MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is it Cover or the Content that Sells the Book

Frida Fantastic · 05-19-2011, 03:37 AM

On a related note, indie author Lindsay Buroker has written a great blog post on what makes a good website: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/book-m...ur-book-sales/ Indie books are a business, and part of business is marketing, having an online platform, and managing an online brand. Many authors are great writers but aren't great graphic designers/website designers/etc. I understand that, there's not many polymaths around. What I don't understand is this deep desire for many indie authors to go completely DIY when they're not the best person to do it.

Let's say an indie author, let's call her Karen, has spent a year and a half writing a book. She is only willing to spend $200 on it. She decides to make her own cover (despite having no experiences making book covers before), and edit her own book, and spent the rest of the $200 on a few print copies. She puts her book on Amazon and Smashwords.

The cover is mediocre, she's missed a couple of grammatical errors in the beginning so a lot of the folks that downloaded a sample turned away, and neither ebooks or print copies are moving much at all. She feels like she just wasted $200 dollars.

What do I think she should have done instead?

For editing, she could strike up a friendship with other writers or her fan base to do edits. Even if none of them are professional, the more *honest* editors you have, the more they can catch errors. If she's got a sizeable support network to do free editing, then she could go this road. She could then spend $100 on a good cover she hired a graphic designer to do (who she found on a message board like this one). She could spent the other $100 to buy a handful of print copies, just in case there's people who won't buy ebooks. She can buy more print copies once her books start moving.

I don't think authors need to spend as much as J. A. Konrath does on his covers, but it's just a part of business. Readers aren't purposely trying to be shallow, they have limited time and they get attracted to products that look like a good product. They try it. If it's bad, they don't buy. If it's good, they buy. If they constantly pass over the product, how will they try it?

05-19-2011, 03:37 AM	#5
Frida Fantastic SF/F book blogger Posts: 270 Karma: 502030 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Vancouver, Canada Device: Kindle 3	On a related note, indie author Lindsay Buroker has written a great blog post on what makes a good website: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/book-m...ur-book-sales/ Indie books are a business, and part of business is marketing, having an online platform, and managing an online brand. Many authors are great writers but aren't great graphic designers/website designers/etc. I understand that, there's not many polymaths around. What I don't understand is this deep desire for many indie authors to go completely DIY when they're not the best person to do it. Let's say an indie author, let's call her Karen, has spent a year and a half writing a book. She is only willing to spend $200 on it. She decides to make her own cover (despite having no experiences making book covers before), and edit her own book, and spent the rest of the $200 on a few print copies. She puts her book on Amazon and Smashwords. The cover is mediocre, she's missed a couple of grammatical errors in the beginning so a lot of the folks that downloaded a sample turned away, and neither ebooks or print copies are moving much at all. She feels like she just wasted $200 dollars. What do I think she should have done instead? For editing, she could strike up a friendship with other writers or her fan base to do edits. Even if none of them are professional, the more honest editors you have, the more they can catch errors. If she's got a sizeable support network to do free editing, then she could go this road. She could then spend $100 on a good cover she hired a graphic designer to do (who she found on a message board like this one). She could spent the other $100 to buy a handful of print copies, just in case there's people who won't buy ebooks. She can buy more print copies once her books start moving. I don't think authors need to spend as much as J. A. Konrath does on his covers, but it's just a part of business. Readers aren't purposely trying to be shallow, they have limited time and they get attracted to products that look like a good product. They try it. If it's bad, they don't buy. If it's good, they buy. If they constantly pass over the product, how will they try it?