[Hasbeen]

My next book in my series Blood War is about to come out.

It is time to make a decision about how the cover should look. I have found one that looks similar to the first cover with the same colors and general theme. (see below)

Should I go with similar covers in a series or should I change the cover for each of the books?

i know a number of you have series and I would appreciate your input on this one. I keep going back and forth.

Any real world lessons learned would be appreciated.

 

[writer-artist-mom]

I may not be an expert, but I do have a degree in multimedia/design. I think it's very important for author branding to keep things similar. In an episodic story/serial some authors even have the exact same image on their covers and just change the title. For a full-length book series, I am doing this for my second book:

• Keep same font, size and placement for title and author name
• Change main image, but with same model/character (or recognizable object/building) in a different pose with different background
• Change color scheme - color of text matching color palette of images or white/black to stand out
• If you have quotes/endorsements/subtitles to put on the cover then make sure they have the same font, size and placement as well

 

[nonbreaking space]

+1 to what eliza said.

 

[ML-Larson]

Yeah, series should definitely have the same look to the covers.  I'm not personally a fan of the ones who reuse the same image and just slightly change the colours, but there should definitely be an overall theme to all of your covers within a series.  It tells readers that it's a series without even making them read anything.

 

[Lydniz]

Yeah, series should definitely have the same look to the covers. I'm not personally a fan of the ones who reuse the same image and just slightly change the colours, but there should definitely be an overall theme to all of your covers within a series. It tells readers that it's a series without even making them read anything.

I do love your covers by the way, ML. I'm a sucker for a strongly branded series.

 

[ML-Larson]

I do love your covers by the way, ML. I'm a sucker for a strongly branded series.

Thanks. They're covers that would get me to click on them, so the person who did the original design for them definitely did something right.

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

I 100% agree that branding is important to a series. As a reader, I find it just makes it so much easier to pick out which ones might be in the same series (and then all I have to do is sort out the reading order. lol)

 

[PaintedLady]

I agree with what everyone else has said - consistency across the covers for a series is important. Being able to easily recognize a book as part of a series is something I appreciate as a reader, and something I strive to achieve in my own works.

 

[CJAnderson]

They need to match!

 

[Nope]

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