Self-Publishing in a World of Books: Cover Art
This article is the first in an 11-part series on self-publishing.
The unprecedented access to
self-publishing has done more to distance the typical start-up writer from his
or her dream of being a successful author than any barriers erected by
traditional publishing house resources.
If you have a dream of writing a
single book, or launching your career as a prolific author, you will have
decisions to make. Make no mistake, the publishing part of your writing career
will overshadow the creation of artistic prose. I learned this the hard way.
“There
was no interest in my book at all”
In 2018 I published Massacre
at Agua Caliente - A Western Tragedy. I designed the cover in Photoshop and Draw Perfect. I built
the novel’s content in Word, creating my own format. Using CreateSpace,
Amazon's old book creator process, my book was easy to bring to market. Like
many of you, I thought the market would take care of the rest. I was
wrong.
There was no interest in my book at all. Even my friends and
family had trouble reading the poorly edited content. They were critical of the
amateur cover artwork. When I visited Barnes and Noble to conduct some
comparison research, my novel was strikingly different than any others on the
shelves. I realized I would need help. I also recognized that I had a lot to
learn.
I hope the next 11 articles will
help you avoid the pitfalls I overcame and guide you towards the knowledge and resources
you will need to be a success. Assuming you are a good writer and have penned a
good book, these are the basic components you will need as an author in the
self-publishing world. The next series of articles will share how I handled
each component:
- Cover Art
- Interior design or
template
- Editing
- ISBN
- Book Landing Page
with SEO
- Author Web Page
with SEO
- Reviews
- Distribution
- Advertising
- Acceptance by
Barnes and Noble
- Readers
#1 - Cover Art
Knowing I could not keep my
do-it-yourself artwork, I searched online for ready-made cover art. I purchased
a few covers, but I was dissatisfied. I wanted the cover art to be exclusive
and more specific to the story within the book.
Finally, I found a great inexpensive
cover artist with a large portfolio. Inside of two weeks I had approved the
cover for my first novel, Massacre at Agua Caliente – A Western Tragedy. I
sold a few copies on Amazon, but not enough to make me feel like I was
succeeding. My novel was ranked at 1,241,012
with my first cover. It improved nearly 400,000 places with the cover remake (and
other changes – I’ll cover those in future articles.)
It took me about a year with that
cover to realize that maybe it was too sexy for the market. After all, what if
someone took the novel on a plane where other passengers saw a book cover with
a sexy woman on it? Would the reader appear to be reading a book that
marginalized women? I am not Woke, but it made sense to me. My advice with
fiction works is to avoid controversial cover art. If you are a non-fiction
writer, committing to a provocative image or theme is sometimes helpful in
attracting target readers. Part of branding your product is a consistent message throughout.
I went back to my artist and created
a more traditional cover. By this time, I had finished my second novel, StolenValor – A Carson Brand Novel. I began creating a cover before the novel was
completed, so I was still in my hot-chick-on-the-cover phase. It too had risqué
cover art. I kept the general idea of the cover but deep sixed the chicks. I am
almost finished writing Dark Motive – A Carson Brand Novel. You
guessed it, that cover also had an image of a sexy woman on it. I had her
removed while I was at it.
Was the design change effective? It is hard to know the answer to that question. I believe the rule of thumb is avoid red flags. If a restaurant owner is a smoker and runs his place as a smoking establishment he risks limiting his success by excluding the majority of the population who does not smoke. Book covers are the same. Unless the image on the cover is critical to selling the story don't place it as a selling point - or, as in my case, a deterrent to the sale.
Size Does Matter
A 6" x 9" cover is not
6x9. It must be sized for the number of pages, type of paper, and type of book.
I used Amazon's process to tweak my cover size until it was finally accepted.
My cover artist delivered to me several versions of the same cover. Amazon Kindle
has a preferred cover size; Smashwords requires different dimensions as
does Barnes and Noble; Amazon's Paperback cover requirements are different
than Ingram's; Whether you provide your own ISBN or you allow Amazon to provide
one for you, your cover has to have room for it at the correct spot.
Do you choose glossy finish or matte? I started with glossy
but switched to matte after another day in Barnes and Noble comparing what the
pros do.
Cover content is critical. The
synopsis and promo blurbs will have a great impact upon whether your book is
replaced in the rack or kept for purchase when it is picked up off the shelf.
Key words come into play here also. Your content on the cover will be
reproduced in your on-line content. Part of branding
your product is a consistent message throughout.
How much does it cost to have a pro create your cover?
I purchased pre-made covers for as
little as $35 to $150. Much of the customization and content you will want
added is willingly done by the artist for between $25 and $100.
Custom cover art can cost between
$500 and $750.
Speaking of Branding
Everything you create and place online
will appear after a time. My albatross is that many of the retail outlets who
carry my books, and there are scores of them, have the outdated cover art. Some
sites pull the cover art from your existing URL's, but some pull their art as
an image and it never changes until you hound the retailer, if you can contact
them at all.
Notice in my cover art, the author
font is the same no matter the genre. Let me know if I can be of help. We are
all in this thing together.
About the Author: Craig Rainey is a published author, award-winning
screenwriter and award nominated film actor. His awards include Best
Breakout Writer – Screenplay, Massacre at Agua Caliente; Nominated Best Male
Lead in a Feature Film, International Filmmakers Festival, Kent England; Best
Period Screenplay, Massacre at Agua Caliente; Most Likely to be Produced as a
Movie, Massacre at Agua Caliente
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