Midnight Musings from a Maniac's Mind

[T] Love at First Sight

One week ago, my novel Fleeter was chosen for the privilege of being featured in the Wattpad Picks section. Recently, a fellow author (let's call him Bob) asked me for some advice.

Bob had a story that was similar to mine. Both of our stories had elements of high fantasy. Both were featured at the same time. But while my read counts skyrocketed in a week, his story didn't see the same effect. Bob asked me for my secret. I replied, "Title, cover, and blurb."

Being featured gets you seen, it doesn't get you read. What's the difference?

Suppose you were shopping online for a tennis racket. The page you're browsing has advertisements. On the left side, you see a colorful and witty ad for tennis balls. It's possible, even probably, that you'd click on it.

What if you saw an ad on the right side for the same tennis balls, but the ad was dull, unoriginal, unimaginative? You'd just ignore it.

The same principle applies to books. If you don't immediately attract your reader with a great title, stunning cover, and a detailed blurb, then your story will be seen and ignored. Even if it's being featured.

So how do you make a great title, cover, and blurb? I'll give you my take on it here, but I'd definitely recommend asking others to critique your stuff.

Title: must describe the storyline. I cannot emphasize this enough. The original title for Fleeter was Oh, Beautiful. As you can imagine, it didn't get many reads. I'd also limit your title to 1-3 words. I think long book titles are awkward to see on covers and pretty much everywhere else. Keep it short.

Also, make sure you search Goodreads and Google before finalizing your title. You don't want it to overlap with another, already published piece of writing.

Blurb: I think this is the most crucial step for the reader. If the title and cover and excellent, but the blurb is iffy... readers will run, no fly, away. After all, it's your writing they're interested in!

Don't just make it a summary. Make your blurb a mini-story. Build excitement. Tension. Dip a toe into the drama and the nitty-gritty. Leave your readers on a cliff-hanger, so that they're just dying to know more.

And if you're really stuck (like I was), go check out the blurbs of your favorite stories on Goodreads. How do they start? What tone do they use? This step helps a lot.

Cover: get it done by a pro! I made the first few covers of Fleeter by myself (they're posted in the GRAPHICS chapter). They were horrible. Then, I did some extensive research into open graphic/ cover shops and finally found one that I liked.

My reads tripled overnight. Don't underestimate the effect of a great cover.

And, it has to match the mood of your story. Don't go for a cover with a girl and a guy holding hands romantically, sitting on a bench, eyes sparkling... and then make your story all about death and destruction.

I will personally hunt you down ...(╯°Д°）╯︵/(.□ . )

To end, let me just say that I'm not an expert in this topic. There are so many other authors out there, with hundreds of thousands of reads, who are more qualified to talk on this subject. However, I've read their blogs and they all say pretty much the same thing I did.

Title, Blurb, Cover. 

Hey, let's play a game!

In the comments, I'd like you to provide the link of a novel you loved at first sight. Not first read, but first sight–remember we're only looking at the title, blurb, and cover. 

Mine is Prodigy by EdwardMullen: https://my.w.tt/1T5b3NJpCL

What's yours?