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Blogging Interviews |
To promote Personality Not Included, Rohit Bhargava invited fellow bloggers to send him five questions about the book. As part of the offer, he promised that the best interview would win a signed copy of the book and a $100 gift certificate from Amazon. 55 bloggers took him up on his offer.
One blogger, for example, asked for Bhargava's elevator pitch. His response: "Faceless companies don't work anymore. In the social media era, personality matters."
Another asked him if he considered himself a Simon, a Randy, or a Paula (the American Idol judges). He responded, "Definitely Simon, because he's authentic. Authenticity to me means not blowing smoke up people's behind when you think they are stupid."
Still another asked him if the weird little wind-up chickens on the book cover had any significance. Nope. They were simply used to help the book stand out in the business section of bookstores. As Bhargava noted, "Have you seen chickens on any other marketing books?"
In his summary of this effort (http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/ weblog/2008/04/pni-virtual-int.html), Bhargava hinted that next time he did something like this, he'd probably make it easier for the bloggers (and him) by having them ask only 3 questions.
Now, the one thing he did not report was the effect on sales. Yes, he got featured in 55 blogs. Neat. But did he sell any books? I just checked his Amazon rank (17,329 as I write this blog post). For a comparison, here's the Amazon rank for 1001 Ways to Market Your Books (with no blog campaign going on recently): 6,599.
So, while some of the bloggers praised his book marketing campaign, he never reported the key stat: how many books did he sell. Alas.
Now, I liked what he did. You might try it yourself to promote your book. But if you do, please tell me how it affected your book sales. That's the key to marketing books. You must sell books.Labels: 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, blogging, book covers, book marketing, business book, Personality Not Included, Rohit Bhargava |
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Strong Images: Strong Book Covers |
A reader of this blog brought my attention to the above cover. As she wrote:
"I always enjoy your blog posts about book covers. I came across a wonderful cover for a book called Pocket Psycho. Unfortunately, the book is only available in Australia, but gosh, I'd buy it here in a heartbeat just based on that cover! It so perfectly conveys the feelings of a modern day cubicle worker trapped by a malevolent boss. I thought you'd get a kick out of the cover, as well."
She's right. I did enjoy the cover, especially the image. The typeface on the title -- that I'd change. But I can see why she'd buy the book based on that image.
Since it is not available in the U.S., check out the website at http://www.careerone.com.au/jobs/ job-search/job-market-insider/surviving-the-office-monster.Labels: book covers, book marketing, cover design, typefaces |
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Book Covers Sell Books |
In today's interview featured in Shelf Awareness, Felicia Sullivan describes a book she bought for the cover:
"Serious Girls by Maxine Swann. The image of two schoolgirls clutching hands, their legs submerged in a pond, their backs flat on anemic grass, their eyes gazing up at a bleached sky, a smattering of red on a uniform (blood?), haunted me. I remember browsing the New Releases section in my local bookstore, and I kept walking by Serious Girls, disturbed, curious. I didn't know anything about the book or the author, but on that particular day, I knew that I wanted to learn more about those two girls."
I can see why the image transfixes her. Are they dead? Just relaxing on a hot summer's day? You really can't tell by the cover.
An interesting use of negative space with a nearly blank white top half.
Would you want to read this book? Does the cover sell you?Labels: book covers, Felicia Sullivan, Maxine Swann, negative space, Serious Girls, Shelf Awareness |
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A Terrible Book Cover: My Apologies |
Here is a terrible book cover. At least as it looks online. Maybe it looks better in real life, but still, who picked that bland and horrible typeface?
Watch for the book on Amazon.com. They are running an Amazon bestseller promotion for the book right now.
Too bad none of her partners in the promotion told her how terrible the cover was. With just a little work, it could have been spectacular. But first, and foremost, lose that typeface.
I can't read the author's name at all online. Nor the subtitle. At least it looks like there's a subtitle there just below the rays.Labels: Amazon Bestseller Campaign, Amazon.com, book covers, typefaces |
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Why Book Covers Count: Another Reason |
Bonus update (original posting below).
In addition to the quote by Sean Penn in Entertainment Weekly cited below, Sean also talked about the book cover for Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild in a recent interview in Time magazine:
"The cover grabbed me--the bus, the image of the bus with the title Into the Wild on it. I've made a lot of decisions in my life that you could call judging a book by its cover. And I've become a real advocate of it. So I took the book home, and I read it cover to cover twice, and I went to sleep in the wee hours and immediately got up in the morning, and I saw in essence the movie that you saw last night."
I noticed the following quote from actor and director Sean Pean in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. He had been asked when he decided to make Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild into a film. His answer was as follows (the bold is my emphasis):
"When the book first came out, I wandered into a bookstore, saw it on the shelf, judged the book by its cover, took it home, read it twice, finally fell asleep, woke up, and started trying to see if the rights were available. I had a very strong feeling that this thing was dying to get out of the pages and onto the screen."
That's how a cover should work. It should draw potential readers into the book, get them to pick it up, buy it, and read it. That's what happened to Sean Penn. That's why covers are important, not just for the initial sell, not just for the initial impression, but also for the potential of follow-up sales, including movie rights and other subsidiary rights.Labels: book covers, Entertainment Weekly, film rights, Into the Night, Jon Krakauer, Sean Pean |
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A Dramatic Book Cover |
Here is a very unusual cover. I don't recall seeing one just like this. It catches your attention. The book, Cosmic Trends by Philip Brown, is published by Llewellyn, one of my favorite publishers.
It's a very arresting cover. Personally, I'm not sure I like the colors or the busyness of the cover, but it does stand out.
What are your thoughts on this cover? Does it help sell the book?
By the way, the author loves the cover.Labels: book covers, Cosmic Trends, Llewellyn, Philip Brown |
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Books You've Bought for the Cover |
I love the Book Brahmins interviews in the Shelf Awareness ezine because one of the questions they ask every interviewee is what book they've bought for the cover. Well, today's cover of choice -- as chosen by Debra Ginsberg, author of the memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress -- is Jessica Cutler's The Washingtonienne.
Now, I understand why a man would be attracted to the cover. I found it inspirational. And I can also see how a woman would like the cover. It is very arresting.
Of course, I would have loved to see the title be bolder, but I guess they felt that, if they made it bolder, it would take away from the other attractions on the cover. Sometimes you have to make tough choices in designing a cover.Labels: book covers, book design, book marketing, Debra Ginsberg, Jessica Cutler, Shelf Awareness, The Washingtonienne, Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress |
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A Book Bought for Its Cover |
In an interview, M.J. Rose, author of The Reincarnationist and founder of AuthorBuzz.com, noted that she bought Nicholas Christopher's novel A Trip to the Stars because she liked the cover.
I like it, too, although the title does disappear from the cover. But, gosh, what a wonderful illustration!Labels: book covers, illustrations, M J Rose, Nicholas Christopher, The Reincarnationist |
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Book Covers: Another View |
Today's Shelf Awareness newsletter interviewed book critic John McFarland. One question they asked was the title of a book he had bought only for the cover. Here was his answer:
"Juno and Juliet by Julian Gough. How could anyone resist identical twins dressed for swimming and looking like two mysterious sleek seals?"
What's your take on the cover? Here it is:
 Labels: book covers, book critic, John McFarland, Shelf Awareness |
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A Very Ineffective Book Cover |
The above book cover from Penguin Press is a terrible book cover. I do hope that it is just a place holder at Amazon.com and will be changed to a real cover soon.
If the above is the cover going into bookstores, I have to wonder why Penguin Press is letting monkeys design their book covers these days. I apologize for the bad joke, but this cover is a bad joke.Labels: book covers, Penguin Press |
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In Praise of a Blank Cover |
Yesterday in his blog, Seth Godin wrote In praise of a blank page. Here is what he had to say about book covers:
"A friend just sent me a book he worked on. It's a terrific book, but it has an astonishingly mediocre (if that's possible) cover. I can just see how the cover came to be. There were proposals and meetings and compromises and a deadline. As the deadline loomed, the compromises came more often, until they ended up with a cover that didn't match the power of the book.
"They should have just shipped a cover that was blank.
"Knowing that you need to ship a blank cover if you can't come up with something great focuses the mind and takes the edge of the conversations about compromise. If 'good enough' isn't good enough, and if the alternative is certain failure, people will dig in and come up with something better."
I think if publishers published more books with blank covers, we'd eventually end up with more great covers. Read Seth's post. He has more to say than what I quoted here.
In fact, while you're there, read his post from today as well: The most important rule.
In today's post he cites the following rule: By a factor of three, what you do is not nearly as important as how it makes people feel.
That's a rule I have to practice more. Sometimes, in the hustle of day-to-day details, I forget the larger picture -- which in my case is this: Why I'm doing what I'm doing. In short, I'm doing what I'm doing because I want to help people. Everything else is secondary.
What is your big picture? Why are you writing books? Why are you doing what you are doing? Answer that. And, if somewhere in your answer, there are no people, put some people in. People matter. Blank pages are great!Labels: blank pages, book covers, importance of people, Seth Godin, what really matters |
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What Has Happened to Good Book Covers? |
While reading the latest issue of Foreword magazine, I noticed that at least half of the book covers featured in that issue were not up to par.
Whether books reviewed or advertised, the covers were not retail-ready. Even New World Library, who normally does an incredible job of packaging their books, had two books reviewed that had flat, boring, uninteresting covers. What gives? Who was sleeping on the job? Not only with them, but with so many other small publishers as well.
Here look at the two covers from New World Library. Look at how flat and boring they are. Note how the elements fo the cover seem to be unrelated. Notice the boring type faces. The way the photos just hang there. I've seen many, many self-published books with better covers than Beyond Knowing. Haven't you?
 
I asked for feedback on whether or not I was just having a bad night when I first viewed these covers. I called my book cover designer George Foster of Foster Covers. Well, he agreed with me. In addition, he agreed to redesign one of the covers just to help others see the difference between covers pasted together in pieces like the above and a well-designed cover. I like his better. Do you? See below.
Notice how the above cover highlights the main benefit of the book by showcasing the subtitle (which was lost in the previous version). More important, notice how the cover is now integrated. All the parts fit together. The cover looks designed. It looks like the publisher took some time to create a decent book.
Even his redesign of Beyond Knowing is better, although I'd still like to see more from the design (but George was only working with the elements from the real book cover and had nothing else to work with to make the design better).
To help you decide which cover is best, ask yourself this question: Which book cover would I pick up first? I guarantee you that at least 80% of book browsers would pick up George's covers over the original undesigned covers.
The sad thing is how many other covers in that issue of Foreword were as poor, undesigned, uninteresting, un-pick-up-able (that's a new word I've invented to describe bad covers).Labels: book covers, book design, cover design, Foreword magazine |
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