Today, I’m going to break down the power of a good-looking cover in the publishing world.
- How to harness the power of color contrast in your book cover
- Advertising benefits of an eye-catching cover
- How a well-made cover improves your Amazon SEO ranking.
The Power of Contrast
“Girl In Trouble”
In an instant, these words grab everyone’s attention.
The result? This book is #1313 in the kindle store ranking and #5 in Domestic thrillers. (As of the writing of this newsletter)
Besides, the title color is hard to miss. Even if a reader is scrolling down on a small phone screen.
That’s the power of color contrast.
Take a look at the picture above and see how you can still read the title … even in thumbnail size.
In our mobile-centric era, it’s important to have an eye-catching cover that can be an attention magnet.
Through the good use of contrast. A book cover pops to the eye and gets readers’ attention as they scroll through Amazon and make them stop to look.
Yet, that’s just the beginning of what a good cover can do for you.
The Cover As an Ad
A good cover can sell itself.
The goal of an ad is to highlight the product. Creating an eye-catching ad is much simpler when you have a cover that stands out.
For example, we created a boring ad to showcase how this cover can stand out on its own.
Also, an eye-catching cover saves you money on advertising platforms like Facebook.
How? It increases the click rate for your ad without extra cost.
A good cover will help lower the overall cost per click.
Promotion- Friendly
|
|
|
A Good Cover Looks Good Everywhere
A good cover looks great everywhere: blogs, tweets, posts, you name it.
From left to right: Instagram feed, Instagram profile, Twitter, and Facebook.
An outstanding cover is social media friendly, inviting people to share it around.
Free word of mouth!
Amazon Will Love You
This is where everything comes together.
Amazon loves it when a product or an author can bring outside traffic to its website. Every click on your Amazon link means a new or a recurring visitor for Amazon…
…And Amazon is going to reward that effort.
Your Amazon SEO ranking will improve, boosting your book’ search ranking. In other words, your book will show up more at the top of users’ searches and suggestions.
If conditions are right, this can turn into a growth cycle.
Good marketing compounds and it starts with a good cover.
…don’t forget about aesthetics and genre coherence
Getting attention is not enough. Keeping the interest is as essential.
Now, let’s take a look at the abomination I created on MS paint (Picture on top).
See? Easy to read and good contrast, but this would not be a bestseller; this would be a non-seller.
It’s not attractive; it’s boring. It doesn’t give readers any reason to stop scrolling and click on it.
It doesn’t hint at its genre or theme either. Why is that a problem?
Imagine a thriller that doesn’t look thrilling.
Even if they look good, they won’t attract people who are more likely to buy them.
Girl in Trouble’s actual cover looks good; it’s the sort of book that looks good on a bookshelf.
It also lets you know what it is about through images and the title. The lonely woman in the middle of the dark sets the tone. The title “Girl in Trouble” above the woman hints at what’s going on inside the pages.
This cover is an invitation to know more…and it invites the right people.
Final Words
Let’s compare to see what works best.
Which one caught your eye at first glance? Which words jumped to your view?
Remember, this is what readers see on Amazon or other online book stores.
Imagine you are the customer looking for a psychological thriller.
What are you more likely to click on?
I hope this case study gave you a better idea of the advantages of a good book cover.
Lastly, if you’re looking to promote your book and reach real readers.
See you next time,
Sebastian M.
Team DBP
