O.C. Writers

By Kristy Tate // 

The adage you can’t judge a book by its cover is both true and false. True, because some gems really do hide in disguise and false because, when it comes to book sales, your cover is king. You’re counting on your cover to do two very important things:

1. Grab your reader’s attention
2. Set readers’ expectations

Now, to hark back to another adage: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. You don’t want to dress up your poodle and try to pass it off as a bloodhound. What I mean is, you want your cozy mystery to look like it belongs on the cozy mystery shelf. And, if you can, it’s better to niche it down even further than that.

For example, I write sweet romances. I would never put a glistening naked man chest on the cover of one of my books because that would send the wrong message. True, I write romances, but I don’t write those romances. In this case, the wrong attention is worse than no attention. If a reader is expecting a rousing read, they’ll plunge into my book and find it tame. Then, assuming they get very deep into it and realize this story isn’t going to deliver the goods, they’ll write nasty reviews. Stories, in general as well as covers in particular, need to make and keep promises. When considering your cover, don’t make a promise you can’t keep. Don’t be a tease.

So, how do you find the right cover for your book? I have a few suggestions.

1. Look at the top 100 books in your category on Amazon. True, you’ll find some that won’t belong. Skip those and focus on the stories and authors you know are similar to your book.
2. Join Facebook groups geared toward your genre. (For example, I belong to a super-private group and this one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/462938014520098.) Make up a few mock covers on Canva and ask the group what they think. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll get some honest and sometimes painful answers.
3. After you take those two steps, redo your mockups and take them to your newsletter subscribers. I recently did that, and I got an overwhelming response. This is the letter I sent:

Do you like vector covers? I’m not sold on them, but what do you think? I’m considering giving some books in my backlist a fresh look. These are not the actual covers, but here are some ideas I’m toying with. (My cover designer will do a much better job. These are just the mockups I’ll send her.)

ORIGINAL:

VECTOR COVER:

ORIGINAL:

OR:

Let me know what you think!

And boy, did they. Probably 50 people wrote back to tell me they didn’t like the vector covers. Not one person preferred the vector covers. A few said they’ll read anything I write, but if they didn’t know me, they wouldn’t pick up these books. (Which made me feel good.)

It’s sometimes hard to get my mind around how invested my readers are in my creative process. When I write, I imagine myself alone in my room spinning stories—which makes sense, because that’s exactly where I am for hours of the day. What I sometimes forget is there’s a whole world outside my writing room door. And the readers care. They matter. They are going to invest their money and their time to share in my make-believe world. Their opinion should carry more weight than my own. So, even though I think the vector covers are cute and lots of other authors are using them, I’m sticking with “covers with real people on them,” because that’s what MY readers want.

The challenge is to find what YOUR readers want.

And deliver.

 

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KRISTY TATE is the Social Media Director for O.C. Writers and a USA Today bestselling author. To date, her newsletter subscriber list is edging toward 15,000. www.KristyTate.com.