When I restarted my writing journey about five months ago, one of the first things I wanted to address was my book covers. Not that the previous ones were terrible, but I felt they needed a refresh. It seemed the perfect opportunity to also change the size of my paperbacks (something which ties directly into offering hard covers--more on that in the near future). The old size was 5.25"x8". The new size is 6x9. You can see the difference here:
It's not a huge difference in terms of height and width, but the 6x9 feels so much more substantial when you hold it in your hand. Also, because I have more canvas to work with in terms of each page, I was able to go with slightly more space between each line. This makes the reading process easier on the eyes and, in the case of The Nullification Engine, the page count went from 430 to only 453. I kept the same cream paper color and matte finish for the exterior.
Here's a snapshot of the interiors of The Assassin's Blade and Engines of Alchemancy (both 6x9 editions):
It's important to control the page count because printing costs, which were already high, have only gone up given our current economic climate. Printing costs are the major reason you'll see most paperbacks priced so high nowadays. I generally price mine between $15 - $20 (that differs by country), and even at that price I only make a few bucks on each sale. Printing costs are the biggest piece of the pie by far.
I'm really happy with how these new covers came out and I especially like the larger paperback size. They look good on my bookshelf. :-)
You can find out more about my books and find links to buy the paperbacks on my main books page.
Join my reader's group and get The Hall of Riddles (An Alchemancer Prequel) and The Assassin's Dilemma (An Assassin Without a Name Prequel) as a welcome gift.