Harriet Steel's Blog: Never Judge a Book by its Cover?

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Never Judge a Book by its Cover?

It's a piece of advice that 's been around for a long time, but is it true? These days when people have less and less time and tend to make quick decisions about what they want to read, the cover of that book you've spent so many hours lovingly crafting has become a vital marketing tool and, however much you love the writing process itself, a book that has no readers is a sad lost opportunity.

When I get to the stage of thinking about a cover for a new book, the first thing I like to do is create a mood board. That may sound pretentious, but it really is worthwhile and actually very simple. Just spend a little time looking at covers for books in your genre to see what appeals to your eye. Think about the atmosphere your book creates and the world it evokes. Is it a gritty crime novel or a fantasy saga? An historical romp or a poignant romance?

Unless you're a technical wizard in the graphic design department, I can't stress too highly the importance of finding yourself a really great designer. That way you shouldn't make beginner's mistakes like having text that's hard for potential readers to decipher in Amazon thumbnails or using poor quality images.

My new murder mystery is set in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the 1930s. I was lucky enough to spend some time in the country last winter and found it an inspiring experience. In essence the book is a light-hearted, relaxing read, reflecting the colourful nature of the country in which it's set. (If you like your murder mysteries dark with alcoholic detectives who have broken marriages then I doubt it will be for you!) I wanted a colourful, fun cover to reflect the mood so, with that in mind, I started to collect images. Some of these helped me to decide the basic colours for my cover, others expressed the fun.

It took a few conferences with my wonderful, and very patient, designer before I felt we'd achieved exactly what I wanted but now I believe I have the perfect cover for the book. Here it is with a few of the images that inspired it.