What Sells a Book?
Book covers
I’ve often seen independent authors posting a series of cover images online and asking people to choose their favourite; or they might ask a handful of friends what cover they’d buy. Choosing a book cover with either method doesn’t make a lot of sense. I have been telling my family I’m going to paint my bedroom for the last 15 years, but there it is, the same ugly shade of pink it was in the late 1990s.
My point is that people don’t always do what they’ll say they’ll do. A better question to ask friends or people […]
The book cover is the first thing people see when they are browsing in bricks and mortar bookstores or online. It’s often the first impression people have of the book. While those books released by large publishing houses might have been pre-sold via reviews or the fact they have a celebrity author, few independently published books enjoy such benefits. For this reason, self-publishers have to be extra cautious when deciding on a cover design.
Book covers are important marketing tools for publishers. It’s difficult to gauge actual sales made on cover design alone, but there have been numerous anecdotal stories from major publishers that clearly demonstrate the impact a strong cover design can have.