Wednesday 13 February 2013


THE RIGHT PACKAGING

How important is a book cover? And how often do we despair or agonise over the cover of one of our books. The publisher very rarely gets it right, even when they have asked for precise details of the main characters. Our redhead turns into a brunette on the cover and our tall, dark hero, who is well into his thirties, looks like a blond teenager.

Self-publishing leads to even more anguish. Do we pay for a professional cover, or do we do it ourselves? I recently published a new novella with KDP and I did the cover myself. I bought a cheap photo-editing package (£30) and paid £3.99 for the photo. The book is called Forgotten and I dismissed a lot of fonts before I found one that I thought looked right for the title.

When the only available book readers were in black and white it didn’t matter so much, but my Kindle Fire is in glorious full-colour HD and the cover picture matters a lot. The book needs to look professional and the cover needs to relate, however remotely, to the content of the book – which is more than can be said for some professionally published books.

With so many e-books out there now, we all have to find a way to make our books stand out from the crowd. Writing a good, well-edited, book is important of course, but the cover might just push it that one step ahead of the rest.

 

7 comments:

  1. This is a relevant post for us having just returned from our writing group meeting. Our challenge was to write a short story based on the cover of a book we hadn't read. The results were interesting!
    The stories were diverse and it's possible that not one of them was anything like the content of the book.

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  2. That's a fabulous cover Fay, very professional. I really like the way the girl looks so isolated and in danger and yet there is the shining light which seems to draw her to some hope. I think I might commission you to design my covers (for a price of course!) if I'm ever brave enough to take the big step of self publishing. Cara

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  3. You did a great job with your cover. I remember when my first book was published and my 30 something rector's wife looked like a teenage streetwalker!

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  4. My idea of a good cover is one that makes you itch to read the book - and that's exactly what you've done here, Fay. Congratulations!
    I read somewhere recently that a good, professionally designed cover can increase ebook sales by up to seventy per cent. So yes, covers are important.

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  5. Love the cover, Fay - it really draws us in!

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  6. I love the cover and can't wait to read the book. I pay Jane Dixon-Smith to design mine as I'm not as clever or artistic as Fay.

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  7. Okay, third try to post here. Fay, I agree that attractive covers are vital to reflect the story and genre. Well done on yours which reflects mystery and fear, and good luck with it. I design my own ebook covers and always buy quality images to reflect the genre and story. At least doing it yourself, you have that choice. I always get feedback from others who know what I write and therefore what I should convey and if it has instant visual appeal before using a book cover design of my own.

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