Lately, I’ve been having second thoughts about my book’s cover design.

I love it. Completely. One-hundred percent. But, as I’ve been considering how to market my book, I’ve been wondering if the approach I chose might hurt the book.

The cover as it is now, is a photographic cover featuring the main character’s love interest in the story. It took me a long time to find the right photo that fit the character and the story. The moment I found the photo I knew it was perfect.

But as my novel gets closer to reality, I wonder if I steered the cover’s design in the wrong direction.

Let me explain, look at the following covers by authors in the same genre:

What do they have in common? They’re all illustrated, with a dominant color background, often using silhouetted characters. When I look for books that I might like, book covers like these typically stand out as ones for me to look further into.

Does my cover need to be similar or not? I still love the current, photographic cover… but something today is telling me an illustrated cover should be explored.

So here’s what I’m going to do. In addition to the cover I have now, I will have a second one created, similar in style as the ones above. I will ask my beta-readers first which cover best reflects the book, and if I’m still not sure, I may put it to a vote of readers of this blog.