Today I’d like to share ways you can make your book irresistible - inside and out! 

I’ll also share some really important things every indie author needs to know (but loads don’t and later regret) before hitting the Publish button.

First, I want to chat about creating your book cover. You’ve written your book, edited it, and gotten rave reviews from your beta readers. It’s go time, right?

Well, not quite. 

Now it’s time to think a little about how you are going to package up your book with a cover that does it justice and makes readers want to read it.

And this is where I admit to some mistakes. In my early days on Wattpad, I used a Canva template and made this…

Problem was, between the images and the fonts I used, my cover looked more like a film poster. There is no clear genre in this cover (historical fiction/fantasy).

It bombed. It was bad for reaching the right audience on Wattpad, terrible for reads/comments, and bad for getting reviews. 

Sure, it was interesting to look at. But we’re talking book cover - not sticking in images that I thought looked cool and sort of hinted at the concept of the story.

The truth is we get bogged down in the story and lose sight of how to present it to readers….so don’t feel bad if you feel seen right now. 

And don’t worry about what to do because we’re going to fix this.

But before we get into the fixes, let’s look how my cover design journey progressed to get a deeper look at the expensive mistakes (in both money and time) I made with my cover artwork by not understanding the science - and critical importance - of a great book cover…

Because what I couldn’t wrap my head around is our book cover is not about what we like, or what we think looks cool. It’s about the reader and what they will react to. 

Same story. Totally different angle.

I know. It’s hard to shift gears.

But this advice helped.

“We can make the most beautiful cover in the world, but if it doesn’t serve the story, we are not doing our book any favors.” - Orna Ross

Back to my mistakes. So, back in 2018, for the last two books in my series, I hired the cover designer of Kim Stanley Robinson and Cormac McCarthy thinking by hiring a pro I would for sure get the big sales. (Spoiler: I didn’t - read on to find out why).

I gave him my ideas. He created the covers. I loved them.

So I published them thinking that readers would love them too and want to buy the books.

While the first book sold well (fun side note: I worked with a different, totally not-famous designer on the first book), the second and third did not.

Why? They tell the reader absolutely nothing about the books…

Is the story inside about…

• A dark and pointy place with a glowing cave filled with noxious mushrooms? 

• A Stargate-type pyramid 5-alarm fire on an empty planet?

• Also, what genre are they???

Confusion.

If, despite these clear obstacles, a reader took the chance and read the books anyway, then the covers had meaning - but not until the end.

Bad. Bad. Bad.

I soon learned that covers like these stopped being a thing in the 1970s.

So after doing my homework and studying my genre and categories, I re-released the books with these covers…

Now from just a glance, readers can see that the books are situated in ancient history and are about a royal heroine who appears to progress on a journey from mortal to goddess…

Curiosity piqued. Readers dived into the blurbs.

And, miracle of miracles! Sales started coming in - AND with zero spending on ads or even posting an announcement to my newsletter list because I was ill.

So it goes to show, your cover is VERY important.

So don’t be like me and let your love for your story blind you to your cover’s real purpose:

To stand out in its genre as a book those readers want to read.

So let’s get down to business. Here’s how to get your book cover right so your book shines on the shelves!

Genre-Focused Design & Formatting, aka Get Your Book Ready For Your Target Audience 

Step One: Figure Out Your Book’s Category 

First off, you’ll need to have a look at the different genres available for your book. 

The easiest and best place for this task is on Amazon’s virtual bookshelves. Begin by searching the titles in the genre and categories where your book could show up.

Is your book a strong fit for enemies-to-lovers romance? Go and look at the Top 100 Paid and Free lists to see what the covers look like there. Maybe those covers are a bit much for your target audience.

If so, try again in another subcategory, exploring the options available in the genre’s menu.

Maybe you will find that the later-in-life category is a better fit, and the enemies-to-lovers category can be a sub-genre. 

What’s critical is that your book, cover, and audience are fully aligned so your cover will stand out in the categories where the readers are that you want reading your book.

Pro tip: Amazon now only lets you select three categories instead of the ten ka-billion from before which only made matters more confusing for us to hone in on our book’s best genre fit and “look”.

Once you have your book’s genre category nailed down you can focus your energy on designing a cover that best fits both your book and your category - and will stand out among the competitors.

Pro tip 2: Try to keep your cover in line with the other cover themes in your selected categories but give it that little something extra so it stands out.

Step Two: More Than Just Words on a Page

Sure, you can use KDP’s instructions to format your ebook in a Word document and it will get the job done, but if you want to have control over how your ebook looks and feels to your reader then you’ll want to spend time looking at the available options that allow you to personalize your book’s interior format to suit your audience’s expectations.

Just like you wouldn’t want to pay for a 5-star hotel room only to discover your accommodation is Motel 6, you don’t want to seduce your readers with a perfect cover and then hit them in the eyes with what looks like a high school homework assignment.

So….

• Digital: Vellum (for Mac), Atticus, Scrivener, or the versatile (and reasonable) Jutoh can help you format your book to perfectly suit your book’s cover and genre.

• Print: Ingram Spark’s book-building tool is free but do take the tutorial to get the best result

• Professional Services: Sites like Reedsy offer professional formatting services to ensure your book looks perfect on any device or in print, but be prepared to pay several hundred dollars for the service.

Step Three: Protect What’s Yours

New authors don’t often know that taking a “free” ISBN isn’t a smart move, because it means you’re limited in where you could sell your title in the future, and ISBNs are for life. So this is an important decision to decide whether to snap up a “free” ISBN or purchase your own and hold onto your distribution rights in perpetuity.

But being a successfully self-published author doesn’t stop at ISBNs, you need to know about your rights to copyright in a digital world, and how to protect your rights to your intellectual property (IP). Knowing these things earlier rather than later can make an enormous difference to your future success.

• Your ISBN is your book’s unique identifier. While some platforms offer free ISBNs, purchasing your own (through Bowker in the US, and Neilson in the UK) gives you more control over your book’s publishing rights. It costs a little bit of money, but the long-term peace of mind is worth it.

• Copyrighting: Everything you need to know is covered in this comprehensive article from the Alliance of Independent Authors

• Rights Licensing: A full suite of resources from ALLi regarding retaining and selling book rights and negotiating the best author contracts. Make sure you go through this because it can make or break your success!

Your book is a part of you. It deserves to be protected from those who would exploit your hard work and presented in its best light to reach its ideal readership.

And remember…

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."  — Mark Twain