Covers - A Picture is worth a Thousand Headaches

I'm in the process of choosing a cover for A Ghost of Water, book 2 of my series of Paranormal Thrillers. And to say that it's causing me some frustration is putting it lightly.

Let's get something out of the way, shall we? "Don't judge a Book by its Cover."

Nonsense. Sheer and utter drivel is all that is...or at least when it comes to actual books.

In a book store the average person spends 8 seconds looking at the front cover and about 15 seconds reading the back cover. And, for the most part, decisions to buy books are made on the book cover alone. I know, I know, there are people who actually crack a book open and flip through a table of contents and may even sample a bit of the writing itself. Weirdos.

I like to do it myself.

But I have to admit that if the cover doesn't draw me I won't open it to give it a chance, unless it's from an author I already enjoy and/or respect. And odds are that if it's an author I already like it's because once upon a time I saw one of their book covers in a store or on Amazon and I was drawn to it.

Covers matter.

Hence my ordeal.

So I've generated several options using CreateSpace's (that's Amazon's Self-Publishing company...it's great!) cover generator. Some of them have been good, some...well...not so much.

The trick for me (and countless other Self-Published Authors) is to make our covers look professional, and not like they're "Self-Published."

Here are some tips:

1.) Make sure the finished cover will reproduce well in Grayscale. The rational for this is if you ever want the book reviewed in some kind of periodical that only prints grayscale images (a newspaper, let's say) then a clean, grayscale version of your cover image will go a long way to helping you sell copies.

2.) Don't Clutter the Cover. Don't make the cover image too busy because it's a turn-off for buyers. Simple is best. The fewer words/images the better. Always. This goes especially for the back cover copy (the words on the Back Cover that tell people what your book is about). Back Cover copy should hover around or under 80 words. You've already written the book once, don't make us read the whole thing on the cover.

3.) Blurbs & Testamonials. If you can find someone else who is an expert in the area about which you're writing and you can coax them to first read your book (or a sample) and then give you an endoresement, this is a good thing.

4.) Colors Matter. Here's a quick one. Red sells. Why? Who cares, it just does. Just don't go overboard with it.

That's about all I have for you today. I'll leave you with one of the potential cover images. The photo credit for the image goes to my good friend, Leslie, who took the shot while recently in Mexico.

Peace.