Do you ever feel like publishers are constantly trying to trick you by changing cover art on books? You think you’ve found a new book by an author you love, but then, it turns out that it’s an old book with a different cover?

No? Just me then. *irritated grumble*

I know that there are pros and cons to changing book covers; however, as a writer, it’s much easier to see the pros, and as a reader, it’s much easier to see more cons. But both should be considered before making the decision (IMHO).

Changing Cover Art:
Risks & Rewards

Pros

New Audience & Professionalism

From what I’ve seen, the main reason to change the cover of a book you’ve already published is to modernize the style and capture a new audience (we hope). This tactic is particularly useful when

1. The original/previous cover is out of print.
2. The original artwork is so amateur that you honestly can’t stand it.

The second one is more directed at self-publishing online where we don’t always have access to professional artists to do the cover (we may never have that). Which means that we usually do it ourselves.

And, like most art endeavors, we get better over time.

Once you’ve gotten pretty decent at creating your own cover art, it can be very painful to look back at art from when you started. So it’s understandable that you would want to change that.

It also has the benefit of making the artwork look more professional (generally), so that’s a win-win.

To be fair, I will admit that authors who published traditionally can still hate the artwork on their covers, especially for early covers where the author had little-or-no say in how the book was interpreted visually. That can create a similar emotional need for change.

Expired Rights

In some cases, the publisher’s rights to the original artwork may have expired. Since they have to pay for cover art anyway, why not update the book’s look and try for a new audience at the same time?

That’s a pretty good reason to change the cover.

I don’t know for sure, but since the concept is so similar, I’d guess that’s what happened with both of these photos (McCaffrey and King).

Cons

Cover Recognition

The problem with changing the cover is that many readers recognize books more by the covers than by the titles. Or at least by the cover style – especially for series where each book’s cover has the same artistic style.

For those readers, a new cover can either

1. Irritate them because they thought it was a book they didn’t have (still just me?),
2. Trick them into buying books they already have (yes, it can go that far), or
3. Make them miss your book altogether.

As a writer, I’d be worried more about the last one (namely because the other ones still result in my being paid…).

I don’t know how many readers are going to miss books over this, and, honestly, most are either in the secondary market or online. But it can definitely frustrating to look for a book by its cover and not be able to find it.

Effort & Time

The other major con (IMHO) is the effort and time you are spending on a book that already has a cover. That’s time you could be spending on a book that hasn’t been published yet, so is it really worth going back to do that?

If it’s only irritating you because you don’t like the cover any more, but the cover is still decent, then, probably not.

If the cover no longer looks professional, or you’re trying to reach a new audience, then, there’s more reason to put that time and effort in. But since time and effort are our main money-makers (assuming we’re writing for a living), we need to make sure we’re putting them to the best use we can.

What experiences have you had with changing your book cover art?

-Em