I Know I Keep Talking About Book Covers...

Book covers are my temporary obsession, which you'll be glad to know is just about over. I've been intent on designing a decent cover for my novel reboot, and boy, is it hard! I don't know if I'm just more picky now that I've accumulated just enough knowledge about design to make me question every one of my efforts or if I'm completely useless. Bottom line, I thought I had a unique, standout cover, but now I'm wondering if it's too "standout".

I was in Barnes & Noble yesterday, not by choice, but as my husband's Christmas shopping buddy. I dislike that store for reasons I won't get into, but since I had nothing to do while killing time other than scan the shelves, I noticed that the display tables (apparently where B&N places its "hot" novels) were laden with books that had some small, indistinguishable object on their covers against a white background. All the covers were white. (Granted, I didn't inspect them closely, so I don't know what the illustrations in the center were supposed to be.) They did all appear to be women's fiction, which I've been reliably informed doesn't sell. No doubt a white cover, even if it has a small color illustration of something,  is cheaper to print, so okay. And no doubt the publishers don't want to rack up a lot of printing expense, since I've never once seen a customer grab one of these books. Publishers would rather budget for front of the store placement, which is exactly what they do.

So, I take it that my current green cover isn't genre-conforming. 😂 But hey, I'm not paying for printing costs; well, I sort of am, but the only paperback copy that'll sell will be the one I buy for myself, so I can probably swing that expense. I'd show you the mockup, but I'm still on the fence about it.

And speaking of covers, I've never once had a cover for The Diner Girl that I liked. Worse, this book is also my reader magnet. So, while I was pulling my hair out over my so-called new novel, my eyes fell on The Diner Girl's current cover, and I could no longer abide it. I began searching Pixabay's images for something more appropriate--nothing. Ever notice that all these posed stock photos have the person smiling? What if my story is sad? How's that gonna work? Another reason to hate stock images. Frustrated, I pulled up iStock, which has served as my desperation site a few times in the past. I'd much rather get an image for free, if I can. I typed "diner" into the search bar, got a bunch of smiling ninnies in waitress outfits, but kept going until I managed to isolate about six possible images. 

Here is my latest cover:

No, it's not great, but it's still better than my past iterations. And anyway, hardly anyone's purchased the book in the past, which is not going to change. What I'm getting at is, it just doesn't matter much what cover I use. But at least it's not white with a mystery blob in the center.

While it's true that a book cover is what sparks any reader interest at all, some books are never going to sell, even if they have an awesome cover (which this one obviously doesn't). Novellas don't sell, first of all, even at the low, low price of $1.99. Most book browsers would ask, why bother? I can get a cup of convenience store coffee for two bucks, and I'd likely enjoy that more. I get it. I didn't write them with the intention of getting rich. I just wrote them because I wanted to.

I should adopt that same attitude toward my current novel reboot, rather than stressing out over its cover. But I have this weird quirk, which is that I want something pleasing to my eye. Nobody else gives a damn. 

Yet, I'm so up in the air over my latest design that I converted it to a book mockup, to see how it would look as an actual book. (Still wavering.) I also have a fallback version, different color, different typeface, that I also turned into a mockup. Maybe I figured that by viewing an okay mockup next to a not-okay mockup, I'd fall in love with my first choice. I wish that had happened. Instead, I've got two unsatisfactory mockups.

I'm only going to try one more time. I'm keeping the same image, but I'll experiment with a different color, maybe one more subtle. You know the psychology of color, right? If you don't, or you need a refresher, here is a Miblart post that demonstrates the color effect, and here's one more. Unfortunately, none of Miblart's examples touch on the mood I'm going for. Maybe that's why the Big Five publishers like white so much for women's fiction. They just throw up their hands and surrender.

I seriously want to be done; I'm tired of working on covers. Time to get on with things.