The Book Cover Discussion

It stands to reason that certain genres require specific cover design elements. I can spot a thriller a mile away, for example. For one, judging by their covers, all thrillers seem to take place at night.

Luckily for me, I guess, women's fiction covers don't have a "type". Because what is women's fiction anyway? No one knows. Doing a quick search of Amazon books by genre, it appears that anything and everything can be classified as women's fiction, and the covers are wildly divergent.

I don't think I do badly creating my own covers, but the fonts available to me don't scream "professionally designed". I also think I err in emphasizing the cover image, and placing the title above it, rather than across it like most best sellers do. Early on, I fell into the habit of using an image of a woman, since, you know, it is women's fiction. I've found some good photos, but obscuring the woman's face by scribbling the title across it would kill any mood I wanted to convey. 

I would love to see what a professional designer could do with one of my books; not a Fiverr designer, but an actual professional. Sadly, I simply can't afford that. I possess a very rudimentary talent for composition, but I don't have the imagination to see beyond the obvious design choices. 

The truth is, a quick search of best sellers shows that all the covers were professionally designed. I don't see a homemade one in the bunch. And amateur designs (like mine) are obvious. A self-designed cover isn't going to sell. Even a truly ugly professional design (and I've seen a lot of those) will sell better than a DIY one. That's because potential buyers equate an amateur cover with amateur writing.

By far a book's cover is its most important selling point. What else do people have to go on? Yes, the blurb is important, too, but no one is going to read the blurb until they click on your cover image.

I've looked at some of the offerings from pre-made cover sites, and while they're relatively inexpensive, they're SO generic. No, given the funds I'd prefer an original design. Therein lies the problem ~ I don't have the funds. And what is my guarantee that a "wow" cover would sell my book? That's a financial risk I can't afford to take.

I could play around with Canva a bit and think outside the box for some of my already published books; see if using a different concept would boost sales. I doubt it would, but since I no longer have time to write, it would feel like I'm doing something. I've checked out some of Canva's pre-made templates, which at least have the proper fonts, and though I haven't used any of them, they are an option to investigate further.

This is all pretty much moot. I'm no longer interested enough in those books to tinker with their covers, and all I want to do is finish Second Chance, which doesn't appear to be in the cards. I'm good, though. I'm getting used to my new normal. I don't like it, but I'm getting used to it.

The book cover discussion is still a valuable one to have.