How to Get Your Book Published in 7000 Easy Steps – A Practical Guide. Step 4: THE COVER BEGINS
The next thing your publisher will most likely send you is a “Cover Memo,” which isn’t really a memo at all, but rather a big long document that you have to complete so that the art director and her team can begin designing. This seems exciting – and it is! – but a little daunting, too, as everyone knows that the cover is what sells your book.
You may be wondering at this juncture – and you would be justified – why the art director or perhaps some lowly person on the team, selected either at random or maybe by drawing straws (pun intended), doesn’t just read your manuscript in order to get the real essence of your novel and then be able to naturally compose the perfect cover.
I had hoped to spare you the painful truth until later when you would be better able to take it, but perhaps I should reveal now that no one over there – not just the art department – has time to read your novel. They have hundreds of books to publish and covers to create, so it falls on you to sum up your novel succinctly and perfectly enough – via this handy cover memo – for them to get the gist.
Gone are the days, I’m afraid, when the whole editorial, art and publicity teams of some ancient publishing house sat down together with an appropriate beverage to enjoy the fruit of your labors. Maybe this is what happened in previous decades, or maybe even centuries, when the editor-in-chief would turn the last page, toss it onto his desk with a sigh and say to his lowly assistant “That was a damned good story, wouldn’t you say, Jones? Let’s get to work publishing this!”
No, somehow things have all gone awry in these modern times. Now it seems that the reading of your book by the production team happens much later down the line – if ever! Before you get all upset by this, just realize that you’ve submitted enough of your manuscript during the vetting process for them to judge it worthy of publication, so just get over it, already.
Dutifully, then, conscious of the weight that is upon you, take a deep breath and begin filling out the required document which may or may not include things like:
ten adjectives that best describe the book (like…? Awesome! Riveting! Like that?)
ten adjectives that the book is not (like…? Awful! Crap! I don’t get it.)
a 200-word description of the book (similar to, if not exactly, what will go up on Amazon – no pressure!)
your target audience
your book’s message (message?)
a full synopsis (don’t they already have this somewhere? I’m sure I sent it in with the original manuscript)
author bio (now, I know they have this)
Lest you feel alone in your anxiety, I will share that the item that caused me the most amount of perspiration was the “200-word description” potentially destined to be uploaded onto Amazon. Amazon? I thought worriedly. We’re already at the Amazon stage? I thought we were just on the cover! The thought that what I wrote right now might be the deciding factor for what I hoped to be hundreds (maybe thousands!) of people as to whether or not they would click the “add to cart” button nearly paralyzed me.
Shouldn’t there be some editorial team strategizing about the perfect description, the perfect imagery? Were they really leaving this all up to just me? It seemed risky in the extreme, and, distraught, I finally decided that a phone call was warranted. When I eventually had the correct powers that be on the line, I alluded to the fact that perhaps someone should assist me in this rather important item and that maybe somehow something had been overlooked?
After a brief, irritated pause, they responded. “Well, you did write a novel, right? Shouldn’t you be able to write a 200-word description?”
And that, dear reader, is the real lesson for today. Buck up! You’re just beginning.
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Step 4: THE COVER BEGINS appeared first on Michelle Cox.
