Getting the right book cover design is critical to the success of your book, and choosing the right designer is critical to getting a great book cover. There are hundreds (thousands?) of book cover designers out there, so how do you choose the best one? First of all, there are probably many designers who could do an excellent job creating a cover for you. Selecting the right … [Read more...]
Covers Sell Books
Packaging is everything. Each year, corporations spend more than $50 billion on product packaging and design. $50 billion, not for the products themselves or for the wrapper but $50 billion just for the design of the wrapper. Everyone judges a book by its cover. No one reads the book before they make a buying decision. Consumers do not read it in the store. Sales reps only … [Read more...]
Making the Most of Your Book’s Title Page
The title page of a book announces identifying essentials of the book: title, subtitle, author, and publisher. It may also include more publishing information or descriptive text about the book. Illustrations can also be found on title pages. While this page primarily provides book facts, it is commonly also the most decorative display page in a book. As the rest of the book … [Read more...]
15 Tips for Great Book Cover Design
After their book is written and editors sign off on the final rewrite, authors often turn their attention to what will become one of their most agonizing tasks in the entire process – deciding on a book cover design. One reason the task becomes so daunting and painful is that authors too often wait until the end of the process, instead of nearer the beginning, to think … [Read more...]
Does Size Matter? Choosing Your Book’s Size
What size should your book be? Both beginning and longtime authors have to make this decision with each book, and depending on the kind of book, it can be an easy or a difficult decision. Here are some basic guidelines for determining your book's size depending on the kind of book you are publishing. Fiction Fiction books are the easiest for choosing a size. Most novels … [Read more...]
Back Cover Copy and Book Publicity: The Neglected Detail
Nothing detracts more from a book’s appeal than a bad back cover. Whether your reader is a potential buyer, media professional or someone who wants to hire you for your expertise, your book’s back cover has to communicate to your target audience: buy me! Authors often spend months or even years writing their book, yet give little time to what is on the back cover. … [Read more...]
Your Book Is Judged by Its Cover — 7 Tips for Effective Internet Book Selling
Getting Your Book Ready to be Noticed
So…You’ve done the final edit. Now what? Among the many steps you still have to take is: page design. Page design? Big deal you might say. What I need is a great cover for my book. Your potential reader has perhaps 5 seconds to look at your cover. Maybe 10 seconds or more to read the back of your book, before deciding if they want to open it and scan the first few … [Read more...]
Create Powerful and Compelling Back Cover Copy That Sells Books!
Note: The following guidelines are for non-fiction. Fiction, where you simply need to entrance someone with a good story line, would be different. Think about how you buy a book. You pick it up, look at the cover, and if you like the visuals, title, and subtitle, it’s because something resonates in you; something about what you see calls to some desire or longing inside … [Read more...]
Make Your Books More Marketable
As an independent publisher, you owe it to yourself to make your books as marketable as possible. One way to do this is to produce books that look professional in every way, books that are well edited and that follow standard publishing conventions. … [Read more...]