BOOK: Cover Story - Blue Lake, A Time After Time Novel, by Carol Ann Kauffman

 

Dear Gentle Readers,

This is the cover of the first book I ever published, Blue Lake. It was published on January 12, 2012. It is the first book in the Time After Time series. Although it was my first book, this is not the original cover. This beautiful cover was designed by the talented Suzi Albracht of Wickedly Awesome Designs. Suzi also designed the covers for Belterra, Red Sarah, and The Captain and the Ambassador.  

This baby has had more facelifts than I care to think about. Ebooks were different way back then, and covers were simple and often plain. This is the first cover.  

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. A big,  blurry mess. But I was partial to this one because of the location. I took this photo of the serene and beautiful Lake Maggiore with a small, inexpensive digital camera while in a boat on the lake near the town of Stresa in the northern lake region. The blue water changes shade with the time of day and weather condition, anywhere from a deep cobalt blue to powder blue ripples. 

As ebook covers got a more sophisticated, Blue Lake needed a facelift. Another trip to Italy was out of the question. So after scouting locations, I found this spot on Girard Lake in Trumbull County, Ohio. 

This lovely spot was mere feet away from the road with no easy pull-off area around. To get a decent photo, I needed to get off the road and into the wet, boggy edge of the lake. With newer digital camera, I took as many views and angles as I could. I submitted the photos to a cover designer.

This cover looked better big, but the thumbnail was not clear enough to show the title, subtitle, and author name. Sales dropped significantly for this romantic action adventure story. I decided to try again. Same photos. New cover designer.  

I liked the title. I liked the photo of the lake. But all other pertinent information was either unreadable or missing. However, sales picked up again, so I let it ride. 


A few years later, it was time to reformat the inside of Blue Lake to update little things, like the elimination of the double space at the end of each sentence, and a few other minor issues. What better time to update the cover? 

This cover artist, CER Designs, used my photos but breathed new life into them. This was a customer favorite for many years.

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