Take a look at the picture below. We’ve all been there right? Standing in a video store isle about to pick a movie that we will invest both time and money to enjoy (or not). Really try to think about what you actually do when faced with the isle below. Try to imagine you are there right now. What is the process you go through before picking your movie?
When you get to the store, you probably have some idea of what kind of movie you want or you may have even gone to pick up a specific movie that friend has told you about. So you shuffle over to the right isle and when you get there you start scanning covers. Immediately and without conscious thought, you pass over dozens of videos purely because their cover doesn’t grab your attention.
Before we go on, I think it is important to stop right here and think about what just happened. In seconds, you dismissed the creative passion of dozens of film makers, tens of millions of dollars of invested capital and millions of hours of people’s time that went into making those films – all because of a cover that didn’t work for you.
The simple fact is that you, along with the rest of the human race, have developed a highly attuned filtering system called your Reticular Activating System (RAS), that spends most of its time eliminating anything that is not going to add value to your experience of life. It drowns out the unnecessary and creates blind spots so that you can actually survive a day in this crazy world. If your RAS wasn’t there you would hear every car, every plane, tune in to every conversation within earshot and pay attention to every advertising message that is shot your way. When you go video shopping, it immediately sorts out the crap from the quality through nothing more than a glance, and you don’t even know you are doing it.
So how important is the cover of your book or the thumbnail image of your audio book? It is MORE important than the book itself! The biggest issue we see with Indie authors and the reason why most will only ever be small unknown authors, is because they think and act small when it comes to commercializing their work.
For many, they think nothing of spending two years working on their manuscript but it pains them to spend even a few hundred dollars on getting a professional to design their book cover or audio book thumbnail. With that mindset you will be automatically eliminated by shoppers because their subconscious will immediately spot your book as an amateur title and within a split second all of your hard work is for nil and you find yourself blaming the publisher or the platform or the buyers – the truth is, you suck at marketing.
There are some really great sites out there now that can help you get your audio book thumbnail in shape – one of them in particular is really cool. 99Designs.com runs a site where you upload your job and designers from all over the world will not only bid for the work, but they will actually finish the job and then you award ‘the prize money’ to the designer who produces the best cover. This flips around the risk scenario so that you are no longer hoping that after paying you get a good product – you actually see what they can do before you start.
Here’s a screen shot I took of a current contest where the client is an RnB singer looking for a CD cover design. She offered $300 prize money and so far there are 212 entries. Look at the quality of these designs. For $300 she has created the impression that she is a pro – it is likely that if you were shopping for a new RnB talent that you would at least pick up her CD to have a look.
Aside from that site though, there are dozens of others that can help you. Just Google “Book Cover Design” and see what comes up. Another great site to source talent is www.elance.com but you don’t get to see the work in advance.
The main points of design are:
- It must be done by a professional. Unless you are formerly trained in design, do not trust yourself or a friend who dabbles in design.
- The cover/thumbnail must appeal to your target audience.
- The cover/thumbnail must capture the mood or essence of your book.
- The cover/thumbnail does not have the description on it. Just the book name and the author name together with an image.
So the first reason that crappy movies still get rented (and why bad books still sell) is because people buy the cover before they buy anything else. If you make that short list – the next thing you must have is a great description that sells. So what exactly is a great description?
In marketing there is a well known acronym – “WIIFM”. What’s In It Form Me? If I spend my money and invest my time – what do I get? Your description must draw the reader in and make them want to buy your audio book. If you are selling non-fiction, then talk about the problem your book solves and exactly how it solves it. Think benefits, benefits, benefits and forget about wording that is overly complex or ambiguous. Tell the shopper exactly how the book will benefit them in plain English. Too often non-fiction authors describe their work in way that simply doesn’t make sense. Just take a big step back and ask yourself – “If I knew nothing about me or my subject, does that description make me want to buy this audio book?”
If you are writing fiction the same thing applies. The description must draw the reader into the richness and color of your work immediately and spark an interest within them that makes them want to know more. The key is being objective. Bounce it off others or even create three or four versions and do a little survey among your friends. There’s a great little website called Survey Monkey that enables you to easily create free online surveys that you can email to your contacts and get votes on the best description. Author of New York Times best seller “The Four Hour Work Week” Tim Ferris says that he tested the title through his blog community rather than going with the title he thought was best – and that certainly paid off!
So there’s a two main things in this post that I hope I have hammered home hard! First, the cover of your book or the thumbnail image for your audio book is actually more important that the book itself. Second, if your cover or thumbnail is good enough to get clicked on, then your description is the next most important thing. How good your book actually is, how long it has taken you to write or what those who love you have told you about your work all count for ZERO to the random shopper clicking his or her way through iTunes, Audible or Amazon. You must think and act like a pro in order to get paid like a pro.
