First Choice Books' Blog

You may have great content, but without an attractive cover, your book may have half a chance to sell. Your cover has to be designed to attract the attention of a buyer.

An easy solution if you’ve hit a proverbial creative “wall” is to visit your local bookstore (or not-so-local — try our online bookstore at www.firstchoicebookstore.ca or peruse amazon.com) for ideas. You can go one of two ways — replicate, or “be inspired by” current and popular titles — or try to get attention by being decidedly different. But do keep in mind that the “rules” and guidelines to cover design exist for a reason. The “best selling” book covers generally follow a few hard and fast rules.

The first is that they contain powerful, descriptive or intriguing words on the front cover. Enlarge the words you’d think would entice a potential buyer. For instance, Danielle Steele’s books generally sell because of her name. This is why her name is in a large typeface.

The second rule, which is a bit of a “secret weapon”, is not to forget the back cover. Don’t discount this potential, miniature marketing space. I’ve read that the average potential book buyer will make a purchasing decision within the first 15 seconds of viewing the back cover. I’ve not investigated the statistics for this, but I’m a great walking anecdote!

Keep your description on the back cover concise, and make sure that it piques the curiosity of the reader. Try to use short, descriptive sentences which evoke the feel of your book. If you’re writing a technical or self-help book, bullet points are a great tool to use. You don’t need to repeat the title of the book on the back cover — presumably, the reader is already aware of the title from reading the front.

Thirdly, know whom to contact should you require further assistance in your cover design. We have professional graphic designers here at First Choice who can meet your needs no matter where you are in the process. We also have a talent pool on our website — check it out for names of illustrators, designers and editors.

Make sure to check out my next article about cover design, which will cover the more technical aspects including typography, illustration, design and layout.

Whether your book is a novel, poetry, memoir, children’s book, or technical in content and form, choose to self publish your book. Self-publishing gives a lot of opportunities to authors that traditional publishing doesn’t and cannot afford to give.

In traditional publishing, the author exchanges his/her right and control over the work for money. The author can’t put any questions to the publishing company as to why they changed the title of the book, its cover, plot, and even the ending of the book. The publishing company enjoys complete autonomy over production and publishing of the book.

On the contrary, when you decide to self-publish a book, you are responsible for the content of the book, cover design, editing, printing, copyrights, storage, marketing, sales, distribution, and various other aspects of book publishing. Right from writing and editing to design and marketing, you are involved in everything in the case of self-publishing.

While most authors choose to self-publish books because they want to exercise full control over their work, there are others who self publish books because they have met countless rejections from traditional publishing companies. Such writers and authors are passionate about their work and plan to self publish what they have felt, thought, and written. Self publishing is perfect for novice and anonymous writers who want to enter the industry. It offers them a platform to showcase their talent and carve a niche for themselves in the market.

If you have a flair for writing and nurture a dream of seeing your writings in print and finding appreciation by serious readers, think of self publishing.

To self publish books, please visit www.firstchoicebooks.ca

The website belongs to a self publishing  company in Canada that makes self publishing quick, easy, and affordable for today’s authors.

Online book printing is fast replacing traditional book printing companies. More and more authors, poets, fiction writers, and children story book writers are choosing online book printing due to the numerous advantages offered by it.

Compared to traditional book printing, on demand printing is really quick and easy. You don’t have to send your manuscript to a publishing house and then wait for months, anticipating whether they would agree to publish your work or not. With the advent in technology, you can now self publish your book easily, affordably and quickly with the help of online book printing companies such as www.firstchoicebooks.ca

Another advantage offered by online book printing companies is that they let authors and writers exercise full control over their work. You can decide which book cover, page layout, page size and font would best suit your work. You can even decide whether you want your copy to be printed as hard copy or soft copy. Online book printing lets authors choose their publishing preferences in a hassle-free manner.

A great advantage of online book printing is that if buyers wish to purchase your book, you can print the exact number of books required without ordering excessive copies.  Unsold copies can hurt your pocket book. So, as the demand for your book increases, you can request the online book printing company to print more books for you.

For self publishing your work with the help of an online book printing company, please visit www.firstchoicebooks.ca