Hi everyone! I’ve been running all day in this heat so here it is 10:20 PM and I’m just sitting down to do my page.  Hang on, going to do it right now. Okay 2 pages done.

Now…I want to chat with you about covers for your Kindle books and I’m just gonna put on my “Blunt Tiff” hat for a sec BECAUSE I care and I see several of you veering off path for this.

Time and time again as I have researched Kindle success, I see the same basic advice – your COVER matters!

It’s the first thing people see as a thumbnail to determine whether or not they’re going to even click through to see what your product is all about.

Now I see SO many do it yourselfers. And even some well-meaning marketers trying to help who honestly lack good graphic design skills. I’m cringing at what I see sometimes because I feel like you’re setting yourself up for failure – or at the very least not as good of a start as you could have.

I just read an article about how the Fifty Shades of Grey book is causing a revamp of traditional books – bringing them into the modern age.

This is an amateur cover:

This is so DIY I can’t stand it. The title at the top looks like it was made in Paint or Powerpoint, which is the tacky way I do website graphics. It has a cheesy background at the top. I hope Vicki isn’t a reader of mine, but if so, fix your cover.

From the same niche, here’s a professional cover:

This is a Rich Dad advisor’s book. The worst niche is the dating niche. Page after page of horrifying do it yourself ecovers that look like something my 7 year old can do.

Amateur sample:

Again, the normal paint or PPT font is a dead giveaway. Now here’s a professional example in the dating niche:

Do you see the difference? Do you see what I’m seeing with amateur versus pro?

I even showed my 12-year-old son both sets of images and asked what he thought. He replied, “Yeah the top ones are unprofessional.”

Bingo.

Yes, there are tons of software programs being sold by marketers as an easy DIY solution. Please oh please don’t go there. Hire a professional. Hire someone who does good work.

My sister Jeni tried to hire someone on Elance and although she gave him a picture and showed him samples of what she liked, his efforts were atrocious. I was flat out  honest with her. When she sent it to me I said, “It looks like a bad DIY project.” I wasn’t ABOUT to steer her wrong.

I won’t smile and let you think yours are fine, either – that’s not being a good friend. I’m going to say if you don’t have $47 to hire someone to do a professional awesome cover for you, then work for it and save up until you do. seriously.

As a buyer, I won’t even glance at your book if it looks amateurish and I was like that before I even got into IM. Why? Because experts can afford graphics. So in my mind, it just connects that a successful person who knows what they’re talking about is going to reflect  that – and it doesn’t matter if it’s a business book, weight loss, stress relief, dating or how to build a freaking chicken coop.

You can use anyone you like. I personally use Rich at QuickSiteStudio.com – and so does Jeni now. I know another person on my list emailed me her cover that he did for a hair topic and it was SO pro looking. I loved it.

Don’t just use a marketer who happens to have some DIY software tool and is making extra money on the side by selling ecovers. That’s going to be common now with Kindle being so big.

Use someone who is a professional graphics designer, period.

Okay that’s all I can say. If you choose to ignore the advice, it’s a mistake. This is your first impression. Make it count.

Tiff

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