Having a book cover that is well-designed and fits the genre of your book is so important to helping market your book. It should show professionalism and gives readers the overall feeling of the book, even before reading the description.
When Sasscer Hill published her first book, she originally thought the cover looked wonderful, but as time went on, she began to realize the image on her cover was an inexpensive piece of clip art.
Her original publisher was the one to design the covers of her first three books, however they weren’t branded. And shoppers wanting to shop for additional books in her series couldn’t easily identify which books were part of her series.
As soon as Sasscer was able to get the rights to her books, she had the covers redone to get the same look across all the covers.
But even when she was getting help redesigning the covers, she found an inexpensive designer who didn’t use Photoshop and the new covers were still not selling as well, until she redesigned them a third time by someone who finally made by someone that really tied the series together beautifully, and the books sold better.
Better Keywords & Categories Fast
See why over 47,000+ authors and publishing companies use and love Rocket to help them sell more books.
Get Publisher Rocket Now!
Sasscer went from $60 a month in royalties from her publisher to selling $1,000 in the first month the books had new covers.
One thing that may confuse shoppers is having a different eBook cover from the paperback version, which Sasscer now has.
If you’re looking for someone to design your cover art, Sasscer recommends asking your author friends for recommendations, and make sure that artist is familiar with your book’s genre.
Bio of the Author in the Case Study:
Sasscer Hill is a former racehorse breeder, trainer, and rider. Her mysteries reflect her knowledge of and passion for horses.
Sasscer’s “Nikki Latrelle” novels have earned her multiple award nominations.
She current lives in Aiken, S.C., with her husband, dog and cat, and continues to ride horses.
Resources Referred to in this Episode:
- Sasscer Hill’s Amazon Author Page
- Sasscer Hill’s Facebook Page
- SasscerHill.com
- Creative Indie Can a new book cover double sales? A case study with 10 authors
- Kindlepreneur Book Cover Design Mastery
- Book Marketing Show Reviving A Dead Book Case Study #2
- Book Marketing Show Creating A Symbiotic Package To Market And Sell Your Book
- Kindle Direct Publishing 
One suggestion I would like to share for designing covers is that It is an art for sure but definitely something one can learn with time and practice. With some inspirations from say, Amazon Kindle store among the best-sellers and Pinterest design inspirations – one can set to design as much as 3 to 4 covers, and test them out – as for one thing: Amazon allows us to change and ‘test’ the covers – so A/B testing is the key to really find out if the cover worked out for you.Another important thing is to keep the cover design dimensions in mind while designing – which is as much important as the design in the first place – so the cover`s quality speaks for itself on any device or platform.Thanks again, for this insightful discussion, Dave!
Great points Arun!