That is perhaps the most willfully ignored and oft-touted piece of advice I can think of. Here's a little harsh truth: Everyone judges books (and games, and movies, and toasters...) by their cover. How you present your product is essential when it comes to marketing.
Did you know that there's a whole industry in making movie trailers, for example? Just the 1-3 minute ads for the latest releases. Companies exist whose sole employment comes from editing trailers, or composing music for them. Marketing is everything in entertainment. And make no mistake authors, your job is to entertain.
Everyone knows you need a great cover for your book, but you also need to consider what goes on the back of your book. Call it a summary, a blurb, or cover copy, it's the brief description that every single reader will go to, in order to see if they might enjoy your book. Your cover art gets their attention, so your cover copy has to get their interest.
I'll be putting myself under the microscope here, because I love writing cover copy, and I need an example of what to look for. Below is the cover copy from my latest novel, Memory War:
War is coming to New York. Nathan Shepherd's growing band of followers is dedicated to protecting the city, but they now face their greatest threat.
Athamar returns, plunging the city into chaos. Uniting the forces of darkness against Nathan and his allies, Athamar strives to discover a secret hidden for thousands of years. A secret lost to Nathan's memories. Something so dangerous, even the gods themselves fear it.
Nathan and Elena were once the greatest of heroes, champions against evil. Now, haunted by Nathan's past-life betrayal, they must work together and brave the pain of long-buried lifetimes. Somewhere, locked within their former incarnations, lies the key to stopping Athamar, an enemy who has hunted them from one incarnation to the next.
As the city burns and innocents suffer, as heroes fall and hope dies, Nathan and Elena face their final battle, a battle where legends will be reborn.
Okay, so there's a lot in here. I'll break it down so we can look at why this works as cover copy.
War is coming to New York.
The first thing your cover copy needs to do, the most important thing, is hook the reader. Yes, "war is coming" is a highly common trope. But it's common because it works. It lets the reader know that things are going to get messy. Also, given that Memory War follows on from two previous novels in which the reader has come to know and (hopefully) care about the city and characters, this one sentence evokes the scale of the threat that's to come.
Nathan Shepherd's growing band of followers is dedicated to protecting the city, but they now face their greatest threat.
Cover copy can be broken down into four basic parts: Status Quo, Immediate Threat, Twist, and Stakes. Here we have the Status Quo. Following from his past victories, Nathan Shepherd has given New York a fighting chance against the supernatural, but they are constantly tested. The mention of their "greatest threat" suggests that they may not be as stable a force as they think.
Athamar returns, plunging the city into chaos.
And we're straight into the Immediate Threat. This is the event which stands to break the status quo, the primary force acting upon the heroes' environment, which they must respond to. Typically this should refer to events within the first 1-3 chapters, specifically the book's inciting event, that propels the hero into action. Any longer and you're either spoiling the plot of your book, or your starting your book way too early and need to cut some chapters from the beginning.
Uniting the forces of darkness against Nathan and his allies, Athamar strives to discover a secret hidden for thousands of years. A secret lost to Nathan's memories. Something so dangerous, even the gods themselves fear it.
Now we're expanding on the Immediate Threat. Why has the inciting event occurred? Don't give away too much here, just enough to set things up for the reader, to tease their appetite. In this case, the typical reader is coming into this having read the first two books, so they know who Athamar is and have some idea of his motivations. As such, there's no need to go into much detail about him as a character.
We can also start crossing over into the Twist, as you can see from the final line.
Nathan and Elena were once the greatest of heroes, champions against evil. Now, haunted by Nathan's past-life betrayal, they must work together and brave the pain of long-buried lifetimes.
I kind of break the rules here, and refer to the Status Quo again, but this is necessary to bring the reader around to the Twist.
Somewhere, locked within their former incarnations, lies the key to stopping Athamar, an enemy who has hunted them from one incarnation to the next.
And the Twist here, is that while Athamar has his own plans, Nathan and Elena might be able to find a chance to put a stop to his evil once and for all. Again, this calls on the reader's recollection of the previous books, where they see that Athamar keeps on hounding Nathan and Elena, no matter how many times they are reincarnated. This is a good spot for unspoken statements, like "How do you stop an enemy you can never truly defeat?"
As the city burns and innocents suffer, as heroes fall and hope dies, Nathan and Elena face their final battle, a battle where legends will be reborn.
Finally, we arrive at the Stakes. As the final installment in a trilogy, Memory War has the luxury of going all-out. Anything goes, and the reader should be left with a sense of what to expect from that, yet still be wondering how the heroes will come through. And, in fact, if they will manage to come through at all. The Stakes are often best kept brief, small but packing a powerful punch.
Importantly, the Stakes must suggest to the reader that no matter what happens, the world and/or the characters will be changed as a result of the story. If the consequences for success and/or failure are "things stay the same as they've always been" then your story has no teeth, and if your cover copy makes it look like your book has no teeth, readers will be drawn away by the books that do have teeth.
Through these four stages, the most important thing is that the reader cares. It's a balancing act. If you try to be mysterious, and reveal too little about what's to come, the reader has nothing to connect to, emotionally. If you give too much, you risk the reader not bothering with the book, because they'll feel they know too much already to enjoy it.
Worse, you could come off as being too desperate to convince the reader that they will enjoy it. There's nothing that puts off a potential reader quite like cover copy saying "This book is awesome!" That's what reviews and author endorsements are for.
Here are my 10 Dos and Don'ts for writing great cover copy:
I hope this post has been helpful. Publishing is becoming more and more accessible, and so the competition to get sales will keep increasing. You need every edge you can get in order to keep going.
War is coming to New York. Nathan Shepherd's growing band of followers is dedicated to protecting the city, but they now face their greatest threat.
Athamar returns, plunging the city into chaos. Uniting the forces of darkness against Nathan and his allies, Athamar strives to discover a secret hidden for thousands of years. A secret lost to Nathan's memories. Something so dangerous, even the gods themselves fear it.
Nathan and Elena were once the greatest of heroes, champions against evil. Now, haunted by Nathan's past-life betrayal, they must work together and brave the pain of long-buried lifetimes. Somewhere, locked within their former incarnations, lies the key to stopping Athamar, an enemy who has hunted them from one incarnation to the next.
As the city burns and innocents suffer, as heroes fall and hope dies, Nathan and Elena face their final battle, a battle where legends will be reborn.
Okay, so there's a lot in here. I'll break it down so we can look at why this works as cover copy.
War is coming to New York.
The first thing your cover copy needs to do, the most important thing, is hook the reader. Yes, "war is coming" is a highly common trope. But it's common because it works. It lets the reader know that things are going to get messy. Also, given that Memory War follows on from two previous novels in which the reader has come to know and (hopefully) care about the city and characters, this one sentence evokes the scale of the threat that's to come.
Nathan Shepherd's growing band of followers is dedicated to protecting the city, but they now face their greatest threat.
Cover copy can be broken down into four basic parts: Status Quo, Immediate Threat, Twist, and Stakes. Here we have the Status Quo. Following from his past victories, Nathan Shepherd has given New York a fighting chance against the supernatural, but they are constantly tested. The mention of their "greatest threat" suggests that they may not be as stable a force as they think.
Athamar returns, plunging the city into chaos.
And we're straight into the Immediate Threat. This is the event which stands to break the status quo, the primary force acting upon the heroes' environment, which they must respond to. Typically this should refer to events within the first 1-3 chapters, specifically the book's inciting event, that propels the hero into action. Any longer and you're either spoiling the plot of your book, or your starting your book way too early and need to cut some chapters from the beginning.
Uniting the forces of darkness against Nathan and his allies, Athamar strives to discover a secret hidden for thousands of years. A secret lost to Nathan's memories. Something so dangerous, even the gods themselves fear it.
Now we're expanding on the Immediate Threat. Why has the inciting event occurred? Don't give away too much here, just enough to set things up for the reader, to tease their appetite. In this case, the typical reader is coming into this having read the first two books, so they know who Athamar is and have some idea of his motivations. As such, there's no need to go into much detail about him as a character.
We can also start crossing over into the Twist, as you can see from the final line.
Nathan and Elena were once the greatest of heroes, champions against evil. Now, haunted by Nathan's past-life betrayal, they must work together and brave the pain of long-buried lifetimes.
I kind of break the rules here, and refer to the Status Quo again, but this is necessary to bring the reader around to the Twist.
Somewhere, locked within their former incarnations, lies the key to stopping Athamar, an enemy who has hunted them from one incarnation to the next.
And the Twist here, is that while Athamar has his own plans, Nathan and Elena might be able to find a chance to put a stop to his evil once and for all. Again, this calls on the reader's recollection of the previous books, where they see that Athamar keeps on hounding Nathan and Elena, no matter how many times they are reincarnated. This is a good spot for unspoken statements, like "How do you stop an enemy you can never truly defeat?"
As the city burns and innocents suffer, as heroes fall and hope dies, Nathan and Elena face their final battle, a battle where legends will be reborn.
Finally, we arrive at the Stakes. As the final installment in a trilogy, Memory War has the luxury of going all-out. Anything goes, and the reader should be left with a sense of what to expect from that, yet still be wondering how the heroes will come through. And, in fact, if they will manage to come through at all. The Stakes are often best kept brief, small but packing a powerful punch.
Importantly, the Stakes must suggest to the reader that no matter what happens, the world and/or the characters will be changed as a result of the story. If the consequences for success and/or failure are "things stay the same as they've always been" then your story has no teeth, and if your cover copy makes it look like your book has no teeth, readers will be drawn away by the books that do have teeth.
Through these four stages, the most important thing is that the reader cares. It's a balancing act. If you try to be mysterious, and reveal too little about what's to come, the reader has nothing to connect to, emotionally. If you give too much, you risk the reader not bothering with the book, because they'll feel they know too much already to enjoy it.
Worse, you could come off as being too desperate to convince the reader that they will enjoy it. There's nothing that puts off a potential reader quite like cover copy saying "This book is awesome!" That's what reviews and author endorsements are for.
Here are my 10 Dos and Don'ts for writing great cover copy:
- Do provide a Status Quo, Immediate Threat, Twist, and Stakes
- Don't provide a flat summary of your whole book
- Do focus on a limited number of characters (2-3 at most)
- Don't start by talking about the world, and no characters for the reader to connect to, or list off dozens of names the reader will quickly forget
- Do give the reader a reason to care about what's happening, and what's going to happen, to your characters
- Don't tell the reader that they should care about what's happening, and what's going to happen, to your characters
- Do read the cover copy of successful books, and watch movie trailers to learn how to pack a lot of hook into a short phrase
- Don't just mimic the style of successful books' cover copy. It looks false
- Do put work into getting your cover copy right
- Don't assume that no-one will care about the cover copy
I hope this post has been helpful. Publishing is becoming more and more accessible, and so the competition to get sales will keep increasing. You need every edge you can get in order to keep going.
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