Book Covers Sell Books 74

Marketing books happens while writing books. Before you write your book chapters you want to get your hot selling points in order. The # one selling point is the front cover.

Front Covers Sell Books

Book selling needs easy to read book titles. Your audience will spend about 5-10 seconds, so a whole sentence with long sub titles doesn't make sense.Make your book title clear first, clear and compelling, second. Shorter titles are easier to remember for your book buying target audience. So the title is all-powerful for great sales.

The front book cover design should match your book's topic.

Use reds, blues, and strong colors for business books. Please only three different fonts for the cover.Book graphics on the cover make a difference in big sales. When publishing three business books, I used http://www.maxcovers.com whose graphics made the covers stand out from the crowd for my own books www.bookcoaching.com. For book coaching clients I suggested they check out eBook covers with http://qualitybookcovers.com. For top quality and more expensive covers see http://fostercovers.com.

Back Covers Sell Books

After the front cover your target audience will look at the back cover of your book for only 10-20 seconds, so make each word (about 30-50) count. It's the #2 hot selling point that pre markets your book. Emerging authors often forget to pay attention here.

Does your back cover pass the test?

Best Solutions to the Biggest Mistakes

1. Mistake: Too many non-powerful words and too busy to have a focus.

Best Solutions: Use sound bites, visual and emotional words, benefits, and testimonials to compel your capture your readers' attention. Make every word count and be willing to get five-fifteen edits.

2. Mistake: Too long an author's bio or large photo. Your audience wants to know how the book will help them, teach them a skill, or entertain them. The initials after your name don't really mater. Just a sentence or two that enlivens you.

Save the large photo for the inside back cover. Your face won't sell books.

3. Mistake: Repeating the book's title at the top of the back cover.

Best Solutions: Since your buyers already know the title and are stimulated enough to look at the back cover, hook them with a WOW, compelling headline that asks a question or gives them the #one benefit of your book.

Notice the headlines in your newspaper. Visit your bookstore and notice other best selling authors' headlines.

4. Mistake: Omitting testimonials or book reviews.

Best Solutions: Testimonials sell more books than any other information on the back cover. Put at least three up. Use one from a top professional in your field, one from a satisfied reader, one from a celebrity who cares about your topic, and one from a top media person. These can be local contacts.

In her book, A Kick in Your Inspiration, Ruth Cleveland got one testimonial from an ex convict! Jacqueline Marcell, author of Elder Rage, took eight months to get forty testimonials from celebrities. Her book is endorsed by: Steve Allen, Ed Asner, Dr. Dean Edell, Dr. John Gray, Dr. Nancy Snyderman/ABC, Regis Philbin. Jacqueline Bisset, and Phyllis Diller.

Worth the effort? Yes, because i she made the cover of the AARP Bulletin distributed to over 35 million readers. It included a feature story, some how-tos and contacts and pictures of the author and her book. She had to dance fast, and order 10,000 books to get distributed by the time the piece came out. After it came out, she was inundated with speaking engagements. There's a problem you might love to have!

Notice, after authors get well known, they fill their back cover with only testimonials. Potential buyers will purchase when they see people they trust and know recommend the book. You may want to even add extra testimonials in the front pages of the book. The more testimonials, the better!

If you are unsure how to ask for testimonials the easy way, contact a professional book coach.

5. Mistake: Independent publishers submitting galleys to reviewers, distributors, and wholesalers without ANY back cover information.

Best Solutions: "Make the back cover your first area of concern," says Susan Howard, Director of Consulting Services at top publishing firm, The Jenkins Group Inc., who write "The Publishing Connection" She adds, "Waiting for testimonials is generally the reason the back cover of a galley is left blank. Failure to realize the value of the back cover seems to equate with the failure to realize that the text for the finished back cover can always be changed before the printing of the book."