October 4, 2022
Just Because We Can, Should We?
by Samantha Hoffman
As an author, the thing we do best is write; we create believable, three dimensional characters; we tell an engaging story; we connect with the reader's emotions, and we pull the reader into the world we've constructed. This is what we do best.
In today's publishing world we have the freedom to write our book the way we want to and publish it on our own terms. We don't need anyone's opinion of our writing; we don't need an editor if we don't want one, we don't have to have an an agent or a publisher; we can format the book ourselves, use the font we want to use, create our own cover with a photo off of our iPhone.
Just because we can do all that, should we?
WE SHOULD NOT.
We should let the professionals do the things they do best, while we're doing ours.
For example:
Why Authors Shouldn’t Design Covers
by Harley Austin
Published in The Writing Cooperative
You’re a great writer. Don’t try to be a graphic designer.
As an indie author self-publishing on Amazon, you have complete freedom to write and produce whatever kinds of stories you like. You are now all-powerful.
The good news is that you have full-control over what your cover will look like. The bad news is, well, you have full-control over what your cover will look like.
Most of us as writers and authors can weave a story that will knock the socks off our readers. But the truth is, we’re writers and we usually don’t know all that much about what we’re doing when it comes to graphic design—especially cover design.
Yes, we know what we like. Everyone does. Everyone has an opinion about what they like and don’t like. But when you have full-control, it’s really hard not to let that control interfere with you maximizing your book’s cover with the best design possible.
Most everyone knows that in traditional publishing, once you sign the contract as an author, you have absolute zero control over what your book’s cover will look like when it’s published.
There’s a reason.
Most writers and authors know little to nothing about what a book cover is really for, nor how to use it as the tool that is must be to, well, sell your book.
With this in mind, I want to touch on a few points of why you need to hire the very best design talent you can find to produce your book covers; and then once you hire that elite talent, you need to just get the hell out of the way and let them work their magic.
People WILL Judge Your Book by Its Cover
Writer, editor, artist, personal assistant, private chef, runner (8-time marathoner), film and theatre buff, traveler… Author of What More Could You Wish For (St. Martin’s Press).
V.P. of the Chicago Writers Association, Executive Director of Let’s Just Write! An Uncommon Writers Conference.
Visit me at www.samanthahoffman.com
Comments
Melanie Holmes on Friday, October 07, 2022
This is good advice, with a caveat. Sometimes, the author knows what cover will represent the contents best. Case in point—my 2nd book, “A Hero on Mount St Helens: The Life and Legacy of David A Johnston” was pubbed by University of Illinois Press. Many people would expect to see a mountain that *looks* like a volcano. Except that this is David’s story—everyone knows how he died (well, every aficionado of volcanoes—but this book tells about life. The 30 years that came before St. Helens erupted (5-18-80). And so the cover is designed by me. A pix of St. Helens with greenery and wild flowers in the foreground. And an inset of David atop a mountain ridge (one of his fave photos).
Others wanted the book cover to show a volcano erupting. But that’s the moment of his death. And his biography is about how he lived.