Book Marketing Tip from a Criminal

Note: The following post is written by Brian Feinblum, Chief Marketing Officer, Planned Television Arts.



“Dad, you look like you got out of jail.”

Those were the words I wasn’t expecting to hear out of my six-year-old son, unsolicited. He made me laugh. It’s funny to see someone, unfiltered, just speak their mind and blurt out whatever thought races to the surface. Maybe he’s right.

I had just gotten a haircut. Ok, more of a scalping. It was a buzz-cut, where the barber uses his electric clippers to mow down any hair longer than a quarter-inch. I looked a little like a skinhead. All that was missing was a scar on my cheek and a tattoo on my arm.

I am not sure what my son knows of jail or the people who are sentenced there but somehow he concluded from his limited life exposures and experiences that I fit the profile of a convict. If you didn’t know what a softie I am on the inside, you may judge my exterior, complete with a goatee, as a tough guy.

My bulldog is the same way. She looks like a junkyard dog who could appear to be threatening with her snaggle-toothed glare, but in reality, she’s as rough and tough as a stuffed animal. She’d probably lick an intruder and sellout to the first snack tossed her way.

Looks can be deceiving.

We know to never judge a book by its cover, and yet isn’t that what we do every day? We judge how people look – their face, their body, their age, their clothes, their appearance. We make snap judgments and never look back.

And when it comes to books, many of us are drawn to cover images and visuals. No matter how good the content of a book or one’s character is, be sure to still make the best visual impression possible.

Otherwise, even those closest to you might think you just escaped from jail.

– Brian Feinblum, the chief marketing officer for Planned Television Arts, has been promoting and marketing authors since 1989. Call: 212-583-2718. Email: feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com. Web: http://www.plannedtvarts.com.

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15,000 Eyeballs Internet Marketing Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/15000eyeballs.htm - Ten lessons on how to get thousands of impressions for you, your book, your blog, or your website. $50


Real Fast Book Marketing: http://www.bookmarket.com/realfastbookmarketing.htm - How to sell 100 to 200 copies of any book in two weeks or less. $97

Book Marketing Magic: http://www.bookmarket.com/novelmarketing.htm - How to market novels, children's books, memoirs, and more. $48

Blog Tour Palooza: http://www.bookmarket.com/blog-tour-palooza.htm - How to carry out a blog tour or virtual book tour that gets millions of impressions, builds your brand, and sells thousands of books. $297

Amazon Bestseller Campaign: The Inside Secrets to Becoming a Real Bestselling Author on Amazon.com: http://www.bookmarket.com/amazon.htm - You can create a true bestseller on Amazon using the step-by-step guidelines included in this multimedia course. Was $297, but now only $97.

New York Times Bestseller Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/newyorktimesbestsellers.htm - This program offers unprecedented access to the most up-to-date book marketing resources and insider tips to help any author create a New York Times bestselling book. Was $297, but now only $97.

Ask a Book Cover Designer Website

Below are some of the tweets I've sent out recently regarding my new AskTheCoverDesigner.com website. Check them out:

=> Book Covers Count: They Draw People In and Make Book Sales - Sean Penn confirms - http://bit.ly/gSP8td

=> Book Design: You Can Sell a Book by Its Cover - http://askthecoverdesigner.com/book-design-you-can-sell-a-book-by-its-cover

=> Book Titles: Listen to Oprah - She Knows Titles | Ask the Cover Designer - http://bit.ly/gMNPf3

=> Book Cover Design Tips by George Foster at AskTheCoverDesigner.com - http://bit.ly/gzEA6d

=> Advice to Authors: 12 tips on Designing Your Book as Sales Aids - AsktheCoverdesigner.com - http://bit.ly/f1fugg

=> Great Titles Require Thinking: The Think and Grow Rich Story - http://bit.ly/dL9sV8

=> First Lines of Novels: Some Great Ones to Inspire You - http://askthecoverdesigner.com/first-lines-of-novels-some-great-ones-to-inspire-you

=> Book Design: Elements of Good Cover Design - http://bit.ly/eZ4pcF

=> Book Design: Elements of Good Cover Design - Part II - http://bit.ly/h16TIQ

=> Book Design: Elements of Good Cover Design - Part III - http://bit.ly/gItF7t

=> Book Cover Critiques: You Can Sell a Book by Its Cover http://askthecoverdesigner.com/book-cover-critiques-you-can-sell-a-book-by-its-cover

=> Book Titles: John Kremer's 7 Keys to a Great Book Title | Ask the Cover Designer - http://bit.ly/eeGT2S

=> Book Covers: Two Very Ugly Book Covers | AsktheCoverDesigner.com http://bit.ly/ebf4rY

=> Book Creation: 7 Costly Mistakes to Avoid - http://askthecoverdesigner.com/book-creation-7-costly-mistakes-to-avoid

=> Book Covers: Paper Stock and Cover Finishes - http://askthebookprinter.com/book-covers-paper-stock-and-cover-finishes

 => Book Covers: 7 Basics of a Great Book Cover - http://askthecoverdesigner.com/book-covers-7-basics-of-a-great-book-cover

=> From Bad to Rad: Special Dream - http://askthecoverdesigner.com/from-bad-to-rad-special-dream

=> Book Titles: 4 Ways to Come Up with a Great Book Title - AskTheCoverDesigner.com - http://bit.ly/hUGRMU


John Kremer is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books as well as webmaster at http://www.bookmarket.com.

Great Book Covers

While reading the July/August issue of ForeWord magazine, I discovered a good number of great book covers. You can review these covers to help you design your own great covers.



I love the cover of this romantic thriller.



I also love the design of Mara Purl's Milford-Haven mysteries, like the one above.



Here are two poetry books with great covers.

Check out the book cover designers featured at http://www.bookmarket.com/101des.htm.

Books as Decoration

Looking for another use for books besides reading them? On their website, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel offered a number of ways to display and decorate with books. As they noted, flea markets and garage sales are repositories of old books and encyclopedia sets that can be used to decorate.



Books as wallpaper -- Invest in a large number of leather-bound books in the same shade to create a wall of color. Note: Movie set decorators do this all the time. They often rent books from used bookstores like Strand in New York City.



A spot of color -- Have a monotone room? Pick out a few books in a striking color to add dimension. Several retail stores like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters sell books but also use them to highlight color schemes for the clothing they sell (and to set a certain ambiance).

Books as furniture -- Use a book or a stack of books to create end tables, coffee tables, and pedestals. When I began self-publishing 25 years ago, I used cases of books to support a bed. Also see the book bar in the photo above.

Leni Leth, owner of Book Decor, a California company that specializes in refurbishing and selling leather-bound books, suggests forgetting the shelves, and instead using books as risers for candles and lamps, on coffee tables, and even in bathrooms.



Augment with books -- Try hanging books over the rungs of a ladder or lining the edges of a room with books.



Books as art -- When books were more rare, they were displayed face out. Take some favorite books and display them on bookstands. Many people use coffee-table books as decorative items on -- of all things -- coffee tables (actually, that's why full-color beautiful books are often called coffee-table books.

Note: The Associated Press (http://www.indystar.com/apps/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080614/LIVING02/806140307/1007/ LIVING) also has a great article on using books as decor.

Finally, here's a great bookshelf blog (all about bookshelves!): http://theblogonthebookshelf.blogspot.com.

Books You've Bought for the Cover

I love the Book Brahmins interviews in the Shelf Awareness ezine because one of the questions they ask every interviewee is what book they've bought for the cover. Well, today's cover of choice -- as chosen by Debra Ginsberg, author of the memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress -- is Jessica Cutler's The Washingtonienne.



Now, I understand why a man would be attracted to the cover. I found it inspirational. And I can also see how a woman would like the cover. It is very arresting.

Of course, I would have loved to see the title be bolder, but I guess they felt that, if they made it bolder, it would take away from the other attractions on the cover. Sometimes you have to make tough choices in designing a cover.

What Has Happened to Good Book Covers?

While reading the latest issue of Foreword magazine, I noticed that at least half of the book covers featured in that issue were not up to par.

Whether books reviewed or advertised, the covers were not retail-ready. Even New World Library, who normally does an incredible job of packaging their books, had two books reviewed that had flat, boring, uninteresting covers. What gives? Who was sleeping on the job? Not only with them, but with so many other small publishers as well.

Here look at the two covers from New World Library. Look at how flat and boring they are. Note how the elements for the cover seem to be unrelated. Notice the boring type faces. The way the photos just hang there. I've seen many, many self-published books with better covers than Beyond Knowing. Haven't you?

  

I asked for feedback on whether or not I was just having a bad night when I first viewed these covers. I called my book cover designer George Foster of Foster Covers. Well, he agreed with me. In addition, he agreed to redesign one of the covers just to help others see the difference between covers pasted together in pieces like the above and a well-designed cover. I like his better. Do you? See below.



Notice how the above cover highlights the main benefit of the book by showcasing the subtitle (which was lost in the previous version). More important, notice how the cover is now integrated. All the parts fit together. The cover looks designed. It looks like the publisher took some time to create a decent book.

Even his redesign of Beyond Knowing is better, although I'd still like to see more from the design (but George was only working with the elements from the real book cover and had nothing else to work with to make the design better).



To help you decide which cover is best, ask yourself this question: Which book cover would I pick up first? I guarantee you that at least 80% of book browsers would pick up George's covers over the original undesigned covers.

The sad thing is how many other covers in that issue of Foreword were as poor, undesigned, uninteresting, un-pick-up-able (that's a new word I've invented to describe bad covers).