Cover art…
First, whether you’re traditionally or indie published, let’s revisit some general advice: (1) Write your story, give it your best edit, and send it to beta-readers, in order to produce a manuscript (MS) that you can do something more with. (2) Leave the rest to the pros: final edits, cover art, and marketing. If you’re indie, that means NEVER be 100% DIY; if you’re going the traditional route, your publisher will take care of everything except s/he won’t help much with marketing.
That doesn’t mean you can’t help out with #2. Here I’ll focus on cover art.
Step One: Develop some ideas for your cover. That shouldn’t be hard. There are scenes in your book that probably could make a good cover. You know your book best, and you’ve imagined those scenes in order to write the words describing them. Choose a few to suggest to your cover artist. S/he might want to go abstract, though. Work with your cover artist to develop those cover ideas.
Step Two: Decide what text you want on the cover. Your title and name (or pen name) are important. I don’t recommend long titles or one-word titles. But I’ve written about titles before (just last week, in fact). Relative font sizes are important—generally your title should be in larger font unless you’re a famous author (in which case you probably won’t be worrying about any of this!). Avoid subtitles on the front cover. They can go inside on the cover page. That goes for series titles (#N in the X series).
For print versions, back cover material is important. Include a blurb and short author bio at the very least; add your pic and a few review extracts if you have them (they can be reviews of previous books in the series, or just reviews of your other books). Don’t make the back cover cluttered, though. And only put the title and author on the spine.
Step Three: Think about how the book will look on online retail sites where thumbnail images are used. That implies simple is better—title and author must be visible even in the thumbnail image. This also implies the cover must look good in multiple resolutions. Your cover artist professional can handle all of this, of course, but the ultimate responsibility rests with you.
Now for a bit of self-criticism or confessions of sins I’ve committed. Remember #2 above? Years ago, after my POD phase (Xlibris let me do my own cover; Infinity provided a cover artist), I didn’t pay much attention to book covers. I’ve slowly been rectifying that, especially with second editions. I thought the original cover for Full Medical (Xlibris and print only), where graphic artists put it together for me, was pretty good, so I used it for the second edition. I thought Infinity’s covers were pretty good too (Survivors of the Chaos, Soldiers of God, and The Midas Bomb), but I had those redone for the second editions because I thought they were too complicated and looked dated. Now the only ebook that doesn’t have an acceptable cover is Evil Agenda (my opinion, of course—yours might be different).
Truth be told, I now agonize over covers and titles. They’re the first thing a reader sees. As a prolific reader, I don’t pay much attention to them, though, but I’m probably an exception. My buying decisions, whether online or in a bookstore, are based on peeking inside the book. My take: If that “peek inside” shows that the author can’t write, the cover and title are irrelevant. After all, when an agent or publisher’s editor considers an author’s MS, that’s what s/he will be looking at. The cover comes later.
A particular class of covers really turns me off, though: fantasy and romance novels tend to have women in low-cut bodices and men in naked torsos who are flexing their rippling muscles. I’m no prude. In fact, these covers give me some comic relief, more than anything else. I generally don’t read fantasy or romance, so these covers are also a warning sign for me: don’t even bother to peek inside, Steve. The story’s not worth it. But that’s just me. I recognize both these genres are very popular, so maybe these covers are what the market wants. I think there’s an important point to be made here, though: your cover might turn off a whole group of readers. That’s something to consider.
Some authors enter their covers in cover contests. Yeah, I get it: Getting your cover some exposure that way let’s more people know the book at least exists, even though most of the time only other authors will see the cover (guess what—other authors generally won’t read your book, but they’re interested in selling you theirs). More importantly, such contests give the cover artists some name recognition. They need that as much as the author does.
But, like book contests, I don’t recommend paying to enter one. If your cover artist wants to do that, OK, but I view paying to enter a contest is a bit like paying for a review: in general, it shouldn’t be done. And don’t worry: if your book receives a Pulitzer, Nobel, or some other famous award, both you and your cover artist will receive a lot of exposure. And those are all free!
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Rembrandt’s Angel. Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s obsession with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in WWII leads to uncovering an international conspiracy. Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden steps in to help her, and their romance blossoms as they travel through Europe and South America in pursuit of the conspirators. Available in print format at Amazon or your favorite bookstore (ask for it if they don’t have it), and in digital format from Amazon and Smashwords and the latter’s associated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.). A mystery/thriller for great summer reading…or any other time.
In libris libertas….
