You might have heard that authors are married to their book titles and won’t change them for anything. I like my title, Drifting in a Dream, but I’m not attached to it like my book cover. Writing was never my goal, you see. I loved to tell stories and I loved to read, but writing didn’t appeal to me as art did. Unfortunately, art and perfectionism don’t mix. If it didn’t look exactly like the image in my head (it never did) I’d consider it a failure and write the art off. Writing isn’t like that. You’re painting an image in someone else’s head and it doesn’t matter if they see something a little different to you – the way their mind sees your story is unique to them.

As an indie author, I didn’t need to worry about people telling me to change this or that when I published my book. I could do it all my own way and not care what anyone else thought. When I designed my cover I was happy with the final result. It took several days of procreate and affinity designer to get there but I liked it. A few months after publishing I tweaked the colours to brighten it a bit, but I was still satisfied.

If you read anything about writing and publishing you’ll inevitably find something about how covers can make or break your book and that you should hire a professional designer. Ten months on from publishing I was forced to consider my book cover again. Is it too dark? Are there too many trees? Does it stand out from the other contenders on Amazon?

I thought it did, but it wasn’t flying off the virtual shelves either.

Divorcing my book cover was a difficult decision, but it seemed necessary for growth. I’ll always cherish the time we had together but my original book cover had to step aside so a new, brighter book cover could take its place.

I designed the new cover myself (why pay when I have two thumbs and affinity designer?) but making the switch was difficult. I like the new cover. The colours are striking, there aren’t as many trees and the title is a lot bolder, but it’ll never be my first child book cover.

You might have already noticed it’s updated across all my sales platforms and websites, but I’ll present it here too.

I humbly offer the new (hopefully last) cover of Drifting in a Dream. To celebrate the birth of this second child cover there’s a new book teaser too. Let me know your thoughts in the comments and I’d appreciate any shares!