Questions to Ask Your Book Cover Designer

If you are hiring a book cover designer to create your book cover, then there are certain questions that you definitely want to ask. These questions will help you weed out book designers that are going to make a poor quality cover for you. If you are self-publishing, then you definitely want the best book cover possible, and there are lots of graphic artists out there that may be talented in other areas but know nothing about book cover designs. This will help you to actually hire a book cover designer that will get you to the top of the bestseller lists.

How Many Book Covers Have You Designed?

The first question you have to ask your book cover designer is how many covers they’ve actually designed you want someone has experience with the cover designs because they are different than other graphic designs. Someone may be very good at designing business logos, but that does not mean that they are good at designing the perfect book cover. If you want to be able to sell your book, then you’re going to have to have a great cover design.

Have You Read My Book?

You also want to know whether or not they have read your book. If they have not read your book or lease know what it is about, then they are not going to have very good success at design e-book cover design that fits your book. You want readers to be able to look at your cover and choose to buy, but when they are finished reading it they should also understand how the book cover design fits in with the book.

What Are Your Ideas for My Book Cover Design?

Ask your designer what sort of ideas they have for your book cover design. If you can get some of the ideas from them, then you will know what sort of designs they are planning and can veto any ideas that do not fit your own idea of what your cover should be. While you should give your cover designers some leeway, they should still be designing something you want.

Where Do You Get Your Stock Photos?

Something else that you should be asking them is where they get their stock photos. A good book cover designer will get their stock photos from a legitimate stock photo site and have permission to use them. If they are getting their stock photos from somewhere that they do not have permission to use, then your book cover design is useless because someone could easily sue you for your cover design and take all of the money you’ve made from your book.

Do You Offer Any Guarantees?

Finally, you should ask your cover designer if they offer any guarantees. Your book cover designer should be able to offer some sort of guarantee you will like the design that they choose or they will fix it for you. If not, then you may want to move on to a different designer.

If you’re ever looking to hire a book cover designer, check out Reedsy

The Book Proposal Outline

When it comes to writing a book proposal, there is a certain outline that you should follow. Not every successful book proposal follows this exact outline, but a pretty big percentage of them do. More importantly, most of the rejected book proposals have outlines that are very different from this one. If you want your book proposal to be successful, then you may want to look at this outline and consider using it for your own proposal. Your goal is to get published, and this proposal outline can definitely help you get there.

The Overview

The first thing you need is an overview of your book. In a small paragraph, let a publisher or agent know why they should consider your book for publication. An overview usually consists of 3-4 sentences and includes only the most important information.

Target Audience

Next, you need to think about who your target audience is. Make sure that you know who your book is most likely to be read by and that you are familiar with the demographics of that target audience. If you can show your publisher that you know who to target, they will have a much easier time approving your book for publication.

About the Author

You also want to make sure that you include information about yourself – especially if you have already published books in the same genre or if you have expertise that specifically lends itself to book marketing. For example, if you are a doctor with expertise in health care, then that would be relevant information to include if you have written a book on health care. However, it would not be relevant if you have written a mystery novel (unless it is a medical mystery).

Marketing Plan

You should also come up with a marketing plan that demonstrates what ideas you have for marketing the book and shows publishers just how far you are willing to go to make your book sell. Remember, they are looking to make a profit, so if your book is good, and you are willing to promote it, they will be more willing to publish it.

Competitive Titles

You will also need to include other books that you think could compete with yours – but even more importantly, you should include reasons why your book totally blows them out of the water. Make sure that your publishers know that even if your book has competition; that you are able to present the ideas better than other books.

Chapter Outline

A chapter outline will give your publisher a chance to see the finished book (even if it isn’t fully complete yet). You simply list your chapters, and then you list a short summary of each one. This allows your publishers to see exactly what your book is about in an easy-to-read overview.

Sample Chapter(s)

Finally, make sure that you are including at least one sample chapter. Some agents and publishers may actually let you know how many sample chapters to send.

For more information on how to do a book proposal, check out Reedsy