branding Archives

Gather savvy authors together and guess what we’re going to chat about? Writing craft, publishing, our latest manuscript woes, marketing techniques, and, yes, book covers. We asked NINC members what you wonder about when it comes to cover design, and you answered. You wanted to know about book cover strategies, tactics, and the use of AI (artificial intelligence). Even if you didn’t submit a sp…

In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare writes this line from Juliet to Romeo: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Likewise, authors sometimes wish readers would judge our books purely based on prose, character, and plot. But let’s face it, readers are often swayed by an eye-catching book cover or a clever title. The reality is that there are mil…

After a recent interview with my author friend, she proudly shows me the covers for the next four books in her Christian romance series. My marketer’s eye immediately sees that the designs mimic each other too closely and aren’t distinguishable from one another. Their muddy color palette won’t pop against competitive titles, especially as a thumbnail online. Wanting to support her success, I pr…

We’ve all had that experience of stepping into an elevator, realizing you’re in there with an editor or an agent, and he or she asks you what you’re working on. As you stammer out your long-winded answer (starting off with the classic “Well, it’s complicated”), the moment ends (i.e., the elevator door opens) and said editor or agent goes their way. Could you have made use of that opportunity by…

As I turned to face the thousands of options lining my library’s shelves, I asked my librarian, “How do you pick which books to read?” I hoped that she might tip me off to a trade journal or confirm the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations. Her neck blushed pink before she paused and leaned toward me. “To be honest? I read books based on their covers.” A nervous laugh seemed to indicate …

In the early days of my publishing career, I worked as an editor for a publisher based in Ireland. While it started as primarily a digital-first romance house, it quickly grew into a multi-genre powerhouse. During that time, two of my titles were accepted by the publisher. The first was a little military thriller called Stray Ally, a story about a not-so-great guy who meets a dog in the wildern…