Covers and Pop



When I say Covers and Pop I am not referring to music, but to that which is one of if not the most important marketing tools for any book; the cover.

When I am looking for my next read and browsing the shelves at my local Barnes & Noble, my eyes focus in on one thing; the cover. This is what catches my eye and draws me in. This is what pulls me over to the self and causes me to pick up the book and read the jacket.

I am sure, positive even there are thousands of books out there that I might enjoy just as much as the book I pick up, but because the cover doesn't catch my eye, I will most likely never discover these gems.

The books that catch my eye usually contain an abstract or symbolic image and almost always have great color pop.

Now there are plenty of books on my shelves at home that feature a couple in an embrace, a landscape or even just a title, but those were found mostly because they were featured books on the shelf or because I was looking for a specific title or author.

The romance genre especially tends to showcase images of people of the book covers, whether it be contemporary romance, historical romance, paranormal or any other variation. As a reader I would rather not have an image of the characters in my head, but instead form my own.

So for my cover what will I do?

I have about 4 or 5 different concepts for my cover that I am trying to decide between. All of which I hope will catch the eye. All will include some sort of color pop, but if I am going to include an image of a person, I think I will go more abstract. Either super close up or a distance shot so as to let my reader form their own images of the characters. Above is my first concept which features the profile of a woman close up. I love the color and if I decide to go with this concept, I will forward the image to a professional to create the actual cover. I am creating the concepts because I am a visual person and seeing them side by side will help me decide.

There are so many books on the shelf at the store or online and since I am just me, Jennifer Senhaji, writer and publisher of my first romance novel, I will need to stand out from the crowd. I will need to find an image that pulls in Jane Reader at a glance while she is browsing for her next read.

Because lets face it, even if all my friends and family buy a copy, that won't even get me to 100 copies sold.

So my cover is crucial.

I just need to make sure it pops.

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