Guest blogger Sue Owen on book covers.
Time and again, authors overlook the importance of the book cover. First impressions are very important. Does it make sense to spend years writing and revising a book, only to slap any old cover on it and call it good? What a huge waste of time. The creative decisions about your cover are just as important as the creative decisions about what to put between the covers.
A good cover has to be attention-getting as well as reflecting the story and the personality of the user. To have a drawn cover for a children’s book is good because the readers you are trying to attract will be interested in that. But to put that same type of cover on a murder mystery….you won’t sell it no matter how good the story is.
To learn more about Sue, check out her blog at bySueOwen.blogspot.com
I have to know what my cover is before I can go on with writing the story. It helps me already picture that I am there and I can get into the minds of the characters better.
ReplyDeleteI have had my readers ask me why or how my covers were chosen. It really depends on if you get to decide and design or you have to choose one from the publishing companies cover choices. I have made or used a cover from choices that best fits the book and my personality. Sure there are a few book covers that I would like to change, but I can tell you that I would not want it to be plain with just the title. I like unusual and different and I want that to shine through on the cover as well as maybe on the inside of the book.