Why does your cover suck?

The most important part in the sale of any book is the cover. That’s why people pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for a known cover artist to do their covers.

That’s crazy of course. You should never pay somebody thousands of dollars for a cover, but it is the most important part in selling your book. Why? Because it’s what makes people give your book a chance. It’s what tells people what the book is about. It’s what stops them in their tracks as they flip through books in their local store or walk through vendor space at a convention. A cover is what convinces somebody to open your book.

Now what you do once they’re inside is incredibly important too, but if they don’t pick up your book they won’t buy it. If they don’t think your book is interesting from the cover alone, they won’t give it a chance.

And yet I see thousands of covers at every show that just…well they suck. There’s no better way to say it. They are uninspired and often tacky. They definitely don’t make me wa…