It was such a simple thing, really…

Have you ever thought to change one little thing, and suddenly found yourself in the midst of a bucket-load of ripple effects you never even thought of?

That's what happened to me when I decided to tweak my book covers.

There were no big changes involved! I just blurred the hard line between elements, made my name bigger, moved one piece of info from the middle to the top, and made certain the back cover fonts were all the same. That's it.

Holy guacamole.

The first task was uploading all of the new covers for print and eBooks, and waiting for them to go live. Check.

Next came updating the interior files so all the books show all the new book covers in the back pages. Check. Now order new print copies. Check.

Next were the book trailers ~ all ten of them. *jeez* Delete the videos, replace the book covers, upload new videos (with ten brand-new links, mind you!) and add annotations so each video leads to the next one. Check.

Deep breath, and on to my website. Upload the new covers and add the new video links. Check.

Now what do I do about these 200 postcards of each book with outdated covers and pricing? I know! I'm going to two huge events, one in February and one in March, so I'll get a rubber stamp that says, "Special Event Pricing Through Monday!" and pass them out there. Check.

Oops. Now my business cards are outdated. Order a new batch with all the new covers on the back. Check.

Time to make a new promo poster to take to appearances! Create a high quality photo layout with all ten covers plus my brand ("Norway is the new Scotland!") and my website (KrisTualla.com) and email it to Costco to be printed as a 20'x30" poster. Check.

Dang it. All of my Romance Trading Cards are outdated. Too bad. I'm just going to live with it in this particular case. Check.

Don’t judge me.

I was preparing to order a new batch of 2500 promo items - in my case that's a data CD with 50+ files about my books: covers, excerpts to read, excerpts to listen to, the trailers to watch, family trees, estate floor plans, my trip to Norway with photos and explanations of how those places tie into the stories, my "Norway is the New Scotland" video, and more. After getting all the new covers and all the new links I could send off the master.

HUGE "check" ~ if you catch the pun. ;)

Now please don't get me wrong - change is a good thing! If we don't change, we stagnate. Our brains get all fuzzy and dementia-ed. We must always keep applying ourselves to our goal. Constantly move forward. Discipline ourselves to write that un-fun scene, do that un-fun task, or turn in that blog post on time.

*ahem*

So there you are. One tiny change and everything nearby is impacted. The ripple effect is staggering. Overwhelming at times. And ~ exactly what we need.

Here's to every one of you making a simple change in the new year ~ and delighting in the ripples.