The Creative Penn Blog: Helping you write, publish and market your book

9 Ways To Get The Very Best Out Of Your Book Cover Designer

July 19, 2017 by Joanna Penn 1 Comment

A great cover design is one of the best ways to help your book get noticed because readers DO judge a book by its cover.

Your book cover will also be one of the best marketing assets you can invest in because you will use it everywhere – on your book sales page, your website, social media, maybe even business cards and of course, the physical book itself.

I consider professional book cover design to be non-negotiable if you are taking your author career seriously.

In today's article, Damon from Damonza, an awesome cover design service that I recommend, outlines how best to work with a book cover designer.

Having written your book with your own hand, you’ll likely realize that covering it will be no easy task.

Thousands of words, linked together into an exciting, dramatic or even raunchy narrative, need to be represented by a simple and impactful cover. Heck.

Because you want what’s best for your book, you’ll be looking to engage the services of a professional. Someone whose job it is to get your magnum opus flying off the shelves. Someone who’s more than capable of summarizing your story into a beautiful confluence of image and text.

Someone who knows who will buy your book, what they will like, and has the skillset to produce something that speaks to them.

But, like a tango, designing the perfect book cover takes two.

While it may not be your iMac on which the cover will be produced, you’re no less key to the creation of it. As the author, you’ll be steering the design ship, unfurling metaphorical spinnakers and looking into the distance through a metaphorical telescope.

But those without much ship-steering knowledge could find themselves quickly running their vessel aground.

Sea captain metaphors are hard when you’ve never been a sea captain. But let’s continue unabated.

Let these 9 tips for getting the very best out of your book cover designer be your lighthouse in the distance.

1. Make sure you pick the right designer

The very first – and by far most important – step to getting the best out of your cover designer is to hire the right one. The quality of your cover will depend entirely on the quality of your designer, and cutting corners on who you hire will seriously affect the success of your book.

Remember; in this capitalist world of ours, you inevitably get what you pay for.

So what does the ‘right’ designer look like? They should offer:

A proven track record – Look for designers who can point to their stunning and diverse portfolio and give you real-world success stories.

Knowledge and expertise – A good designer will have a deep understanding of what a reader wants from a cover. A quick chat should reveal how well they know the market.

Adaptability – The designing of your cover needs to be a flexible process. A good designer will be comfortable with any changes of heart or tack (within reason).

Availability and punctuality – 1) Is the designer ready to take on your brief straight away? 2) Will they commit to delivering the final draft within a reasonable timeframe?

Value for money – Now I don’t want to sound like your dad here, but you need to spend within your means, kid. Finding a designer who ticks the above boxes is great until you have to take out a second mortgage to hire them.

If you know what to look for, and are willing to spend a little bit of time looking for it, you’ll have a far greater chance of cover design success.

[Note from Joanna: I have a list of recommended book cover designers here. Damonza is absolutely one of them 🙂 ]

2. Know your goals

Your cover is the door to another world; a world created entirely by you.

But who did you envisage walking through that door and making themselves at home in that world? Teenagers? Adults? Romantics? Super-sleuths? Historians? Adrenaline junkies?

And what are your hopes and dreams for the published work? Is your ambition to simply get published? Or are you hoping for this to be the first in a line of stepping stones to literary fame and fortune?

In order for your designer to produce the perfect cover for your book, you’ll need to offer them a clear idea of your goals.

It’s vital that you know what you want from your book before you start talking turkey with the designer, as this will have a huge impact on how they go about their business. Tell them what you want your story’s ‘door’ to say.

3. Bring your inspiration to the table

Sure, the designer is the expert, but by no means does that discount your imagery ideas. After all, nobody knows the world within those pages better than the person who created it!

Don’t be timid in suggesting ideas to your designer, no matter how offbeat they may seem. Want a hologram of a Hulk Hogan high-fiving a manatee on the cover of your historical account of the Crimean War? While it may not be what appears on the final draft, there’s no harm in saying so.

If you’ve got a specific color scheme in mind or can point to cover designs that have tickled your fancy in the past, these suggestions can be hugely helpful in guiding the process.

While the finished product might not exactly match that which had formed in your mind’s eye, it should represent a nice middle ground between your raw inspiration and the designer’s expertise, Hulk Hogan or no.

4. Remember that the cover is there to sell the book

Writing your book can be an incredibly introspective and personal experience. You’ve spent an ungodly amount of hours pouring your heart and soul into this work and handing the reins over to some perfect stranger to gift wrap it can be painful.

There is a temptation to have your cover reflect the personal nature of the book’s insides. Many self-published authors can make the mistake of putting a family photo or the artwork of a close friend on their cover; while a beautiful gesture, doing so can be hugely detrimental to the success of your book. While the image will speak to you, it probably won’t speak to prospective buyers.

This most commonly happens with memoirs. An author will select a photo with huge sentimental value, but that will mean nothing to an unfamiliar reader who is simply looking for something eye-catching as they browse the bookstore shelves.

Endeavour to limit your personal attachment, and remember that the cover is there to sell your book. The greatest compliment you can pay your work is to ensure that the maximum amount of people read it.

5. Don’t be shy with feedback, but make sure it makes sense

There are three types of feedback that any cover designer will be familiar with, and generally comfortable with receiving:

“I love it! Let’s go ahead and finalize!”

“We’re almost there, but can you change this minor detail to better match my personal preference?”

“I love this about Draft 1, and this about Draft 2; can you make a cover combining these elements?”

These three pieces of feedback represent over 90% of what a cover designer will hear day-to-day from their clients.

But a small minority of feedback is less actionable, and simply serves to stall the design process and frustrate both camps. Telling a designer “I don’t like it – start again” is absolutely pointless, as is “can you just make it look like [this cover]?’

So sure, don’t be shy when offering feedback, but make sure it’s reasonable.

6. Respect the designer knows what they’re doing

Further to the above point, some self-published authors go into the design process with blinkers on – they have a set idea of what they want in a cover, and will disregard the advice offered by a professional who has designed thousands of covers.

It’s a cover designer’s job to know what works. By going against that advice, you’re forcing them to produce a cover that they know will not be successful – it’s an awkward spot for them to be in to say the least.

Imagine going to a Michelin star restaurant, receiving your Michelin star food, then telling the chef “this is terrible – my meatloaf is WAY better”. If you hand the meatloaf recipe over for them to cook, would you expect them to cook it? Does your personal opinion make the restaurant any less Michelin star-worthy? Does it automatically cancel out the years of training that the chef went through or the awards from experts that the restaurant has won?

It’s vital that you respect the opinion of the designer, and realize that they know what they’re doing.

7. Don’t move the goalposts

While we’ve already listed adaptability as a key trait for any cover designer to have, it should be a trait that you, the author, use sparingly. While minor changes of tack will be expected by the designer, complete paradigm shifts will not.

If you ask your designer to create a moody, mysterious and dark cover and they provide a few drafts to choose from, you can’t then go back to them and suggest a change to Hulk Hogan high-fiving a manatee.

As mentioned earlier, set your goals firmly before getting a designer to begin their work. By doing so you’ll save all parties involved a lot of heartache.

8. Steer clear of recreating a specific scene

Number eight can be a tripping point for many an author. You’ve written a scene of pure 24-carat gold, and you can imagine nothing better to slap on the front of your book than a visualization of this incredible extract – a combination of image and text that matches the scene word for word.

Bad idea, hombre.

There are a few reasons why recreating a scene on your cover is inadvisable:

The thumbnail rule – Your cover needs to look good as a thumbnail, so as to sell well through online retailers. An overly detailed cover will not translate well to being shrunk.

Your audience aren’t idiots – They appreciate subtlety, metaphor and intimation. By offering a paint-by-numbers cover you take away the mystery.

Minimalism is more impactful – Potential readers will spend an average of 2 seconds glancing at your book before deciding whether to pick it up or click on it for a closer look. If your cover is too complex they will simply glaze over it. Minimalism works.

Your best bet? Keep that golden nugget of a scene as a lovely surprise for your reader within the confines of your book.

9. Communicate clearly

Communication is key. Having chosen a terrific design firm who puts an onus on communicating clearly and promptly, it’s up to you to do the same.

Any suggestions you might have or any reservations that might be floating through your head need to be verbalized – it’s in no one’s interest to keep these things bottled up.

Remember too that this communication is a two-way street; again, if you’ve chosen your cover design firm wisely you can be sure that they’ll be listening to you, you just need to ensure that you’re doing the same.

Designing your perfect cover, as we discussed earlier, is a group effort. While you’re the captain of the ship, your design firm makes up the crew. It’s your responsibility to shout orders, but you also need to listen to your first mate when he’s telling you there’s an iceberg dead ahead. When those in charge of the outside of a book communicate freely and openly with those in charge of the inside, good things happen.

Cover design, like a tango, takes two. By choosing your partner wisely and following these rules, you’re doing everything in your power to ensure that not only do toes remain untrodden but that the dancefloor is set alight.

What has your cover design experience been like? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Damon Freeman is a South African living in New Zealand, and the founder and creative director of the specialist book cover design company, Damonza.com.

Since 2012, Damon and his team have designed well over 3000 book covers for first-time writers, New York Times bestselling authors, and small and large publishers. That’s a whole lot of covers, so it’s very fortunate that he kinda likes doing it 🙂 And since he’s a terrible writer, authoring was never really on the table. He even had to get someone else to write this bio for him.

Real Artists Don’t Starve. Creativity And Money With Jeff Goins

July 17, 2017 by Joanna Penn 3 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 52:54 — 42.4MB)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

It's time to banish the poor author back to the garret and explode the myths of the penniless creative. Choose the model of Picasso and Michelangelo, merging creativity and business to get your words out in the world, change lives and grow your bank account.

We live in the best time in history to be a writer and in today's show, Jeff Goins and I discuss why and how you can integrate creativity and money.

In the intro, I give a little update from NYC as I'm currently at Thrillerfest. I also mention PublishDrive adding PayPal as a payment method, and Draft2Digital adding Payoneer, both fantastic options for authors in countries where bank accounts are not so easy with Amazon payments. Pearson has a sold a 22% stake in Penguin Random House, in order to focus on being a digital learning company. Interesting times!

This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

Jeff Goins is the bestselling author of five nonfiction books, including The Art of Work as well as being a blogger, podcaster, and speaker. His latest book is Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Show Notes

What has changed for Jeff and his writing life since he was last on the show

The creative practices that have improved and changed for Jeff

How to know if an idea is big enough for a book

Ways for artists to thrive instead of starve

The strategy behind Jeff's choice to traditionally publish his recent book

You can find Jeff Goins at GoinsWriter.com and on Twitter @JeffGoins

4 Ways To Develop The Unique Voice Of Your Character

July 15, 2017 by Joanna Penn 5 Comments

Think about some of your favorite series – either books or TV shows. Why do you keep going back for more?

It's most likely to be about the characters because people are interested in people. We experience life vicariously through the experiences of others, real or fictional, and that's why we love character-driven story.

In today's article, science fiction author Don Fox outlines some ways to develop your character voice.

For a character to become believable, they must present a unique voice.

When a reader believes this person could be real, you then have the opportunity to entertain with what they actually say. Their voice is not what they say, but how they talk. A lyricist may produce a beautiful message, but if the singer is off-key, we never hang around to hear the essence of the song.

When we read a story, the characters maintain our interest.

Protagonist, antagonist, and all the spear-holders move the plot along with thoughts and open dialogue. There is no overstating the importance for a writer in bringing characters alive in the reader’s imagination.

Making sure each character has his or her own voice becomes key to providing the link which becomes the hook wherein the imaginary person becomes important to the reader.

A writer must first provide a good story. Accepting you created a worthwhile plot, you cannot let the reader down by handing the reins to unfinished characters. The writer is tasked with producing the ‘thoughts’ and ‘words’, but you are also responsible for the voices. When we read, we ‘hear’ dialogue.

If we do not believe the character would say what you have written, we lose interest.

Here are four ways you can develop your characters' voices:

1. Character Profile

A short character profile keeps you in touch with their personality. Obvious physical features can be within the profile, but a bio is the desired result. Include:

Age
Nationality – down to part of country, section of city or town
Education; even grades
Work experience
Life experiences that create changes: accidents, relationships, and relocations
Talents

From this bio, build your character’s personality. Introverted? Class clown? Opinionated? Anger issues? If you already have a vision of your character, back-build the bio to support the personality. Either way you will discover reasons why they would or would not use certain words.

The protagonist may use phrases popular in pop culture. A love interest who uses old-fashion phrases like ‘the cat’s meow'. A co-worker, hesitant to join conversations, may begin with ‘Not that it matters,’ before expressing an opinion aloud. Keep characters consistent to keep them believable.

The more important the character, the more time spent in this practice. Not only do you become more comfortable with them, you may discover future stories hidden within the details.

Note: You do not need to share the character’s bio with your readers. Let them see and hear for themselves. It is much more entertaining.

2. Chill Your Ego

The most obvious mistake new writers make is forcing their ‘wit and words’ onto a main character, or worse, all of their characters. This is a nuance not often picked up by editors, almost always overlooked by the writer, and results in a failure to connect the reader to the story.

You know that guy being interviewed on television who says ‘you know’ after every third word, ‘you know’ because he uses it for filler, and ‘you know’ he does not realize he says ‘you know’ constantly ‘cause, ‘you know’ he does it constantly? This becomes white noise to the speaker; irritant to the listener.

I present at conferences, and during one session fell into a bad habit of finishing nearly every point with “do you get it?” This is why my wife attends these lectures. When I fall into a lazy habit, she provides a sign to make me realize what I am doing. The subtle hands to the forehead, shaking of the head, and grimace forces me to listen to myself. Once you become aware of a lazy filler or over-used phrase, making the change is simple. Making sure you do not replace one bad filler with another, equally trite alternative, is more difficult.

We all have words, phrases, and combinations so engrained in our personal use of language, we no longer ‘hear’ or ‘see’ them as out of the ordinary. Phrases like: ‘at the end of the day.’ ‘he thought to himself.’ ‘and therefore.’ Words we use as filler, such as: ‘otherwise.’ ‘whatever.’ ‘then’ and ‘that.’

If you have multiple characters using the same ‘unique’ words and phrases, you destroy their voice with yours. You may not notice the cross-usage. There may be nothing grammatically incorrect to fix. It is not so much a failure of proper writing, as a failure to perceive words that make you feel comfortable as making someone else uncomfortable.

Let’s say you use the phrase ‘even so.’ A character uses it in dialogue: “Even so, I do not believe we should venture into that dark cave.” Another character, later, says: “Even so, the idea of cannibals in the city seems wrong.”

The second character using the same phrase takes away their voice and replaces it with the first character’s. It makes it difficult to separate the two, and, on a purely subconscious level, makes us not believe in either character.

There is a simple fix to this issue. Go to your main character’s first spoken words. Can you perceive any words or phrases, or even word combinations even slightly odd, or, perhaps, decidedly you?

On your toolbar in Word, select EDIT. Open FIND. In the search bar, type or paste the words. How often do they appear in your overall work? View each instance, and note how often they are part of another character’s dialogue or thoughts? [Ed note: You can search for phrases in Scrivener as well.]

When people are together for a long time, they begin to share words and phrases. Characters with long histories may do this as well. Otherwise, decide which character would most likely use that particular phrase, and make it part of his or her voice. When you FIND this phrase used by a different character, you have the opportunity for rewriting and providing this character a voice of their own.

By repeating this process, you will discover a number of words and phrases being overused and/or used by too many characters.

In changing how a character uses words and phrases, you will become a better writer. Giving each character their own speech creates personalities. Personalities connect with readers.

3. Cosplay

You do not have to dress in costume, and you do not have to have others join you, but you should read all dialogue aloud and in character.

Some will get this, and some are too uncomfortable to playact. Good actors always prepare for their roles aloud. Great actors recognize when a character is out-of-sync and brings it to the attention of the director/writers. The very best way to hear your characters the way your readers will is to say their lines out loud.

4. Don’t Be That Writer

The fourth tip is actually a way NOT to give a character voice.

Do not use italics, bold, dashes, spaces, or any other printing tool as a short-cut for creating a character’s unique voice. For one, it is lazy.

Secondly, it wears a reader out! The fewer cutesy printing techniques the better. We read with our eyes, and these short-cuts break concentration. You destroy flow.

If the character has voice traits you can ‘hear’ as the author, but you are unsure how to get that across to the reader, in words, this presents an opportunity to learn. Read the works of another, where a character moved your emotions. Look for techniques in creative word-play you can emulate.

Fiction requires imagination. Imagination relies on the descriptions provided by the writer. Your characters are the best source to deliver your descriptions. Developing believable characters begins with providing each a unique voice.

How do you make sure that you create a unique voice for each of your characters? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Don Foxe lives in the scenic southern US town of Bluffton, SC. His sci-fi based action and adventure series, Space Fleet Sagas, currently has two novels published: Contact and Conflict, Book One, and Confrontation, Book Two. Foxe is a member of the Academy of American Poets with an Amazon #1 haiku collection, Seasons of Henka Suru and sequel soon to be released, Haiku Seishin. Learn more at donfoxe.net or on Twitter @don_foxe.

7 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Book Promotion

July 12, 2017 by Joanna Penn 3 Comments

My marketing advice comes from my own experience of selling books under multiple pen names, but it is only anecdotal and what works for me might not work for you.

The best advice comes from the organizations that work with multiple authors and have thousands of books going through their platform a month, collecting data points along the way.

For book marketing through email blasts, BookBub is still the heavy-hitter, but I also recommend FreeBooksy, BargainBooksy, Red Feather Romance, and NewInBooks. They have options for wherever you are on your author journey, it's more affordable than BookBub and you are more likely to be accepted.

In today's article, Ricci Wolman from Written Word Media, the company behind Freebooksy, BargainBooksy and more, shares the main reasons why your book promotion might be struggling. You can listen to an interview with Ricci on book marketing tips for fiction and non-fiction here.

1. You recently promoted the same title to the same audience.

The first time you run a promotion with a book promotion service, your book is seen by thousands of readers for the first time. The majority of those readers who are interested in your book will download or purchase your book.

This means that the first time that you promote a book with a book promotion service will likely be your most successful promotion with that service. If you plan on promoting on the same service multiple times, it makes sense to wait at least 30 days, if not longer, between promotions.

This gives the book promotion service time to acquire new readers, who have not already seen or downloaded your book, which will increase your odds of having a successful promotion. You may want to as the book promotion services how many new subscribers it adds to its list every month to get a sense of how long it takes the service to replenish their pool of readers.

2. Your cover looks unprofessional

Humans are visual beings. Our eyes are drawn to images before they are drawn to text. This means that your cover (not your title or book description) is what will initially prompt readers to click on your book.

Effective book promotion services reach most of their readers through email. Readers scroll down an email filled with books and will make a decision on whether or not to click on your book based almost entirely on your cover. Make sure your cover is simple, engaging, and legible for best results.

3. Your back matter is missing critical calls to action

The benefits of running a book promotion are four-fold:

getting downloads of the promoted title;
spurring sales of other titles in your catalog (halo sales);
growing the audience you “own” by adding them to your email list; and,
educating the retail’s algorithms on who is most likely to read your book.

The best way to garner benefits 2 and 3 is to ASK readers to take those actions in the back matter of your book. This will increase your returns during every book promotion.

Readers who reach the end of your book are the readers who are most likely to want to stay involved with you and your work. Be sure to include links to your other titles in order to spur halo sales and include a signup link for your mailing list in order to build your following.

4. Your price is too high

Most readers subscribed to book promotion services expect a deal. If you’re looking to get your book into the hands of the highest volume of readers, then make your book at Free or price it at $0.99.

Generally, any price point under $2.99 is considered a deal but the lower you go, the more downloads you will receive. Pricing your book above $2.99 will likely result in disappointing results.

5. You don’t have any reviews

We know it’s hard to get reviews, and some book promotion services (like ours) will promote books with no reviews. However, your results will be better if you have reviews.

Reviews act as a baseline mark of quality for readers, and books that have reviews will see better results from their book promotion.

6. You are promoting to the wrong type of reader

Many readers have specific genres that they are interested in reading. If you are promoting your book to a reader audience that isn’t interested in your type of story, then you won’t see many sales from the promotion.

Many books are written in such a way that they fall solidly within one genre (a pure, international thriller, for example) but often authors write across genres in order to be able to include different story elements. In these cases, it pays off to test targeting multiple types of readers in order to see which audience responds the most enthusiastically to your book.

If you are unsure we recommend emailing the book promotion service with a link to your book and asking them which genre is most fitting for your book.

7. You rely on a single book promotion to drive sales

Running a book promotion with a service is a great way to kick-start sales and start building your audience. However, a book promotion tends to have a short shelf-life. You’ll see a spike in sales within the first 24 – 48 hours, followed by a tail of sales in the weeks following.

The best way to amplify a book promotion is to stack promotions with various services AND to engage your audience at the same time that the promotion is running.

When running a promotion, you should always email your email list and post to social media. Sales from multiple sources add up and can help you climb the charts faster. Putting concerted effort behind your promotion will make the difference between average and above-average results from your book promotion.

Will these tips help you avoid making a mistake with your next book promotion? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Ricci Wolman is founder of Written Word Media, the parent company of book promotion sites Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy, Red Feather Romance and NewInBooks.

You can listen to an interview with Ricci on book marketing tips for fiction and non-fiction here.

How To Write Fast, Publish Slowly And Focus On Your Author Marketing With Rachel Aaron

July 10, 2017 by Joanna Penn 14 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:08:04 — 54.6MB)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

We all have limited time, and part of being a successful author is knowing what to focus on. In today's show, I talk to Rachel Aaron about how to write more words faster, edit and publish carefully, and how to decide which marketing strategies will work for your books.

In the intro, I reflect on walking 50km last weekend, the launch of How to Market a Book Third Edition, and heading to New York this week for Thrillerfest.

You can also listen/watch an interview with me on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast talking about international sales and marketing, rights licensing, translation and more.

Today's show is sponsored by my own How to Write a Novel course, which I created while writing End of Days, so you get a behind the scenes look at how the book came together. One course member, Leigh Anderson said, “This course is exactly what I was looking for. I now feel well on my way to writing and completing my first draft. It has been a real breakthrough for me.” Check it out at www.TheCreativePenn.com/writenovel

Rachel Aaron is the fantasy author of The Heartstrikers, an Eli Monpress series, as well as writing science fiction under Rachel Bach. She's also the author of 2k to 10k: How to Write Faster, Better, and Write More of What You Love.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Show Notes