Don't Judge a Book By it's Cover?
Jul 28, 2024
The New York Times just published an article about romance novel author Emily Henry, who has had 5 consecutive runaway bestsellers “without TikTok or a Book Tour.”
Well, please note this headline is a bit misleading (ahem!).
In fact, Henry does do book tours - but she took a break, along with the rest of the world, during the pandemic. And this is precisely when her first successful romance novel launched: Just as lockdowns were taking place and people were looking for fun, light, happy books to read.
In other words: LUCK.
Also, while she has refused to participate on TikTok, she does do Instagram (like me!).
That said, Henry has managed her author journey extremely well. She pumped out other books quickly. And she also hosts book events with cute book-related merch and cocktails. Always a win!
This was the most intriguing part of the article to me, however: Book cover design has played a critical role in her success.
“Henry, Bergeron and Danielle Keir, an assistant director of publicity at Berkley, credit Sanny Chiu’s modern, bright, upmarket cover designs as drivers of the books’ successes. Chiu takes particular care with colors, spines and body language of characters.
In other words, people absolutely do judge books by their cover!
Writing Tip of the Week: Design your Book Cover
Using generative AI, you can design a cover for your book!
- Go to Canva, Midjourney, or another generative AI platform and tell it to design a book cover for you based on keywords
- Generate several different options that you like
- Post to your social media and ask people for feedback on which they like best
This exercise will not only give you valuable feedback, but also will engage your future readers in your book, making them more loyal to you and to its success!
Quote of the Week
People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.
- Mike Markkula, former CEO of Apple
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