It Really Comes Down to THIS?
Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back to life. Curiosity is the biggest thing new authors have going for them. If you can get someone curious about your novel, chances are you can get them to read it. Summaries are extremely important, as well, because they tell potential readers the primary storyline, which usually tells them whether or not it’s the type of book in which they would be interested. However, the summary won’t help you much if nobody reads it.
It’s important to understand how you GET them to the summary. The two things that make people stop and read a summary are the book’s title and the book’s cover. Yes. After all that hard work, blood, sweat and tears, it comes down to those two things.
They are also the two things that most new writers make mistakes with.
Covers and titles are an art form. No matter how many different approaches there are, both the title and the cover need to do two things: make the book stand out, and make potential readers say “I wonder what THAT means?” If those two things happen, they’ll likely move on to the summary, and if the summary is written well, they’re far more likely to buy the book.
Especially for authors who are not yet well known, covers have to be eye-catching. Not eye-catching in a garish, overly busy way, but eye-catching in a way that makes you want to keep looking.
Bland covers subconsciously tell readers that the book will also be bland. Many times, bland covers fail to catch the reader’s eye at all, and their eyes simply land on a book that DOES have a striking cover. This is also true with titles. The latter should peak readers' curiosity and put a question mark in their mind. Boring titles are the kiss of death.
One of my favorite books, “A Perfect Evil” by E.C. Sheedy got my attention because of the cover and the title, and the rest was history. The cover depicted a girl pulling the curtains back to look through a window, but all that appeared to be on the other side was a blinding white light. At least that was my perception. Guess what I said? “I wonder what THAT means?” The title, of course, speaks for itself.
One of my favorite old Victoria Holt novels “The Witch from the Sea” depicted a girl in what appeared to be the 1600s racing down a rocky shoreline in the midst of a thunderstorm, and there was a ship crashing onto the rocks not far from her. It made me very curious, so I got the book, and she became one of my favorite authors of all times.
Sounds oversimplified, but it’s a proven fact. After all that effort to create a great novel, if you miss on the title and the cover, readers just might miss you! Write on!
It’s important to understand how you GET them to the summary. The two things that make people stop and read a summary are the book’s title and the book’s cover. Yes. After all that hard work, blood, sweat and tears, it comes down to those two things.
They are also the two things that most new writers make mistakes with.
Covers and titles are an art form. No matter how many different approaches there are, both the title and the cover need to do two things: make the book stand out, and make potential readers say “I wonder what THAT means?” If those two things happen, they’ll likely move on to the summary, and if the summary is written well, they’re far more likely to buy the book.
Especially for authors who are not yet well known, covers have to be eye-catching. Not eye-catching in a garish, overly busy way, but eye-catching in a way that makes you want to keep looking.
Bland covers subconsciously tell readers that the book will also be bland. Many times, bland covers fail to catch the reader’s eye at all, and their eyes simply land on a book that DOES have a striking cover. This is also true with titles. The latter should peak readers' curiosity and put a question mark in their mind. Boring titles are the kiss of death.
One of my favorite books, “A Perfect Evil” by E.C. Sheedy got my attention because of the cover and the title, and the rest was history. The cover depicted a girl pulling the curtains back to look through a window, but all that appeared to be on the other side was a blinding white light. At least that was my perception. Guess what I said? “I wonder what THAT means?” The title, of course, speaks for itself.
One of my favorite old Victoria Holt novels “The Witch from the Sea” depicted a girl in what appeared to be the 1600s racing down a rocky shoreline in the midst of a thunderstorm, and there was a ship crashing onto the rocks not far from her. It made me very curious, so I got the book, and she became one of my favorite authors of all times.
Sounds oversimplified, but it’s a proven fact. After all that effort to create a great novel, if you miss on the title and the cover, readers just might miss you! Write on!
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