Please Judge This Book by its Cover

In my last post I announced the completion of the first draft of my next novel.

Since then it’s been read by my crack team of beta readers, and thoroughly picked apart. I’ve also gone through it several times to clean it up and plug the holes in the story.

I’m really excited about releasing this one, not only because this story appealed to me from the moment I conceived it, but because all of my beta readers have said it’s my best work.

In another week or so it will go off to the editor…a month or so later it will be released.

I’ve also renamed the book. Up until about a week ago I had been calling it Time After Time – a title that fit the story really well, but didn’t appeal to me at all.

After a lot of thought I have settled on the title Doomed to Repeat.

Both titles fit the story, but I prefer the new one. Only one of my betas disagrees with the change, so I’m happy with it.

While all this is going on I also initiated the cover design process – which is the reason for this post.

Here’s the thing…

We all know how important the cover of a book is. I once read that a potential book buyer will look at the cover of a book for ten seconds or less. If it appeals to them they’ll flip it over and give the back cover another ten seconds to convince them to buy it.

That’s it.

Twenty seconds (give or take) is how much time an author has to sell a book that probably took a year to write. Seems a bit unfair, but it is what it is. Of course, buying books on the internet is different, especially on Amazon where you can actually peek inside the book, but if the cover doesn’t grab you, you probably won’t waste your time peeking. In a perfect world we wouldn’t judge the book by its cover, but the world is far from perfect, so…

I need your help.

I’m going to show you the first conceptual cover design of the new book and I’m going to ask for your honest (brutal if necessary) opinion.

You see…I’ve gotten some feedback from my betas on it already and a couple of them expressed the same concern. I’m not going to tell you what their concern is, I want to know what you think.

So take a look at the cover…

 

 

Now read this blurb…

 

In a top secret bunker during World War II Hitler’s best scientists worked feverishly to complete a project code named Die Glocke (The Bell). Hitler was convinced that The Bell would change, not only the outcome of the war, but history itself.

But what exactly is The Bell?

Flagler Beach, Florida, 2019; Three men emerge from the surf. Two suffer from amnesia – the other is dead. The survivors decide it would be in their best interest to put some distance between them and the corpse. They meet Ex-Navy SEAL Ike, who befriends them and tries to help them with their memory loss.

When the body is discovered, a routine murder investigation turns into an international incident.

Ike has to figure out what the CIA, the KGB and a corrupt U.S. Senator want with his new friends.

It’s a race against time, and time is not on his side.

…now tell me what you think – please.

Be honest – brutally if you like. Don’t hold back – I’m really looking for honest input.

 

As always – thank you for reading