All covered up

Cold Secrets has a gorgeous rebrand in the vein of Golden Age mysteries.

New cover for Cold Secrets, V. J. Randle

By the end of 2026, I will have published four books with a publisher (Bloodhound Books). The benefits of signing with a publisher (as opposed to self-publishing) are much-debated in book spaces, however, the agreement works well for me: yes, they take a cut of royalties, but all costs (actors/production for audiobooks, covers, editing etc., marketing etc.) are paid for and dealt with by them, which I much prefer.

This said, one of my titles, Cold Secrets, is self-published. I chose to do this in 2024 because it couldn't find a home, despite lots of lovely feedback. The main issue (and this is a theme that haunts a lot of my books) is that it sits in-between the cosy and thriller sub-genres. Perhaps another post is required to describe the importance of sub-genres, especially within crime writing... mostly for me, because I can't seem to colour within the lines!

So, I decided to self-publish. It was a humbling experience. When you self-publish a book, you're not an author anymore, you're an author and an independent publishing house. Everything was up to me, from hiring a typesetter to a getting the size specifications right on platforms like KDP). One downside was that I couldn't afford to produce an audiobook (arguably one of the most expensive facets of publishing) if I wanted to use a real human actor (I do).

I was also 100% in charge of the cover.

This was an unusual experience, because usually I send my publisher some "inspo" images and they create something, before sending it to me for approval. For two out of the three books I've released with them so far, this process has been a happy experience: I've loved the covers. On one occasion, I pushed back. My preferences were heard and tweaks made, but, ultimately, the creative decision lies with the publishing house. In many ways, this makes sense, because they are the experts.

With Cold Secrets, the final say fell to me. Bloodhound were very kind and helped me source the image of the first cover (this isn't normal practice – they're just a wonderful publisher):

Original cover for Cold Secrets, V. J. Randle

I designed much of it myself and made a few mistakes, as you might be able to tell. To my utter surprise and elation, Cold Secrets sold better than I could ever have imagined. Book bloggers loved it and it even made its way into some bookshops.

With this in mind, I decided to give it a rebrand. In a move quite unlike me, I thought about this business decision very carefully and researched hundreds of mystery book releases. I wanted to give a nod to the vintage mystery covers (a trend which has proved popular recently) whilst retaining a modern twist. I hired a brilliant cover artist and she came up with this beauty:

New cover for Cold Secrets, V. J. Randle

I'm ridiculously pleased with it and hope you like it too! You can grab a copy here.