In two months' time, on 12th of May, it will be the first anniversary of the release of my debut novel, Gods and Conquerors.

In that time, hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of copies have been downloaded on Kindle or purchased in paperback, it has been reviewed 10 times on Goodreads with an average rating of 4.1, and AmyBucklesBookshelf.co.uk has given it an absolutely glowing review which I read back to myself whenever I'm feeling a bit down. It's been lovely.

But if you said to the average person, "Have you read Gods and Conquerors yet?" They would probably ask you what you were on about. If you went into your local bookshop and asked them where they keep their books by up-and-coming writer Aaron Kane Heinemann, they would have no choice but to turn you away. Despite hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of people having downloaded and read my two books, even combined they haven't sold more than a thousand copies.

I probably shouldn't have told you that. Doesn't matter too much, I suppose.

Anyway, the point is, I'm not as successful a self-published author as I would like to be. So how do I change that?

Well, one way to change it, according to the self-publishing forums, is to create an "author brand". Have a running theme across your covers - the fonts, the imagery, etc. - so that your readers recognise your books and fill their bookshelves with them, and encourage all their friends to do the same.

So, that's what I'm doing this year. Yes, this whole blog post has been about some new covers for my two books - how anticlimactic is that? Story of my life, I'm afraid, folks. Here are the new covers, in all their glory.

One of the other tips for success in self-publishing is to release a book every year. I'm not sure I could manage that, but I'm working on another short story collection at the moment. We'll see how that goes.

Have a nice day, everyone.