My Experience Publishing on Create Space Part 2
Designing a Book Cover
By Gary Dorion
You
want your book to sell in big quantities, right? In my last post I discussed
the importance of perfecting (as much as is practical) your novel or
soon-to-be-published book on your hard drive before uploading to Create Space.
This post is about cover design-in particular, whether or not you should fork
over hundreds of dollars for a professional illustrator to design your cover or
if you should undertake that project yourself. A good cover can help sell your
book as it is the first thing that a reader will see. First impressions can be
a door opener or a door slammed in your face.
You
can certainly design your own cover if you have artistic talent or use a photo,
drawing or other artwork that you can upload to Create Space (an Amazon
company) using the company’s on-line cover design creator. This is actually a
pretty good application although it works far better, in my opinion, if you are
providing the artwork and incorporating it into that program rather than using the company’s
free stock cover designs with photos, etc. which I do not recommend unless
you just want the book for a few friends and are not really interested in
selling it. The company also offers competitively-priced illustration services.
What do you want your cover to convey to readers is the
essential question and what image-photo, drawing or other artwork-will
accomplish this task? Is your choice a sound marketable one or is it more of a
sentimental attachment? Maybe you are attached to a 1940’s photo of your
favorite aunt and feel you just have to use it and that others will have the
same feeling about her that you do when, in actuality, your potential audience
could care less about your aunt or the picture. A good cover artist should be
able to assist you in designing a cover that will produce sales-otherwise what
is the point? Writing is about communication and so, if you write something that
nobody will read, then the whole purpose is shot. If you have friends or
relatives who are avid readers, they may be able to steer you away from a
costly mistake in cover design so do run your ideas by them.
It
took me a long time to decide on a cover. I had some funds budgeted for it but
really didn’t want to spend the money. I wanted my daughter-who has lots of
artistic talent but little or no time-to illustrate the cover. Finally, as the
book was nearing completion and after being unsuccessful for two years trying
to get her to illustrate it, I looked through her drawings of various women she
had already done and one of them-the one I used for the cover-was perfect. Thank
you, Mikaila. Of course she was thrilled that I wanted to use it. While the
drawing was hers, I added the reddish color to the image using the free
downloadable Picasa program. I wanted to convey a feeling of strength but also
vulnerability and even desperation in this woman. Along with the title
selection-Comrade Anna-the image fit perfectly into what I was trying to
convey. The reader hopefully would get the message that this was a young
woman-a Communist or Socialist-who, in the pages of the novel, was going to
encounter something nightmarish, that she had strong determination, a resister or
rebel even, and that she was a survivor. I wanted my the image and title to
convey to readers that they would experience something deep and powerful by
reading the book. I chose the cover colors of red and black to suggest those of
Nazis Germany.
If you do
not know what you want in a cover design, a good thing to do, perhaps, is write
a few paragraphs about what you want your cover to suggest to the reader and
what images might do this. You may also
want to draw the cover free hand and make notations or draw what is called a
mind map using one larger circle in the middle with spokes leading to other
smaller circles and filling in the circles with ideas. Next I suggest checking
out a few dozen bestselling books in your genre and see what it is about the
covers or jackets-both front and back-that seem interesting and, more
importantly, that convey something vital to the reader. Once again, however,
what appeals to you may not be what appeals to your audience so it is best to
test your cover idea with people who read a lot or read books about the genre you
have chosen for your book.
A
non-fiction cover is probably easier to design than a fiction cover but, still,
it is advisable to get advice from other readers. One of them may even give you
a great idea for a cover, making you wish that you had thought of it first.
The rear cover is almost as
important as the front cover so do not underestimate this very important
location to promote your book. In that space, you get to give the reader a
snapshot of what the book is about. But if it’s a novel, be sure to not give
away too much of the story line. The idea here is to give readers enough to
tweak their interest but not so much that they have lost their sense of
curiosity or wonder that you have built up on the covers.
According to the AuthorHouse website-one of the many
self-publishing companies on the web-there are more than 200,000 new titles
published each year. “Bookstores have books featured everywhere-stacked on the
floor, standing on end caps and sitting on tables, not to mention the rows of
shelves,” the AuthorHouse site states. “This mass of inventory provides a
wonderful selection if you’re a book buyer but, if you’re an author, this
book-laden landscape proves to be highly competitive as each product vies for
the browser’s attention and investment. In the few seconds they have to catch
the eye of a potential reader, authors are leveraging the power of an engaging
cover design to help the book stand out and rise above the competition … Even
if you can spin a story as suspenseful as the best of the literary greats, your
book must have an attractive exterior. If not, readers are likely to pass it by
without giving a second glance. Great covers are strategically designed to
catch the eye of a book buyer.”
The writer of that blurb nicely captures the
importance of having a book cover that can pull the reader into the book. If it
doesn’t do this, then your book may not be competitive because it will not hit
its potential readership. Marketing starts with your book cover. It seems that
readers these days will judge a book
by its cover, especially on line when it is so easy to just click away to another
book or subject.
Even
if you spend $800 to hire a professional book cover designer, there are no
guarantees because how your book is marketed is at least as important as all
other considerations even if the content is great. While promoting your book and
marketing it to your target audience is the subject of later posts in this
series, you must take your audience into account when designing the cover and
what it is you want to suggest to that audience. The marketing does not begin
after you write the book but must be prevalent all throughout the writing. A good book designer
will be able to help you to convey something vital about what is inside the
book-provided he or she reads it-and why a reader should buy it. But you, the
writer, should be able to communicate the essentials to the designer.
Here are some of my favorite sites
on self-publishing that you can check out for more valuable information about cover
design and generally how to publish your book.
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