How To:

How to: Present Your Book

     Sometimes you have a great idea and you are doing everything fine, but you don't get the attention you seek. This may be because sometimes there is failing when it comes to presenting your book. It's all about catching the reader's attention so they will give a try to your work.

We'll present you three steps that are essential when it comes to "selling" your book.

The 3 steps:

COVER

They always say "don't judge a book by its cover" and they are right. The cover doesn't tell if you if a book is good or not, but it will catch the reader's eye. That's the job of the cover: to bring attention. That's why it's important. If you can't make a good cover, find someone who can make it for you. The cover is the presentation of your work, it has too be good. It's like in school. You can't hand in an essay with coffee stains, can you? It has to look presentable. Same with books, but even more important, because in a way you are "selling" your work. And even if this fact sucks, we do feel more attracted by pretty things. If your cover doesn't call the attention of the reader, it's hard they will even give a chance to your writing, no matter how good that is. It's the first step. What we first see is the cover.

Try to keep it simple. The essential things, something that represents the story. Don't throw everything on it. Don't put too much or it's going to look messy. The title has to be visible and harmonic with the rest of the story. The imagine and the font of the book should have the essence of the book. You can put flowers and butterflies -or anything remotely girly- on a cover about werewolves.

If the story is a happy one, use bright colours. If the story is mysterious or with troubled characters, use dark colours. The cover should give you a feeling of what the book it's gonna be about so when people are looking for something to read and stumble upon your work, they can have an idea of what it's about. 

TITLE

The title can't be long and too complex. It needs to be easy to remember and catchy. The reader, after seeing the cover, will read the title. If the title and the cover are not connected, the effect will be broken and you will probably lose the reader. The title needs to reflect the book, the conflict of the book but without giving too much away. 

Ask yourself, what does my story revolves around? What's the main conflict? After that, you can start suggesting titles that fit that conflict.

Examples:

Bitter & Sassy (BelWatson). The title is simple, very eye-catching! It makes you wonder: what are the characters going to act like? There is obviously bitterness and sassiness present in the story. It makes you want to read it because you're wondering who is going to be bitter, and why?

Let's Pretend (808Sunshine). What are they pretending? Who is pretending? There's obviously going to be something going on that makes the characters want to pretend. The mystery of it makes you intrigued.

Fascination (MyHeartsMistake). It's not overly fancy or gives away the plot of the book, but it snatches your attention. Someone is going to be fascinated with someone else, what's going to attract them to the other character? What's going to happen because of this fascination?

SUMMARY

Keep it simple, don't give away too much information, make it interesting. Once they saw your cover, read the title, they will read the summary. This is very important. You need to convince them to read your book with this, it's the final opportunity. It has to be brief and tell just enough. What is the book about in a broad sense?  If you answer that in the plot summary, you should be good. That's why you need to have your story planned, or at least know very well what it's about so you can reflect that accurately.

If the potential reader likes these three things, she or he will certainly read the first part of your book, whether it's a chapter or the prologue. And after that, it only depends on your writing. These three points in the chain are fundamental to catch a reader. This is the presentation of your work, how you sell it. Do your best!

Hoping this helped,
-Katie, Moni & Tina.

...Next entry - How To: Develop Your Characters