Favorite Book Covers from Authors We've Published

I haven't said a lot in my posts about the wonderful writers we've published - and we've published a few. 

Today I'd like to talk about four of my favorite book covers from a few of these writers and suggest some reasons why they are my favorites.

Let's start at the left. "The Captor's Shadow" was written by M.C. Topham. This 16-year-old's [you heard me right] book is Urban Fantasy and focuses' on Jace and his friends' adventure with the "Shadow." I like the cover of this book not only because of the striking "Shadow" in blue but the mysterious shadow behind him. We purchase a lot of photos online and then turn them into book covers like this one. 

"Pouncer" comes next. A picture book for those who love cats, this book is our most recently published book. Written by Melanie Kae Edgmand and illustrated by Melba Roberts, this fun book where a cat thinks he is royalty and should be honored as such, is striking to me because of all the white space. The title isn't capitalized. When you look at the book you see the title first, and then your eyes are drawn to the "pillow" and then to the chair and Pouncer. 

The next book, "The Planet of the Gods," is written by A.M. Johnston. The book is epic fantasy and takes the reader on a quest with Allen Hamilton and his journey to the Planet of the Gods. The cover which is illustrated by Paul Johnston is dark and yet the planet is lit up. It shines on the face of a God dressed in purple, and whose striking three eyes match the color of the planet. As in the other two covers mentioned previously, there are not too many colors to compete for the reader's attention. 

The last book, "Temarrian Bound," a fantasy, and written by Jen Tolman Allen, has only three colors to its credit. I love the white circles in the tentacles. This picture was also found and purchased online. The tentacle draws the reader in and makes them ask, "What do the aliens look like?" "Where is Temarrian?"

As I was writing this post I found other book covers that I love for different reasons. Perhaps they'll be another day for these books!

Picture Perfect: The Best Cover for Your Book

When you self-publish like I do, you may find yourself scrambling for just the right book cover. And if you can't afford to hire an illustrator or a photographer, you may find yourself giving up even before you've really gotten started.

How can a self-published author with little or no money create an attractive cover?

Here is a list of some things I have done.

For A River of Stones I used a picture of my youngest daughter for the cover. CreateSpace has templates for you to use to create the cover you've envisioned.

For Conquering Your Goliaths: A Parable of the Five Stones as well as the guidebook, I used free stock photos from CreateSpace.

As you can see the book covers are identical. I wanted the reader to connect the story with the guidebook. Having identical covers has also been a great selling point. If you  like the story you may like the guidebook to work through your own Goliaths.

For Scrambled, my husband took some photos using our camera. Although I have liked this cover, I am working on finding an illustrator to update book one to match book two coming out this year. And because illustrators are usually hundreds of dollars, I'm looking for someone who will trade illustrating two book covers in exchange for free publishing of one book through Idea Creations Press. Know of someone? I would love to hear from you.



For The Feast: A Parable of the Ring, my husband and I went to a local bakery and shot photos of a professionally made cupcake. Sure, I'd tried my own cupcakes before that; but there is really something to be said for a professional looking cupcake on an equally professional cover. :)

Marketing Your Book on a Budget also meant that we had to find a free photo of a dollar bill that we could use on the cover.

Fortunately, CreateSpace is set up for not only putting together great covers, but equally quality interiors. They also give you a choice of mat or glossy exteriors. I especially like the mat feature, new on CreateSpace. I think the books look even more professional with this finish.

Choosing the best cover for your book is a little like searching for a home. You're not going to find the home you want right off the bat so it's a good idea to do a little searching online and off to give you some ideas.

After you have a few cover ideas lined up, focus on the reader. Ask yourself, what does this cover generate in terms of interest? Would a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, be drawn to this cover? Make sure that the cover you choose reflects the genre of your book as well as the readership.

As an example, my first book, A River of Stones, was first published through a local publisher. Though the cover was attractive...it really didn't represent the story itself, nor the genre. So when I bought back the rights to the book and created a new cover, I especially focused on the young girls who would be reading this book, rather than on what the title alone represented.

For Conquering Your Goliaths, we had a difficult decision making process. A sunflower really connects with female readers, but I also wanted males not to be put off by the cover. Still, nothing else seemed to work for both sexes, so we finally settled on the sunflower, knowing that our audience would be mostly women because of this choice.

When a cover is chosen, it's important to know what you're stuck with. Not in a bad way, but in a realistic way. It's often difficult to choose a cover with the right genre look, but even more difficult, is the chance you take when choosing a cover that will ultimately draw one sex or the other.

Marketing Your Book on a Budget is a good example of a book that appeals to both sexes, but this is often difficult to achieve; still it's better not to rush this stage, but to take it slowly, almost as slowly as searching for that perfect house.

Why Postcards are So Important in Your Marketing Plan

I know I have hinted at this before, but I wanted to make sure that you knew the details about postcards, when to use them and why they work.

First, business cards have been all the rage for years. I'm not saying you shouldn't use them; I am saying that postcards will get the news out about you and what you do much faster than a name, address, phone number and perhaps, "author" printed on the business card will get you.

Most of my postcards have these features:

On the Back of the Card

A synopsis. You always want a short synopsis of your book no more than 3 paragraphs long.

A QR code. I don't always used a QR code, but I am using it more often than I used to. A QR code does wonders (it's actually a postcard add-on) for anyone that takes a picture of it with their SmartPhone. In an instant they will be taken to a site of your choosing. My QR code goes to this site.

Get your QR code at: http://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/#/. There are many free options on the Internet.



QR Code

My contact information. I include my full name, phone number, email, website and Twitter handle. You may also want to include your Facebook handle.

I sometimes include blank lines near the bottom back side of the postcard. This space is good to write a special note to the person you are giving the card too; something personal like, I hope you enjoy the book.

If you're going to be mailing your postcards, you will only have half the space in back, so keep in mind that the synopsis might be only one captivating line, and you probably will only have room for the date, time and place of your event, and probably not the QR code.

On the Front of the Card

 

I always include the book cover. This fills up the entire card.

 

Postcards are much harder to lose than a business card and provide your future reader with enough information to get online and learn more about your book. Postcards also make great bookmarks and are great for book signings and speaking events. I pass mine out during presentations, and always have them at the table when I'm doing a book signing.

 

If you have any questions about using postcards that I haven't mentioned here, don't hesitate to ask.

 

Happy Marketing!

 

Kathryn

Finding the Best Audience for your Book

Warning--not everyone is going to like what you do or what you have to say--and that's okay.

Consider the ocean and all the sea life swimming within it. How does a clam differ from a whale? A dolphin from a sea horse?

Finding the right audience for your forthcoming book may seem like a real trick but it's also a super treat.

When was the last time you saw a dolphin? Who was their audience? Who got the greatest kick out of the experience?

You want to know WHO is going to like your book BEFORE you put it out there so that you can decide what sort of marketing will bring in the most readers. Here are a few examples:

My audience is primarily female readers

• Because I knew that my book, "Conquering your Goliaths: A Parable of the Five Stones," would relate primarily to women, I made sure that the cover reflected that. I had two colors I was trying to choose between for the text of the cover: black and burgundy. I color printed both of these covers and asked family members if they preferred the black text or the burgundy text. I discovered that most of the men liked the black and most of the women liked the burgundy. I went with burgundy because of the audience for my book.
• Before publishing your book, get readers that are of both persuasions to read your book if you can. A man's viewpoint will probably be different than a woman's and vice-versa. You will also discover if the book appears more interesting to men or women. If you've written a children's book, you probably will want it to cater to both girls and boys, so the cover should reflect that; the same is true for adult books that you want both sexes to be interested in. You may discover that you have an equal amount of interest in your book from both men and women and will want to design a cover appropriate for both views.
• When you're marketing your book, consider where your audience will be spending their time and make sure you frequent these places. Speaking engagements are great, if you choose venues your audience frequents. For example, if you've written a children's book, you might consider an indoor amusement park as a possible place to have a book signing or a book consignment opportunity instead of shelving your book at a typical book store.
• My book is also Christian, and not everyone is going to go for a Christian Fiction book. But in an era where many people are struggling to make ends meet, a book that speaks of doing better in life is a real winner. If your book answers a current concern, expresses a popular viewpoint, or gives the reader an opportunity to escape from life in a new and exciting way, you may just have a winner, too.

Finding the best audience for your book is an important part of marketing. Sure, you'll have some great reviews, you might even place your book in various bookstores, but it's the readers of books who will decide--perhaps even by your cover--if the book is something they'd like to read.