Here's the cover for my new book

Following up on my last post and considering the opinions, thoughts, and comments of the people who wrote about the three proposed covers, Susan Brier, the graphic designer, and I settled on the Proposed Cover 2, with modifications in the pictures and the type.

While many people liked the Proposed Cover 1 for its simplicity and impact, I rejected it because the illustration had nothing to do with the story. Proposed Cover 3 seemed too cluttered to me, and the pictures clipped to a wire was off because in the novel the pictures are Polaroids. Indeed, one correspondent was so misled, she suggested a darkroom theme for the cover, red background and all.

While I agree entirely with the idea that a cover illustration should evoke or embody the theme of the book, I don't think that's always possible. Here Susan has chosen to illustrate three key elements of Death in a Family Business: the appliance-TV store setting, some incriminating Polaroid photographs, and a Cessna airplane.

Again, I thank everyone who looked at and shared their thoughts about the design.

What is the most engaging cover design?

One element that puts off self-published novel is, I believe, the cover; too many look amateurish. And while you may not be able to tell a book by its cover, an attractive, professional cover can only help.

Proposed cover 1

While Createspace and other publishers offer templates into which authors can pour their designs, I think it's an unusual author who can design an attractive, engaging, and effective cover. I certainly can't.

I am fortunate to have an exceptionally talented graphic designer friend, Susan Brier, who has her own firm, The WriteDesign Company. She designed the jackets for my two earlier novels and is working on ideas for the new book.

Death in a Family Business is a mystery, a cozy, and the action centers around an appliance-TV retail store. Polaroid photographs of nude women and a Cessna airplane play a role in the story. 

Tommy Lovell's dream restaurant has failed, taking his shaky marriage along with it. He's licking his wounds back in his childhood bedroom while he takes stock of his life at the end of his 20s. Reluctantly, Tommy agrees to tag along when his father offers to help family friend Otto Jonker save a struggling store in a dying Berkshire town. Tommy is ready for a change of scenery, maybe a bit of romance, and—if he's really lucky—more opportunities to fly his father's Cessna.

Proposed Cover 3

The trip takes a disastrous turn after Otto skids off the road during a midnight motorcycle ride and is critically injured, forcing Tommy and his father into unexpected danger as they make disturbing discoveries about Otto’s personal and professional troubles.  

Susan is also one of my beta readers and she not only suggested a couple of editorial improvements (both of which I took), she came up with three proposed cover approaches shown here. 

Proposed Cover 2

I know which one I prefer, but I'm not a prospective buyer, so I'm looking for some outside opinion. Given what I've said about the story, which of the three possible designs do you think works best? 

Many thanks for your votes and comments.

How the publishing industry's doing

Publishers Weekly has reported that industry revenue—i.e., revenue of the 1,209 publishers who report to the Association of American Publishers—rose 4.9% in 2014. It does not say whether the increase was due to greater unit sales or higher prices. Nor does the article report unit volume.

It does report that total adult book sales revenue fell 1.4%. On the other hand, within the adult trade segment, e-book sales rose 1% and accounted for 27.2% of adult trade sales (up from 26.6% in 2013). Trade paperback sales increased 2.5%; mass market paperback sales fell 4.2%, and hardcover adult trade book sales fell 8.2%.

An earlier story on the Publishing Technology website gave a little more detail about 2014's book and e-book unit sales. It pointed out that, based on Nielsen Bookscan data, e-book sales cycles are different from print book sales cycles. Print book sales tend to peak in the last quarter of the year as people buy books for holiday gifts; e-book sales have tended to peak in the first two quarters of the year as people download titles into the readers they received for Christmas.

The analysis suggested that e-book sales are not plateauing but adult fiction is declining—reinforcing the PW story. According to the Bookscan figures for all books, adult fiction accounted for 45% of the 650 million books sold in 2004. By 2014, adult fiction took a smaller slice of a smaller pie: 40% of 635 million books. In other words, if these figures are accurate, the industry sold roughly 39 million fewer adult fiction titles last year than it sold in 2004. Sobering news for anyone who writes adult fiction.

One comment to the Publishing Technology story points out that these figures are based on ISBN numbers and "since the majority of e-books published by independent authors rarely have ISBN number" they are not counted in the figures. It suggests to this writer that "more and more readers of e-books are switching to independent authors, and traditionally published e-books are paying the price." That would be good news for adult fiction authors if true, but without a reliable source of numbers there is no way to know.