the grown-up in all the other books I've written about him.
Okay, so now what?
Did I want to take it down after I spent nearly a full week reformatting the story and writing discussion questions? No.
Did I want to change the cover on a book that's been in the top 20 in the free categories for nearly a year? No.
Did I want to find all 3947 places where I might have used the old cover and change them? Also no.
So I decided to commission a Radish-exclusive cover.
I hired the amazing GermanCreative, who has done nearly every one of my books. Picked the model who's on the cover of Surrender Love and had her give him the white-less black eyes Luc is famous for. Loved the cover when she was finished.
Then I found out I could have just uploaded the stock image of Luc. >_< Radish wants text-free images so they can put their own info on it. That's author life for you.
But you know what? This cover is too good to waste, so I am still going to use it to tell people about the book being on Radish.
Besides, haven't you always wondered what Luc looks like? Hey, there are thousands of images of Nik Nitsvetov as Pietas, but I have no idea who the model is that I used for Luc. If anyone knows, please tell me.
So, yeah, it's here to stay, and if you want to give Radish a try, A Stolen Heart is priced there the same as it is everywhere else. $0.00.
Book Hooks is a weekly cooperative meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog.
What a hassle! Good solution, though.
I have to admit that guy does not look at all like my image of Luc. But he’s intriguing.
It’s hard to find a model that ticks all the boxes, but I liked his ability to look serious instead of having every image showing a goofy smile.
Tweeted.
She does beautiful work! I usually design my own covers in Pixlr because I’m broke, but her prices are quite affordable. Tweeted the post.
Thank you for commenting and sharing! I updated the covers for Trailing Kaiwulf and The Last Vhalgenn about 9 mos ago. They’re older stories and I hadn’t sold any copies for a full year. The week I updated them, they started selling again. Rebranding so all my covers look like they belong to me was one of the best investments I made.