People Do Judge Books by Their Covers

As I’m working on my Dating a Widower guide, I’ve been amazed how hard it is to find a good book cover designer. I posted an ad on Craigslist and so far have received about 50 emails—49 of which were deleted after seeing their online portfolio. Just because you know how to use Photoshop and/or Illustrator doesn’t make you a good designer. (I’ve made similar complaints about writers.)

To be fair, I’m probably hold designers to a higher standard than most people. Both my parents are artists. In addition, I’ve worked side-by-side with designers in corporate marketing environments for over a decade. During that time I’ve learned that finding someone who has a good eye for design—especially design that can help sell a product—is extremely difficult.

A book cover is a vital piece of marketing—especially for new or unknown authors. (Established, well-known authors can get away with an okay book cover because their name takes up half the cover space.) A good book cover should entice someone to pick it up and, at the very least, read the back jacket copy. Even with the growing popularity of e-books, an attractive cover can help make people take your book seriously.

Yet many authors and publishers put their heart and souls into making the inside of a book a well crafted while giving little or no thought to the cover. The result? The produce a product that people don’t want to be seen reading or assume is a self-published piece of garbage.

The books we read say a lot about who we are or who we think we are. If you’re embarrassed to be seen reading a book because of the cover, it doesn’t matter how good the content on the inside is, you won’t read it.

One example: Back in college I took a class where no one wanted to read one of the books on the syllabus because of the cover. Though the book was science fiction, the cover looked more like a Harlequin romance novel. And in a class that was 80 percent male, most didn’t want to be seen reading the book.

When it came time to discuss the book, the majority of the discussion revolved not around the book or the content but the different ways we had hid the cover while reading it. Some people made their own covers. Others would hide the book in another book so people would think they were reading that one. (I decided that hiding the cover was just too difficult. Instead I read it in my room late at night when no one would bother me.)

To some extent art is a matter of taste. You’re never going to produce a cover (or a novel) that everyone is going to like. But it is possible to create book covers that 95 percent of the general public will find repulsive.

So the search for a graphic designer continues. When I do find one, I hope most of you like what he or she will produce.

Looking for Beta Readers

As you know, there’s little useful information out there about Dating a Widower. As a result, I’ve been writing a Dating A Widower book. It’s a short (approximately 10,000 word) guide that talks about the ins and outs of dating a widower. The guide is based on my own experience, emails I’ve received from women dating widowers over the last 5 years, and insights gleaned on this board. Right now I’m looking for 15-20 beta readers who are willing to read the book and give me some objective feedback on the content. If you’re selected to be a beta reader, I’ll give you a free hard or e-copy after the book has gone to press. I’d also like 2-3 widowers to read the book as well.

If you’re interested in being a beta reader, send me an email letting me know your interest along with your email address so I can email you a draft. The draft will be sent sometime next week. You’ll have two weeks to review the manuscript.

UPDATE:I want to give everyone a big THANK YOU for everyone who expressed interest in becoming a beta reader for my Dating a Widower book. Afer I posted the request on the Dating A Widower Facebook group I had over 100 responses from those expressing interest in becoming beta readers. I only expected 20-30. The amount of interest tells me there’s huge, untapped demand for this kind of information. I hope my book can provide the information about dating a widower that can help you with the common relationship issues that arise.

As much as I would like to get everyone’s feedback, I don’t have the bandwidth to read over 100 critiques of the manuscript. As of now I’m limiting the number of GOW/WOW readers to 20 and widowers to 5.

I’m still wading through all the messages and trying to fill the remaining spots. You’ll get a message from me if you’re selected. If you don’t receive a message from me, please don’t take it personally. I still want your input. After the first round of critiques, I plan on posting a couple of chapters on this board for further review. I’ll send out a general email when those are ready to go.

Thanks again for your overwhelming responses. And please feel free to post any issues you have on this Facebook board or email me your questions.

Why Bookstores Should Worry about eBooks

Books, it appears, are following the path of the music industry and going digital. Earlier this week Amazon’s announced that it sold more Kindle books than hardcover books “including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.” This announcement caused some to predict the demise of bookstores. While I don’t believe eBooks will be the end bookstores or physical books, I do think the number of printed books and bookstores will be cut in half or more in the next decade as eBooks increase in popularity.

Were I a bookstore owner, I’d be worried about the future of my business and be working on ways to entice people to come into my store even if they love their Kindle and eBooks. So I was a little surprised at the arrogant and condescending tone of The King’s English co-owner and co-founder, Betsy Burton, when asked by a local television station about the increasing popularity of eBooks.

“Book-buyers, real readers, are going to pretty much stick with books, at least for the majority," [Burton] says. "I think that readers are very passionate about the physical book and care very deeply about it."

Burton says locally-owned bookstores will have the same role as always, which is controlling content. For example, identifying which books everyone should be reading.

“Real readers” only read physical books? Really? Everyone I know who owns an e-reader is a voracious reader. Belittling them into second class readers isn’t the best way to entice them or others into your bookstore. They care just as much about digital copies as they do physical ones. Burton’s attitude is reminiscent of music industry executives who smugly dismissed the rising popularity of digital music 15 years ago.

Her idea that a bookstore’s job is to “control content” is laughable and a tad scary. Burton may be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to knowing what books are a cut above the rest, but it’s not her job to “control content” especially when the Internet has democratized information and made content controllers like herself increasingly irrelevant. Instead she should be figuring out what’s selling well and different ways to entice people into her store instead of shopping at Barnes & Noble or buying an eBook from Amazon.

For the record, I don’t own a Kindle or other e-reader mostly because I’ve never had the chance to try one for an extended period of time. I can’t justify plunking down $189 unless I’ve tried to read a good portion of a book on one and make sure it’s something that my sometime-sensitive eyes will tolerate. However, I can see many advantages to owning one and have heard nothing but positive things from friends and coworkers who own one. The temptation to buy one and go digital is very, very high.

Both chain and independent bookstores looking to stay in business in an increasing digital book world need to do more than just sell books. They need to become destinations for readers and storytellers where fans can meet and mingle with authors, socialize with other readers who like similar genres, and or offering book clubs a place to talk about their stories. Without a radical transformation in the way they do business, bookstores like The King’s English will suffer the same fate as many music sellers.

And Betsy, as soon as I find a publisher for The Third, I’m more than happy to help your bookstore out by doing a signing, doing joint events with authors, or talking to local books clubs about it at your store. I want to see bookstores like yours to succeed. However, the old bookstore business model that you’re advocating simply doesn’t work in an increasingly digital world.

Publisher Hunt Update

I wanted to let everyone know how much your blog comments, emails, and other messages have meant since last week's announcement about The Third. It means a lot to know so many of you are excited to read it and hope that a publisher can soon be found. Also thanks to all those who gave me publishing world leads. I’m following up on all of them as well as honing a new query letter as well as looking at alternate publishing options. I hope to have good news soon.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in reading the entire manuscript, send me an email and let me know. I’m still figuring out the best way to let people read it (suggestions appreciated) but as soon as that works out, I’ll send everyone on the list an email and let them know how to access it.

The Art of Losing

As many of you know, The Third has been going through a series of printing and other delays that have continually pushed back the publication date. This has been extremely frustrating for me and all of you who’ve wanted to read it. Last week the publisher let me know she was unable to meet the publishing deadline in our contract. She gave me the option of having The Third published in the Spring of 2011 or returning my books rights back to me. After much thought and deliberation I opted to retain my rights to my novel and seek publication elsewhere.

Right now the plan is to find an interested literary agent or another publisher. It’s a long, difficult process that I’m not looking forward to but hopefully better things will come from it. Two upsides this time around is that 1) I have a manuscript that’s press ready and 2) know of others who expressed interest in publishing the novel when I signed the contract late last year. If they’re still interested, maybe I’ll have some good news before the end of the summer. That being said, if you know of anyone in the publishing world who might be interested in taking a look at The Third drop me an email.

For those who pre-ordered copies of The Third. I’ve been assured by the publisher that you'll all receive refunds. If you pre-ordered through Amazon or other online book seller, you’ll get a refund through them though I don’t know the process for that or how long it will take.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their patience with the constant delays of this novel. I know many of you were excited to read the book. As I now have all rights to The Third back, email me if you’re still interested in reading it and let’s see if we can arrange a way to get you a copy of the manuscript.

Ransom, Teya, Dragomir, and the rest of the characters in The Third will come to life at some point. Right now, however, I don’t know when that’s going to happen.

Thanks again for all your patience and support.

Sincerely,

Abel Keogh

More Book Delays

The launch of The Third has once again been delayed. As of now it doesn't have a scheduled release date. For those who have pre-ordered or have been looking forward to reading it, I'm apologize. I was told that the July launch was solid only to have it be pushed back again. I wish it was something I had more control over but the release date is in the hands of my publisher. I'll let you know as soon as I have some good news. For those who haven't read it, I've posed the first four chapters of The Third are now available in PDF format. You can download it here.

Thanks for your support. If you have any questions, send me an email.

The World’s Worst Book Covers

While looking for a book cover for my post on self publishing, I stumbled across a blog run by a former librarian dedicated to “truly hideous” book covers. Then again, the subject matter of some of these books derserve awful covers. (William Shatner? Shattner Quake? What the...?)

Unless you’re self publishing, the cover is one of the few things out of the writer’s control of the final product. Bad covers can make a good book unappealing. That’s why any publisher will contract with or employ talented graphic designers to make their books pop off the shelves. Whoever did the covers on these blogs should be fired.

Just a few bad book covers you can find at that blog are the following.

You can see more bad covers here. Happy looking (or not).

Judging a Book by Its Cover

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article on how ebooks and other book-publishing technology are shaking up the business model traditional book publishers.

Amazon has taken an early lead, providing service tools for authors to self publish and creating an imprint last year to publish promising authors in print and online.

This month, Amazon is upping the ante, increasing the amount it pays authors to 70% of revenue, from 35%, for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99. A self-published author whose e-book lists for $9.99 on Amazon's Kindle e-bookstore will receive about $6.99 for each book sold. The author would net $1.75 on a similar new e-book sale by most major publishers.

The new formula makes digital self-publishing more lucrative for authors. "Some people will be tempted by the 70% royalty at Amazon," [Richard] Nash says. "If they already have a loyal fan base, will they want 70% of $100,000 or 15% of $200,000 for a hardcover?"

Digital self-publishing, or "vanity" publishing, is creating a powerful new niche in books. WSJ's Geoffrey Fowler joins the Digits show to discuss how this is threatening the traditional book industry.

Traditional book-industry players and tech companies are jumping on the digital self-publishing bandwagon. Apple last week announced a digital self-publishing program for its iPad giving 70% of revenue to authors, similar to Amazon's formula. Last month, Barnes & Noble also announced a service called PubIt!, allowing authors to post and sell e-books online.

While traditional publishers aren’t going the way of newspapers any time soon (though they’re slowly heading that direction), the shift to digital publishing is going to be a boon for talented writers. Published authors with an established fan base can sell their books for less than traditional publishers while making more money per book. New authors in the process build a fan base have another way to market manuscripts that aren’t under contract.

Talented unpublished authors can get around the often lengthy and cumbersome process of finding an agent and working with a publisher. If they have a compelling story to tell, they can immediately start selling books and building a fan base.

Of course not every self-published book will do well. As the WSJ article notes, self published books are generally poorly written and lack an editor’s touch. But in the new publishing paradigm, talented writers can hire editors to go over the book to improve the story and writing.

It’s also makes it easy for authors to overcome the second problem self-published books face: crappy covers. We’ve all be told never to judge a book by its cover, yet we do it all the time. If someone’s going to take a self-published book seriously, it needs a cover that’s going to make people want to pick it up or, with ebooks, at least read the first chapter or two. (And for those who say they never judge books by their covers, would you even consider reading a book with covers like these? Be honest!) Thankfully, there are plenty of talented graphic designers out there who can create a compelling cover for a couple hundred bucks. You have a professional look and copy and you’ve overcome two big obstacles that self published writer and books encounter.

Going the self-published route isn’t the best option for everyone right now. But it’s become a more viable business model for talented writers. That being said, I’ll be testing these new self publishing waters later this summer with a short, niche book of my own.

Stay tuned for details.

An English Degree does not a Writer Make

I’m starting to wonder if former writers for The Onion are working at NPR. On the drive to work this week I’ve been listening to a series of sob stories about soon-to-be college graduates who are having a difficult time finding their first “real” job. The headlines on NPRs website read like something straight from America’s Finest News Source.

• Aspiring Writer Questions Value Of English Degree • Accounting Grad Didn't Figure On Job Rejections • Dream Of TV Job Remains Elusive For Montana Grad

All joking aside, the story about the aspiring writer, Heather Lefebvre who racked up $85,000 in student loans, caught my attention because there’s a big misconception out there that you need an English and/or creative writing degree to become a successful writer.

Having written a memoir, a novel, and a third book coming out later this year (surprise!) and worked in the corporate environment as a writer for over a decade, I can safely say becoming a writer has more to do with taking the time to learn the craft of writing then going to college or even having a degree.

Writing isn’t like riding a bike where you learn it once and do it over and over again without thinking. Struggling to create believable characters or a unique plot is something most writers improve upon with each novel and spend their lives trying to perfect. You’ll learn more by sitting down and writing your first book then you will in a lifetime of taking writing classes.

As a member of a local writing group I get a chance meet a lot of other authors. Of those I know personally, I’d say half have a college degree. Of the college grads, there are only a handful of English and/or writing degrees among them.

The writers who don’t have college degrees, half of them have attended college and the rest have no college at all. Some of the most prolific and successful writers in the group have little or no college. Instead they were stay-at-home moms who liked to read and write stories and ended up turning it into a full time career.

Just like painters, photographers, and musicians hone their skills through practice, you become a writer by writing and then doing lots of rewriting. A BA in English or a MFA in creative writing doesn’t translate to becoming a published author—even though many people with those degrees think it should.

Typos You Never Want to Make

Having gone through the book publishing process twice, I can say nearly impossible to produce a book free of typos. Even with several editors and proofreaders in the mix, there are always one or two things that will get overlooked and make it into a book’s first edition. I’ve even found typos and other mistakes in novels from big name authors and publishing houses.

It’s not that writers, editors, and proofreaders or aren’t competent or don’t know what they’re doing. They’re usually word and grammar kings and queens. But they’re also human. (I've made my share of mistakes too.) As a result, there are always one or two errors like a typo or a comma splice that’s going to make it through the first edition. Generally the errors are small, don’t raise any eyebrows, and are quickly corrected in the next printing. That’s why I was surprised to read this weekend that a typo in a book actually made the news until, that is, I read what slipped past one proofreader.

An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with "salt and freshly ground black people."

Penguin Group Australia's head of publishing, Bob Sessions, acknowledged the proofreader for the

Pasta Bible should have picked up the error, but called it nothing more than a "silly mistake."

The "Pasta Bible" recipe for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto was supposed to call for black pepper.

"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," he told The Sydney Morning Herald for a story printed Saturday.

I agree that the typo was unintentional, but were I the book’s proofreader, I’d be embarrassed beyond belief that I didn’t catch that one.