U-1215 was published in August 20, 2016. For two years, it hardly moved. No one was buying it and I even thought of taking it out and rewriting it to make it interesting.
Then, one day, I read an article about one author whose book also wasn't selling very well. She had someone make another cover and she republished it. Thereafter, the book's sales soared and continues to sell very well.
So, it got me to thinking. Could my book benefit from an improved cover as well? I set out to try.
First, I changed the color to blue. Blue represents the color of the sea so that seemed appropriate. Then, I made the color darker towards the bottom since that's what happens the deeper into the sea you go.
Second, I made the text larger so as to be more visible without overdoing it. I changed the subtitle to all caps to also make it a bit more visible. I decided to enlarge my name and change the font because I read that you should advertise yourself but don't shout it out by making your name larger than the title. So, I chose a taller and thinner font without using the bold feature.
The silhouette of the submarine is mostly the same except I removed a little bump near the bow. That bump was supposed to represent the folded forward diving planes (only people who know submarines would know that) but I reasoned that, since the sub was already under water, it should follow that the diving planes would be deployed and be invisible when viewed from the side.
The last modification was that I made the image wider. That was done to satisfy the requirements of the Apple iBookstore of having the image in specific dimensions.
This is the finished product alongside the old one for easier comparison.
I uploaded the updated cover in 2018. Did it work? Did it improve sales? Yes, it did!
Within a few months of uploading, U-1215 sales started improving quite dramatically. It's not a best seller, mind you, but I'm very please with it. Now I'm thinking of changing the covers of my other books as well.
