Bartlett’s Rule

Yesterday fellow author Richard W. Paterson and I co-hosted a writing workshop in our local community. It was a fascinating and enriching discussion where we covered several topics. We were so impressed with
the range of questions and experience of all of the participants.

One of the topics we discussed was “How important is the book-cover?”

I showed them two different covers for my novel Bartlett’s Rule

  The original

    The revised

The first run of Bartlett’s Rule displayed the first, darker cover which gave
the impression that it was a young couple (mainly due to the man’s jaw line).

However  the subject matter of the novel involved a rape survivor and the aftermath the rape had on her future relationships, and some of the language and sexual scenes were certainly explicit. (The rape took place prior to the story’s opening). Unfortunately the original cover was often mistaken as a YA theme and so it was quickly changed.

The revised cover of Bartlett’s Rule proved to be more attractive to an
older readership and the book received several favorable reviews.

Ironically many moms felt the book touched on a subject important
enough that several even passed it along to their teen-age daughters to
read and discuss.

So what is YOUR opinion about how
important a book-cover design is?

Bartlett’s Rule is available on
Amazon in Print, Kindle or Audiobook
Barnes&Noble in Paperback or NookBook
Smashwords in multiple E-Book formats
and other online retailers & libraries