Everyone Judges a Book by its Cover
And what you can do about it
Like it or not, no one reads
the book before he or she makes a buying decision. Consumers
do not read it in the store. Sales reps only carry book covers and
jackets to show store
buyers while wholesalers and distributors say “just send us the
cover copy.” All buying
decisions are made on the illustration/design and the sales copy on
the outside of the
book. Yes, packaging is everything.
Each year, U.S. industry spends more than $50 billion on package design.
Now, that is not
$50 billion for the packages and certainly not for the contents. That
money is for the design
of the packages. Packages prompt buyers to reach for the product whether
it is pantyhose,
corn flakes or hair spray.
Stores have tens-of-thousands of books being displayed spine-out. With
all this congestion,
it is hard to get attention. Initially, all a potential buyer sees
is the book’s spine. If the
browser takes it down, he or she will gaze at the cover about four
seconds and then flip the
book over to read the back cover. On average, he or she will spend
just seven seconds here
so the trick is to keep them reading longer. Your copy has to be punchy
and benefit-laden;
it has to speak to the potential buyer.
Your book cover designer will lay out the package and incorporate the
illustration, put it all
on disk and send it to your printer but you must draft the sales copy.
This book cover worksheet will take you step-by-step through the sales-copy
draft process. Use your
computer so you will be able to move the copy around once entered.
Here are explanations for each area of the outline.
A. Front cover. Select a working title and subtitle. Keep the title
short and make the
subtitle descriptive.
List the most important person in your field (association or industry)
for the foreword (and
please note the spelling of Foreword.) You will try to get them to
pen the foreword later.
B. Spine. Stack the title on the spine so it
will read more easily on the shelf. Use a bold,
san-serif, vertically-legged typeface such as Arial Black, bolded.
C. Back cover.
1. Category. Visit a bookstore and check the shelf where your book
will be displayed.
Note the categories on the books and the shelves. Listing the category
on the back cover
of your book will insure your book will be easy to find—because
the bookshop personnel
will place it on the right shelf.
2. Now you need an arresting headline addressed to potential buyers.
You want them to
relate to the book and find themselves in it. Do not repeat the
title here; do not bore the
potential buyer. You have already “said it” on the front.
Use an alternate approach. For
example, The Self-Publishing Manual’s back-cover headline
is Why Not Publish Yourself?
3. Sales copy. Concisely (two to four sentences) state what the book
is about. What will
the reader gain by reading this book?
4. Bulleted promises or benefits. Promise to make readers better at
what they do.
Pledge health, wealth, entertainment or a better life. Focus on who
your audience is and
what they want. Think: about who are you talking to and what are they
going to get from
the book.
You will discover:
• (benefit)
• (benefit)
• (benefit)
• (benefit)
5. Testimonials and
endorsements. Dream up three different endorsements from
people you would like to quote. If This book changed
my diplomatic strategy.—Colin
Powell, would look good, try it. Use names or titles recognizable in
your field—sources
that might impress potential buyers. This is just a draft;
dress it up. You will secure
some of these quotations later.
6. Show the author is the ultimate authority on the subject. Just two
or three sentences will do.
7. End with a sales closer in bold type. Ask the book-browser
to buy the book. Use
something like This book has enabled thousands to . . . and it will
show you the way too.
8. Price. Bookstores like a price on the book. The price is a turn-off
to potential buyers
so place it at the end of the sales copy. Never locate the price at
the top of the back cover.
If this is a hardcover book, place the price at the top of the front
flap.
9. Bar code with International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The bar
code on a book
identifies the ISBN, which in turn identifies the publisher, title,
author and edition
(hardcover, etc.). Make room for, but do not worry about, the bar code
and ISBN just now.
Hot tip. Log on to Amazon.com. Search for your category and look for
books as close to your
project as possible. Print out their pages and use a highlighter to
mark the buzzwords and
best descriptive phrases. Now, spread the printouts out on your desk
and start filling in the
cover worksheet. The Amazon descriptions will stimulate your copy-writing
imagination.
Your title, subtitle, back-cover headline and benefits may be swapped.
Once you have
them written down, you may wish to move some of them around. Perhaps
one of your
benefits would be a better subtitle.
Most back cover copy is weak and uninspiring. The title
is repeated and then is followed by
several quotations and a bar code and that’s it!
Haphazard copy is the sign of lazy (and
maybe inexperienced) copywriter. This lack of effective
competition on the shelf gives us the
upper hand.
Book cover illustrations and design have improved tremendously
over the past 20 years.
Author/publishers used to spend all their efforts on
the text and the cover became an
afterthought. Some publishers remember it was Robert
Howard who brought bright,
insightful, relevant, remarkable covers to the industry.
There are many great cover designers today and it was Robert Howard who
started it all.
A good cover artist will read through your book and create
a cover that will reflect the
message of the text. The cover and text should match.
Years
ago, we said “Write your ad before you write your book.” This
was to help you focus
on who you were writing to and what you were going to
give them. Then we realized the
most important ad you will ever write is your back cover
copy. Now we say: “Write your
cover copy before you write your book.”
Packages sell products and covers sell books. Give
your books the opportunity in the
marketplace they deserve. Package your text to quickly
tell the idle browser what is inside.
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