So why'd I do it? Well, I have a couple of quick stories to tell about that. My first hint that my original cover design (which I really liked, btw) was not the most successful choice I could make came when someone made a comment on Julia Wilson's wonderful review that said the book looked like a non-fiction book to her. I did not put too much stock in the comment, since it was the first one I had heard. Most people were telling me they liked the cover. Still I would occasionally notice little things like people looking at the cover and saying, "Oh the Wage or the Gif" or something similar. I would then explain that the it's Wages and Gift, and the dollar sign and the present (which I later discovered some people thought was a cross with a bow on it)...you get the drift.
I guess these little isolated incidents were starting to get my attention because after the conversation I had with Delilah Cordova about the cover, I started to really question it. A friend of mine came into town, and I asked her what she thought of the cover. She was like, well I can tell it's a religious book. (Not necessarily a bad thing, I mean it is Christian Fiction) She went on to say that it was a little confusing, etc. So I started working on changing it. This time I posted it in a couple of Christian Fiction Readers/Writers groups to find out what kind of book people thought it might be. Most of them said suspense or thriller. A few said horror, but no one said non-fiction. And thus I had my new cover.
After I changed the cover, I got a lot more feedback on the first cover that definitely confirmed the necessity for the change. My publicist, who liked the cover, but agreed that it could seem a bit "non-fiction adjacent" told me this story: "I was reading your book in Missouri, and a girl looked at me and asked if I was trying to build a better financial future." That pretty much says it all.
One more thing, the new cover is up for cover of the month on Allauthor.com. Please vote.
