Forgive me if I sound harsh, but are you promoting a movie or a book?
You have headshots of the different characters which looks cool and all, but this is still a book, right?
And how do you want that book to be perceived? Do you want readers to use their own imaginations to decide what the characters look like based on your descriptions? Or, is it more important that they look the way they look in their headshots on the sales page?
You might risk alienating readers that read the book and then don't think the character looks like how you showed them on the sales page. Or, worse, they might flip back and forth between the story and the sales page to see what the character is "supposed" to look like, which can tend to take them out of the story.
It could also appear to readers that you don't have confidence in your writing to convey what the characters look like so you tossed up pictures to show them. And that may turn off some readers because if you don't have confidence in your work, why should they have any confidence they might enjoy reading it?
I get that you may be trying to coordinate with your book trailer, but the trailer is a different medium. I kind of feel like using the headshots markets the trailer more so than the book and the sales page should be all about the book because that is what you're selling.
Also, the "Me" headshot is a different style than all the others which is also off-putting.
First - "Me" was a placeholder for "Narrator" - which I changed.
To your points - exactly!
What does that mean? The book is written in a style that you see in the trailer. Each of the characters is a thread that is unfolded over several decades until they reunite for the surprise ending. Diversity is a thread. Sexuality (not overt) is a thread. Personal growth is a thread. Serial killing is a thread. Geography and cultural shifting of Northern California is a thread.
re: "...don't have confidence in your writing to convey what the characters look like" - Not at all. In fact, I used the descriptives from the pages to create the headshots. Also, an additional purpose of the images is to illustrate diversity in the story. A potential reader will see someone who looks like them and take a risk. Is that a long shot? Sure. All marketing today is a long shot.
Also, there is a shock at the end that caused one of my beta readers (the Mrs) to say, "You SOB." I want the last image to evoke the question: What is that?
A goal was to elicit a visual response without being trite or sappy.
R.C.
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