Book Cover Reveal & Essential Lessons for Finding the Right Design
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This week I finally chose the cover for the second edition of The Meaning Method, which is on schedule to be released in August. Honestly, it’s been a long emotional journey to get here. After everything I’ve learned about sales over the past three years in business as an author coach, the decision wasn’t as simple as it was the first time. But that’s a good thing. As long as you dive in and experiment, you always have the opportunity to grow.
I chose this cover because it was simple and striking. It didn’t clash with the branding I’ve done over the past few years, and yet it fits the conventions of the categories where it was created to sell. I love the idea of a hummingbird flirting with a strange energy being, which is what inspiration often feels like for me.
Plus, there’s a fun surprise that I never could have expected. One of the big ideas in the book is that as you write your book and your book writes your life. It’s a reciprocal relationship. Major shifts happen in reality as you enter into the creative process. The more you objectify the lessons and (frankly) the dirty subjective emotional guts of your life, the more enlightened you become about it. And the more enlightened you become about it, the more everything shifts. The more you become the author of your life.
So too, with this cover. At first it seems as if there’s a hummingbird flirting with a strange energy creature. However, if you look closely, the white space in the cover creates the profile of a woman, and the hummingbird is actually dancing in her imagination. That was the little synchronicity that clinched it for me.
And then there are some overall principles that are good to take into account when choosing the right cover design as well. This is what the journey was like for me, and how I came to this final decision over time.
“If you don’t understand where you’re going any road will get you there.” - Lewis Carroll
Choose the Right Category.
The book cover I first fell in love with was not the book cover I ended up with. I remember when Amy and I first started dreaming the dream of this book together. I wanted it to look like a magic book of creative writing. I wanted it to look like the kind of book that Harry Potter would take to his creative writing class. I loved this idea and had so much fun collaborating on it.
However, when I started to dig into the categories, I realized it was the perfect cover for a genre I loved (Fantasy), but it was not the genre I was publishing in. The book cover I wanted may not help my audience recognize it was for them. The category I was publishing in had a lot of white space, pastels and watercolor washes.
I started researching categories for books like mine which included Writing Reference, Spirituality & Religion, Self-Help Creativity and Spiritual Self-Help. Those categories had specific conventions, that helped readers recognize that those types of books are for them. I knew that when it came to doing promotion and purchasing ad space, having a cover that resembled a different genre would cause my ideal readers to overlook it. My ideal readers might not recognize it’s for them.
2. Research that category and understand the audience in depth.
Thus, when choosing a cover I had some serious decisions to make and I didn’t know how to make them! There were dozens of categories where my book could fit and I didn’t know where to target my cover!
So, I did two things. I started asking people in my community what kinds of books they liked and what other authors they read. Eckhart Tolle, Michael Singer, Marie Forleo, Julia Cameron and Elizabeth Gilbert came up a lot.
I also used a tool called Publisher Rocket so I could track sales in various genres. As a result of my research I knew that books in the categories of Writing Reference and Spirituality & Religion weren’t being read by my readers. Furthermore, not a lot of people were reading books in those categories in general. They didn’t have a lot of sales when I did my research.
What I did find were big trends in books about the chakras, as well as spiritual books on creativity. Then, when I looked up the top ten best sellers in the categories Self-Help: Spirituality, and Self-Help: Creativity, I found my own favorite authors as well. These were categories I really resonated with, and there was a viable market of readers.
3. Communicate with the Designer.
Then I was ready to cross my fingers and hire a designer. I invested in a few individual designers, and honestly, the designs didn’t work out. One tool I used to set the standard, and understand what would work and what wouldn’t was the Kindle Store, Kindle ebook categories. It makes a subjective process a bit more objective. By looking at the Top 100 Paid books you can see the fonts, colors and concepts that are trending. You can also compare those book covers to the Top 100 Free.
Top 100 Free is a wonderful tool for authors who are bootstrapping their book to get noticed by Amazon and start to spread word of mouth. Word of mouth is the most important factor in book sales. Arguably more important than the cover. However, when choosing a cover is the order of the day, it can be helpful to take a step back and see which covers match the aesthetics of the Top 100 Paid, and which covers might pose a barrier.
Now, when you do this over time, you will always find exceptions to conventions and that’s wonderful. Great books sell even with covers that break from convention. Ultimately you want your book to stand out for it’s words, not it’s cover.
4. Open Your Mind and Look for Love
After working with several designers, I finally decided to throw a contest on 99Designs. I had done my research, I understood the conventions, but ultimately, I wanted art that would speak for itself.
When I saw my woman and her hummingbird, it was love at first sight. A little time passed and I could visualize myself promoting that cover and taking pride in it. I imagined subtle changes and tested them with the designer. It was both functional and inspiring. I’m glad I waited until I got that loving feeling again.
I got it the first time when Amy and I were working together, then I wandered the labyrinth of publishing conventions, and finally found it again.
Hope this was helpful!