As an indie author, I get a lot of writing advice, even more advice about marketing —especially the unsolicited kind from vendors trying to sell their services. One bit of advice that I’d heard much about is creating/selecting a book cover.
Readers shop with their eyes — I’ve heard this constantly.
They look for familiarity and yet simultaneously yearn for something different, enjoyable and engaging. The design styles for different book genres were established long before I was born. The goal of the cover is to get the reader to take a closer look, evoke interest, and hopefully produce a sale.
YA readers don’t actually like scantily clad figures on the cover, or exposed body parts— after all what if your mom walked in while you were reading it?
Thanks to Twilight, a hand holding an apple sends a clear message of temptation and vampire romance. The key is to embrace the trend and give the reader a reason to open the book and keep turning pages. The hand holding an apple trend was embraced by other authors like Michael Grant, Katherine Applegate, and Marissa Meyer — all took a bite of the apple theme for their covers.
Many experts say: ‘if your book reads like (book)... pick a similar cover.’
Let’s face it, Bellocaro’s cover feels familiar and there’s a good bit of logic behind that. While one shouldn’t just a book by its cover, we all do. Readers’ expectations are largely shaped by this cover image. And anyone who reads Bellocaro will see right away that I pay homage to Twilight; a book series I enjoyed, although truth be told, I liked the books more than the movies.
So when it came to selecting and purchasing the artwork for Bellocaro, I chose with care. I chose the familiar because I wanted to set readers' expectations.
For writers who are also YA readers like myself, setting up expectations about your book is viewed as a good marketing move. It shapes the reader's perception before they crack the spine, or read the first page. Once they do, they’ll be hooked on a different kind of life and death story.
Some of the most gratifying feedback I’ve received from readers:
—“Based on the cover, I thought it was going to be like Twilight, and there is a feeling like that, but boy, I didn’t see that coming!”
Or
— “Wow, I noticed some similarities and thought I knew what was going to happen, I was so surprised and pleased I was wrong!”
Or
— “Holy Crap, (paraphrased for a PG audience) I didn’t see that coming, or that, or that.”
Some of my toughest critics are Twilight fans, who say seeing Bellocaro’s cover made them laugh and gave them a sense of nostalgia, taking them back a decade to when they first discovered the Cullen clan. After reading Bellocaro, they tracked me down on social media to tell me how much they enjoyed my book.
So while I understand some readers or other authors may not approve of the choice of covers, contrary to what you may think, a great deal of thought did go into selecting it.
Happy reading.
P.S. Meraux
