Important Info for Lust, Money & Murder Readers

I wanted to give all my Lust, Money & Murder readers a heads up, particularly those of you who may be in the middle of the series.

If you have read many of these books, you already know that they are written in trilogies.  I've now repackaged them to better reflect this, naming each trilogy after the part of the world where the significant action takes place.  I also have new cover designs, as you can see.

Why did I do this? you may not wonder at all. Although it's always best (IMO) for readers to start with the first book in a long series like LM&M, this arrangement gives readers many more entry points.  It also makes it clear that the LM&M books can be read in more "bite-sized" chunks.  Having a new, more colorful cover for each new book also helps visibility on the retail sites.

My series download page has been similarly redone so you can easily navigate around the trilogies - http://mikewellsblog.blogspot.com/p/lust-money-murder-download-links.html

Not one word of actual content has been changed.  I hope you enjoy the books!

Book Covers that Sell

Everyone is familiar with with the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," yet most people do it anyway. We can't help it.  It's human nature.

Therefore, if you're a self-published author and you want to sell your book, you must have a good, effective cover.  It is the first point of contact that readers have with your work.

What makes an effective book cover?

• The cover must look professional.  If it looks sloppily put together or "homemade," readers will assume that the content is similar.  
• The cover must fit its genre, but the same time, it must stand out from the crowd.  This is one of the trickiest aspects. Wanting your book to look like other big sellers in your genre is natural, but nobody ever became truly successful by imitating other people. Your book cover should fit the genre but be as original as possible so that it attracts attention and readers want to click on it to find out more.
• The cover must not be too "busy" or detailed. Many authors make the mistake of trying to tell the entire story with the book cover. If you try to do that, you'll end up with nothing but a confusing mess. The "less is more" rule definitely applies to book cover design. A similar mistake is wanting any people shown on the cover to look exactly like the characters in your novel. This is not important - your book cover's main job is to attract attention and provide readers with a "flavor" of your book.
• The cover must look good, with the title legible, at larger thumbnail sizes (about 80x120 pixels on Amazon, for example).  This is crucial. If it merely looks like an indistinct smudge, readers are very likely to pass it over.

Of course, effective book cover design is part art and part craft. At the end of the day, you have to use your instincts and go with what you think will best sell your book, and you will often end up testing several covers before you find the one that works best.

How can you have your cover designed? Although its possible to do it yourself, unless you have some experience in book cover design, what you'll end up with will probably look amateurish, even though it may not look that way to yourself.  Therefore, I would recommend hiring a professional designer.

I offer this service to other authors by working with the same graphic designer who creates my own covers, and my rates are competitive.  If you're interested, please contact me at mike (at) mikewellsbooks.com and tell me about your book.