Judging A Book By Its Cover

As a slush pile reader for a major publisher for two years I learned that Polonius was right in his speech to Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet: Clothes oft do make the man--and the woman too. It's not always true, but true often enough, that care outside reflects care inside.

I learned that manuscripts without the benefit of good presentation were usually not very good in content. I'd look at them anyway, most of the time, just to be fair, but I could usually tell after only a paragraph whether the book was worth reading further. That's because quality has a way of being present throughout a quality work. Someone who knows how to write also usually knows enough to send clean copy in an envelope that won't fall apart in the mail.

The cover is the first line of temptation for the buyer. You desperately want them to pick up the book, read the front, turn it over and scan the back cover, and then open it up. If you can't get that far, almost always, you've lost the sale, period.

Publishers who make it to any size know this, self-publishers sometimes don't. Writers often realize it too late. Sometimes they try to get a better cover from their publisher but don't fight for it.

I've had to fight for my covers at some of the houses that published my books. I was nice about it, and sometimes it worked, and sometimes I got sandbagged in spite of it. One of my covers was so bad a salesman actually said, when he saw it in the catalog, "This can't be the real cover." But it was. And it was unbelievably bad. I'd been assured it was a really nice cover. Ha!

Another cover was sent to me in a mock-up with great colors and came out on the book in garish, harsh colors. A complete surprise when I opened my author's free books box, anticipating those tasteful, appealing covers,and was hit in the face with just the reverse. Did the book sell well? Nope.

I've gotten the rights back for several of my titles and reprinted them myself under my own company name. And for those with less than excellent covers, I've invested in new ones, much better ones every time even though I could have used the designs from the originating house.

Your cover is your book's brochure, its business card.
Would you produce a blah or poorly designed brochure and expect it to work hard for you? Would you hand out dirty or wrinkled business cards?

Your cover is your book's power suit, its dress for success outfit.
Would you go out to speak wearing the dullest thing in your closet? Would you wear your gardening clothes to dinner at the White House?

Having less than the best cover you can possibly get is like:

• Going on a blind date with unbrushed teeth, dirty shoes, and toilet paper trailing behind your skirt/pants.
• Printing "Substandard, and I don't care," or "I don't know much about publishing and didn't bother to learn," on the cover.
• Leaving the baby on top of the car in the car seat in the movie "Raising Arizona."
• Those dreams where you wander about the city in your bathrobe or in nothing, hoping no one will notice.
  
• Sewing project clothing that proclaims, "made by loving hands at home."

Books are selected by larger publishers from among self-published books that find their hopeful way into the mail basket, by reviewers, by booksellers, and by the end customer--the reader by their first impressions and then by what is inside--if they get that far.

Chant this: Cover, Cover, Cover, Cover, Cover, Cover!