What's in a Cover?

In a word, everything. We're all told to never judge a book by its cover, but admit it, we all do, whether we mean to or not. We're drawn to certain artwork or styles of covers over others. It's just how we are. And in this day and age of technology, where we see our books put before us in digital form by their covers, it's more important than ever.

Every day, hundreds, if not thousands, of new books hit the market. Self-publishing has made it possible for all of us to get our work out there. We no longer have to go through the painful process of writing queries, finding an agent, and hoping a big publishing house will pick up our book. If we want to avoid that, we can. However, it's important to know how to market our book.

As I said in my last post, it's important to put out your best work, and to do that is to hire an editor. Well, what's just as important is to hire someone to make your cover for you. Maybe you are artistic enough to pull it off yourself. Or maybe you're one of the lucky ones who has a friend or someone in the family who can do it for you. No matter which way you go, you have to make sure your cover stands out and screams "LOOK AT ME!" You need to intrigue someone enough to click on that link to read the blurb.

Let me give you an example here:

The first cover was on the "first edition" of this book. The second was done by a fan of the author and became the "second edition." Of these two images, which one grabbed your attention? Most likely the second. As a matter of fact, when I talked to the author about these two covers, he admitted the new cover boosted sales by quite a bit. It makes you intrigued. You want to read the blurb and see what it's about. 

NEVER underestimate the power of the cover of your book. It's what your readers will see first, whether it's in digital form or sitting on a bookshelf in a store. It's what will encourage them to pick it up so see what it's about.

Yes, artists that specialize in book covers can be expensive. But I can tell you from experience, it's hard work! It took me all day to come up with a cover once and it sucked. LOL You don't want someone to come up to you and say, "Writing isn't that hard, surely you should just hand everyone your book for free." So please don't insult a book cover artist when it comes time to determine what their work is worth. THEIR work is what will draw more attention to YOUR work, so it's worth going with the best you can afford.

Look for someone who does artwork you admire. They should have a portfolio you can browse so you an see if you two will work well together. You don't want to pay $500 only to find out that you can't stand how they do their images. Of course, you can probably find someone cheaper than that. Just remember you get what you paid for.

Some places you can find good artists is on deviantart.com. Another option is to see if there's a good art program at a nearby college. Many new artists would be willing to take a little less money for the option of having your cover in their portfolio for the future. So look around and see what's available. Just remember, we DO judge a book by its cover.