The face of your book

Most people acknowledge that advertising works, if it didn’t, we wouldn’t see companies spending millions of dollars on commercials and branding every year, but there are still some who also think that branding/advertising for their own book isn’t worth investing in.

They repeat the mantra, ‘not everyone judges a book by its cover’, however, most consumers do.

When we are faced with the almost infinite choice of books available (and if you don’t believe me, just take a quick scroll through Amazon), we become very quick at accepting or dismissing a product based on the amount of review stars and how it looks at first glance. If the book cover looks amateurish or badly made, we are going to quickly assume that the contents of the book are just as amateurish.

So, you must ​then ask a deeper question about your journey as a self-publishing author, why are you publishing your book?

Some authors publish simply for family and friends, if they sell other copies along the way, great, but their goal was just to share a book with those close to them, however, for most, they write and then publish their books because they want more than just a handful of people to read their work.

Who are you writing for?

As a storyteller you want to share your work with as many people as possible, right? Or if you have information which would benefit the world, you’d want the world to find it? But to reach a larger audience, you need to take your book’s advertising seriously, and this starts with the book cover.

The book cover becomes the face of your manuscript, it tells the reader straight away the type of author you are and if that reader should invest their time and money in your book, again, if a book looks amateurish, why would anyone consider investing several days of their lives reading it?

I’m not saying you have to spend thousands of dollars on a book cover, but anywhere you cut corners on your work is a mistake, it is possible to get a great looking design for a reasonable price finishing with a professional looking book which attracts readers.

Why spend weeks, months or years writing your book only to rush the book cover?

This is why you should invest in yourself and your book, publishers make sure that the books they promote look professional, they do this because they know it works, their covers look great and they catch the eye of the reader (and in a good way). They say that success leaves clues, so if you're still unsure, look at those big publishing houses and see what they do with their covers, go into your local book store or look online and be inspired. 

Your work deserves a great book cover, make sure you give it one.
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