Book Covers that Sell

Everyone is familiar with with the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," yet most people do it anyway. We can't help it.  It's human nature.

Therefore, if you're a self-published author and you want to sell your book, you must have a good, effective cover.  It is the first point of contact that readers have with your work.

What makes an effective book cover?

• The cover must look professional.  If it looks sloppily put together or "homemade," readers will assume that the content is similar.  
• The cover must fit its genre, but the same time, it must stand out from the crowd.  This is one of the trickiest aspects. Wanting your book to look like other big sellers in your genre is natural, but nobody ever became truly successful by imitating other people. Your book cover should fit the genre but be as original as possible so that it attracts attention and readers want to click on it to find out more.
• The cover must not be too "busy" or detailed. Many authors make the mistake of trying to tell the entire story with the book cover. If you try to do that, you'll end up with nothing but a confusing mess. The "less is more" rule definitely applies to book cover design. A similar mistake is wanting any people shown on the cover to look exactly like the characters in your novel. This is not important - your book cover's main job is to attract attention and provide readers with a "flavor" of your book.
• The cover must look good, with the title legible, at larger thumbnail sizes (about 80x120 pixels on Amazon, for example).  This is crucial. If it merely looks like an indistinct smudge, readers are very likely to pass it over.

Of course, effective book cover design is part art and part craft. At the end of the day, you have to use your instincts and go with what you think will best sell your book, and you will often end up testing several covers before you find the one that works best.

How can you have your cover designed? Although its possible to do it yourself, unless you have some experience in book cover design, what you'll end up with will probably look amateurish, even though it may not look that way to yourself.  Therefore, I would recommend hiring a professional designer.

I offer this service to other authors by working with the same graphic designer who creates my own covers, and my rates are competitive.  If you're interested, please contact me at mike (at) mikewellsbooks.com and tell me about your book.

This Week's Reader Interview with Emily Hill

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Certainly.  The first thing I’d like you to know about me is that I am a fan of your writing.  So, I’m thrilled to be able to share my reading preferences and why I like your writing style so much. 

I am an avid reader.  As a child I was read to – classics, comics, it didn’t matter the format, we were encouraged to read, to listen to the readings of our teachers and librarians; and accept the perspective of other’s.

When and how did you discover that you love reading fiction?

Well, before I answer that question, let me make a distinction.  There is love – and there is passion.  I knew I loved reading when I discovered The Wizard of Oz.  My maternal great-grandmother was an antique dealer.  Somehow she came to be acquainted with L. Frank Baum, the author of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.  After her death my sister and I were bequeathed a complete, autographed set, of Baum’s Oz series.  My sister still has that set in her library.  

But, as I said, there is also passion.  I became passionate about fiction when I discovered Stephen Dobyns’ ‘The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini’.  No finer book has ever been written by a contemporary author.  Oh, sure, there is Feuntes’ ‘The Death of Artemio Cruz’; and ‘Chronicles of a Death Foretold’ by Gabriel García Márquez; and ‘The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, by Jose Saramago – but American contemporary writers?  Dobyns is the one who swept me away.

What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?

Well, you are certainly a pretty clever author! ‘Baby Talk’ was right up my alley – the pathos, the level of evil.  And your titles! Who comes up with your titles!  Oh…right…I guess I know that story!  But, beyond your work, I would include Richard Russo for laughs; and Anita Shreve for topics that concern, primarily, women.  

I pay attention when Ann Patchett publishes.  Margaret Atwood’s books line my shelves; and I would be remiss not to mention the late great Edith Wharton.  Wharton’s ‘The House of Mirth’ was a masterpiece of gradual pathos.  So, my point here is that my standards are pretty high, and I’m pleased when I look over my collection and see that your titles are included in my collection.

What is your favorite thing about reading fiction?

The ‘life is stranger than fiction’ aspect of fiction. Or rather, the type of fiction that I enjoy.  I could conceptualize a young father falling into a state of madness and mayhem in the way that you described in ‘Baby Talk’.  Equally, I can envision a daughter carrying on her father’s defense as portrayed in ‘Lust, Money, and Murder’.  

I have had the luxury – and the challenge – of an interesting life  Therefore, it is easy to frame into a fictional context all that I experience, and visa versa.

Do you have any “pet peeves” about authors, something they do that really annoys you?

Nope.  “Hug an author” is my motto.  I cannot imagine having a pet peeve with anyone’s creative genius, whether an author, or an artist who specializes in oils, or watercolors, or photography.  I’m not that presumptuous.

Do you write fiction yourself?

Yes.  Like you, I write across a number of genres – from historical fiction to paranormal non-fiction.  No, I did not cross-switch those two descriptions.  

What do you think about ebooks vs. paper books?

I’m a bit of a traveler, eBooks have certainly lightened my suitcase.  And who, other than an author, can argue with the great price of eBooks.  But I cherish my paper-book collection.  My hard cover, and soft cover books are my collection of nieces and nephews.  

What is your favorite Mike Wells book and why?

Well, I was introduced to your writing – and your personality – over ‘Lust, Money and Murder’ but the grabber for me was ‘Baby Talk’.  Although I may look like a kindly suburban grandmother, my tastes run to dark, edgy, twisted individuals.  Oh my!  No, no!  I’m not referring to you, dear.  I am referring to your character in ‘Baby Talk’, little baby Natasha.  

Truly I could not put ‘Baby Talk’ down and missed my call for bedtime because - in my wildest dreams - I could not have thought up as devious a plot as little Natasha had in mind for her less than welcoming daddy.  A horror classic.  

Thanks so much for taking the time to be intereviewed The Green Water Blog, Emily!

Thank you for inviting me to guest-chat your wonderful, and colorful, blog.  There’s something about the color green that is so compelling.  It’s been my pleasure to share your company on Twitter and other social media networks.  I wish you The Best in a long and successful literary career.  I’ll be watching you, and taking note. 

My contact email is   info@AVHarrison-Publishing.com

My website is at   http://www.emilyHillwriter.com

Free Eliza!  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/86302

Should You Go the Traditional Route or Self-Publish?

By far, the most common question other writers ask me is whether they should go the traditional publishing route (i.e., get an agent and then work with that agent to sell their book to a big publisher) or to self-publish their books like I’m doing now. 

When you start thinking about this question in depth, it can get pretty confusing.  I personally spent many years mulling it over and experimenting with both approaches.  But when you get it all untangled, the answer is pretty simple.

You should seriously consider self-publishing if you have an entrepreneurial personality.

What do I mean by that?  By having an entrepreneurial personality, I mean you’re the type of person that has very strong feelings about anything you create, not only about how it is made, but how it is packaged, marketed and sold to the customer.  You like to make all those decisions yourself.  You like 100% control over everything you do.  You are naturally good at presenting yourself, and anything you create, to other people.  You are probably not a very good “team player.”  You believe you are right most of the time, even when you’re not.  And you probably (if you’re like me) loathe bureaucracy.  There’s nothing that gets on your nerves more than long, boring meetings, and you especially hate decision-making by committee.

What does all this mean?  It means that if you have an entrepreneurial personality, you’re not likely to get along with big publishing houses whether they want to publish your book or not.  Big companies are bureaucracies, and they are going to do things their way.

If you are able to land a good literary agent (no small feat), and that literary agent is able to get a big publisher interested in your book (also no small feat), Big Publisher is going to want control over virtually every aspect of your baby.  They will demand control over the basic product itself (editing and fine-tuning the manuscript), they will demand control over the packaging (the title, cover illustration, and jacket promotional copy), and they will demand control over the promotion and distribution of the product  (advertisements, press releases, etc.)

And why shouldn’t they?  It’s their money that’s being invested!  Would it be any different if your were an inventor and took your brilliant new gadget to a big company and wanted them to license it, manufacture it, package it, and market and sell it through their existing distribution channels and pay you a royalty for each unit sold?  No.  It’s exactly the same situation.  Big Company thinks they know best, and they are risking their money, so naturally Big Company not only expects but demands to have control over every aspect of the product that affects their return on investment.

Now, this doesn’t bother some people at all.  Many writers say “Fine, I understand that, it makes sense—I would do the same if I were in their shoes.”  And these writers are able to comfortably work with the big publishers and often achieve fantastic results.

If you are one of those people (I’m not), I envy you.  I would strongly recommend that you go the traditional publishing route and persist, persist, persist until you break through and land that good agent, and get that sweet offer (with all the strings attached) from Big Publisher. (I have lots of helpful articles about that process  here).

However, if you are not one of those people, you should consider self-publishing.  I’m quite sure if I were ever present in a committee meeting at Random House where they were discussing the packaging of my book, I would end up stabbing some button-down executive to death with a letter opener.

There is one exception I would add, though, and it’s an important one.  If you are the type of person who can get along well with Big Publisher (and you intuitively know this even at this moment, even if you’ve never had any contact with one), there is a case when you may still want to self-publish.  That would be when you’ve made a truly valiant effort to go the traditional route, but you continue to be rejected, not due to the quality of your writing, but because the publishers don’t believe there is a large enough market for your work (large enough for them to make their money back plus a profit).

In this situation, you can self-publish your book for the sole purpose of proving the market for it.  If you can sell an impressive number of copies of your book on your own, agents and publishers will start getting interested.  I’m not talking Amanda Hocking’s or John Locke’s numbers—10,000 copies are enough.  Then, as Amanda Hocking has done, you can switch over the traditional route and let other people handle most of the editing, packaging and promotional details of your book.

Is 10,000 copies a lot of books?  Yes, it is.  And that’s where the downside comes in—if you don’t have an entrepreneurial personality, you may find that selling even 1,000 copies is beyond your capacity. So, in that case, it’s best to stick to the traditional route and persist, persist, persist.

I hope this helps.  As always, comments are welcome.

If you found this article useful, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee 😃  click here  - 

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Independent Authors. We Try Harder

As an independent author, I feel a lot like the Avis Rental Car Company must have felt back in the 1960s.  Hertz was the first company to aggressively pursue the rental car market, and competitors found it almost impossible to gain any ground.  Their main rival, Avis, lagged far, far behind.  For 10 long years, Avis tried to compete with Hertz, but could not even make a dent in the market.  Finally, at their wits end, Avis management hired the small but prestigious Madison Avenue firm Doyle Dane Bernbach to come up with a “killer” advertising campaign against Hertz—if they failed, Avis would throw in the towel and shut the company down.

The result was one of the most successful campaigns in advertising history.  The slogan created for Avis was “We’re Number Two.  We Try Harder.”

In the next few years, Avis grew at a remarkable 35% rate, grabbing big chunks of market share from Hertz.   The strategy exceeded even their most optimistic expectations. 

Why did the “We Try Harder” campaign work so well?

Because it was true.

When you’re the little guy, going up against the heavy, entrenched competition, you really do have to try harder.  If you don’t, you simply won’t survive.

As I said, I feel a lot like the folks at Avis must have felt back then, and I know a lot of my fellow independent authors feel the same.  We are struggling to have our voices heard.  We are a bunch of Davids going up against a Goliath, the Goliath being the big publishers in New York.  We can’t simply be as good as the Stephen Kings and James Pattersons and J.K. Rowlings—we have to be better.  And on top of that, we have to do it on a shoestring budget.

Now, I know what you may be thinking.  There are a lot of independent writers who produce junk, badly-written, badly-edited, and badly-formatted books that are not worth reading.  And you’re absolutely right—I’ve seen plenty, and bought some of them, too.

But doesn’t the same hold true for the big, established authors?  Aren’t many of them producing “junk” as well?  I know at least some of them are because I often spend my hard-earned money on their latest books, only to find myself disappointed.  Due to their success and fame, they’ve lost touch with how to engage and satisfy the very readers who made them successful in the first place. In short, they don't need to try so hard anymore.

Another criticism of independent authors that is that they "are just bad writers who couldn’t get published by the big guys.” 

Not so.  At least, not in my case.

The reason I was never published by the big guys is because when push came to shove, I didn’t want to be.  I wouldn’t play their game. I wouldn’t rewrite my books to conform to their cookie-cutter standards, to make my books more like all the other books they sold in order to minimize their risk.   

The big publishers are bureaucracies, and like all bureaucracies, they are not known for their creative, out-of-the-box thinking. They make decisions by committee. I don’t have to tell you how many fantastic books like Harry Potter were almost overlooked by the big publishers—you know all those stories yourself.  I sincerely believe that many of the books we independent authors are producing are far more creative and original than many of the books produced by the big publishers in New York.

Independent authors try harder.  We have to.

Discover us!