Crush Your Book Cover

Getting your designer on the case of creating your book cover is just one facet of having a professionally published cover. I know you really want to ensure your book cover is top-notch, so once you have your initial cover design, consider making sure these elements are present:

• Full justify your back cover text, which means your text is full justified on the left and right side. Nothing says, 'unprofessionally self-published' like unjustified back cover copy.
• Include your photo and a short bio. Include a photo credit.
• Put the main category in the upper right corner and the retail price in the upper left.
• Add design credit on there, as well.
• You'll want to have more than 100 pages, so you can include text on the spine. This text includes: Book Title, Author Name, Publishing Company Logo.

A couple of other important aspects, not related to design but still important:

1. Buy your ISBNs and barcode through Bowker (myidentifiers.com). I suggest you buy a block of ten for the best price.
2. Provide the ISBNs for your ebook, paperback, and hard cover, as well as the barcode(s) for your physical copies to your designer. (Then he or she can add them to your copyright page.)

(Yes, I know you can get free ISBNs and generate free barcodes. I don't advise you do that, but you can if you want to.)

You can see my full cover of You Must Market Your Book right here. Look at some traditionally published (or professionally self-published) books to identify other elements you want to include on your book.

I find the details fun, I hope you do, too! Have a great weekend—your recap comes tomorrow and I'll be back with more Monday!

Honorée Corder | I help professionals write, publish, market, and monetize their books.

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