Fallen Palm Cover.

When someone says "Don't judge a book by it's cover", there's more to it than that. Usually, this term is used to convey that a person is actually much different than they look. As a biker, I know this to be 100% true. Some of the biggest, most giving hearts I know are clad in leather, chains and beards.

It can also be taken literally. When I fist published Fallen Palm, I used a cover design and picture provided by CreateSpace. Initially, I thought it looked pretty good. Then a friend, who is a professional photographer and graphics designer, took a picture and created the cover for Fallen Hunter, for me.

I then realized the simple cover for Fallen Palm didn't convey the beauty of the Florida Keys, nor did it convey the fact that the book was an action novel. So, I went back to work, taking pointers and cues from my friend's design and created a new cover for Fallen Palm. Many of my friends said to leave it as it was, that changing it was something that writers didn't do. So, I did a little research and found that many of my favorite writers and books had changed covers.

The final result easily conveyed both the beauty of the group of islands at the southern tip of Florida and the fact that this was an action novel.

The result of the change? A more than a 300% increase in book sales over the previous month. In this case, you truly can judge the book by it's cover.