SNM162: Are Bad Covers Killing Your Book Sales?

Have you recently written a book? Congratulations.

The book is finalized and approved, so now you just sit back and let the illustrators take over, right?

Sadly, the people who create book covers aren’t doing the best job. While the content you write should be the center of attention, it often isn’t.

Have you heard the saying that states not to judge books by their covers? You may listen and heed that sage advice, but most consumers don’t.

People often pick what they want to buy based on the look of the product. Are you going to buy an apple with soft spots on it? Nope! You are going to bypass that one and choose a fresher one.

The same applies to books. People are going to look at the cover and decide instantly (or within the first 15 seconds) if it sounds interesting enough to buy.

[clickToTweet tweet=”People buy books based on appearance first and then focus on value.” quote=”People buy books based on appearance first and then focus on value.”]

Three Common Book Cover Design Mistakes

All writers (or editors) are guilty of making one or more of these mistakes, but that doesn’t mean history has to repeat itself:

Too Much On A Book Cover Is Too Much

Inexperienced designers often feel that they must fit in many plot elements on the cover, so it feels descriptive. Main characters are also included to help readers visualize.

Still, when you add too many elements, people don’t know which ones are essential. Also, it’s hard to get the full picture from a thumbnail (online shopping).

Though readers might appreciate all those details, it’s not going to help you sell it. Make a book cover that sells. 

Poor Choice of Font Can Make Your Book Invisible

The book cover isn’t the place to get fancy. Focus on the image in the background and work from that. Something depicting fantasy shouldn’t have a handwritten or bouncy flourish. Fonts must also be readable from a distance. That way, it seems to pop off the shelf and, hopefully, into the buyer’s hand.

If your goal is to make money and sell the book you’ve worked hard to write, the cover is just as important (or more so) than the content.

Without it, you aren’t going to impress potential readers enough to buy it.

Poor Image Quality Means Bad First Impression

It’s easy for this mistake to happen, especially if you’re new to designing covers.

Make sure that you’re being careful when enlarging images. Smaller images decrease in quality when they’re stretched to fill a space.

Consider cropping your image to remove extra width or height so that it meets recommended cover dimensions (2,560 x 1,600 pixels).

Listen to today’s episode and find out just how a bad cover can kill book sales and what you can do about it.

Show Notes:

Key Points:

1. Bad book covers will kill your business
2. The cover is more important than the title
3. Do not decide if your book works without looking at the competition

Resources Mentioned:

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