Help me choose, please! :-)

[BarbaraRose]

The winter photo was actually originally my top choice.

Beth has a good point about a sub-title mentioning the boy. Something to think about. Decisions, decisions!!

[Cudedog]

I've not said anything because I hate to say anything negative, but none of these covers looks like or would lean towards being a children's book. Most of the cowboy pictures seem to be leaning towards romance novels. This last one is the best but still there is nothing about the image or title to let me know this book is for the younger generation. Maybe consider a sub-title that would make this point?

Beth:

I don't think that your comments are negative - at all. I take your comments as constructive criticism, which is, in fact, exactly what I am asking for. It is all well and good to get compliments and praise for one's work (and pretty easy on the ego as well, of course) but compliments are not particularly helpful when one is trying to do analysis on how to "make it better".

I find your comment that "Most of the cowboy pictures seem to be leaning towards romance novels" something I didn't see, but do recognize now (maybe I am just, deep down, looking for a cowboy romance? Or, rather, a romance with a cowboy? ).

You are probably also correct that I might need a sub-title - I'm going to try to avoid this for now, because to add a subtitle technically creates a new book, requiring a new ISBN number. I would need to retire the old book, and go through the entire somewhat lengthy process of submitting a "new" book to Amazon. And then I would need to have required verbiage on the Amazon page of the "new" book explaining that this "new" book is really the "old" book.

On the other hand, the problem that you recognize, "there is nothing about the image or title to let me know this book is for the younger generation" I'm hoping might not actually be so bad, for two reasons:

1. I am not "bidding" on the search term "Cowboy Romance Novel" (for example). So if someone types in "Cowboy Romance Novel" into Amazon for a search, the ad for my book will not appear, because I have not bid on this search term.

2. When someone does search on a term that I am bidding on, technically, if my bid is high enough (Amazon uses some weird algorithm for this bidding thing), then my ad will appear, among dozens of other ads. If the person searching notices my ad (among these dozens!), reads it and then clicks on it (the click takes the person to the Amazon page for my book) then I am billed for what I have "bid" for this click.

My ad (as are all Amazon book ads) have two parts - an image of the book cover, and a brief explanation of what the book is about.

My hope is for my thumbnail cover image to catch someone's eye, and then they will read my ad before they click. The hope here being that once they read the ad text, they will understand that this is a children's book - before they make the click.

A bit of a gamble (LOL! As are all auctions!) but I am still feeling my way, and beginning to understand what needs to be improved, and why. The "why" part is always the most difficult to discover, and also the most helpful when someone takes the time to explain how they see the "why" of it.

Which is also why constructive criticism on your Forum is so very helpful to me.

I sincerely thank you, and everyone who has participated in this thread, for all of the input.

It has been extremely helpful, and is very much appreciated.

If anyone else would like to jump in, please do so.

Anne

[Cudedog]

The winter photo was actually originally my top choice.

Beth has a good point about a sub-title mentioning the boy. Something to think about. Decisions, decisions!!

LOL! Yes, Barbie, LOTS of decisions, and all of these decisions are based on a very steep learning curve.

Thank you also for your "Vote" on the winter photo. I am really warming to it - I noticed an error on it after I posted it, though, that I will need to correct.

In my last job, one of my duties was doing some minor graphics work for my office, as needed. I guess my boss liked what I was doing, because he sent me to a day-long class on how to create graphics. It was expensive, included lunch as I recall - and my boss paid for it. It was a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit.

The error I noticed is something I learned (and I guess forgot) in the graphics class.

Look at the cowboy in the winter photo. Notice how his face is turned away from the book title? This suggests, in a very subliminal way, that the cowboy is "rejecting" the book title - and, thus, the book!! People do notice stuff like this, if only subconsciously. I will need to flip the cowboy so that he is "looking" at (and thus recommending!) the title, and thus the book!

I think I will also add falling snow to the photo, to make it look as though the cowboy is riding through a snowstorm. I looked up the process of doing this online, and it is relatively simple - and adds a very nice effect.

Thanks again for your input, Barbie!! Very much appreciated. Please post again if you think of anything further!

Best wishes,

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

Very interesting about the cowboy facing away from the title. Lots of psychology involved. This whole experience will be a great learning experience for future books you write and publish!