Promo; New Revelations by Heather Topham-Wood

Why Book Covers are So Important

Think of your book cover like the initial impression given on a first date. On the date, do you want to appear sloppy and wear a haphazardly thrown together ensemble? Not if you want to see your date ever again. Book covers need to be attractive while also conveying what your novel is about.

Have you ever avoided a book because of the cover? Many readers will be turned off by amateurish looking covers. I personally have skipped a few books despite rave reviews because of covers. It’s presumptuous, but I figure the writing and plot will be as unappealing as the front image.

If you’re self-publishing and have no idea about cover creation, consider hiring someone. There are graphic artists who will design gorgeous covers for you from scratch. Give them some conceptual information to work from and be an active part of the process. Also, there are book marketing companies that have pre-made book cover designs for sale. Browse through their catalogs to see if you find any suitable to your novel.

If you’re comfortable working with photo editing software and want to do your book cover on a budget, then you can make one yourself. Before you go down this road, make sure that the images you use meet the specifications for book retailers. For instance, paperback covers made through Createspace require a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Start out with an image. Stock photography images can be purchased online or you can use your own personal photo library as a starting point. Choose an image that represents your book. Girls in pretty dresses are a popular choice, but don’t always relate to the content inside of the novel. Choose a couple of selections before making your final decision. Play around with fonts and colors when adding title and author name. Show a few mock-ups to friends and fellow writers to receive feedback on which one to settle on.

Don’t use a cover for your book unless you love it. With an attractive cover, you’ll gain readers who are interested in the novel based solely on the front image. This will build readership and ideally help increase your fanbase.


New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two by Heather Topham Wood

Excerpt 1:

Blood blanketed Kate’s body. It soaked through her tank top and turned the formerly tan shirt a deep shade of crimson. She had lost consciousness for an undetermined amount of time and knew she probably only had minutes left until she blacked out again.
Panic was setting in, she pushed it away. Her chest wound was bleeding the most. She attempted to use her hands to put pressure on it. Maybe if she could slow down the bleeding, she would have half a chance. She tried not to think about the possibility of her attacker returning to make sure the job was finished. Kate hoped the sound of the car pulling into the driveway had scared him off.
The car door. Someone had arrived at the house before she passed out, she realized with a start. She had thought it was her mother, but she would have found Kate by now. As she tried to focus on her surroundings, she could barely make out a muffled voice calling her name from outside of the house.
Kate tried to respond, tears from the pain ran down her cheeks. The fear of death seemed to be holding her frozen. Her screams sounded like whimpers and there would be no way the sound would travel to her potential savior from her huddled form on the kitchen floor all the way through the front door. Her own blood was choking her and the hopelessness of her situation threatened her grip on sanity. Kate was a pop culture fanatic—she knew that in the movies blood gushing out of the mouth usually meant the character was a goner.
Kate summoned the last of the strength in her broken body and attempted to crawl through the darkness towards the front of the house. The kitchen floor was sticky with a mixture of blood and the Diet Coke she had dropped earlier. Her entire body cried out with each movement she made, but she forced herself to go farther. It felt like miles as she traveled only inches and she prayed that whoever was knocking at the door would not give up and leave.
Kate made it as far as the doorway separating the hallway and kitchen. Her body collapsed and she whined as she realized that she was only a few feet from the front door. The doorbell rang again and the injustice of her predicament set in. She was going to bleed out all over her mother’s Persian carpet and wait alone while the life slowly seeped out of her. Help was within reach, but still so far away. This was never the way she imagined she would die.


Author Bio

Heather Topham Wood graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2005 and holds a bachelor’s degree in English. Working full-time as a freelance writer for publications such as USA Today, Livestrong.com, Outlook by the Bayand Step in Style magazine, she writes fiction in her spare time. She resides in Trenton, New Jersey with her husband and two sons.

New Revelations is the second novel in the Second Sightseries. First Visions: Second Sight Book One was published on May 1, 2012.

Follow Heather on Twitter and her blog to keep posted on her upcoming works.

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