Brion J. Humphrey

Thirteen years after self-publishing my first book, Sense Memory, it was time to give it a new look. The original cover (which is still attached to the kindle version on Amazon) was made in the kitchen of the old house with a photo of my lovely wife pretending to scream. No matter what we did, the scream looked just a shade too much like laughter, which I suppose is a testament to her being a sweet and happy person. The only remedy – the book is a thriller after all, can’t have happy laughter on the cover – was to digitize duct tape over her face using a Photoshop knockoff. Don’t look too closely, I’m not much of a digital artist.

All in all, the cover came out great for who I was at the time, but there were two issues with it. One, it was dark, and it wasn’t the most appealing for some potential readers. And whether we are willing to admit it or not, we really do judge a book by its cover. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, since it depicted violence toward women, it violated Amazon’s community guidelines regarding advertising. This meant that I could use the image, I just couldn’t take advantage of any of Amazon’s advertising tools.

We had just welcomed our first boy, the second would follow four years later, and now that they can both get the cereal from the top shelf on their own, I feel that I have to refresh those projects I’d put off.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen…Sense Memory gets a new cover! It’s time.