Alternative Covers

Woodpig

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Hi everyone,

I want to self publish the same book with different covers. This is quite a common practice with comics, but I wonder if anyone has done this with novels? I could do different covers for ebook and paperback, I suppose, but I wonder if anyone has attempted this with (e.g.) two editions of the same ebook or the same print on demand paperback?

Anyway, thoughts are welcome.

Best wishes to all,

Gareth.
 
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M. H. Lee

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I've inadvertently done this. I recently changed up the covers on my fantasy series but after seeing a bookstore employee talking about how frustrating it was that self-publishers changed up covers and kept them under the same ISBN which made it hard to get a customer the "correct" cover version I decided to leave the old covers available under one set of ISBNs and have the new covers available under another set of ISBNs. In my case I had one set of books published direct on Kindle and one set published through IngramSpark so I just updated the covers on the IS books but not the KDP ones.

If I were deliberately doing this I think what I would do is list one main cover version on all the sites and offer the alternative version for direct purchase through my website since I assume the people who'd want the alternative cover version would be the real fans. (No need to maintain inventory either. You can go into IS and ship a title direct to someone. I just did that with a community college book order I received.)
 

frimble3

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I want to self publish the same book with different covers. This is quite a common practice with comics, but I wonder if anyone has done this with novels?
Why do graphic novels do it? Is it just to push sales of 'collectable' covers?

I could do different covers for ebook and paperback, I suppose, but I wonder if anyone has attempted this with (e.g.) two editions of the same ebook or the same print on demand paperback?
Is there any difference between the 'editions' or is the only selling point the different covers? Unless your original cover was ugly or inaccurate, what does the reader gain?
 

Woodpig

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Thanks. So you can list different covers under the same ISBN? I've yet to explore physical print editions. Do you use the same ISBN for IS and KDP?
 

Woodpig

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Hi Frimble3. There wouldn't be a difference between editions, it would just be a cover thing. Comics tend to do it because people buy comics partly for the art, and it's quite common to have a different artist do the cover than the inside of the comic, and so buyers might have a preference. Part of this is about collecting, for some people, but I think for many it's just about being attracted to one cover or another.

I'm an illustrator and cover designer, so I guess I attach a lot of importance to the cover. So on the one hand, I think it would be a nice thing to offer, and would be something that would draw interest. On the other, I'm curious to see if one cover sold better than another - especially if they were different styles. My main concern is being able to associate different covers with the title, so that reviews, etc, stay grouped together.
 

veinglory

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It would not be permitted on Amazon as books with duplicate content are not permitted. I think you would be causing problems for yourself. Even for comics this has become rare, it was basically a money grab.
 

Woodpig

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Thanks, Veinglory, that's a good point regarding Amazon.

You may be right that it was partly financially motivated in comics, where completist collectors might shell out in order to have all copies of an issue. However, as a comics buyer, I always felt it was a nice touch. I've seen it used for novels – though I can't remember specific titles, I'm sure it's happened – and I thought it might be nice to offer different style covers (not for financial gain, just to present different takes on the same story).

I think the way to go might just be to differentiate the ebook and the paperback.
 

frimble3

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Ah! It's a collector thing! I know that one from a couple other hobbies. (I know someone who bought 8 identical model horses, in all the colors they were made in, and a couple to be repainted in other custom patterns.)
Yes, covers in different styles would be of interest to them.
And, interesting from a sales perspective, to see if one cover does better than another, for future books.
Good luck with the idea, may your sales be impressive! And may there be a way to handle reviews.
 

Woodpig

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Thanks, Frimble3! I'll let you know if I find a way to do it! :)
 

veinglory

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Yes there are still variants but there was a "variant boom" in the 1990s that was generally seen as negative for the industry.
 

Woodpig

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Ah, I see. Well, it's not a money making thing for me, nor whether it's still in fashion in comics - I was just saying that's where I first got the idea. I just thought it would be a nice thing to do, though I can see there may be logistical issues.
 

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So, technically, you can list whatever versions you want under the same ISBN, the company that hands out ISBNs won't stop you. But you really, really, really, really, really should not. My academic librarian friend has run into issues when the book with the same title but different editions were under the same ISBN. So "Mike's Medical Terminology 4th edition" had the same ISBN as "Mike's Medical Terminology 15th" edition. And the 11th, and the 13th.... It was a huge mess. Some textbook publishers have their eBooks be the same ISBN as the physical book; this can be a problem if you need a textbook that comes with a code to do the homework online, which might not be included with the eBook. Different types of binding (hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback) are going to have different costs, and ISBNs are a very, very easy way for booksellers to manage their inventory. The different bindings (or even formats, like large print or audiobooks) are going to have different costs, which is going to be a nightmare logistically. You also don't NEED an ISBN to sell a book (look at a lot of self-published books on Amazon, they only have the ASIN, which is Amazon's own inventory number). If you just want to sell to friends or at a convention or something, the ISBN mafia won't break your legs. But stores (esp. big ones, like B&N) are probably going to require an ISBN to stock you. But if you're self-published, getting into those stores is going to be challenging for a lot of other reasons, too.

There are books that have different covers. The "SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE" is one such example you're familiar with, along with books that have an embossed sticker on the front showing that it won some aware (I remember this a lot with kids picture books). There is also an edition of Harry Potter that has different covers for each of the four houses. The HP one is "collectible" or at least "customizable" so you can get the one that has your favorite house on it, but HP is also one of the most printed books in the world and big fans are going to want to buy additional copies because they are collectible. But since you're self-publishing, there's probably not going to be a huge demand for this.

However, that doesn't mean you CAN'T. One of my many book-adjacent jobs was working at a printing press; it's not the exact same machines that, say, Ingram Spark would use, but the same brand/product line of digital presses. The cool thing about them is that every one can be customizable, while things printed with plates all have to be the same. There have been books that have been printed with different colors, where each one was procedurally generated and unique, but the subject matter of the book had to do with math/algorithms and it made sense. It was an additional marketing point for the book, but no one was buying this book just for the cover. When you do do things like this, where every copy is unique, you need to program that in to the file you send to the printers, and the print job will take longer (and cost more). You will need to work directly with the press to set this up; I highly doubt this is something that you can just pick off their website.

So: if the covers are slightly different, you don't NEED a new ISBN, but if things are very different then you really should. You can have different covers, but you need to ask yourself what that will add to the book, and if it is worth the increased cost and extra time it will take to find a suitable printer.
 

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Yes there are still variants but there was a "variant boom" in the 1990s that was generally seen as negative for the industry.

It's what drove companies like Marvel into bankruptcy. They were counting on consumers to be stupid and buy endless variant covers. It didn't work.
 

frimble3

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I'm an illustrator and cover designer, so I guess I attach a lot of importance to the cover. So on the one hand, I think it would be a nice thing to offer, and would be something that would draw interest. On the other, I'm curious to see if one cover sold better than another - especially if they were different styles. My main concern is being able to associate different covers with the title, so that reviews, etc, stay grouped together.
Thinking on this further. I gather that you, being an artist and cover designer did your covers, and will be doing future ones?
So you would have no problems with getting rights to the covers?
How would you feel about dust jackets? For the paperbacks, of course.
Maybe a link on Amazon to your website, where you could offer dustjackets, at a separate price, for the discerning purchaser. Or the collector, or just people wanting something a bit different?
You'd still need a good-looking cover for the 'basic' version, but if you had further ideas, sell them separately, and people could either put them on their books or hang them on their walls. Also nice, if you build up a fan-base and write several books, you could make those cool series covers that make a separate scene out of all the spine-ends.
 

Woodpig

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Indeed. As I said, I'm not financially motivated, and was just using comics as an example of a medium that sometimes used variant covers. I think novels have used this - but not so that people will buy all the variants - but I can't think of an example, at the moment.
 

Woodpig

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What an excellent idea! Yes, I'd have rights to the covers, so could do what I want. Thanks! :)
 

Woodpig

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Hi ChaseJxyz,

Thanks for your detailed response. I agree about ISBNs - I don't want to upset librarians, and actually I don't think my book will need one. I just want to find the best way to offer variant covers. I agree that there probably won't be a huge take-up, and it's not a cunning marketing ploy, just something I might like to do for the sake of playfulness and creativity (as I'm an illustrator and cover designer).

A digital, print on deman press, such as KDP or IS, might be a way forward then? Amazon are a bit funny about offering different covers - maybe even for ebook and paperback (I'm just checking this).But perhaps a way around it is simply to have some physical stock printed and then sell them from my website - just a handful to begin with. Really, it's just an excuse for me to create art to explore the themes of the book in different ways.
 

Woodpig

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By the way, it seems that you can have separate ebook and paperback covers on Amazon (they confirm) - which is what i thought, but just wanted to check. So that's one option.
 

BenPanced

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I know of only one novel that's had variant covers. Mabel Maney wrote a trilogy based around a QUILTBAG parody of the Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Nurse Cherry Aimes mysteries. The third in the series, A Ghost in the Closet, was presented as both Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys In... and The Hardly Boys In... with completely different covers front and back; the synopses were written to emphasize the marquee billing on the front covers. I looked and there are two different ISBNs. These were both paperback, so I'm not sure if anybody would buy both a hard copy and the ebook just for the variant covers; I have both hardback/paperback and ebook editions of various titles in my library but only because I'm moving more to an ebook reader for physical reasons.
 

Woodpig

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Thanks, BenPanced.

As I said, my motivation isn't financial, so I'm not trying to get people to buy both variants. Partly I'd be interested to see which of the covers sold better, but really it's just about exploring the book's themes in different visual ways for creativity and fun. I take your point, though, that people will buy ebook or paperback for convenience, and not because they like one cover or another. I guess that means that the best way to do this is to offer variants on paperbacks only, and maybe to do this through my website through limited printruns - or else as dustjackets, as someone has suggested. Hmm!
 

Woodpig

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I remembered! Knew I'd seen it done somewhere relatively recently.

YEHRIN_TONG_BOSNT_PAPERBACK.jpg
 

M. H. Lee

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I'd use a different ISBN for each cover variation in print. You can only have one cover image loaded for a given print book at any point in time. I ended up with two cover images because I had the old KDP ISBN and the new IS ISBN and they had different covers associated with them. Amazon will only show one of them as the main edition of the book, though, so I eventually changed it since the default it showed was the old cover. If I were someone who sold a large number of copies of a book in print then I'd make sure each new cover image had a new ISBN associated with it. (I'm not for those books.) You still keep your reviews, etc. Amazon is pretty good at associating different editions of a book with one another.

Another example of this I remember from my book store days was a book called Eat Me. The original version that came out when I was at the bookstore had one image on the front and one image on the back. About half of the books shipped with Image A on the front and Image B on the back, the other half shipped with Image B on the front and Image A on the back. Pretty sure the ISBN was the same though. I distinctly remember it because one of the images sold about 10x better than the other, so when I had copies of the book with the better image on the back I would actually flip the book over so the better-selling image was face-up on the display table. As a result our little store sold a much larger number of copies of that book than we should have. (They later changed the cover to something far less appealing.) But what they did there is something you can do with a print run using one ISBN but not with POD printing using one ISBN, at least not if you want the books to print and ship with multiple covers at once.
 

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Amazon will also not allow you to have two kdp books with the same internal content listed separately. You would have to do something like list each cover for certain periods of time.
 

Woodpig

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Thanks, M. H. Lee. I think Veinglory might be right regarding different editions needing to be differentiated according to intenral content, unfortunately. I think this may be a policy that gets overlooked or is not policed rigorously, but maybe that's not a chance worth taking. Perhaps a solution is simply to offer print versions with different covers through different POD services - e.g. KDP and Ingram Spark. Could that use the same ISBN? Or I guess it could be different ISBNs, and then it wouldn't matter if the content was the same because they have different publishers. The other option is to do limited printruns of the book and keep it as physical inventory, and then simply change the cover and do another printrun.