Series Relaunch Under a New Name

Have You Noticed My Revised Covers and Series Title?

My Jack Mac Paidin middle-grade fantasy series started as a single book, and nothing but a desire to memorialize my father, thinking, ‘what if?’

I published the eBook edition of Book One: The Golden Telescope on December 23rd, 2019. So, just over five years ago now.

I got A LOT of positive feedback on my original cover, which I hired an amazing artist to create from a scene in the book as I envisioned it.

I went on to publish Book Two, The Kidnapping King, the following year, rehiring the same artist to create the cover art. But I was such a noobie at the whole publishing thing back then, and I really knew nothing about genres or tropes and what the target readers expected in those specific genres.

I adored these covers, but after publishing The Kidnapping King, I heard from some readers that I shouldn't depict adults on a middle-grade book cover for kids.

Thus Began My Cover Re-Design Odyssey

It's a learning process. Self-Publishing.

And I'm still working to get it right.

By the time I decided to redesign the cover for Book Two, I was already knee-deep in writing Book Three: The Magical Legacy. I knew a series should have a cohesive look and feel so that a potential reader would recognize that the books belong together just by looking at the covers. So, instead of having my original artist go back and alter the artwork for The Kidnapping King, I kind of threw the baby out with the bath water and decided to hire an all-new cover design company to revise all three covers.

Which...I Think Now Was a Mistake

At least in so much that I didn't do enough research to discover the cover expectations for my particular genre, ie, studying the look and feel of competitors having success in that genre. My mistake here, in my opinion, was that literally no successful middle-grade books featured photo-realistic images of the characters. I really should have known better. But I stuck with this new look and feel through Book Four...even the audiobook covers.

Le sigh.

So, The Next Rendition

I have not published the new versions on Amazon yet. At the moment, only the eBooks are available for purchase on my website.

*The stories are the same. Only the titles and covers have been changed.

But after even more research, I decided to redesign the covers again, slightly changing the series name to something more in line with the top series in my middle-grade genre, i.e., Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, etc. So, instead of Jack and the Magic Hat Maker, the new name of my series is Jack Mac Paidin...and the... whichever title in my series.

Which Do You Like Best?

I'd really love to hear your opinion!

Please head over to my Jack Mac Paidin Facebook Page and post a comment letting me know which covers, of the three I've designed, you think best suit my series.