For over a year I’ve been sending the manuscript of my first complete novel, “Gods of Fire”, out to agents seeking representation. To say that it has not been a success is a wild understatement. Yet, I remain convinced I’ve written a good story that will appeal to readers who love both fantasy and erotica.

So, I’ve launched myself into the unknown, but thankfully well-charted, waters of the self-publication process.

A complete novice, my first step was to send out a call to my writerly colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. This resulted in a mixed bag of responses, most of them encouraging and many with some great advice on how to get started. I also spent at least a day poking around the internet, looking for resources and recommendations for success.

The two main pieces of advice that have popped up over and over again are:

1. Get a professional editor to work on your manuscript;
2. Your cover is critical, and again professional help is highly recommended.

I patted myself on the back for already having ticked off number one, and I’m chasing up a cover artist to help me with number two.

My next challenge was to convert my Word document into the right format for a book. Again, two main recommendations emerged, Vellum and Draft2Digital. Vellum is for Mac users, which I am not, so the decision was easy. It took me a day of trial and error, formatting my manuscript and testing the different options in Draft2Digital to get a look I’m happy with.

Within the space of just a couple of days, I’d gone from terrified and completely ignorant, to sufficiently confident in my ability to create a product and get it into the market. But of course, that’s just the beginning of the process.

So watch this space!

​I’ve recently been involved in negotiations and discussions over the design of a book cover. During the discussions, it became clear that almost everyone involved had a different expectation of what the cover should look like and what that would mean.
So, I ask the question—What’s in a Cover?
Because I’m a very visual person, I look for an attractive, interesting, or quirky cover. It must have artistic merit, I like imagery that leads the eye from the title across the page to the author, or the other way around. I like space and a sense of movement. Imagery should address the content, but sometimes words and patterns are all I need. In that case, the fonts should be interesting and unique, and the placement of the title and authorship used to the same effect as imagery, to lead the eye.
Unless I’m looking for a specific author or title, then it’s the cover that determines whether I bother to pick a book up and look inside to see what it’s about (Yes, I’m describing my process with a physical book because that’s where my heart lies, but it equally applies to clicking on an ebook on a screen).
The cover is very important when I’m looking for a new read. If I don’t like the cover, I don’t pick up, or click on, the book. No sale!
The different will leap out at me, anything that is unusual or unexpected will grab my attention.
So, in my recent discussions, I was surprised to learn of the belief that people won’t buy a book if the cover doesn’t match their expectations for the genre. The perception was that the reading audience did not seek uniqueness, but sought sameness in design. This revelation hurt my heart. It also made me wonder whether the approach of uniformity limited sales to a portion of the potential market. Maybe it doesn’t matter, because those that want their books to look the same form the most lucrative corner of the market? I have no idea.
I, of course, understand that a cover for a physical book won’t always work in an online environment—where the size of the thumbnail images results in the loss of fine detail and finesse. The sheer quantity of books available in electronic format exacerbates this. Anyone can self-publish, some of it is wonderful, much of it not! So surely, in the sea of books available to readers, a well-designed and unique cover becomes even more important?
The other issue that arose was specific to erotic fiction, where the favoured ‘look’ is a torso, or two (I was directed to the top selling erotic fiction on Amazon, you should go there too!). There was much discussion on whether the model on the cover should be a single man, a single woman or a couple. In many ways, this depends on the perceived audience and the contents of the publication, but even here we diverged in our views. My view is that women readers want to see a woman on the cover—someone they can identify with. Almost everyone else in the debate thought the opposite. For me, unless the title of the book gives a clear indication otherwise, a single man on the cover indicates that the material inside is aimed at gay men. Maybe I’m just weird?
Despite not getting my way on almost every aspect I was concerned about, it was an interesting discussion and clearly gave me a lot to think about (hence this blog!).
I fully concede that this is an area I’m new to, and I’m quite likely wrong in many of my views. Hell! I’m sure there’s an entire field of research that I’ve been too lazy to investigate that would answer all of my questions! But I’d really rather hear from you!
How important is the cover in your book choices? And what makes a great cover? I’d be really interested in your thoughts.