There once was a time when you might venture forth to browse the shelves at your local bookstore or library, run your fingers along a hundred or so spines, and snatch up the book that most grabbed your attention. These days, the process of book browsing has become primarily a digital affair, and many of us now spend our time scrolling through book listings online with Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But in one thing, we haven’t evolved. Despite mostly eschewing cliches, one continues to haunt us: “don’t judge a book by its cover!”
These words haunt us because of their impossibility. We do judge books by their covers, and in an era of rapid digital evolution, we’re still drawn to books with interesting, professional cover design and sparkling cover content that convinces a book browser to become a book buyer. While e-book formats sometimes require less emphasis on physical appearance they still need distinctive, eye-popping covers just like their hard copy counterparts because a viewer’s first look at a new book is often in online search results, where the cover thumbnail image is literally the size of a thumb. The cover needs to bounce off the screen!
If your front cover is your book’s first impression, your back cover content (typically a synopsis, sales copy, and/or author biography) needs to make a lasting one. In a digital, print-on-demand, self-publishing world, it’s important to realize that this back cover content isn’t just for the physical book cover — it is also commonly used as the sales copy (otherwise called “the annotation”) for the detailed sales page on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Most book buyers thoroughly read the sales copy of the books they are considering, so this is not a detail you can ignore. Your cover copy needs to be pristine, persuasive, and perfect (not to punctuate a point).
And that leads many self-publishing authors to an inevitable question? Should you write your own sales copy? Certainly you’re capable of it, right? After all, you wrote the book it’s for! But, writing something that educates or entertains is different from writing something that sells. Different skill sets sometimes require different experts, and it’s okay to ask for help.
The skilled writing and editorial team involved in the Outskirts Press Cover Text Refinement Option knows what it takes to transform a browser into a buyer! With this optional production option, you’re telling your readers that your book is worth their time and money because you’ve made it the best it can possibly be–both inside and out. Meanwhile, the Outskirts Press copywriters will craft compelling content (typically with fewer alliterative phrases than this blog positing) that hooks your readers and makes them want to know more about you and your book.
You’ve spent so much time and energy creating your masterpiece–don’t let your hard work go unnoticed! Amazing back cover copy can make the difference between someone viewing your book…and someone buying it.
For more information about self-publishing with Outskirts Press, get in touch with a Publishing Consultant. There are three convenient ways to connect:
- Call 1-888-672-6657
- Live chat at OutskirtsPress.com
- Schedule a free consultation with a Publishing Consultant
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