Your book’s cover needs:
1. A designer (99% likely.)
2. Color (usually. The Road was all black with white lettering). Not green. Green covers never sell unless the book is about golf or lawn care. (Royal blue sells better than other colors.)
3. A known author’s name. (If you’re not at all known, it would really help if you got that way. Go rob a bank or save the president or something. Get a life, and, as Zola said, “Live out loud.”
4. Failing #3, a great quote recommending the book by a known name.
5. A compelling picture. What “compelling” is, is subjective (though we do know sex sells.)
6. If not sex, violence.
7. If not violence, awe me or lure me with a (relevent) image that makes me curious.
8. A great title. A short title. (Something I can remember from the local radio interview to the bewildered bookstore clerk: Fight Club, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Dome, Calculating God, God is Not Great, The 4-Hour Work Week, White Teeth, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.)*
9. Repeat #8 again. Kick me in the teeth with that title. (Rather than a long title to explain more, let the subtitle do that work if you must.)
10. The back cover is a cover, too. Sometimes I pick up a (usually self-published) book whose back cover is blank (and put it right back on the bookstore shelf.) That’s not clever, eye-catching or minimalist. It’s wasted advertising space. Your story blurb must be killer. Happy quotes by big reviewers/authors help if you have them.
*This is tends to be more so with fiction titles. Non-fiction titles have more latitude and tend to explicate more. Still, give me pith (as in The 4-hour Work Week example above, there’s little doubt what’s it’s about. It also happens to be a great and useful book which I just read and certainly recommend for those looking for freedom.)
Filed under: Books, publishing, writing tips, 10 Tips, blurbs, Book Covers that Sell, Sell Your Book
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