On today’s episode we’re going to talk about the first thing that most readers see before they’ve read a single word of a book. The old adage goes that one should never judge a book by its cover, but we all know that the majority of people do just that.

A great cover can get a prospective reader to take a chance on a new author, and a bad cover can put people off, even though the story might be amazing.

We’ll take a look at some of the things that make covers work and also talk about our own journey with the covers to our books and the decisions we’ve taken.

NOTES

Steven’s cover designers, More Visual - https://bookartwork.com/historical/

The first cover for The Abbey of Death - https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1757691654257875&set=a.146569898703400

Blog post about creating the axe for Wolf of Wessex - https://bernicia-chronicles.blogspot.com/2019/06/art-imitating-art-birth-of-axe.html

Original The Serpent Sword cover - https://bernicia-chronicles.blogspot.com/2015/02/potential-cover-reveal-serpent-sword.html

Lots of great quotes/tips in this article: https://nybookeditors.com/2016/10/create-standout-book-cover-beginners/

Tools:

https://www.canva.com/create/book-covers/

https://www.fotor.com/design/book-cover

https://www.visme.co/book-cover-maker/

https://www.adobe.com/express/create/cover/book

Bernard Cornwell, the Godfather of historical fiction!

Rock, Paper, Swords!By Matthew Harffy & Steven A. McKaySep 16, 2022