By guest author Karrie Ross.
There are always many questions to address before proceeding down the road of writing a book - questions involving choosing a subject to write about and how you will market your book to the public once it is finished. But when it comes to your book cover, considering what imagery you will choose to represent your concepts is critical to how well it will be received by potential buyers.
It's more than just who will be reading your book, it's is your cover design appropriate for your target reader? To answer that question, here are some questions that many authors fail to ask but should.
- Who is your audience? More specifically, are they knowledgeable or newbies to the information you plan to present in your book, or do you want to capture both groups ? Will they "get" the image you project on your cover, or will it lead them to ask more questions, cause them to disconnect and possibly move on?
- What is your content? Is you book's information in the form of stories to inspire, coaching to motivate or business processes to inform? Is your writing literal or subjective? Rational or metaphorical or specific? Will your audience be looking for specific points of reference?
- How do you plan to use your cover image? Are you looking to only promote your book using online services, or are you planning to have offline offers as well? Will your image be seen as small, large or both? Will it be used in both print and web versions? To be successful, will it need to be quickly identified, understood and emoted?
The answers to these questions can be extremely important when it comes to selecting your cover image and copy. Try to get into the "listening" and "seeing" of your target audience. Once you do, the focus of your book's subject, marketing and cover imagery will follow.
Remember, do something every day toward your book, web-presence, product, service and promotion.
[Among other services she offers, Karrie Ross is nationally recognized for her book cover design expertise she provides authors. She can be contacted at www.BookCoverDesign.com.]
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