All right.

So let’s talk analogies.

You’ve been dating and hitting it off with this wonderful lady – and she asks you to come and meet her parents.

Do you show up dressed like this?

(all right – so this is a photo of me dancing a spontaneous happy Snoopy dance)

Or do you show up dressed like this?

Face it – I was born rumpled.

First impressions count.

Now I don’t know why I am telling you this – when by now following two back-to-back pictures of Steve Vernon at his absolute worst the Kobo Writing Life blog has likely been asked by security to please leave the internet – but assuming you still can read this I’m going to repeat that last statement.

First impressions count.

SO – if you want to get your latest Kobo e-book out there and noticed by a few more people than your cat…

Kizzy loves books

Or your Teddy Bear…

His name is Dijon – and he’s VERY proud of his new fall outfit

Your book cover is the first and BEST impression that you will give to your reader – so you need to make certain that it is a GOOD one.

Do you want to save money on book covers?

HIRE a good cover artist.

BUY a cover premade.

THIS WILL SAVE YOU MONEY IN THE LONG RUN!

Don’t get your kid brother – who is a freaking whiz at staying in between the lines of his coloring book and has played every computer game imaginable – to “whip you off a cover”.

Don’t sit down with a Youtube video and a photo of your cat, thinking to yourself that it’s EASY.

Creating proper covers ain’t easy.

It only looks that way.

Let me give you an illustration.

My novel Tatterdemon – released through Kobo as The Tatterdemon Trilogy – has already gone through several covers.

Here’s the cover that I originally published with.

However, when I decided to self-publish this novel I went this second cover.

Then, Keri Knutson of Alchemy Book Covers came up with this version.

Then I decided I would break the novel down into a trilogy and offer the first segment as a freebie.

So we came up with this.

(For more info on WHY I would choose to make the first book free read my Crack Dealer Theory of E-book Marketing.)

And then we released the entire three-segment series in omnibus format and it wound up looking like this:

That’s all I’ve got to tell you right now. This example is from a traditional publisher – but the principal is still the same. Take a look at that cover in thumbnail format – because that will determine just exactly what your potential reader/customer is going to see.

Here are the links to a few of the artists I have used for e-book covers.

My Flash Virus series as well as my recently released novella Trolling Lures – have all been created by the talented Keith Draws.

The cover for my free short story “Shotgun Christmas” and the Tatterdemon trilogy were done by the talented Keri Knutson of Alchemy Book Covers.

And lastly I’ve purchased and used several covers from talented cover artist Humble Nations from his website Go On Write.

I hope that gives you folks a better idea on selecting a cover for your next Kobo e-book release.

REMEMBER – get it done professionally.

REMEMBER – see what it looks like in thumbnail.

REMEMBER – if you aren’t happy with how a cover looks you can always add another. That’s the beauty of independent publishing.

I’m going to ask my buddy, Keith Draws, to put together an article on how he actually built the cover for my latest release Trolling Lures. And while you are waiting for that leave a comment below. I’m going to hold a draw from the commenters at the end of the month and the winner will win a copy of Tatterdemon.

Now – get back to your writing desk. I want to hear those keyboards clatter!

Yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

*********************************

About the author

Steve Vernon is Canadian author who writes horror, science-fiction, YA, and even a children’s picture book.  He lives with his wife and cat in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Check out his blog: Yours In Storytelling.

Check out his books on Kobo.