I have been away from this blog for a while. Work, life and other concerns. I return, however, with bad news that is really good news. The bad news: after contacting scores of agents, and a few publishers, I have been unable to get the literary community to recognize the genius of my novel, Rules for Giving. Yes, there were a few nibbles, but nothing ever got serious. The good news: this past June, at the urging of my wife, I decided to self-publish through Amazon’s CreateSpace. Since then I have gone through an interesting experience, which I will relate in the next few posts.
One of the first things I did after signing up with CreateSpace was contemplate the cover concept. The cover almost always the first thing people see about your book, so it has to be eye-catching, and it has to tell a story.
Resist the temptation to make the cover complicated. Stick to a central idea, and keep it simple. Also think about marketing, since most first-time authors, whether you self-publish, or go through a publisher, will find themselves responsible for marketing. Strive for a cover design that will lend itself to some good marketing vehicles. How does the cover look when it is shrunk down to the size of a postage stamp for your Facebook profile photo? How does it look when you blow it up large enough for a backdrop for a book signing or literary fair? Back when I wrote for the car magazines, it was widely acknowledged that a red car on the cover of a magazine sold more copies. Color matters. All these things matter.
CreateSpace offers cover design services, but the CreateSpace covers I’ve seen were not electrifying. Even though I was going to have to pay CreateSpace for the cover work, I popped for a graphic designer I have worked with in the past in my marketing business. Before contacting her, though, I sat down with my wife and discussed cover concepts. We ran them by the graphic designer, who came up with a concept. I uploaded it to CreateSpace.
Here is where the surprise came. CreateSpace took the design and made it better. Not only did I like their changes, but the graphic designer liked it, too. When a graphic designer likes someone else’s changes to their work, that is the ultimate sign of approval.
As you can see from the proof, CreateSpace took the tree that was part of the cover design and wrapped it around the spine of the book. A nice touch. They changed the original design color to orange, reflecting the heat wave in the novel.
It was a good start to my publishing experience. A great cover to match a great story.
See ya’ later.
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