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Yea yea yea. I know, covers are important and you have been told that many times here and other places. But Darren Beyer, at Indies Unlimited, isn’t just telling you. He is showing you with a real world example of what a great cover vs. a good cover can do. Ever hear of a little fantasy title called Game of Thrones?
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Covers Can Make or Break a Book
Guest Post by Darren Beyer
We are all visual learners. I understand the value strong visuals bring to the game. That’s why, when I launched my first novel, I decided to seek out the best cover artist, the perfect person to take my words and put them into a stunning depiction of a scene from my story. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but everyone judges a book by its cover — and that’s just human nature.
A Case Study in Cover Design
I recently began the cover process for my second book with artist Stephen Youll. I relish working with people who are at the top in their fields — Stephen fits that bill. What really got me was his story. A number of years ago, a major publishing house came to him to take a crack at a cover for a book they were trying to bring to market. The first launch had failed, and they thought the cover had something to do with it.
The publisher knew they had a great book on their hands and gave Stephen a specific direction to follow. At the time of the launch, romance novels were among the most popular, and the publisher believed that putting a romance flare on the cover of this book would help it sell. The art shown to the right is what it went to market with — and the book met with the same lackluster response as it did in its first launch. What went wrong?