Congratulations. Writing a book is hard work and now you’ve done it. What next? Now you have to sell the book. In order to sell the book you’re going to need to do things you thought you would not want or like to do. Selling isn’t for everyone but everyone has to do it eventually. The great thing is that there are so many ways that you can market your self-published book that you can find something that fits with your personality and needs.
Craft an Amazing Book Cover
The fact is people do judge a book, whether hard cover or digital, by its cover. Due to this, it’s imperative that you pay close attention to the cover of your book. If you’re not a graphic artist, you probably want to enlist the help of one. There are several elements of a great book cover to consider.
- The Title – Ensure that you can read the title based on the fonts and colors used. When you pick a title for a new book, don’t think of yourself. Think of your audience. What words can you use to help your audience want to buy and read the book? The title isn’t really the place to be too clever. Straightforward is probably best in this case, so that your audience knows what’s inside the book.
- Subtitle – Many titles do not need subtitles; but, if you choose to use one, you need to understand that a subtitle is supposed to further the understanding of what’s inside the book. Use the subtitle to elaborate on the main title so that you’re audience knows what’s inside.
- Design & Layout – Most people will simply glance at your cover. It’s worse if they’re online, they’ll scroll right down the list of books looking at the covers clicking only one what catches their eye. In a bookstore, people walk through the aisles and pick something based on the spine before they look at the cover.
- Back Cover – The back cover of the book usually offers a brief, but interesting overview of what’s inside the book. Even if you’re creating a digital cover, it helps to create a “back cover” blurb anyway that you can use to help people decide to buy it on the description area wherever you upload your book.
- Reviews – Collecting reviews from “beta” readers can help you have something to add to the back cover or in some cases the front cover depending on your design. If you have a hard cover book it can go on the inside flap as well. Even if you are designing a digital book cover do work on collecting reviews anyway to use elsewhere when needed.
- The Spine – This is again, only for print books and hardcover books. The spine is the area people see when the book is on a bookstore or library shelf. This area should contain information such as title and author. If your title and other important info is short, you may want to include additional bits of information.
- Author Bio – This can go on the back or it can go inside the flap of a hard cover book. If you’re only selling digital books, you can include the author bio on the author page of every digital site where you list your book. Depending on the type of book, this may be a very important piece to help your audience understand your credentials enough to want to buy the book.
If you’re designing a cover for a digital only book, you won’t have a back cover or a spine but the rest of it is really the same. If you’re not designing the art work for your cover as if it’s going to be printed out someday, you’re making a huge mistake. Create the cover of your book as if it’s already a best seller.
I’m author and online marketing strategist Connie Ragen Green. I work with entrepreneurs to create multiple streams of online income and would love to connect with you. Download my Online Entrepreneur’s Blueprint and get started right away.