They’re here! The first book cover samples for my next release: One Thing Better. Cover design is a crucial, make-or-break aspect to self-publishing. And it’s a cool moment—seeing your book come to life visually for the first time.
Opening the email had a walking-into-Narnia feel—I didn’t know what to expect but was hit with a wave of excited wonderment. And ah, they’re so good. Now, the hard part is choosing the right one.
Cover design isn’t my forte—I’m a writer. But in self-publishing, writers must be all things—marketers, bloggers, social media gurus, technical geniuses, and expert decision-makers. For the first book in my mystery series, Sea-Devil, we chose the cover we liked best—not the one that would best fit the market. Realizing now that our covers for the series don’t quite fit the cozy mystery genre has hurt us, and it means we may replace them eventually. But for future releases, we know better.
Cover design is about the readers—not the writer.
So, how do you know what readers want?
Solving the book cover mystery relies on three important tasks:
Asking opinions.
Doing research.
Trusting your gut (and your artist).
Asking opinions. With my first book, we didn’t ask for enough opinions. Sure, we asked the kids and a few friends, but inevitably we picked what we liked. Just like writers must get feedback on their page-turning stories, we must also seek cover design advice. Getting feedback from everyday readers will reveal what they’d be more likely to add to their reading list.
To that end, we’re polling subscribers—if you’d like to join the team, sign-up. It’s painless (relatively). Plus, you get a free book. You do like reading, don’t you?
And if you want to chime in without subscribing, tell me your favorite in the comments below—again, painless. Mostly.
We’re also trying a marketing service created for decisions like this. PickFu.com will provide votes on our covers from people all over. By the end, we should know which cover appeals most.
Doing Research. Knowing the genre and what’s popular not only serves as writing motivation but provides foundational knowledge of what readers expect. Pleasing readers is the point, right?
Touring local bookstores is the perfect way to study reader-likes. Cover-stalking my new genre (contemporary romance) educated us on what’s trending and what we didn’t want.
No Fabio covers, for example (sorry, Fabio).
Hm, that’s good advice… I think.
Trusting your gut (and your artist). For the Delilah Duffy Series, we used Damonza to create our book covers. And Joe and I still love them. But in hindsight, we didn’t give Damonza enough information, mainly because we didn’t really “know” the market we were trying to fit into ourselves. So, in the end, we got great covers that we adored, but that didn’t serve us as well as they could have. Providing more information would’ve allowed us to trust their expertise.
This time, we spent weeks searching book cover design websites for the right designer for this project–one with more experience in the genre and boocoos of covers we liked. We went with ebook Launch. Then, I overloaded the company with info.
The result… two amazing covers that fit the genre! It’ll be hard to choose.
Our genius artist, Alisha, also advised us not to be swayed too much by minor tweaks or too many suggestions because they might water down the originial impact–also great advice.
One fear about this entire process are options that don’t work at all, and a tug-of-war between author and artist to get it right. Well, I’m grateful that isn’t the case here. I love both covers for different reasons, but I’ll hold off on revealing my favorite just yet. And I’ll wait (writers are very good at waiting). And hopefully, build on cover design energy and pre-launch as one might with a movie trailer.
Deep Announcer Voice: Coming September 2023… One Thing Better… a feel-good story of love and reinvention at the worst time—2020.
For more on my writing journey, please stop by the place where I keep everything about me and my books.
Oh, and please, judge my book by its cover! Share your opinion below and also any other ways to solicit cover design advice. Thoughts on Fabio are also welcomed.
