I have always held that if you ask your audience a question, after you get a dozen or so votes, you WILL have your answer.
Well, yesterday I asked about a new author pic. And the vast majority of replies came back and said don’t go with the yellow shirt! Now, most of you were nice and said it didn’t look bad, but you simply preferred the old photo. And most of you said why. (I have discussed the importance of a good author picture before, HERE, and the debate continues.)
Friendly. Approachable.
Well, that’s important. Because MARKETING.
One of you mentioned Fabio… (I think we can still be friends, Jenny.)
The point is, what are you trying to represent yourself as? What is the look you are trying to give? Think marketing:
As an author, how do you want to appear to your specific target audience?
What’s your demographic? If it’s children, a sexy pic isn’t right. If it’s cookbooks, friendly works. My demographic is mainly married women age 35-55 with kids. (Mainly, but not 100%) They aren’t looking for Fabio – from me – so I think trying to go sexier isn’t necessarily the right way to go. By default, then, the old picture wins. But what I also glean from the information is, maybe go get a NEW picture done but just smile and be friendly like you were in the OLD picture.
I can do that.
And we have to remember: the image that worked for the existing stuff isn’t necessarily what will be right as I move away from humor and move into romance, action/adventure, paranormal thrillers, and more.
But I’ll rely on YOU for that guidance.
Which of those guys should sell that book? Hmmm…
(Just $2.99, FREE with Kindle Unlimited http://geni.us/navigators)
I don’t think every four or five years I’m going to come back and redo my author picture. I might do it every year or I might never change it again, but it makes sense to have an image your readers and fans can immediately identify with, and one that YOU like as well. And the fact is, my hair looks like crap in the original picture – to me. And, well, I matter in this too.
So we will probably switch back to the old picture for a while as we attempt to get a new picture that looks like the old picture.
If that sounds like a lot of effort just end up with the updated version of the old picture, well that’s kind of what it is. But you’re worth it.
REMEMBER: the fans are never wrong, so LISTEN TO THEM!!
About covers and blurbs and author images.
I thank you for the input! Old picture will be returning very soon. A new old picture. Then we’ll see how I did.
Dan Alatorre 
I am missing the yellow shirt already.
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Archives. https://danalatorre.com/2016/08/13/im-gonna-need-your-help-on-monday/
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Thank you Dan. Much appreciated.
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I’ll tell you what’s funny, though…
The vast majority of my blog readers – whose opinions I trust – said don’t switch from the yellow shirt picture.
BUT!
The “teaser” post I did Saturday (with the yellow shirt) got about DOUBLE the views as the post asking for the help (Monday’s post).
Also, it was a HUGE number of views for a Saturday (Saturday’s are usually slow).
ALSO, I added a bunch of followers over the weekend.
So… I have to consider that input, too.
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Face it Dan, people like the nipple. No doubt your new followers are nothing more than wanton perverts – if that is the case, kindly direct them to my blog and hopefully they will follow me too. Less nipple over at mine, though.
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Maybe I just underestimated Saturday traffic.
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Oh yes. It could be that.
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Genuinely fascinated in seeing the whole process taking place.
Small wonder you sell books, you reach out to the readership.
(Now I used to sit in a small part of the literary Solar System, hoping to be discovered….oh well)
All the best with your work.
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I try. And we share what works.
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Sorry I was away so couldn’t comment on monday :). I can see the problems with using the same picture if you want to give a different image with different books but there is something to keeping the same image everywhere. My meerkat avatar (ok it’s NOT an author image) is posted everywhere I am online and I’ve had people contacting me telling me they recognise me, or my meerkat avatar, from all over the web! I can only assume that’s what’s led to an unexpected increase in followers for me for in recent weeks! Good luck with the new new photo if that’s what you’re going to do, my mum likes the yellow shirt one btw :). It’s weird how different you look in different photos, lol. Btw did I give you that link to that guest post I did about reviewing? (no problem if you did, not sure it’s reblog worthy, hopefully my new post about how to ask reviewers will be when I post it this week) but I can’t remember and WordPress doesn’t like me today, it’s taken me about half an hour to successfully reply (if this reply goes through that is
)
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