Creating Back Cover Copy

The cover design is more than the front cover. In my last post, I shared the steps an author needs to take to help the art department create an awesome design and showed you lots of wonderful front book covers. Now let’s look at the second part of the cover design. It goes beyond the picture representing your story. A prospective reader who finds your cover fascinating will flip over to the back. This content will determine if the reader opens the book and takes it to the checkout counter.

The form I received from my publisher for cover design included sections for the back cover. My book’s back cover will have a blurb about the story, my bio, and a head shot.

Blurb

Here is my present draft. It will probably get tweaked before the final draft. This same blurb will appear on Amazon and my publisher’s website. Short, concise and intriguing are the keys to a good blurb.

Jake Marcum’s busy ranch leaves him no time for courting, and his wounded heart has no place for love. Battlefield nightmares add to his burden, but his tomboy niece, Juliet, needs taming, and a mail-order bride seems the logical solution. When an inheritance threatens to reveal a long-buried secret, Dr. Evangeline Olson abandons her medical practice and travels west to become Jake’s mail-order bride.

Jake soon realizes Evangeline is more than he bargained for, especially when her arrival causes a stir in the community. As the two try to find their way in a marriage of convenience, they are faced with cattle rustling and kidnapping. Will they be able to put aside their differences and work together to save the ranch and their fragile relationship?

 

Biography

My biography will only be a few sentences. I’m meeting a potential reader, not a boss. I pulled a few books from my to-be-read pile and studied their bios. Each part of the biography encourages the reader that the author may be worth checking out.

Bio components

• Taglines are something that defines what you write.

Cynthia Ruchti-tells stories hemmed in hope.

DiAnn Mills- expect an adventure.

Brandilyn Collins- Seatbelt Suspense

• Awards

Awards this manuscript has won

Awards past books have won

Awards the Author has won related to the subject matter of the book

Awards for personal accomplishments in a field other than writing

• Past and present accomplishments

Former job

Present position

Degrees

• Family
• Pets
• Fun vacation spots or any other fun comment 
  

  

  

 

Study the bios of your favorite authors or read the back cover of library books to get ideas. Those in your own genre may be slightly different from those in another genre. If you have no awards, don’t worry. Readers want to know you, and the last few items on a list can make your bio friendly and fun.

Endorsements

There may be an endorsement or two on the back as well. Endorsements are short words of praise about your book from other authors or people in the field you are writing about.

Color Design

The colors on the back cover will match or be identical to the front.

Professional Photo

And the finishing touch is a professional headshot. An up-to-date photo is key in maintaining a professional image. Professional photographers touch up flaws. Hey, who doesn’t want a flawless picture? My professional headshot is a few years old so I am getting a new one.

Right now I’m interviewing photographers. I want all the photo rights to be mine to do with as I please. I’ll talk about that in a future post.

Next post

I’ve asked my awesome editor Andrea Merrill to share a guest post. She’ll be writing about the relationship between author and editor. Stop by Thursday to read her wonderful insights. You don’t want to miss it.

Speaking of not missing a post. Subscribe to this blog in the right-hand column and it will come to your e-mail. Thank you so much.

 

Authors and Book Cover Creation

Creating a cover design is a fascinating process. My publisher provided a questionnaire for me to fill out. It gives the artist clues into my story world. Up until this point I had no idea what I wanted. The questions help get the creative juices flowing. The first few questions are basic: Title, author’s name. taglines, theme.

The next set of questions delves into specifics about the main character. What does your hero look like? Any distinguishing marks? Same questions for your heroine. This is where I get to give a clear description of the physical features of my characters. I had the option of adding photos of my ideas about the characters.

Who do my characters look like

The question about what actor or actress do you see playing them in a movie sent me to the internet to find photos. Did you know if you type in red-haired actresses with green eyes that you’ll find a large selection of photos? Evangeline’s hair is burgundy rather than carrot colored. I already had a picture of a model with burgundy hair but looking at more faces really helped narrow down an idea.

I have pictures of Tom Selleck, John Cusack and Sam Elliot all in cowboy garb that give me a feel for Jake. Evangeline looks a bit like Maureen O’Hara or Lori Loughlin (she’d have to dye her hair.)  I found a wonderful picture of Emma Stone. So I am adding photos of these actors to the form.

A fun exercise for you and your story, search the character description: cowboy, regency, blond soldier sees what comes up. If you’re a plotter and an outliner, you have probably already picked out your pictures before you started writing. What you want on the cover may be clearly define in your head. But, if you’re like me and lack artist know-how, you’ll be relying on the designer to bring your idea to reality. FYI: The publisher usually gets the final say on your cover. This is a good thing because they know what sells.

More details

I couldn’t find a picture of my ranch so I settled for writing a description. I got to choose whether I want people on the cover or a landscape. There is lots of room at the bottom of the form for more notes to further clarify.

Note all the covers of fellow-authors I’ve added to this post so you can get a better idea of cover design.

Mystery Cover

 

Historical landscape cover

Genre and time period are important questions as well. Secrets & Charades is set in 1870s so costumes on the cover need to resemble the period. The hoop skirt was no longer in fashion but bustles were popular.

Fantasy Cover

Police thriller/ fantasy cover

A fantasy cover might have someone dressed like Star Wars characters. The focus might be on an object that is key to the story line. Perhaps a space ship, a sword or a dragon take center stage in the story.

Comparing covers

There is a place on this form to add comparables. So, books with similar themes (remember that part in your proposal?) can now be used as examples. Those covers show what’s selling.

 

Not good ideas

If the hero is very tall, then he shouldn’t be the same height as the heroine on the cover. Unless of course she is very tall, too. I actually saw this on a cover. Until I read the story I didn’t realize the hero was well over six feet tall. Once I knew this, the cover was a bit disappointing.

If the story takes places in the winter in Florida, it will look different than winter in Alaska. That also goes for trees not native to the area. This will date me, but the movie Wayne’s World was supposed to take place in Aurora, Illinois. One scene in the movie had palm trees in the background. I suppose comedies can get away with that. Book covers not so much.

If your genre is horror you wouldn’t want a sunny sky.

A romance—unless it has vampires or some violent fantasy theme—is not going to have blood and gore on the cover.

Contemporary Romance

Suspense

Capturing emotion

The form asked me to describe the tone, mood, and attitude. One or two word descriptions can make a big difference in helping the designer get a taste of my fiction world. I had to google these terms to get a deeper understanding of the literary significance. I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer so I don’t always have a tone or mood in mind until my characters speak to me.

Defining the tone and mood can make a difference in a novel’s content so it should reflect on the cover. A romantic comedy design is going to look different from a romance with a broken-promise-restored theme. The same with a thriller with a sullen cast of characters versus one with a hopeful mood.

Photo sites give lots of options

You may prefer symbols or settings for your cover. My fellow-writer Gloria Doty has a modern-day cowboy romance series. She opted for boots and a Stetson on the cover of Bringing  a Cowboy Home. She wanted her readers to enjoy their own images of her characters. Photo websites have lots of these sorts of images.

Publishers purchase the cover art and, if you self-publish, you’d do the same. Linda Yezak has a great cover for The Final Ride. She created it herself using pictures of a model she found online. She purchased the rights to use her likeness. This helped her create her cover.

Being sure your cover reflects your story means more sales. So, I am taking extra time to fill out this form. Hopefully the designer will get me. If the cover catches the reader’s eye, then they will pick it up. If you’re self-publishing, spend the money on a quality cover. I can’t wait to see what my cover will look like. I’ve been impressed with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas cover designs. The reveal of my design is some months away. But the process begins now.

The back cover is just as important as the front cover. I’ll talk about the process in the next post.

Anyone like to share their experience with cover designs?

 

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A Lesson in Plot Twists from Supergirl

A different twist. That’s what I see every week as I watch Supergirl. The original trailer didn’t appeal to me but my husband was intrigued. Week after week it draws me in. Supergirl is not Superman. Both are from Krypton and she is his cousin. But beyond that the similarities stop. She has a group around her who know she is Supergirl. She is learning how to use her super powers and find her identity. She was sent to earth at the same time as Superman to be his protector when she was 13. However, her spacecraft was trapped in a time warp for 25 years. When she finally arrived on earth Superman is an adult and places her with a human family where she has a sister. No loner here. She knew her Kryptonian heritage and has a whole load of aliens to fight. Supergirl is not always in control of her emotions. She gets jealous, flustered and fights with her sister. Her alter ego Kyra Danvers works for a Media Company that is in direct competition with the Daily planet. She is not a reporter but the executive assistant to CatCo Media’s owner and CEO. Her tough female boss isn’t fooled by her glasses disguise. (Don’t you just love it.)

Cousart/JFXimages/WENN.com

All these differences create a new Super world. One audiences are captivated by. The ssame applies to getting your novel out to the masses. Take a common storyline and mix it up. DiAnn Mills has lots of strong female characters who are FBI, CIA and Secret Services agents and lots of other typical manly roles. The adventures speed along like Die Hard movies and crash to a dramatic conclusion.

 

A different twist in your novel

My debut historical novel has a rancher who sends for a mail order bride. There are many books with the mail order bride theme. My bride however is a doctor hiding form her past. The rancher is raising an orphan niece and there are characters who aren’t who they claim to be. The mail-order idea has been converted to a more modern setting by several authors with cyber dating, and marriage arrangements for material gain.

Every mystery has a problem to solve but the problem and the course of action have limitless possibilities. Some writers like Barndilyn Collins are heavy on research so lots of details educate as well as entertain the reader.

While others are sprinkled with humor and dorky characters. Check out Linda W.Yezak’s The Cat Lady’s Secret.

 

Crime novels can be written from any viewpoint even the family pet. We know romance novels always end with a couple finding true love. The journey to happily ever after has to have challenges that lend themselves to lots of “what if” moments. Otherwise its just—boring.

What novel have you read lately that surprised you with its delightful twists?