“With every new book, you have just one chance to make a first impression.”

As a publisher, I want every book to achieve its full potential. It frustrates me when the offering the book makes is not clear, confusing or not relevant to the needs of the reader who would really enjoy it or benefit from it, if they knew what it was about.

So often I am presented with book titles that are hugely intelligent but obscure and meaningless unless you have read the book.  But you won’t read the book if the cover means nothing to you.

Books are highly competitive, in fact in the UK alone, 184,000 of them are launched by publishers every year. All of them are clamouring to be noticed. Many of them have big PR and marketing budgets. Each one is a competitor to your book. A little time spent now on getting the cover right, will make a huge difference later on.

The thing that an author knows about is the plot of the book and the characters but neither of these will attract a reader on their own.  The publisher knows about the marketplace and what attracts readers. A successful book is one where both the publisher and the author are able to work together and play to their strengths.

So, the sole purpose of a book cover is to sell the book to a potential reader. There are five elements which are required on the cover;

The five elements are;

1. The author’s name
2. The background images and the design
3. The heading (top of the page), to identify or attract the reader and to explain the genre
4. The Book Title (large, in the centre) This is the main offering.
5. The subtitle (below the title) which modifies or gives context.

The last three need to tell a clear and unambiguous story so that the reader ‘gets it’ and knows what the book is going to do for them. That is more relevant the describing the detail of the plot or the protagonists involved – neither of which they know anything about at the point of purchase.

In addition, the potential reader will also take into consideration to the ‘look and feel’, the size of the book, the price it is on sale for (not necessarily the retail price printed on the book), cover enhancements, and the impression it makes on them. Sometimes is the book is too large, they will reject it because it looks too long to read.

The exception to this are books from established writers who are celebrities or household names.  If their name is big enough, people will buy the book because of the name and their track record. In this case, the rules for front cover content don’t apply. Put David Attenborough’s name on a book and you know it is going to be a book on wildlife. You hardly need anything else.

For a book cover to fulfil its purpose

1. The genre of the book has to be obvious, ie is it a biography, a love story, an adventure, a text book. The reader needs to know what sort of book is this and if it is what they are looking for. They won’t know unless you tell them.
2. If, in order to understand what the title means, you would have first needed to have read the book, it will not work. The title may be very clever and makes total sense if you have read chapter seventy-six, but if they don’t understand it they will not pick it up. In a book shop every other book is competing for attention.

In my experience, the title of the book often comes from within the contents of the book, the author’s own word. However, the author might not recognise the power of that particular sentence or that it would make the perfect title.  As a result, they often try too hard to be clever and look for the most obscure title possible. This is not a game to play with the reader to see if they can solve the puzzle. It is the opposite. The prize is when the reader ‘gets it right away’ and picks up the book

A title alone is not enough. The top heading and strapline under the title, give further meaning. For inspiration, take a look at how well the film industry creates a short sentence to give you instant clarity.

One author was an airline pilot who loved Life Coaching. Her book title was ‘The Life Pilot’ her strapline was ‘Guaranteed to lose your baggage’

Another prize example is when a screen writer went to pitch his story. The producer asked “What’s it about?’ The author didn’t have a pitch deck or video, nor even a full proposal, He only had three words. “Jaws in Space”. The film, of course, was Alien. The strapline to that was, ‘In Space, nobody can hear you scream.’

One unforgettable title and strapline combination was for the film ‘The 40 year Old Virgin’ – ‘The longer you wait, the harder it gets’   A little humour goes a long way.

In conclusion, do not rush choosing your front cover text or images. If you have no experience as a book cover design, work with someone who has. The last thing you need is for the book to look ‘self-published’. Always keep in mind your perfect reader.  If they need to read the book to be able to understand the title, then you have the wrong title.

Always put yourself in their minds. What are they looking for? You title needs to tell them that they have found it!

Chris Day    Publisher and author Coach

A help sheet from  Filament Publishing Ltd, Consultant Publishers   

 Members of the Independent Publishers Association                                          

 Telephone +44 (0)20 8688 2598    chris@filamentpublishing.com