Here is some advice about how to create a book cover design that I gave to an author-client about creating the cover for her book – I mention this because what follows isn’t just “theory,” it’s practical, pragmatic and “real” advice, too.
Cover designs are essential to book-sales success. They need to work as thumbnails, they need to catch the reader’s eye, and they need to motivate a positive reaction – all at once. Too many writers are tempted to design their own, and fall into some predictable pitfalls, as noted here. Assuming you’re not a graphic designer (too), you’re going to want to work with one. However, you have the final say, and it’s up to you to guide the designer to deliver a book cover that sells well and makes you proud of your book, too.
First, find six books whose covers you really like – covers that would make you want to buy the book (or even better, covers that already did make you buy the book). Run these covers by a group of friends and members of your network who are in your target audience. Do not ask friends or relatives who would never buy the book unless they knew you wrote it. Instead, stick to people in your target demographic, because theirs are the only opinions that count. Email them a link to each book (on Amazon) and ask their opinions about their top-three favorite covers (i.e., those which might make them buy the book) from among the six. They won’t decide the final cover by voting – you’ll make that decision – but this informal poll will help you decide about the covers’ relative marketability. Be prepared to be surprised.
From this input, choose the top three designs – these should help define the cover design you want. Then to write a detailed description of the book for use by your book-cover designer, who will take your favored covers and your description and come up with a set of three designs. Choose which one of the three you prefer. You can go back to your network and ask them – again – about the final design, but you will reserve the final decision to yourself. Their input on the three designs will give you information that will help you to make the right final decision.
You’ll also need to have the back cover design for your POD printed books (which is part of the cover design issue noted above – and you can choose back covers from different books than you will for the front cover.
Regarding polling your network for input on the covers. Until recently, authors did this on Facebook (many, who don’t know any better, still do). However, as Alex Newton recently reported on k-lytics, way back in October of 2017, Facebook made some algorithm changes. Based on this change, Facebook now penalizes people who ask their online friends to “vote” on something. Thanks to spammers who flood Facebook with bogus posts, they used this kind of tool to create traffic that isn’t organic.
Facebook sees this as “engagement bait,” which they’re trying to eradicate. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater, instead of seeing your survey as an honest request for input, Facebook now sees it as a kind of spam. Therefore, going forward, if you try this online survey approach, Facebook will penalize your ranking and may also block your survey from your followers. Neither of those penalties is worth the risk. So forget about doing an A/B survey on Facebook. Instead, do this by email. If you have a strong Facebook presence, your email won’t be as effective, but at least it won’t get you into trouble.
I personally like simple covers. Some authors don’t want to be on the cover, but that is an option to consider. As I tell all my writing clients, the only two factors I care about for their book covers are: (1.) what will sell the most books; and, (2.) what makes the author happy and proud of their book. The ideal cover will do both.
This blog is based on information included in my forthcoming book,Write Now! Writing YOUR Book – to Attract New Clients and Make You a News Media Expert, which will be published early in 2018.
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