HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR BOOK COVER

RIGHT TITLE, RIGHT COVER

As a writer (11 books so far, all self-published) I'm hardworking and I put a huge amount of my time into planning, outlining, writing and rewriting my novels, but as a self-promoter I'm lazy. Really lazy. I have Facebook, Twitter, Link accounts and I have a blog. With each book I finish I promise myself that this time I'll pull out all the stops to publicise it, but most of the time I just can't be bothered. All I want to do is write.

Which is why it's so important to have the best cover and the best title you (or someone else) can design, so that your book may get noticed in other ways.

There are others who, like me, are attracted to obscure titles and intriguing cover designs that don't actually tell you anything, but I think we're in the minority and perhaps it's better to say on the tin exactly what it does inside.

My most successful book has been THE MYSTERY OF CRAVEN MANOR (for children 9-14) which has sold nearly 9000 copies since Autumn 2015. I have two other books for the same age range but they don't sell nearly as well.

I think CRAVEN MANOR is a good adventure story (well, I would, wouldn't I?) but I think the main reason for its success is that it's very clear just what it is. The title is self-explanatory, the house I've pictured is spooky, it's dark, with just a few windows lit up, and even the font I chose for the title (AR CARTER)  which has little white spots scattered around it, adding to the atmospheric night sky) adds to the effect.

If you self-publish like me, you have the choice of hiring a designer for your cover or designing it yourself (I taught myself to use PAINT.NET which is a free graphics programme), but whichever method you decide on, ask yourself whether your cover is saying what it does in the tin.

IN PRAISE OF PAINT.NET

I've been having a lot of fun over the past week or two redesigning some of my covers (I've always created my own - some using photographs, others using my own sketches or detail cropped from some of my own paintings). 

It's useful  being able to combine my two main interests, writing and painting, but you don't necessarily need artistic talent to produce a cover that hits the eye and tells part of the story.

And with Paint.net it's easy to experiment, as it uses a system of 'layers' - each section that you add (photograph, text, special effects, colour changes, etc) is on a separate layer - just remember to untick the layers you're not playing around with!

I taught myself the hard way, by trying and failing, but now that I know how to do it (Isn't it always the case?) I've come across a very good tutorial that you can download as a PDF and print out (37 pages). From Lancaster University it's called 'IMAGE MANIPULATION WITH PAINT.NET'.

The even better news is that Paint.net is FREE!