Are you ready to launch your book? If yes, then you must be feeling overwhelmed with all the excitement that is part of finally being able to publish a book. You have invested a great amount of effort, time, and dedication in coming up with the best book possible.
You have a clear and ideal reader, an amazing and irresistible hook, and you have invested money and energy in editing, proofreading, and designing your book.
Suppose you launch your book – a few sales happen, and it fizzles out for some unknown reasons. You might get frustrated enough to run ads –nobody seems interested. You might call stores – but – nobody seems interested in carrying your book.
With that said, if your book isn’t selling and you are wondering whether your book cover is holding back your book, you are here at the right place.
Suppose you did indeed hire a professional for your book cover – there is the chance that your cover might not be as good as it needs to be. And suppose you didn’t hire a professional book cover designer; it is a guarantee that your book cover isn’t as good as it needs to be.
Bad book covers can happen for a number of reasons, and here are some of the fairly common reasons:
- You were low on a budget to hire a professional book cover designer.
- You tried to save money by hiring a cheap service to create your book cover.
- You thought the book cover was good enough when it wasn’t.
- You designed the book cover yourself and didn’t see any issues with it.
- You asked your friend/ family to design the book cover for you.
- You put yourself on the cover – which could make sense if the book was self-help and you presented yourself as an expert – even though you are not famous.
- Your cover was okay, but it wasn’t according to the genre or didn’t stand out on bookshelves.
Potential Signs Your Book Cover is The Cause of Unsold Books
Here is the thing – a bad book cover isn’t necessarily something you should feel bad about unless you don’t fix it. A potential challenge is that if your book isn’t selling, you can never know for certain whether the book cover is keeping your book from being sold.
Nonetheless, here are some signs that your book cover is holding your book sales back:
Sign #1 - Your concept is great, and people are genuinely excited about the launch of your book. But – this excitement isn’t translating into the sales you potentially see for your book.
Sign #2 - You are running Amazon Ads and getting the impressions, but you aren’t getting the clicks. If this happens, you will want to see it as a big tell-tale sign that your book title or cover is off for your target audience and that it should ideally appear appealing too.
Sign #3 - Another sign that your book cover is the reason for your book to not sell is that media reviewers or other sources tell you that they like your pitch but won’t show or feature your book cover. Sometimes, the sources will refrain from telling you this directly – but – you will be able to read between the lines.
This is why it is always helpful to have third-party pitching you.
Sign# 4 - You might have consulted professionals and best-selling authors about this issue, and they might have suggested that your book cover has design issues. Your cover might blend in or fail to stand out in your genre.
The book cover might appear amateurish; it might have your picture on it when nobody else has their picture on their cover. It could also be vice versa – depending on your category, everybody else might have their picture on their book covers, and you don’t have one.
What Makes an Ideal Book Cover
You should know that a great book cover stands out but fits the genre, which is why it appeals t the ideal reader. A perfect book cover looks well done and induces curiosity to the point that readers cannot help but pick up the book to see what it is about.
When choosing a book cover, you must ensure that it conveys what you are sharing inside the book. Suppose you have written a non-fiction book and done some research; you might have noticed that most non-fiction books cover light bulbs or puzzles.
You will want to understand that the imagery on your book cover can tell an entire story – including the color combination and the fonts. With that said, you will always want to look at the bigger picture when choosing your book cover design.
You will want to choose an image that can create the desired emotion in your ideal reader. So, if you are going to opt for something like a light bulb on your cover, you need to think about a decade from now and come up with a solution for how you want to create the longevity of your book.
Now if you want to put your face on the cover, you will want to visit the top ten best-selling books of your category and see if any other authors are in the top ten there. If you find that no one else has their face on their book covers, you will want to take it as an excellent indication that your face shouldn’t be on the cover, either.
Nonetheless, if you want to be an exception and be on your book cover, you will want to do a stock image search and see if something out there would be relevant. Suppose you have written a book about how to get your energy back; you will want to opt for a book cover where you are jump-kicking in the air.
To Sum Up
Bad covers happen, and if you know that you have a great book that isn’t selling well, despite your effort to create that great book that will appeal to an ideal reader, you will want to consider redoing the cover as a new cover could make all the difference in your results.
☰
