Monday, January 22, 2018

Subtle Messages

Judith Ashley is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.
Earlier this month I wrote on Secret Messages. Today I’m talking about Subtle Messages and using The Sacred Women's Circle book covers as an example.

When you look at a book cover, there are certain things that, depending on what you read, you want to see (or maybe not see). I love to read historical romance so seeing a castle, period dress and a more ornate font tells me at a glance that this book might be one I’d like to read. I then check out the back cover blurb to see what the bare bones of the story is about. Then I make my purchase.

I also like to read contemporary romance and those covers are going to look different than the historical romance covers. Two of my writing friends write paranormal romantic suspense and I do read their books although I don’t normally read in the genre.

In The Sacred Women’s Circle series, I wanted my covers to depict more than just ‘contemporary romance’ because the stories had so much more than the outer journey of the heroine and hero. I also wanted readers to get a hint at what was an additional story line without telling them on the back cover. And I latched on to Lois’s idea (she is a friend of mine) about another way of ‘branding’ the books.

And here is the key to the Subtle Message you’ll see on  each cover:

Overlay

Color

Crystals


Tell me what you see and if you would have noticed without my pointing them out.

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshleyRomance.com

Follow Judith on Twitter: JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2018 Judith Ashley

8 comments:

Maggie Lynch said...

I've always loved your covers, Judith! I'm not going to spoil the answer because I'm very familiar with your books. However, the backgrounds definitely hint at the subtitle associated with your books in the description.

Annie said...

I loved the gentle chakra colors and consistency of your series covers. They are different enough to make each story appealing on its own and similar enough that you can recognize them as a series.

Judith Ashley said...

I love them also, Maggie. I've toyed with the idea of changing the covers to see if they would sell better but haven't been able to bring myself to do that. I feel so blessed to have Christy Keerins doing the graphics work so my marketing and promotional efforts look more professional.

Judith Ashley said...

Annie, thanks for stopping by and commenting. If I'd been thinking chakras or rainbow, I would have shifted the colors a bit differently but I wasn't and they do blend from one to the other so I'm happy. I love the one graphic with all the covers side by side but then realized readers wouldn't be able to see the "Subtle Messages" so added the individual covers. Not a lot of print or white space here!

Barbara Rae Robinson said...

I must admit I didn't get your subtle messages. I'm not that tuned into covers. I don't buy based on covers, ever. I buy based on author and blurb. And maybe the first page or so.

Sarah Raplee said...

I love Crystals that denote which book in the sequence each cover is for, and also hint at the spiritual story lines (as do the overlays.)

Judith Ashley said...

Thanks for stopping by Barb. I may not buy based on the covers but I do use the covers to decide which new author to check out. As I read historical romance, being able to easily identify the era I prefer is useful to me. I'm not an eclectic reader as many authors are so most genres are never in my TBR pile or Wishlist. I do agree that the blurb is the best determinant as to whether I'm actually going to purchase the book or not.

Judith Ashley said...

Sarah. I have such fun when "hand selling" to point out the crystals and overlays to prospective readers. I'm very grateful Lois suggested using them to denote the books in the series.