https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/ ARC Book Reviews and Author Services Fri, 29 Dec 2023 13:02:06 +0000 hourly 1 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/#comment-784501 Fri, 29 Dec 2023 13:02:06 +0000 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/?p=8452030#comment-784501 […] It’s time to work on this list you created, and the perfect place to start is from the outside in. Your cover doesn’t just sell your book – it often sells the decision to even consider buying your book. It’s perhaps the first and most essential element toward having a successful self-publishing career, yet one many writers overlook. Following your audit and spring cleaning, you should revisit every cover for every book in your catalog and compare them to other books in the genre. Does your cover look like it belongs sandwiched between the best-sellers in your category? If it doesn’t, it’s time to invest in a new cover from a solid designer. From thrillers to romance, all genre books have essential elements that need to be included to meet the “dress code” of a best-seller, and if your books are missing those elements, you’ll never be as successful as you’d like. Read more about how important a cover can be, and how to identify the must-have elements for your genre, in this post. […]

]]> https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/#comment-579862 Fri, 08 Jul 2022 12:08:05 +0000 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/?p=8452030#comment-579862 […] So, a month before you even click ‘publish’, make sure you’re researching other books on Amazon – the ones you want your book to be displayed alongside. Figure out which categories they’re in, and what conventions seem to be the most popular. Everything in the Top 100 of your category serves as a clue – right down to being able to predict which books will succeed based on their typefaces and cover colo… […]

]]> https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/#comment-404874 Thu, 19 Aug 2021 14:30:03 +0000 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/?p=8452030#comment-404874 […] you’ll spend a lot of time researching the best-sellers in your chosen category – identifying any patterns that they seem to have in common. This is also a great source of keyword ideas for new authors – but perhaps more valuable are […]

]]> https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/#comment-373492 Fri, 04 Jun 2021 12:20:09 +0000 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/?p=8452030#comment-373492 […] with the other best-sellers my book would eventually sit alongside. Like I mentioned in my post about covers, there’s a ‘dress code’ for successful books, and the real secret to success is […]

]]> https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/#comment-367187 Sat, 22 May 2021 13:35:20 +0000 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/?p=8452030#comment-367187 Thanks for doing all that research. Really useful stuff. Data always beats mere opinion. Great blog.

]]> https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/designing-covers-by-numbers/#comment-366681 Fri, 21 May 2021 13:15:19 +0000 https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/?p=8452030#comment-366681 Thank you, Ginger, this is a super-useful post. I had gotten as far as “make it look approximately right for the genre” but I hadn’t thought of crunching data to check myself. Cool approach!

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