Variant covers?

K. Q. Watson · Aug 27, 2014

What does everyone think about having different covers for their? The content, format and e-book file type would be the same, just the covers would be different. Each cover would be a separate edition though, correct, and require it's own ISBN?

Is this a neat idea so one could pick out the sort of cover they find more pleasing, or is it just extra work?

slhuang · Aug 27, 2014

IMHO this is a poor idea, because I believe it would cause confusion. There have been times when something has been marketed with several covers, but when I've seen it done it's been something that had a big audience already who would buy "collector's" versions.

Remember that cover is about branding as much as it is about enticement. As a reader, I'd be confused by multiple covers (and put off by that confusion).

K. Q. Watson · Aug 27, 2014

I had a hunch but I thought I'd ask.

RevanWright · Aug 27, 2014

I've had this idea and almost went through with it. In the end I painted 6 different covers and 3 back covers. For the sake of uniformity, however, I eventually picked the one that I thought fit best and went with it. I know major books have a different cover for each market/country, and for successive editions.

K. Q. Watson · Aug 27, 2014

Six covers and three back covers? That, my friend, is due diligence!

Polenth · Aug 27, 2014

I could see it working in some cases. Let's say you had a series with multiple main characters, you could brand editions in a way so it's clearly the same book, and each one has a different character on the front. But it seems more of a paper copy thing for collectors, which raises the issue of whether you're at the point that people will want to collect your books. For most of us, the answer to that is probably no.

RevanWright · Aug 27, 2014

Polenth said:
I could see it working in some cases. Let's say you had a series with multiple main characters, you could brand editions in a way so it's clearly the same book, and each one has a different character on the front. But it seems more of a paper copy thing for collectors, which raises the issue of whether you're at the point that people will want to collect your books. For most of us, the answer to that is probably no.

This is true. My idea was to do a different cover for the Hardback and Paperback/Ebook, and make the hardback variant a limited thing. But too much cost, not enough demand when just starting out as an author.

Six covers and three back covers? That, my friend, is due diligence!

Heheh, don't read too much into it. I was painting covers to avoid doing my final final final round of revisions (which didn't even turn out to be the final round). I'm a procrastinator.

Variant covers?

K. Q. Watson

slhuang

Inappropriately math-oriented.

K. Q. Watson

RevanWright

inconveniently drunk

K. Q. Watson

Polenth

Mushroom

RevanWright

inconveniently drunk