Self-Publishing Advice for Aspiring Authors – Part I

I’ll begin by stating the obvious: none of the following matters if your book isn’t good. I recommend having it professionally edited, vetted by avid reader friends (the ones that will be bluntly honest with you), and the very best story, characters, pace, etc. that you can muster.

So let’s just assume that what you’ve got is gold, and maybe you’ve tried to query agents for months and there are simply no takers. Often times, a nice agent that sees potential in your work might throw out some advice—“too many characters” . . . “lose the snarky narrator’s voice” . . . things like that. They don’t have the time to tell you how to re-write your book to make it more marketable, but you should consider their advice. They’re professional readers, after all, and they’ve seen what publishers buy and what they don’t. It doesn’t mean they’re always right. J.K. Rowling was famously rejected by twelve publishers before a small press took a chance on this quaint little Harry Potter story of hers.

Now, you’ve gone back to what you thought was already gold, and you’ve polished it to a high shine. Maybe you’ve sent it out for a second round, or maybe you’ve grown tired of rejection. However it is that you’ve come to this point, you’ve opted for the Indie route. There’s nothing wrong it, not as much of a stigma attached, and a number of reasons why this course can be better than the traditional alternative. Google around and read what folks have to say about traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. There are some great blogs out there from insiders like Nathan Bransford and Alan Rinzler. (You should also follow Chuck Sambuchino religiously if you’re looking for an agent)

There is so much to learn and read and do before jumping into self-publishing. Just because it’s easy to go onto Amazon or B&N and upload a book, doesn’t mean you should take it lightly.

I’ll write more on this overall subject in a future blog, but for now I want to focus on one thing: The Cover

Everyone judges an unknown book by its cover. It is the first thing that people are going to see when they are absentmindedly scrolling through the new releases. You need to grab them with that cover so they click in and read your amazing Book Description. In my opinion, the cover is the second most important weapon in the indie author’s arsenal.

There was an article in Wired magazine a few years back entitled Design Artwork for a Shrinking Album Cover that was very enlightening, and now so relevant in the book world. Keeping the thumbnail in mind is crucial to being noticed, crucial to getting that eager click to read your description.

Some examples. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings here, so I’ll use authors who don’t really need any help from a good book cover as examples of what not to do…



“A Bend in the Road” by Nicholas Sparks - WTH are we looking at here? I can’t tell a single thing about this book.

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“Queen of the Damned” by Anne Rice – Besides the fact that this is written by Anne Rice, I can’t see anything interesting in this thumbnail. And you don’t have Anne Rice’s name recognition.

Now, here are some excellent covers that, to me, appear to have been designed with the thumbnail in mind, or simply work well in the tiny format. Your cover should have a single point of focus that a person can discern on their screen. If your title doesn’t have big words like “The Philanderer’s Mistresses” you can have the double whammy of a readable title combined with an interesting focal point…


The Host by Stephanie Meyer - Yeesh, I'll buy it if you tell her to stop looking at me like th-...no, seriously, stop.


Eragon by Christopher Paolini - Yup, that's a dragon. Into dragons? This book's got 'em.


This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel - Ooh, a keyhole! I want to look inside! I feel so curious and sneaky!


Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Yeah, this is just awesome design in general.

Now these are not necessarily all AMAZING covers, but as I scrolled down the list of books on goodreads that people had marked or rated, I grabbed the ones that actually stood out; the ones that I didn't have to squint to decipher. There are tons more examples. Pretty much all of the Twilight books. That is not to say that every cover should look like a YA book, but there is much we can learn from how those covers have been designed. Keep your eye out now for these types of covers: what grabs you? How might you use this technique on your own book?

There are a couple of things you definitely want to save up for: an editor and a cover designer (and a reliable car, moldless house, etc.).

That’s all for now. Next time I‘ll go into description and promotional type stuff…

I'll leave you with a few more covers that grab and appeal to their target audiences:




-MS