This new revolution has also brought with it some negative aspects. The biggest of which is the fact that many many self published books are of an inferior quality. Let's face the facts here. Even the best writers need an editor. A book that is going to be sold in the mainstream markets goes through many iterations of writing, editing, rewriting and more editing. Writing, after all, is a very demanding skill. And it takes most writers years to gain some mastery over the craft.
Is the cover really that important?
Okay that's understood. But what about the cover?
When self publishing a book an author is given access to a host of easy cover options. All the POD (Print-on-Demand) houses have pre-made cover templates that can easily be adapted for each authors work. You have seen these templates a hundred times. Just browse though any of the websites that offer these books. Or try the ebook websites. You even see plenty of them on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, although they almost always don't rank well in sales.
Some authors opt to use their own pictures or artwork on the cover and this is a good creative option but how many authors are legitimately trained graphic artists?
Okay that's understood. But what about the cover?
When self publishing a book an author is given access to a host of easy cover options. All the POD (Print-on-Demand) houses have pre-made cover templates that can easily be adapted for each authors work. You have seen these templates a hundred times. Just browse though any of the websites that offer these books. Or try the ebook websites. You even see plenty of them on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, although they almost always don't rank well in sales.
Some authors opt to use their own pictures or artwork on the cover and this is a good creative option but how many authors are legitimately trained graphic artists?
You bet it is! The old adage of not judging a book by it's cover just doesn't apply - particulary not in todays super fast world where you only have a few seconds to make an impression on a potential buyer. Yup, thats right. You only have a few seconds to catch the attention of your buyer. And the cover is the best way to do this. From the quality of the cover the reader will make an assessment of the quality of the writing. Sorry to break that news to you but its 100% true.
Continue on to Part 2 of this analysis "Creating a killer cover for your self published book"
