Cover Story - featuring Michelle Betham

Today I'm handing over to my friend and fellow Indie, Michelle Betham, as she'd like to tell us all about an exciting new development on her writing journey.

Michelle writes "books for the beach - pure escapism, total fantasy; mainly (very!) sexy, but sometimes humorous, contemporary romance." 

If you haven't tried her books yet, why not?  Some are girlie, fluffy, funny chicklit and some are pretty hot and steamy - all of them have given me many hours of entertainment and they come highly recommended.

So ... over to Michelle.

"Striker re-launches with a brand new cover!

To mark the imminent release of Extra Time, book two in my sexy soccer trilogy, I’ve decided to re-launch Striker – book one in the series – but this time, with a brand new cover! Why? Well, I have my reasons… Let me explain…

Book covers – an important part of the whole writing process? You bet it is! And when I first started out on this writing journey of mine I don’t think I realised just how important they really are. They’re the first thing a person sees when they’re looking for something new to read, and if that cover doesn’t catch their eye then it’s probably highly unlikely that they’ll stop to check out the blurb. How many potential readers could you lose if the cover of your book doesn’t make them sit up and take notice?

Is this the reason why I decided to change the cover for Striker, my steamy soccer romance? In a way. But it wasn’t actually my idea. I was quite happy with the original cover, you see. I liked it. It reminded me of those Jilly Cooper books I’ve read and loved – you know the ones, Riders, Rivals, Polo… But then my ever-sensitive husband kindly (I use that word loosely, in this case) pointed out that I’m no Jilly Cooper (I kind of knew that already) and that it didn’t really matter what she put on the covers of her books, they’d sell anyway. I don’t have that luxury. My name alone doesn’t sell books, so I need to be able to grab readers’ attention in other ways. And an eye catching cover is one of them. I thought I had one in the original cover for Striker, but, after listening to my husband’s reasons as to why he thought I should change it, I realised he had a point.

The first thing that hit you in the face with the original cover was the image of a football/soccer ball. And if you’re someone who really dislikes football – and, let’s face it, there are many women out there who really dislike the sport, and my books are, predominantly, aimed at women – then that image of a football could, potentially, make people discard the book without even giving the blurb a second look. It could be giving people the complete wrong impression of what the book is actually about. I just didn’t realise that at first.

The original cover

 

Okay – the book is set against the backdrop of professional football, and the main characters are a footballer, a sports reporter, and a football manager. But – and this is a BIG but – the story is not about the sport itself. If you’re looking for a book about football, then you’re going to be disappointed because Striker is most definitely more about the sex than the soccer. I may be a football fan, but I still couldn’t tell you what the offside rule is, so this story really has very little to do with the sport. It’s a romance – a very sexy, sometimes very steamy romance, but a romance nonetheless. It’s more Footballers’ Wives than Match of the Day, and that’s what I needed to get across on the cover. Was the old one doing that for me? In hindsight, no, I don't think it was. Not really. Am I happy with the new cover? Definitely! I think it gets the feel of the story across a whole lot more, and I think, just from looking at the new cover, you know just what kind of book you’re getting. I’ve playfully dubbed this trilogy “Fifty Shades of Football”,  so that tells you something about the content right there.

Never judge a book by its cover? I’m one who agrees with that old adage, yes. But, in the literal sense, that’s exactly what people do. They judge books by their covers, whether we like that idea or not. And I’m learning, with each new book that I write, just how important a good, eye catching cover can be. Only time will tell whether I’ve made the right choice second time around with Striker."

The brand new, sexy cover.

You can find all of Michelle's books on Amazon or Kobo.
You can follow her on Twitter @michellebetham and read her blog here.