The Evolution of a Cover

One of the perks (at least I think so) of being self-published is that you have complete control over your cover design. For me, this has definitely been a learn-as-you-go process over the past two years. To illustrate that, I thought I would share with you the four separate covers I've made for my very first novella, A Brooding Beauty, ending with the newest cover which I debuted on Facebook just last night! 

Prepare to cringe. I know I did. 

NUMBER ONE

I remember (embarrassingly enough) really liking this cover. I'm pretty sure I was the only one who did. It didn't last very long. By the time A Ravishing Redhead was released I'd discovered Big Stock Photo (where I now get all my stock images) and I was on to bigger and better things. Like...

NUMBER TWO

I really loved this model. Turns out so did everyone else and their brother. This image is very popular for self-published historical romances, which is why I quickly nixed it. 

NUMBER THREE

This cover has been used the longest (just over a year, I believe) and I picked it because of the model's expression: cold and a little haughty, just like Catherine. Still, trends change, and I didn't like how squished up all the font was. Which leads me to...

NUMBER FOUR

The newest cover! I am mildly obsessed with it, and I hope readers will like it as well. I kept the same stock image from the last cover and just tweaked it a little bit by playing around with centering and zoom. I want potential readers to see the title first, my name second, the actual woman third, and 'Wedded Women Quartet' last. 

I am happy to announce that ALL of my historical romance covers will be getting a similar facelift, which I hope will streamline things a bit so a reader glances at the cover and instantly says, 'Yep, that's a book by Jillian Eaton' (as if people know who I am... oh, I'm so funny). 

So what do you think? Yay? Nay? Sound off in the comments! 

Four in One! Wedded Women Quartet, Now a Package Deal

I knew even before I finished A Gentle Grace that once the Wedded Women Quartet was complete, I would want to make all four novellas available in one package deal. Well, that goal has been accomplished! For the first time you can buy the entire quartet as one from Amazon. I even made a pretty new cover! 

If you have already read all four novellas, let me be very clear: there is no new material here. It is exactly the same. I toyed around with the idea of adding a new epilogue, but ultimately decided that would be in very poor taste as I didn't want to make people who had already read the quartet feel like they had to buy something they had already read just to get to something they hadn't. So, nothing new.

But if you haven't read the novellas, this is a great opportunity to start! With an active navigation bar at the beginning of the book (which was a bitch to make, but I digress) it is very easy to jump back and forth between the novellas so you can pick and choose which ones you would like to read, or go through them in order. It's all up to you! 

A Brooding Beauty, A Ravishing Redhead, A Lascivious Lady and A Gentle Grace will always be available to purchase individually on Amazon. Down the road I hope to make the Wedded Women Quartet available in print, but for now it will continue to be in e-format only. With the publication of the 4 in 1 I feel like my obligations to the Quartet have (finally!) been met and I can jump right into my next project, which is already humming along quite nicely. It will be my first full length standalone historical romance novel, and once the Week of the Wedded Women Quartet is finished, look for periodic updates about it here on the blog and my Facebook page. 

Hope you all have a fabulous Super Bowl Sunday! 

Fancy New Covers

Well, at least I think they're fancy. I've been toying with the idea of redesigning all of the covers of The Wedded Women Quartet for a while now. While I am very fond of the original ones, I wanted a little bit more uniformity with just a touch of pizzazz. They are certainly more modern, which people tend to love or hate. They should be updated on Amazon within the next 48 hours, but I wanted to show them off here first. Hope you like them! And yes, the cover for A Gentle Grace has also been included. Look for the final installment in the quartet this December! Hope you all are having a brilliant weekend.