A picture says a thousand words: for an author, it’s more like 120,000 words. The right book cover image is crucial for attracting customers. No matter what you may think, readers do judge a book by its cover.
Certain genres adhere to guidelines when presenting books, such as harlequin romances and their buff, bare-chested men and scantily-clad women; how-to books often showcase high quality, full color photographs of the project within the book. You can see how the cover actually sells a book.
The book industry relies heavily on cover art. Sales representatives use book covers and jackets as sales tools when approaching bookstore owners. Since online customers cannot read your book prior to purchase, except for the sample chapters you provide, everything that drives the customer to buy is encased in the cover design, synopsis of the book, as well as customer reviews. The importance of creating a good cover design couldn’t be understated.
Not only does a good cover design boost credibility, it captures the attention of potential buyers. For the self-publishing author, this may be a frightening realization. Yet the goal of creating an e-book is to encourage buying decisions in your favor, so why wrap your masterpiece in a less-than-worthy design?
To display your product as a “must have” you need to put as much effort into the design and title as you put toward writing the piece. Anything less would be criminal.
How to Begin
No one knows your book better than you. So think about the key elements in the story.
For Example:
- Orphan Boy Wizard (hero)
- Flies a Broom; Plays Quidditch as a Seeker; catches the snitch (special talent)
- Uses a wand (weapon)
- Must save his school (location), the world, from evil (villain) by finding a magical stone (prize)
Got the picture? J.K. Rowlings’ cover art for the book, the Sorcerer’s Stone (Philosopher’s Stone), uses key ingredients to entice, but NOT reveal the story. Breaking down these elements into their basic parts, we can create a list to follow when you are creating your book covers. (This list is by no means definitive; feel free to add or substitute.)
ASSIGNMENT
Take a few moments and jot down some elements to your story. Include the following as a guide:
- Who is your Hero?
- What are your hero’s characteristics?
- Who is your Villain?
- What are your villain’s characteristics?
- What is the primary location of the story?
- What is the main element of the story? (a magical stone, fire, war)
- What weapons do the hero and villain use?
