Never judge a book by its cover... part 2

Books and their covers. I am looking at two right now. Neither are books that I would have picked in the past. It used to be that I would look for the bodice rippers. You know the ones that had Fabio on them. This was before he couldn't believe it wasn't butter. Well there is something nice to be said about half dressed men on the cover of a book it doesn't improve the readability of the book at all.

The two books on the table next to me are Therapy by Jonathan Kellerman and The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge.


I am over half way through Therapy and need to have Daniel X's story read by Sundays book club. In fact I need to get back on track with reading my book a day.

Even though a book shouldn't be judged on its cover I still find some of the amateurish artwork (clip art, pre-made covers where you just change the title and author) that some of the independent authors use to be so unappealing as to pass over their books.

While designing a cover may not be easy it doesn't have to be expensive to hire a freelance graphic artist to do your cover design. It doesn't have to be fancy it just has to be your own. If I am scrolling through Amazon's kindle books I will see a picture of the cover, if it looks like a cover I have already purchased I will skip right over it.

Many authors are realizing this and taking the time to redesign their book covers from their first attempts. While it doesn't affect the quality of the reading material between the covers it does affect the readers perception of the quality of the the authors work.

And perception is everything when it comes to choosing a book. Whether that perception is based on the cover, the blurb on the back, or another readers recommendation that is how a reader will choose which new authors to read.

I've found something similar with Wine labels. I take my teenager wine shopping with me. She doesn't drink it but it seems she can look at a bottle and whether it is the label, the hue of the wine, or the weight of the bottle she always seems to help me add good wines to my collection. Not that they stay collected long because what good is wine if you can't drink it and share a bottle with friends


Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends What Could be Better.

Never judge a book by its cover... part 1

Never judge a book by its cover. Now however, maybe that should be never judge a book by its publisher. With so many authors choosing to go the independent publishing route our available reading material seems to have grown exponentially in the last year.

While I do believe that quite a few of the self published works out there are more of the vanity publishing style, as in no one but family and friends would willing read them. There are several really great authors that got their start through writing online fan-fiction. Some have been picked up by publishing houses (I was going to say real publishers but that doesn't apply anymore).

I have piles upon piles and boxes upon boxes of books. I know this because I have just finished packing everything up for a move. Out of the hundreds (thousands) of books that I own I could only find one small box of books (30-40) that I was willing to donate to one of the local charities. All of those physical books don't include the audio books on my computer or all the fan-fiction stories that I have read over the last twenty years.

When you walk into your local bookstore what draws your eye to a book? Is it the bright colors of background and title? The image on the front? Is it knowing which author you are looking for? Or is it a recommendation from the bookseller behind the counter?

With all the online purchases of books that are made how do we get those recommendations now? How do we find that new author? You know what I mean...that author that isn't part of Oprah's book club or some other celebrity endorsement.

The publishing houses have many ways of promoting their authors (and more funds than most independent authors). One way is to review the works of these authors on blogs (but who knows which blogs to go to for this? I hope that mine makes that blog list as it ages.) The main way is for us as readers to take a few minutes out of our day and post reviews on the online bookstores sites.

If you loved a book let other people know by recommending it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders websites. Yes I know there are other re-sellers but these seem to be the main three.

I am grateful to Zoe Winters for her guest blog post this last month and look forward to many more guest blogs from other independent authors. If you are an author willing to do a guest blog for our site please let us know. The only requirement is that each blog start with the following three sentences.

I was.......
I am........
I will be...

So in keeping with that here is my own for today (it changes regularly)...

I was a drone (playing tetris) in the electronics industry.
I am a full-time student and mother.
I will be me (whoever that ends up being as I grow in my own mind).

I got a little sidetracked so I will post more thoughts on book covers and independent publishers next week.

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends What Could be Better.