Creating Your Book Cover
You can judge a
book by its cover—and people do it all the time. Your cover has to convince YOUR
target buyer that this is her type of book, and that it’s a good one. The tips
below, gleaned from ten years in marketing for the publishing industry, helped me create my own covers. I pass them along in hopes
that they help you too.
1. Hire a professional. It isn’t as
expensive as you may think. Three eBook covers cost me less than $100 per book:
A small investment that has already paid for itself many times over in book
sales.
2. Choose the right professional. I did a
web search to find designers in my genre (Romance), then looked at their
websites and portfolios. Who designs covers that appeal to you and make you
want to buy the book? When you’ve found somebody whose work you like, ask for a
quote.
3. Know your market. Think about authors
whose books resemble yours. Those authors have succeeded in attracting your
market. Look at the covers of their books, and you’ll see trends. (Shirtless
heroes? Flowers? An ornate font, or a simple one? Big, bold block letters on a
red background, for a thriller?) Copy the links to your favorite covers. You’ll
want to share them with your designer.
4. Define the effect you want to achieve. Your
cover is your brand. Even if you only have one book out there now, you’ll want
a “look” that people identify with your style. A good designer excels in
translating “feelings” into art. This is the direction I gave my own designer:
“I want a simple, tasteful, intelligent cover (no half-naked heroes!) Something
that still says ‘romance,’ but not ‘embarrassing.’ The books are funny,
playful, sexy, and occasionally tearjerking. Not completely frothy, a serious
story in there too. I want to convey that--plus ‘exotic New Zealand locale.’”
I also had three books, with a
fourth to come, so I needed to tie the covers together. The designer achieved that
with the use of color and layout.
5. Research stock art. You’ll get better
results and help your designer if you take the time to find stock imagery that
conveys the look you’re going for. I used Dreamstime.
The designer used the image I found for my first book, Just
This Once, but found different (better!) images for the other books, Just
Good Friends and Just
For Now.
6. Work the design, and get feedback.
After you get the designer’s first pass, ask people who have read your book for
their reactions, then evaluate the feedback and give ONE response to the
designer. If it isn’t quite right, keep working. (It took me three or four
rounds.) Don’t give the designer specific direction (“could you put the title
under the picture?”) Instead, try to explain the “feeling” that isn’t quite
right (“It doesn’t look playful enough”).
7. Admire your beautiful book cover! I
hope it sells great!
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Title: Just For Fun (Escape to New Zealand #4)
Author - Rosalind James
Date Published: 12/8/12
Synopsis: What if the person who broke your heart turned out to be the only one who could mend it?
Nic Wilkinson is a responsible, organized, disciplined rugby player at the top of his game. Emma Martens is a sometimes-scattered, often-emotional, and always-broke would-be designer with a big chip on her shoulder where Nic’s concerned.
They have no history together, except one perfect week. Nothing in common anymore, except the most important thing of all.
Getting together again would be messy. Complicated. Scary. And, just maybe, worth every risk.
Excerpt:
“Mum!” Zack burst in through the front door. “It was
brilliant!” He kicked his shoes off impatiently, dropped his rugby boots next
to them before struggling out of his jacket. Nic followed him in, grabbed the
jacket and hung it on the brightly painted rack next to the door when Zack
would have dropped it on the floor.
Emma reached out for a hug that, Nic saw, the boy was still
willing to give his mother, at least here at home. Her eyes met Nic’s as she
looked over her son’s head. How did she always look so soft? So . . . pettable?
She was wearing another sweater, that was all, he told his troublesome libido.
Another light, lacy one, prettily trimmed once again. A pale pink cardigan with
pearly shell buttons, edged in cream, over a long stretchy top and leggings.
She looked like an invitation to cuddle. Like the best blankie
ever.
“Can Nic stay for dinner, Mum?” Zack asked excitedly,
offering a welcome distraction from his wayward train of thought. “He could
help me tell you all the things we did. We’re having spaghetti!” he told Nic.
“It’s really good.”
“Can’t, mate. Sorry,” Nic put in hastily at Emma’s
instinctive shake of the head. “But I’ll have a glass of water, if one’s on
offer.”
“Sit down,” Emma told him. “Please.”
Nic slipped off his own shoes before heading to the couch
with Zack. “Cheers,” he said as she came back from the kitchen to hand each of
them a glass, then took her own seat in a small armchair next to the couch, the
only other option the little room offered.
“You look tired,” she said abruptly. “And bruised. Are you
OK?”
“Just a bit confused on the sleep schedule, still,” Nic
admitted. “I took a wee pill on the flight home, but it never works that well.”
“It’s a long way, Mum,” Zack put in. “South Africa’s really
far.”
Nic took a long drink of the cold water, looked around for
something to set the glass on. “Coaster?”
“Just put it down,” Emma told him.
“Don’t want to spoil this,” he said, looking more closely at
the coffee table. The simple rectangle had been transformed into a forest of
ferns, with native birds peeping out from underneath fronds, perched in trees.
The parson-throated tui making a meal of red fruit, the colorful, stumpy takahe
on the forest floor, tiny fantails darting overhead.
“You can’t,” Emma assured him. “It’s all enamels. Everything
in this house is pretty indestructible.”
“Did you find the ruru yet?” Zack asked him, leaning
forward.
“Don’t tell me,” Nic said. “Let me look.” Zack watched him
eagerly as he searched and finally pointed triumphantly to a notch in a tree
where the owl blended into the bark. “There.”
“You did this too, eh,” he asked Emma. “Nice.”
“I did everything. That’s my decorating theme. Things I
made.”
“I like it,” he assured her. The warm colors of the lounge
seemed to cocoon them. Two walls were a rich caramel, the others a warm yellow.
She didn’t even paint every wall in a room the same color, he realized. Well,
at least in the kitchen it was all the same. Purple. He wondered what color her
bedroom was. How it looked. And found himself wishing, against every better
impulse, that he could see it.
Author Bio:
Rosalind James is the author of the Kindle bestseller Just This Once and the three subsequent books in the Escape to New Zealand series.
She is a former marketing executive who has lived all over the United
States and in a number of other countries, traveling with her civil
engineer husband. Most recently, she spent several years in Australia
and New Zealand, where she fell in love with the people, the landscape,
and the culture of both countries.
Visit www.rosalindjames.com to
listen to the songs from the books, follow the characters on their
travels, watch funny and fascinating New Zealand and rugby videos, and
learn about what's new!
Contact Links
Author website
Facebook
Twitter
Buy Link
Rosalind James is the author of the Kindle bestseller Just This Once and the three subsequent books in the Escape to New Zealand series.
She is a former marketing executive who has lived all over the United
States and in a number of other countries, traveling with her civil
engineer husband. Most recently, she spent several years in Australia
and New Zealand, where she fell in love with the people, the landscape,
and the culture of both countries.
Visit www.rosalindjames.com to
listen to the songs from the books, follow the characters on their
travels, watch funny and fascinating New Zealand and rugby videos, and
learn about what's new!
Contact Links
Author website
Facebook
Twitter
Buy Link
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