Today I am so pleased to welcome Wade Kelly to Joyfully Jay. Wade has come to talk to us about the new cover for her book, Names Can Never Hurt Me. She has also brought along a sexyW excerpt to share. Please join me in giving Wade a big welcome!
Hello Lovely Readers,
This is an exciting post as I am “revealing” the new cover for Names Can Never Hurt Me. I chose Joyfully Jay because it is an AWESOME blog!
Why change it when the first cover was perfect? Well, frankly, MARKETING. For the many who have read the book know how good it is, but sadly that group is not very large. Even though the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is bandied about and we would HOPE no one does this, the fact is that it happens all the time. NAMES has gotten great reviews, but the sales are not there. True, I am not widely known, but I did stop and consider whether my cover may have turned people off. Thus, the change.
When it comes down to it, books are about sales. I’ve said this before on my personal blog. If an author has none, then the publisher is not as likely to want to contract them again. Editing, cover art, promotion, etc. all take money. I LOVED the first/original cover, but when I broached Dreamspinner about a change to see if it helps sales, there was immediate action, which tells me they might wonder the same thing. New cover? More sales? I don’t know. What I do know is that IF a controversial cover with derogatory slurs has pushed people away, then I am not getting the message about the hurtful slurs out to people who may be glad they read it. I wanted to try SOMETHING!
This new cover is sexy. Sex sells, right? The positive aspects are that JUDGING by the cover the potential reader may assume it is about two men. The original cover probably didn’t suggest that. Also, this is a romance novel! The original cover probably didn’t suggest that either. Using cover models that resemble my guys will hopefully grab more attention from my target audience.
You may argue that there are many authors who have covers that DO NOT have two men on them and that look nothing like M/M romance, but I wonder who they are. For surely, popular authors have more freedom. Once an author has a large audience of faithful fans, they could probably put anything on the cover and it would sell. I normally use Stephen King as an example because most people know who that is. He puts blood on the cover raining down on an umbrella and boom! the sales are there. Why? Because his audience sees the name of the author. I will never have that large an audience, but as I would like to grow mine I am trying to think of what I can do different to reach more people. Today’s idea is a different cover.
My next idea is to write more comedy. I think that will be a good choice.
The new cover is updated to the different venues that sell my books. Dreamspinner is extremely accommodating. I hope that I can continue to bring quality work to the readers and perhaps this cover change will boost sales. After all, I do intend on writing book 2 and it will not get published unless I sell book 1. And wouldn’t NAMES be great on audio????
Thank you for stopping by. Let me know what you think of my new cover.
I included a sexy excerpt to coincide with the sexy cover. Enjoy!
Excerpt
I dropped my jeans on his floor, stepped out of them, and jumped again into his embrace. I kissed him hard and tangled my fists in his luxurious hair. RC did not disappoint me this time. He picked me up and walked us into the bathroom. I had to let go in order for him to disrobe, but in a few minutes, we were in the shower lathering each other up. I’d never taken a shower with another person. And believe me, the wait was worth it.
After kissing under the spray of water for a few minutes, my need to have sex lessened. I think it was because I saw this look in his eyes, deep and caring, which made me think about the fact that he hadn’t had a relationship like this either. We were discovering everything together. I was no longer desperate, but inquisitive. I wanted to map his body with my hands like a blind man reads Braille. I needed to know every inch of him. I slid my soapy hands over his pecs and rubbed his hard nipples. RC groaned.
“You like?”
He closed his eyes and nodded. When I dipped my head and started licking and sucking on his nipple, he moaned appreciatively. “Oh, Nick. Mmm.” He rubbed the back of my head as I continued sucking. I nipped him gently between my teeth and swirled my tongue around. “You know… how… you said your neck was your spot?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Oh God, Nick. You found mine.”
I switched my attention to his other nipple and glided my hand down to lather his balls simultaneously. He groaned louder, and I loved it. I would have sucked on his nipples a lot longer if it hadn’t been for the head of his dick poking into mine. The shivery sensation that touch produced reminded me that there were other things I wanted to do, so I gave his nipple one last, hard tug and leaned back.
His penis was bobbing in front of him, as mine was standing straight out in front of me. I got this silly notion to thwack it, so I did. I rotated my hips left and then jerked them back, causing my swollen cock to swing against him. I giggled.
“What are you doing?” RC asked, giving me a bemused look.
“Having a sword fight. Come on, give me your best shot.”
“Um, no. Let’s get finished here and head to the bedroom. You got me all stirred up inside.”
“No, come on, just once. Swing at me.” I flicked my hips and my penis bounced into his.
He chuckled and conceded, “Fine, you goofball.” He swung his hips, but too slowly to produce the desired effect, and missed me entirely.
“Not like that. Like this,” I instructed, overly exaggerating my move and swinging my bobbing cock in his direction.
Blurb
What if sexuality wasn’t a definable thing and labels merely got in the way?
Nick Jones can’t remember a time when he wasn’t part of the in crowd. Everywhere he goes, he stands out as the best looking guy in the room, and women practically fall into bed with him. Then, after kissing Corey on a dare led to much more and on many occasions, Nick’s “screw anything” reputation escalated, but he didn’t care.
When Nick meets RC at the restaurant where he works, it throws his whole life out of whack. RC lives up to his dubbed nickname “scruffy dude.” He seems Nick’s complete opposite, but Nick can’t get him out of his head.
Because of peer-pressure and his fears about defining his sexuality, Nick struggles with stepping out of his comfort zone and caring about someone different than himself. If he’s lucky, somewhere between arrogance and ignorance, Nick might find out what it means to be an adult, but if he’s wrong, he could lose everything.
Bio
Wade Kelly lives and writes in conservative, small-town America on the east coast where it’s not easy to live free and open in one’s beliefs. Wade writes passionately about controversial issues and strives to make a difference by making people think. Wade does not have a background in writing or philosophy, but still draws from personal experience to ponder contentious subjects on paper. There is a lot of pain in the world and people need hope. When not writing, she is thinking about writing, and more than likely scribbling ideas on sticky notes in the car while playing “taxi driver” for her three children. She likes snakes, can’t spell, and has a tendency to make people cry.
A someone who read the book with the now “limited edition” cover, I agree that the original cover was perfect, but can also say that the new cover also perfectly suits hot, self centred Nick and scruffy guy RC. Chemistry between people is not easily defined but Wade does an excellent job in Names and I encourage everyone to give it a try, you won’t regret it.
The original cover was great but I would read it with either one because it is a great story by a great author. And a 2nd book in the series yay. Also I love when you write comedy looking forward to more.
I like both, maybe even more the first cover… but to each his own. It’s understandable why the change. I hope you get to sell a lot with this new cover and I didn’t know there was going to be a sequel so… yeah! Good luck! And I love comedy books, they are great when you need a good laugh.
I read it with the first cover, and loved it. Hopefully you will sell more books with the new cover. Can’t wait for a 2 book in the series
I’m sorry to learn that the original cover book hasn’t sold well. I loved it – cover and content both. In fact for me it was the unique original cover that first caught my attention. Even though I still prefer the first cover I really hope this one helps the sale figures because I’d love to read a second book in this universe/series or just another book by you – those I’ve read do far has been perfect hits for me. Good luck with the new cover!
I understand your reasoning and sorry you had to change it because the original fit the story. I must be in a minority since I’m always more intrigued and willing to read a blurb when there is a cover that doesn’t just have two guys or two torsos on it. I hope it all works out and look forward to more.
Thank you all so much. And thank you for understanding!